Restaurant -- Geido

Take

I said there'd be restaurant reviews, so let's do a restaurant review! I figure I'll start close to home with Geido, my favorite neighborhood Japanese place, which happens to be casual, affordable, high-quality, and full of options, and also right across the street.

Geido has been around since 1985, which is pretty wild when you think about it—it's almost 40! And I know NYC is way more progressive/cosmopolitan than most of America when it comes to food, but I have to imagine sushi/Japanese food was still pretty weird that long ago.

Anyway, let me just get into it. Big picture, what I like about this place is they have a wide range of sensibly priced—often the same or even cheaper than the standard 3-roll-lunch-special sushi joints—options that are basically all executed a little better than at one of the standard joints. A good example is a spicy roll: you can get a spicy salmon roll for $5.80, and the mayo and spice profile is just tastier and more interesting than the generic alternative.

Here are some of my go-tos:

• the broiled salmon collar or yellowtail collar, whenever they are on the menu, which is often -- this is the fatty part of the fish around the neck/gills, and it's melt-in-your mouth good, served with a generous hunk of lemon and some fluffy umami garnish that I should know the name of
• the noodle soups, which are highly customizable and an excellent bang for your buck -- you can get, say, a big serving of soba with mixed greens (seaweed, spinach, etc.) or mixed mushrooms and for a few more bucks throw in tofu, carrots, and spicy powder, which isn't that hot but adds a nice flavor
• the regular sushi rolls -- the special ones are overpriced and often not that much larger, and I also find the whole mixing 4 types of fish and 3 types of sauces thing gimmicky and over-the-top, but the classics like spicy fish and eel avocado are great, as is one of my personal favorites, the mackerel ginger roll (mackerel is underrated)
• the sushi pieces a la carte -- sensibly priced (mackerel is $2.80 a pop, most of the classic fish are $3.20 or $3.40), better than ordering a tray where you get stuck with shrimp, crabstick, and other weak options
• many of the little kitchen bites, including the seaweed salad, the broiled mackerel, and the Japanese veggies such as lotus and burdock roots
• the tempura is solid
• if you want something hefty, the kaisen nabe soup is what sumo wrestlers eat, with mixed seafood, vegetables, and tofu, and the option of adding noodles

Afterthoughts

I should note I'm basically a pescatarian (I'm a "social carnivore"—I'll occasionally get in on a communal meat dish), so don't expect these reviews to be all that fleshed-out.