Roslyn: Quiet dinner at Kotobuki
The "viaduct roll" at Kotobuki in Roslyn consists of pepper tuna wrapped around lobster-crayfish salad. (Aug. 2, 2011) Credit: Erica Marcus
I finally figured out how to avoid the din at Kotobuki in Roslyn: Eat outside. On a pleasantly sultry evening we dined on Kotobuki’s patio and could actually hear one another speak. Moreover, our view of the almost-completed (?!) Roslyn viaduct was heightened by the “viaduct” roll pictured above.
Kotobuki specializes in artfully named rolls, and I admit that the viaduct roll made me chuckle. The taste? Eh. I don’t think that lobster-crayfish salad really belongs rolled up in a piece of peppered tuna. The sticky sweet-spicy sauce it sat atop didn’t help matters.
The meal began with one of the worst Japanese-retaurant salads I’ve seen in a long time. No pink tomato here; the overchilled iceberg lettuce was topped with two giant slices of carrot, already curling toward dessication.
Kotobuki steak (sliced and sizzling with vegetables), nabeyaki udon noodles, chirashi (raw fish piled on rice) were all standard issue.
Kotobuki is at 1530 Old Northern Blvd., Roslyn; 516-621-5312.
