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Great food, serene atmosphere, pleasant service and the dinner prix fixe is a fantastic deal. I couldn't recommend it more.

The only item worth paying for at this place is probably the soba, which is actually pretty good. But overall, you are paying for the decor, location and all the other non-essentials, not for the quality of food. If you want to take a date who doesn't know too much about Japanese food (you know, people who say "Asian" food), this is your place. if you want real authentic Japanese, try your luck else where.

My girlfriend and I both ordered the $35 prix fixe menu. Standouts included lightly fried shrimp and soba with duck broth. Food-wise, everything was almost perfect. The service we received, however, was not. First of all, we had a reservation at 8:30 but weren't seated until after 9:00. Then, we did not receive our cocktails until the second course. They acknowledged these mistake by picking up the tab for the drinks, which was nice. So here's where it gets bad. Even though we both clearly ordered the exact same prix fixe menu, they initially claimed that we had only ordered one main course for the two of us. As a result, my girlfriend ate her soba a full ten minutes before I even received mine. Then, they handed us the check in the middle of the dessert course, even though we hadn't asked for it (also, by that time, the restaurant was not crowded). They never asked us if we wanted a second round of drinks, or coffee, or anything else. It seemed like once they'd totally screwed up our main courses, they simply gave up on us. The service at Matsugen was on par with what you might get at a Waffle House. We still had a good time because the food was excellent, but the service was shocking. We left a really small tip.

I ate dinner here on new year's day with three friends and relatively high expectations. While we consider ourselves to be fairly experienced and adventurous eaters, our experience with Japanese food outside of the regular, moderate-priced sushi joints is limited. With that in mind, we were disappointed with the poor guidance by the staff to help navigate through what was, to us, an intimidating and obviously foreign menu. The restaurant is beautiful and tranquil, but I walked away feeling like I ate a merely better-than-average (yet expensive) meal that might have been much better had the staff spent some to educate and guide us. Clearly the restaurant wants to be elite, but I don't think they'll get there without correcting such a glaring deficit. Maybe it was our waiter. Maybe it was just a bad night...who knows. Homemade tofu was delicious, chicken meatballs were tasty but not spectacular. Miso Black Cod was wonderful. The duck soba was good but certainly not of the equivalent of the delicious homemade pasta served in some the city's best italian restaurants.

Cool place with great fishtanks. The service was a little off. They forgot a few orders and were spacey, but nothing that would deter me from going back. Food is outstanding!

I dined here the weekend following Matsugen's 3-star review, and naturally, the place was alive with everyone from young Japanese hipsters to older, chic couples. Still, service was flawless, most notably, our waiter's guidance with the sake list. But it's the food that straddles the lines of Japanese authenticity and New York creativity with finesse. The sea urchin w/ yuzu jelly was a nice starter. Surprisingly, the yuzu was quite subtle. The grilled sea eel was slightly soggy from the ginger soy sauce but fresh and flavorful. The inaka soba - clean, soft flavors. Now, if you want to splurge, do get the grilled Kagoshima Wagyu. It was unlike any other piece of meat. It's extremely flavorful and tender. We actually needed to order a bowl of rice to calm our palates in between a few bites.

This is in the old 66 space and looks almost exactly the same. Two of us shared the following: appetizer trio which was asparagus in sesame sauce, sea urchin with yuzu jelly (very delicious) and tofu skin with wasabi steamed sea eel with ginger, scallions and cucumber which was delicious friend shrimp cake with eggplant which was only average seaweed salad hot soba with fried tofu and scallions inaka soba with white sesame dipping sauce (the inaka soba is amazing and should definitely be tried) coconut soup with tomato jelly and warabi mochi. Both desserts were very good. We also had one glass of white wine and a delicious cocktail made of proseco, lychee and raspberries. This sounds like a lot of food but the servings are small and we did not feel like we ate too much. All this cost over $200 and we did not order and sushi or sashimi or any of the very expensive entrees. Go to try the inaka soba which is not expensive at all.