Mom Hearts Jigmed

Usually when I go out to dinner with my family, my sister and I make a valiant effort to try and go somewhere delicious yet untrendy. My parents aren't exactly trendsetting (not that they're duds either), but, moreover, my dad expects a level of service that is often not found in an extremely busy and hip (yes, Ginger, I'm using the word again) establishment. Often in these type of restaurants, it's way less about food or service than it is about atmosphere and the scene. I guess this excalates on certain days of the week and especially on the weekends but we usually play it safe. My sister and dad's birthdays are pretty close together so we decided to do a joint celebration and my sister picked the restaurant. We opted for something asiany as that's my sister's fave, but once again a little troublesome with my mom who doesn't really eat japanese. After Tao was booked up, she looked into other options...and went with the downtown location of Megu. While the uptown version was close to our apt and probably an older crowd, we thought it best to go to the tribeca Megu even if it may be a bit more trendy. We all arrived at the restaurant and were seated promptly--however 10 minutes later, my dad was complaining about the sommelier and we began to get nervous.

Megu is beautiful though. We were seated in the downstairs dining room which sits below two stairwells that lead the path to a platform. In the center of the room is a buddah ice sculpture, and to the back the sushi bar and kitchen. We were seated directly next to the sculpture which my parents were enamored with and they wondered how it maintained its shape. But when my dad was disgruntled with the wine steward, my sister and I wondered if there was any way we would be able to turn his disappointment around. Luckily, Jigmed, our waiter arrived.

Jigmed was more than friendly, he was accomodating, helpful, and the apple of my Mom's eyes. When he first came over he explained to us how the menu worked: dishes are to share; choose a variety based on the pallete of each person at the table, and order a lot as the dishes are small. And the menu was definitely overwhelming...so as soon as he walked away we began to sort through the sections and my mom mentioned she thought he was cute. When he came back to the table, my dad asked Jigmed for Omikase for the table; he then asked us for the dishes that stood out to us, any allergies we might have and then he went to work preparing a customized dinner for us.

Jigmed started us with the crispy asparagus with 'okaki batter fry'- already he was on the way to my Mom's heart...she finds asparagus exciting and this asparagus had a nice little punch at the end. While the asapargus was still at the table, the yellowtail hamachi carpaccio with spicy kanzuri miso sauce was brought over, which was extremely fresh and delcious with a jalepeno on each slice. Following this came the red snapper salad with nuts and vegetables; which from the menu doesn't sound fantastic, but turned out to be one of the best dishes we had. This salad is prepared table side and basically looks like finely cut carrots and vegetables and some nuts. The server uses chopsticks to make little balls of the vegetables with dressing, and puts the snapper and nuts on top. Then he pours hot sesame oil over the snapper to sear it slightly and serves it. It was delicious to say the least, as was the bluefin tuna slices that came during the salad- super red and fresh. The dishes continued to come out ..and there were so many. Next was the sweet shrimp in kanzuir spicy cream which rivaled Nobu's spicy rock shrimp tempura, and then came some soft shell crab of some sort, which I can't fully eat because I actually might be allergic to it. When ordering Jigmed had asked if there was anything any of us really wanted on the menu, I answered the unagi, but the rest of my family was slightly creeped out by the thought of eel. Jigmed patiently tried to explain the taste and texture of 'uni' and somehow convinced everyone to try it including my mom, which would have been an unheard of thought before. I waited for the rest of my family to try the baked unagi with avocado and mentaikio sauce before i put mine in my mouth. I watched my mom's face, "This tastes like chilean sea bass," she said, which in mom-terms means "very good." I tried mine and while I liked it, I wan't blown away. After all these dishes, we didn't even know if we could handle any more and then the Kobe beef sliced grilled table side on a river stone came out; needless to stay it was awesome. The hot rock continued cooking the meat while on your table and was covered with pieces of garlic. The steak was tender, tasty and delicious-- a definite must have if you go to Megu. By the end of that, we were done. We had finished the white wine and the red wine (a 2005 Markeson Pinot Noir which was ridiculously fantastic and my dad shared with Jigmed who was extremely grateful), and then my dad ordered a dessert wine. The dessert wine was opened, my sister and mom had left for the bathroom, and to our surprise another entree came out--the grilled silver cod sikyo miso with green parsley sauce. We didn't know if we could even do another dish, but, of course, I pulled from deep within and gave it a try. Also really good: sweet and light. Jigmed apparently had sashimi ready to come out for us as well but we called that off and said we'd go with dessert instead.

While we discussed dessert with Jigmed, my father and him had a lengthy conversation about wine. I was watching my mom too, she was enthralled with what Jigmed was saying..."He's adorable," my mom procalimed. Jigmed even recommeded Landmarc down the block for well priced wines by the bottle and he gave his card. He then gave his dessert recommendations--we had a hard time choosing and opted for the fruit and chocolate fondue; the green tea crepes came as an extra and were by far the best.

The dinner that begun as "this could go horribly awry" actually beacame a "fantastic meal." This may be due partially to the delicious food, but I owe a lot of this to Jigmed; for giving my father the attention he insists upon and the wine talk to make him feel cool, and for providing my mom with eye candy and a 'nice personality'. And if you go to Megu and don't get him as a server, it's okay--the food stands for itself in excellence.