09.25.08
Review of Kion, Sunday August 2008
509 6th St. & Ave. A, 212-529-5200
Great for: chupe, lazy people who want to go clubbing after dinner
This is another ceviche place, but fortunately it’s not as bad as Rayuela. Midtown Hedge Funder and I started with the grande ceviche tasting. What that entails isn’t listed on the menu – plus I bet it’s not always the same – so all I can say is that there was lots of tuna, some crab, fried oysters and other assorted raw fish covered in a ton of sauce, all a bit sour but passable.
My favorite thing was the chupe, a shrimp bisque with corn, edamame and egg in creamy panca-oregano broth. The corn actually came on its cob in the soup so it was a bit difficult to eat. Despite tomato halves, the soup was delicious; a savory, not too creamy, very umami delight. I almost forgot to share.
The volcano roll with shrimp, octopus, fluke, hamachi, crab, avocado, cucumber and spicy tobiko mayo was just ok. It had lots of sauce-laden stuff in the middle, didn’t taste that spicy, and seemed similar to a California roll. The rainbow roll, ambitiously loaded with hamachi, salmon, tuna, fluke and crab ceviche, was also soggy, and maybe had too much avocado. Personally I would prefer no avocado in anything ever. I mean, except guacamole. I think even if you like avocado you would consider this too much, though. We also had an interesting construction called causa. It’s a napoleon that looks like a big biscuit of shrimp, crabmeat ceviche, avocado, spicy potato layers and spicy mayo. It was the best of our main dishes. There was too much potato but the inside was pretty good.
Kion’s flirtini with Stoli Razberi and champagne is tasty, as is the Plymouth gin martini. MHF had a Gougenheim malbec that he liked as well. The service was extremely slow for a while, partially made up for by the waiters’ considerateness. I enjoyed the decor. It’s kind of eccentric but I think all the textured, colored glass is pretty. It’s a nice place to have a few cocktails or a birthday party – if you must eat something, get the chupe.
Rating: 6.5
Our cost: $130 (2 cocktails, 1 glass of wine)
Noise level: quiet, but downstairs turns into a club/party space (only weekends I think)
Chance of walking in: pretty good.
