Night with a Ninja...

Well...I promised you 'interesting,' right??  Well I did INDEED have an interesting dinner experience on Friday night!!  You know you're in for it when you're escorted to the dining room via elevator;)  The experience was all courtesy of Ninja in New York City....

We had to take a dark walk through a 'cave like' tunnel to get to the main "Village Dining Room," where all of the booths are tucked into the walls and you are enclosed in your own little private space complete with sliding bamboo doors...cozy:)

We were greeted by our Ninja waiter, who handed us our drink and dinner menus on a 'roll'....

And I knew just what I wanted to try when I laid eyes on this!

The "Sha" was PACKED with strawberries, mango and mint and lots & lots of rum!  Ammmmmaaazing! :)

Part of the fun of Ninja is that they have a selected amount of "art" dishes, that they serve with special presentations.  To give you an idea....this was an order of Buffalo Fish & Chips...

How funny is that???

When the smoke cleared you were left with these DELICIOUS Buffalo flavored monk fish bites with Lotus Root "chips"....so good!

For my dinner, I decided to go with the "Kunoichi" tasting menu...SUCHHHHHHHH a good idea!!!  For my appetizer, I  had the aptly titled "Arburi 'Light my Fire'...WHICH, and you can't tell from this picture, was INDEED lit on fire before serving!

Part of the presentation of the dish was when the waiter lifted up the fire enclosed lid and I got both the wonderful aroma of the fire AND the smoke on the fish...mmmmmmmmmm....

And THEN I got to enjoy the SHouse-Smoked Tasmania Trout on a bed of marinated asparagus....one bite and I KNEW I had made the right decision with the tasting menu!  The trout melted in your mouth and had JUST the right amount of smokey flavor.  Incredible!!

My second course was a mix of shrimp tempura and spicy tuna rolls!  These just went down too easy...they were like candy;)    (no clue what those 'confetti'-like dots were on the rolls...but they gave the sushi a nice, extra CRUNCH!)

Next up (yes, this was a feast fit for a king!:) was the "Drunken Skate"...which was pan fried skate in a yuzu citrus, white soy sauce and red wine sauce with a side of steamed cabbage.  Salty, sweet & crunchy, yet ANOTHER heavenly course!  Everything was just sooooooooo good!!!!!!!!

And all of THAT was before I had the piece de resistance!!!!  I present to you THE VOLCANO:

Tender Brisket braised in a Miso Red Wine Sauce baked into an onion.....ummmmmm, ok???????  And as good as that SOUNDS, wasn't even NEARLY as amazing as this dish tasted!!

You cracked open the onion layers to reveal the brisket (sorry, blurry picture) which you ate along with the onion slices AND the cheese layer on top!  This was almost like a STEAK version of french onion soup...it was drop dead delicious!  I wish I could figure out how they made this bad bear!! :)

And I was S-T-U-F-F-E-D, but there was NO WAY I wasn't going to take advantage of my FINAL course:  THE DESSERT!! :)  Which was presented like this...

This little piece of heaven was chocolate pudding topped with white chocolate (served with a rose resting in a rose-infused mist:)....it was just the perfect amount of SWEET to finish off the meal.  This was one of the smoothest puddings I've ever tasted!  It was like silk.  Or glass.  In a good way;)

Did I say "Just enough sweet"???  OK..I lied, as we ordered another 2 desserts so we could share them all with the table and get to try everything;)  Another dessert was the "Ninja Star" which started with our waiter pouring a liquid on the serving dish...

And then setting it on FIRE! ....

Before capping the flames and out popped the Ninja star soft mousse cake (magic!!).  We had that along with a trio of raspberry, mango & banana sorbet.  The sorbet was yummy, but it can't really compete with chocolate mousse cake;)  Love, love, LOVE! :)

Ninja was, hands down, one of the best meals I've ever had!!  And I say this after being COMPLETELY leery of the menu and of the fact that I was afraid Ninjas were going to JUMP out of the rafters at us!  But they were just a fun bunch of waiters wheeling some of the MOST DEEEEEELICIOUS and unique food around!  I HIGHLY recommend this place (and don't let me even start in the amazingness of the bathrooms...that's one you'll have to experience yourself;)  hahahahhahaha...(intrigued yet??)

Hope your having a great weekend!!!!!!