Megu - Midtown
845 UN Plaza (on 1st Avenue off 47th Street)

It was a Friday night and I wanted a good meal out with my girlfriend (yes, thank goodness we are happily back together, better than ever), and for safety reasons I chose Megu. It has a good reputation and I had a great meal here before (even if I was a bit inebriated...). Though I usually don't like going to busy restaurants on Friday evenings, we went for it.

She liked the interior, and so do I. The high ceilings and modern design is nice, though what made things bad was the length of the 2-seat tables...it was so narrow (people adjacent were nearly on top of you) and long it was hard to talk. The high ceilings, although aesthetically nice, also made it horrible acoustically.

The night started badly as the hostess argued in Japanese with someone for several minutes while we waited. We were seated and out coats were not taken -- and I had to pull the heavy table out for my date (they didn't bother). That was really ridiculous. And of course, it took 10 minutes and much prodding for them to give us menus and take a drinks order. This was not starting off good at all.

It just got worse. The starters we split. The "special" asparagus looked good on skewer presentation, but was a cheap fry and pretty ridiculous. The spicy unagi (eel) was not bad, but nothing special.

At this point they also brought out my date's main course, her sushi roll, off-time. They are so confused. Then they bring out my wagyu chateaubriand...and it was a total insult. At a $180 they should know how to make it. I ordered it rare rare, and it came out medium well. I nearly vomited...I argued with them and they said they'll do another one.

If you know about wagyu, it is so marbled it really cannot be cooked much. It melts at such a low temperature it melts in your mouth. If you cook it beyond a very tiny sear, it turns into a crust and eventually sawdust. Disgusting. And they screwed up such a wonderful item. How can a place that specialises in this fare screw up so badly? Friday, of course. They had 1 waitress working an entire section (explaining the poor service) and the sommelier was just going around chatting and not doing his job. Then the busboys dump tap water into our glasses full of bottled water. This was just horrible.

My girlfriend told me to calm down. The new steak came and it was done really badly. One side was raw and the other side medium. I ate half of it and bitched them out. The adjacent tables were complaining too. This was turning ugly.

We shared a dessert and it was extensive, so that was nice. But we left pretty unhappily with this place, but happy we were with each other...that was the saving grace. But I will never come back to this sham of a restaurant again. Friday night or not, this is just unacceptable. Shameful.

Food: D
Atmosphere: D+
For Lone Diners: D-- (*)