When we arrived at Ninja New York we were escorted down some stairs to our table. Interestingly they have chosen to make the dining experience a private one for all diners so that everyone is effectively dining in private chambers and caged in by bamboo walls/gates. The restaurant itself is apparently designed to depict a ninja castle from feudal times which was maze-like and filled with lots of contraptions. Strange! Not too long after sitting down our “ninja” waitress came along to introduce herself and the menu. Her whole mannerism was exactly how I imagine a ninja would act like!

The ninja theme was maintained throughout the whole restaurant from the waiters/waitresses and table space as already mentioned, to the dark alleys in the restaurant, to the menu scrolls and to the toilets (though technically I guess the toilets are more Japanese rather than ninja-specific.) If you ever go to this restaurant you must take the toilet for a spin if you’ve never been on a Japanese toilet before. The toilets had a warmed seat and will wash, dry and everything else you can imagine your touché! Ha ha.

Food at Ninja New York is mainly Japanese with slight twists. I couldn’t decide on individual dishes so opted to try the $90 set menu deal. A bit pricey but included quite a few dishes that I want to try anyway so I felt it was relatively good value for money. The cocktail menu is rather interesting and varied and had quite a few strange cocktails on there including Zai (meaning tofu) which was a “A refreshing cocktail for summer consisting of Crème de Cassis, Orange liqueur and Tofu”! Tofu!! What!? I didn’t try any cocktails as I didn’t want my eating experience to be marred by my being affected by alcohol. Maybe next time.

My set menu consisted of six-courses:
– Batto Jutsu. Thai style, Roasted Duck and Bell Peppers dress with Citrus Coriander Sauce mixed with bit of Japanese Herb “Shiso” Leaves. Marked as a Ninja Art Dish the dish was a cold dish served in two dishes. The salad served in a cocktail glass and the duck served on top of a banana leaf sitting across a bell pepper filled with frozen ice (the special part of the dish.)
– Ngiri Sushi. The chef’s specially selected six pieces of Ngiri Sushi. The ngiri sushi ended up including salmon, two tuna, squid, mackerel and one other fish I couldn’t recognise. Sushi was quite fresh which was pleasing to taste.
– Red Pond. Fried Chilean Sea Bass in a bloody spicy pond. This was marked on the menu as a special dish. The special part consisted of me drawing a ninja blade from the top of the lid covering the dish. I would have liked to have kept the blade but the ninja server was pretty quick to retrieve it from me. 🙂 The pond was very bloody indeed in this dish. I couldn’t really recognise what the sauce consisted of and though not exactly spicy it was quite tart. Certainly not the best sea bass dish I’ve ever had but still not too shabby.
– Ribeye Steak. 22 OZ U.S Ribeye Steak served with Garlic, Wasabi and Teriyaki Sauce and mixed Vegetable tossed with Sesame Sauce. This dish was awesome! Not only was the steak gigantic in portion (I swear bigger than my head and at least an inch thick) but O.M.G. it had to have been the best steak I’ve ever had. It was melt in your mouth tender and tasted sooo good. Its beyond description. Its just a shame I was already so full at that stage that I couldn’t eat the steak on my own. I must have given at least a third of it to my brother and another bit to my cousin.
– Choice of Dessert. It’s a shame that most of the desserts on the menu were chocolate based. Since the others chose the Rose Chocolate (four layers of chocolate parts, flan, cream, sorbet and caramelised Mousse accompanied by a Rose flower sitting in Rose-infused Mist) and Tiramisu designed as a bonsai tree I opted for the Ninja Star which was described simply as “The NINJA ultimate weapon.” This was another Ninja Art dish. In this case it involved some magic. I was presented with an empty plate. Our ninja waitress then covered it with a lid. Gave me a stick to bang the top of the lid and wham bam she lifted the lid off and below was my chocolate case styled in a star. The dessert was just so so and if I’d paid full price ($12) I probably would have felt a little ripped off.
– Sorbet served with fruit.

Before our desserts were served a magician also did the rounds. He didn’t do anything spectacular but I was impressed with the few tricks that he performed. One involved the change the $1 note into $100 and vice versa and the other one, of which I have totally no idea how he did it, involved him giving us a pack of cards on which were pasted various movie posters and then we had to choose five or so for him to guess. We didn’t even have to give the pack back to him. We just had to think about the movies we had chosen. And he managed to pick them all! My cousin gave him a $20 tip for his efforts. Not bad earnings!

We all had a great night tonight. Very entertaining. Ninja New York is worth a spin – if only for the novelty factor. The steak is to die for too so don’t overlook that!