The food at Japonais is hastily served, for the most part, and on one occasion a waiter tripped, sending showers of red wine splattering across our table. Not that incidents like this seemed to faze the revelers, who jammed the place when I visited, even on weekday evenings in the depths of summer. The tables were filled with ladies wearing glittery backless dresses, hawk-faced gentlemen chattering into their Treos, and crowds of pink-cheeked bankers jamming $8 pieces of otoro into their mouths. “Maybe people like a restaurant with a good backbeat,” opined one of the gastronomes at my table as the crowd roiled around us. Certainly no one’s here for the desserts. These include an assemblage of pre-refrigerated chocolate items (the most prominent being a mousse flecked, like several dishes at Japonais, with gold leaf) and an esoteric interpretation of tiramisu, flavored with green tea. The most satisfying of the bunch is a simple apple cobbler. This was served in the traditional manner, with a layer of crumble on top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. And it was brought to the table, to my quiet horror, bubbling in a clay Toban Yaki pot.

Japonais
NO STARS
Address: 111 E. 18th St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-260-2020
Hours: Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, until 11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30 to 10 p.m.
Prices: Appetizers, $4 to $24; entrées, $19 to $35.
Ideal Meal: Spicy Mono and Tuna Tuna Salmon rolls, Wagyu-beef carpaccio, sushi and sashimi, apple cobbler.
Note: For drinks, the place to go is upstairs; for dinner, agitate for a spot at the sushi bar.
Scratchpad: The best food here is designed, nightclub style, to be eaten with drinks. For a real dinner, go somewhere else.

Related:

• Archive: “Restaurant Review”
• Articles by Adam Platt
• Table of Contents: Sep 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!