When I eat sushi these days, I can’t help but think of Jeremy Piven. In case you missed the bizarre story, Piven — “Ari” on Entourage — abruptly dropped out of the Broadway show Speed-the-Plow in December due to what he claimed was “extreme mercury toxicity” caused by excessive sushi consumption. Total BS? Probably. But it’s a safe bet that Jeremy Piven won’t be invited to appear in any “Got Sushi?” ads anytime soon.
My own sushi consumption is nowhere near Pivenian levels, but I do enjoy my sushi. Which is why I was eager to try Red Plum in Mamaroneck, the newly opened Pan-Asian restaurant owned by Peter Chen, who also happens to own Toyo Sushi right next door.
If Toyo is like a child in the family, then Red Plum is its hipper, slicker, more sophisticated sibling.
Red Plum’s glass waterfall, similar to Water Moon’s in Rye, makes a striking sight.
The bar is underlit with glowing red light; that plus the dark wood and large green and red lanterns give the decor a smart, chic, Zen vibe.
For $8.50, lunch came with miso soup, salad and choice of two maki rolls, artfully served on a glass platter.
That’s spicy tuna and spicy crunchy yellowtail. Both rolls were big, plump and fresh, and the yellowtail had a pleasing panko crunch. I was also pumped about the generous amount of ginger (I hate when restaurants dole out a few measly slivers and you have to beg for more). This was just the right amount of food for lunch, and it was all very well prepared. Jeremy Piven would approve.
Final note: The way I eat my rolls violates all sushi etiquette and would horrify purists… I place a slice of ginger on top of the roll (yikes), a dab of wasabi on top of the ginger (gasp), then lightly dip the entire thing rice side down (horror!) into the soy sauce. It’s all wrong. But now I’m curious — what’s your preferred method?
Red Plum
251 Mamaroneck Ave.
Mamaroneck, NY
914-777-6888
3 Comments
As a Mamaroneck resident, I would enjoy reading a side-by-side comparison of Red Plum, Haiku, and Ginban, the three recently-opened Pan-Asian restaurants in town. Which one is worth my recession-diminished dollars and which one will survive (because I doubt all three can, given their similarities)? Also, is anyone else tired of the Pan-Asian concept? To me, it seems they always end up serving mediocre examples of Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, and Japanese standards. I’d much prefer a focused Asian restaurant, which serves only one country’s cuisine and executes it well.
Doug, we tried Red Plum for dinner last week and I was suitably impressed by the menu, service, decor, vibe and oh yeah, the food. I started with the Vietnamese salad. It was good, although I like the version at Water Moon better. My son had the sesame shrimp and loved it. It was very tasty and a nice generous portion, including some steamed veggies. I had a special roll, can’t remember the name, but it had seaweed salad inside it. It was out of the ordinary and also tasty. Sometimes when you order a whole roll you get sick of it, but not in this case. The people sitting next to us ordered some great looking appetizers (incl. steamed won ton). We are very keen on going back.
I think I am in the minority when I say, there can never be enough Pan-Asian or any kind of Asian restaurants around for me. All those places on Mamaroneck Ave., it’s my kind of heaven. Now if only they added a Vietnamese place…
And by the way, my preferred method is trying to dunk the fish part into the soy, not the rice part.
I’m torn on this one. On the one hand I love Asian cuisine, but on the other hand, it does seem like we’ve got a glut of Pan-Asian restaurants that are all doing similar dishes. I’d like to see a few more restaurants focusing on one cuisine and being a bit more daring with their menu.