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Hi Ed --

Had dinner at Soto tonight. Fantastic! (Nowhere near Kuruma league, though). Sorry, dude.

You're calling me on this? I actually have to go eat at this place to "definitively" describe why on its best night, in its wildest dream, its not in the same league as Kuruma.

Do I have to go eat at the sushi bar of Empire Szechuan as well to be sure it's not as good as Kuruma?

Before you make up your mind though, let me suggest the following. A couple of months ago, a woman for whom I hooked up a job at Lehman in London took me to Kuruma as a thank you (I was allowed to pick any restaurant in NYC, thus I passed over per se, Le Bernardin, Sushi Yasuda, Daniel, Jean Georges, etc.).

The meal lasted about an hour and cost $1,200 before tip. The only non-food expense was a $220 bottle of Minowamon sake.

Since the decor and rent at Soto couldn't possibly cost less than the decor and rent at Kuruma, there exist only 2 possibilities:

[1.] Somehow the Soto guys are able to spend a fraction of the money Toshi Uezu does on ingredients yet magically produce finer cuisine than he does.

[2.] The Soto guys get better stuff than Uezu, but Uezu has had New Yorkers heepnotized for the last 30 years and is able to charge five times the price the Soto guys charge.