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Sometimes décor can subtly mask a new restaurant’s ambitions; sometimes it can telegraph them in unsubtle, even unsettling ways. You sense it when you cross the restaurant’s tiny moat, already littered with bits of street flotsam (twigs, torn paper), and pass through the great glass doors with handles made from bent wooden samurai swords. The sushi bar appears to be encased in red lacquer, and the tall, curving chairs lining it look like they’ve been heisted from The Jetsons. In accordance with this showy motif, chef Eiji Takase (formerly of Sushi Samba) presents the usual upmarket sushi treats—bluefin o-toro and toro tartare—plus a line of mostly seafood entrées, stacked in various provocative Iron Chef poses and lacquered with sticky-sweet sauces made with now-familiar ingredients like miso, yuzu, and soy. Sushi aside, the bigger and more ambitious the dish at Yujin, the stranger and more varied the results. — Adam Platt

Prix-Fixe Menu: 6 courses, $75 and up

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (5/5/03)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Lighting (2003)