Flushing’s Iki sushi restaurant takes a nibble out of Manhattan

By Suzanne Parker

The first challenge Iki presents? Finding the place.

The restaurant is tucked away in an arcade under the Hyatt Place Hotel in downtown Flushing. You could pass it by any number of times without a clue that it’s there. In Brooklyn that might be cool, but here not so much.

Iki describes itself as serving “modern Japanese cuisine.” If that means upscale and pricey, they’ve hit their mark, especially for the neighborhood. The décor is slightly-over-the-top Japanese, employing multiple traditional Japanese design elements without achieving the spare elegance that is the signature of the best Japanese design. That being said, the space conveys that money and attention have been spent on the surroundings.

Iki offers both an à la carte menu and an omakase (chef’s choice). We arrived undecided on which to pick, but were firmly nudged in the direction of the omakase by the maître d’. It was a wise decision. Aside from the spectacular procession of morsels that comprises Iki’s omakase, there is the added benefit of getting an up close and personal sushi-making lesson at the counter.

Dylan Xu, the sushi chef, showed off his skills just north of our plates, confirming what our taste buds were telling us, that the finest ingredients were being handled with reverence. A graduate of the Institute for Culinary Education, Xu honed his skills in the kitchen of Manhattan’s Masa.

Iki gives truth to the old saw that “Japanese food is a feast for the eyes.” Each dish was served in a receptacle uniquely suited its presentation. There were simply too many mini courses (13) to describe them all, but here are some of the highlights:

King crab with bonito jelly led the parade. It came adorned with micro greens and micro edible flowers. This jewel-like creation was almost too pretty to eat, but that didn’t stop us. The fresh seafood flavor of the crab melded admirably with the briny-citrusy jelly.

The crab was followed by sweet uni (sea urchin) over boton ebi tartar, a rare kind of shrimp imported from Hokkaido. The dish was flavored with a yuzu-based sauce.

Iki’s delicate, crunchy take on tempura was a whole (stem leaf and all) batter-fried baby white turnip perched on a similarly prepared soft-shelled crab.

We watched as the most gargantuan white shelled scallop we’ve ever seen was pried open. It was carved into portions and scorched with a blow torch. Three of these tidbits came to us topped with seared fois gras. Heaven.

The showstopper of the omakase was A5 Miyazaki Wagyu beef with maitake mushrooms and shavings of white truffles. The “A5” rating is the top-of-the-line for top-of-the-line beef. Seen raw, it looks pink from a distance, and close up like fat finely marbled with meat. It literally melts in your mouth. Paired with rare maitake mushrooms and generous shavings of white truffle, you’d be hard pressed to find a more luxurious, not to mention delicious, dish. Maitake mushrooms, incidentally, are being studied over at Sloan Kettering for their cancer-fighting properties.

The meal began to wind down with a lovely, icy cold Soba Yamaimo, a noodle dish, followed by a series of sushi pieces, a hand roll, and, to top it all off, a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The Bottom Line

This procession of delights at Iki takes about two hours. Diners are cossetted by attentive service, entertained by the deftness of the sushi chefs, and fed sumptuously. The only remaining question is “Is it worth $100?” By Queens standards, that’s a hefty tab. The answer is it depends on what you’re comparing it to. You can find wonderful food nearby for a fraction of that price, conjured from ingredients of unknown provenance in drab surroundings. To price a comparably elegant meal, we called a couple of better known Manhattan sushi icons. Masa charges $200 per person for its omakase, and if you cancel your reservation less than 48 hours in advance, guess what? You get charged $200 per person anyway. Sushi Yashuda sounded like a relative bargain by comparison. We were told they don’t have a set price for their omakase, instead consulting with the diners about their preferences before arriving at a menu. The person who took our call said an average dinner costs from $100 to $150. That would include an appetizer and four pieces of sushi. Iki was sounding like a very good deal.

Suzanne Parker is the TimesLedger’s restaurant critic and author of “Eating Like Queens: A Guide to Ethnic Dining in America’s Melting Pot, Queens, N.Y.” She can be reached by e-mail at qnsfoodie@aol.com.

Iki Modern Japanese Cuisine

133-42 39th Ave., Hyatt Place Hotel

Flushing

(718) 939-3388

Price Range: Omakase: $100

Cuisine: Modern Japanese/Sushi

Setting: Midsize space, Japanese décor with sushi bar.

Service: Attentive, mainly Mandarin speakers with limited English

Hours: Open seven days for lunch and dinner

Reservations: Recommended

Alcohol: Full bar

Parking: Difficult street parking or paid hotel parking in basement