New York: John Dory Oyster Bar

The John Dory is the restaurant you want to hate. There's the gaudy, overblown decor (think one of those aquatic-themed bathrooms meets country club prep meets no taste). The prices are very high, and the portions very small. The clientele can only be described as obnoxious, and the staff is deliberately apathetic (case in point: the sullen hostess insisted on repeatedly calling my companion "Stephanie" despite the fact that we had corrected her several times in the span of thirty minutes). It is also cramped and uncomfortable, bordering on claustrophobic. Really, the whole restaurant is just like one giant douche. But irritatingly enough, like so many of the egotistical asshats we know and love to hate, it's actually good at what it does. The Kanye West of restaurants, if you will. At its core, the John Dory does great seafood. For such an achingly hip place, the food is surprisingly fresh, simple and good, tinkered with only slightly, so that the natural flavors of the ingredients shine through. It is not overwrought, as you would expect the menu of the newest restaurant in the Ace Hotel to be.

Razor clam ceviche

Sea bream with Meyer lemon and Thai chili

Oysters, East and West coast

Cold poached lobster with tomalley vinaigrette

Whelks with garlic and butter

Take an appetizer of razor clam ceviche. It isn't the most attractive of plates, but the raw clam, simply dressed with an intensely grassy olive oil and maybe a bit of citrus, is soft and sweet. A crudo of sea bream with Meyer lemon and Thai chili offers a firm, clean bite, and ends on a luxurious note. The John Dory has excellent oysters (and at $3 a pop, they should be). Well-shucked, with meticulously clean shells, they are best adorned with just a squeeze of lemon. The lobster is fresh and well-poached, the richness of the tomalley modulated by a bit of acidity.

Chorizo stuffed squid with smoked tomato

Oyster pan roast with uni crostini

Things stay perturbingly on course as you navigate through hot side of the menu, starting with a wonderfully smoky chorizo stuffed squid. Tender hollows of squid are filled with hearty paella rice and nubs of sausage and nestled on a mound of white beans and creme fraiche. Smoked tomatoes add a smoldering acidic sweetness. The stock in an oyster pan roast could use a tad more seafood flavor but all that sherry and cream are lovely when sopped up with the accompanying crostini slathered with petals of uni butter or one of the John Dory's crusty, buttery Parker House rolls (which must be ordered separately). And the oysters in said pan roast? They are gently simmered to a slippery smoothness, best eaten with a spoon and some of that creamy broth.

Eccles cake

Grapefruit curd with ginger shortbread

Dessert is not a strong point. Eccles cake, an English dessert comprised of currants in a somewhat stiff flaky pastry and topped with ripe Stilton, was hesitantly described as "interesting, but good" by our server (waiter speak for, "Don't order it.") I was forced to parrot back this same lie when he came by to ask me how it was. The currants are cloyingly sweet, with an underlying mustiness, and the blue cheese doesn't help matters. The grapefruit curd with ginger shortbread was a welcome reprieve, and a nice twist on the usual lemon rendition, but nothing particularly special.

So, by all means, go. But keep in mind that the John Dory is a restaurant best approached with the kind of jovial, easygoing attitude that eludes so many of its patrons and employees. This is not the place to go when you are feeling irritable, impatient or ugly. Don't take it (or yourself) too seriously, and you'll have a grand time. Who knows? Remain unflappably cheerful throughout dinner and you may be rewarded with a grim smile from your server as you pay your bill.

John Dory Oyster Bar at the Ace Hotel

1196 Broadway

(between 28th and 29th St.)

New York, NY 10001

Phone: (212) 792-9000

Best dishes: Razor clam ceviche, oyster pan roast, Parker house rolls, cold poached lobster, oysters, chorizo stuffed squid

Hours: Open seven days a week, 12pm-2am. No reservations taken unless you are a guest of the Ace Hotel. Wait times usually very long, particularly after 7pm. Best bet is to go early.

Things to know: Oyster happy hour everyday from 5pm-7pm.

Newport Beach: Nana San

No trip to California would be complete without sushi. The state's proximity to the Pacific Ocean means that it has access to some of the freshest and most varied catch in the United States, at prices lower than one would find for fish of the same caliber on the East Coast. At the recommendation of a born-and-raised Southern Californian friend, we left the bustle of Los Angeles for an afternoon and drove to Newport Beach to have lunch at Nana San, a generic looking restaurant in a strip mall. A seat at the sushi bar is a must.

When I'm at a quality sushi restaurant, I almost always opt for the omakase. There is no better way to taste the day's freshest fish or to experience the full spectrum of the restaurant's potential. Nana San is as good a place as any to order the omakase - if you're lucky, Goro Sakurai, the owner and head sushi chef at Nana San will be serving you that day. Friendly and accommodating, his easygoing demeanor belies the care he devotes to his craft.

Japanese red snapper with fresh yuzu and sea salt

This red snapper appetizer is a signature dish at Nana San. Crisp and clean, it was an austere precursor to the flight of fish to come. The word “digestive” comes to mind.

Herring roe

In stark contrast to the simplicity of the red snapper was the pickled herring roe, which arrived immediately after. The golden beads of roe are anchored to a firm, rubbery section of tissue, which has a texture similar to that of kelp. It takes a bit of chewing, but you are rewarded for your efforts with an explosion of salty brininess, each bite intensely evocative of the sea.

Kumamoto oysters with scallions, grated daikon radish and ponzu

Shigoku oysters with scallions, grated daikon radish and ponzu sauce

Next came oysters on the half shell, each painstakingly dressed in scallions, grated daikon radish and ponzu sauce. The craggy Kumamotos were appropriately creamy and full-bodied, while the Shigoku specimens, in keeping with their sleek and streamlined abodes, exhibited a sharper, cleaner flavor.

Bluefin tuna (left) and hamachi (right)

Seared salmon with fresh lemon and sea salt

Sea eel with sea salt

Santa Barbara uni

Seared scallop with yuzu and lime pepper

Then the sushi began. A swatch of hamachi dissolved in a swirl of melting fat on the tongue; it is perhaps one of the best cuts of hamachi I have had to date. A chunk of barely seared salmon atop a bed of rice prompted a hush of wonderment over our end of the bar, while a slice of cooked sea eel elicited murmurs of contentment, its rather drab appearance belying its flaky tenderness. Goro continued to impress with a mound of uni, straight from Santa Barbara, and a ludicrously paunchy raw scallop, as voluptuous in flavor as it was in form, the yuzu and lime pepper garnishes rounding out its curves.

Toro

Chu-toro

Spanish mackerel with scallion and ginger

Nana-san is not without some missteps. A hunk of toro was slightly sinewy, although a subsequent cut of chu-toro fared a bit better. The Spanish mackerel lacked its usual meaty complexity, its flavor overpowered by the minced ginger.

Halibut with jalapeno

Amberjack with yuzu

Albacore

Cucumber maki

Citrus gelee

The meal ended on a light note, with two bites of cucumber maki and an intensely refreshing citrus gelee.

Nana San may not offer the prize cuts that are monopolized by the most high end sushi restaurants, but for what it is, it is a great value. And what is it that you get? Very fresh fish, without pretense or sternness, transformed by the lightly creative touch of Goro and his disciples at a laid back little sushi bar bathed in the California sun.

Thanks to Michelle C. for the recommendation.

Nana San

3601 Jamboree Road, Ste 15B

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Phone: (949) 474-7373

Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 2:30 pm; Mon-Thu 5:30 pm - 10 pm; Fri-Sat 5:30 pm - 10:30 pm