Midtown Lunch

I was surprisingly pleased with my first visit to Sushi! by Bento Nouveau. Despite the worryingly corporate and chain-y appearance, the food I had was very good and not at all a bad deal for the price.

I was happy with the udon, the sushi, and the dessert, so I went back for a hot entree. This time, I checked out the location on Broadway near Morris Street and got myself some Teriyaki Chicken. The verdict: very good. Photos to drool over after the jump.

You order the teriyaki chicken and other dishes at the back, and my platter set me back $6.74, including tax. Pricier than street meat, but still a price I’d be happy to pay again. Here’s what it got me:

Putting the salad in a separate container is a tiny, but nice touch. It’s no fancy bento box, but that’s fine by me.

The chicken itself is great. It’s mostly dark meat, but good and flavorful dark meat that’s fat- and gristle-free, not just a bunch of stringy scraps. The sauce is very generic teriyaki, but I happen to like very generic teriyaki very much.  It’s definitely on the sweet side, but not cloyingly so.

The rice is really terrific. Just perfectly cooked white rice, which really hits the spot and goes perfectly with the chicken.

In addition to being nicely segregated from the chicken, the salad is excellent. It’s dressed in a soy-ginger vinaigrette that – like the teriyaki sauce – is both generic and delicious. The salad is nothing to go crazy about on it’s own, but it’s nice to have meat and rice that comes with a salad that’s more than just a total afterthought.

So Sushi! by Bento Nouveau continues to treat me right. It might not be one-of-a-kind or out-of-this-world, but it is good, affordable, and a nice asset for the downtown lunching scene.