Behind the dark wood and glass door on Hudson St in Tribeca is a gastronomic experience full of ninjas!
You are greeted by the hostess, who informs the ninjas that you have arrived. She ushers you in to an elevator, pushes a button, and wishes you good luck. A few moments later the back elevator door opens and a ninja jumps out at you! If your deductive reasoning is as good as mine (the hosted wishing us luck was a giveaway) and your husband is smart enough to tell you to move away from the back door, then you won’t be surprised and the ninja will call you a ninja. If you’re surprised, they laugh.
You are sent down a hallway to the seating area. The inside is designed to look like a little village. The walls look like rocks and each sitting area is it’s own separate room. It’s dark inside, so the photos aren’t great.
One of my dearest friends from my time in the city, Melchor, and his adorable husband Thomas, met us for dinner. We had a nice little room for four.
Ok, a nice little table for five. But Billie is usually about five hours late, so she missed dinner.
Ok, so back to the ninjas. See those lovely decorative windows behind us? Well, that’s really just a ninja portal so they can open the doors and scare you at any unsuspecting moment! A screen will open ninja-fast and a ninja in all black will try and give you a heart attack. It’s also where they serve you most of your food.
The menu is a Japanese fusion with a ninja theme. Some of the meals come with a ninja presentation. I tried to order only ninja food.
I started with the ninja star martini. I’m not a martini girl (unless it’s a dirty martini with Hendricks and extra olives) so I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like. It was a black martini that tasted like coconut and something else very sweet. Way too sweet for me. But the fact that it came with a ninja star made the fear of a stomach ache and black teeth worth it! (Don’t worry, neither happened.)
Not my favorite martini but definitely my favorite garnish! I took the ninja star to the bathroom, just in case I needed to protect myself from ninjas!
I ordered the Caesar salad because I saw a video of someone with one on YouTube. It comes with a cracker across the top and you have to use chopsticks to stab the cracker while yelling Hi Ya! It was a fun way to start the meal but salad is not easy to eat with chopsticks.
I ordered sushi because, well, it was a ninja restaurant. It was pretty good and came out with dry ice in a glass with colored lights and it was quite the display.
The Husband got tempura chicken (shocking, I know). We had pizza a few hours earlier so he wasn’t very hungry. But he liked the chicken and I thought the sauces were really good.
It was a really fun experience eating at Ninja. Although the ninjas startled you, they never did it when you had a drink in your hand. The prices were actually very decent, especially for NYC. It was a really cool environment and just generally a lot of fun. At the end of the dinner a magician came around a did a few fun tricks. We all enjoyed the dinner and would definitely go back.
I gotta give a shout out to the bartender at my favorite bar in Tampa, The Blind Goat, for telling me about Ninja!
Restaurant Rating
(Zero being the lowest, ten being the highest)
Quality of Food: 8
Drink Selection: 10- they have beer, wine, champagne, and liquor
Cleanliness: 10- the bathrooms had bidets and heated toilet seats!
Friendliness: 10- they were very nice, even when trying to scare you
Experience: 10
Parking: N/A, although it was a short walk from the train
Value: 10
Location: 8
Overall Rating: 10
The bidets must be for people who get REALLY scared 😀
Lol!!!!!!