Fly Away: NYC Part 4: Ninja New York

We don't normally devote entire posts to a restaurant, particularly a restaurant out of town, but our dinner at Ninja New York was so rad, it deserves its own post. Seriously. Now, I happen to be super into ninjas, karate, and just general fighting, so this was right up my alley. But mom and dad seemed to think that adults sans kids (but likely with the addition of plentiful sake) would have the same bomb-A time that I did at this themed restaurant.

We'll put it out there -- it's expensive. But seeing as we spent the day at the Children's Museum of the Arts and skipped lunch entirely, mom thought they'd count it as two meals. The entire restaurant is set underground in a ninja lair and, from the beginning, ninjas are jumping out giving loud "HIYAs!" In fact, Cam and I were both a little scared at first, so this is probably not great for really littles. After I got my wits about me and was rapid-firing guardian stances, I was psyched.

You go here for the experience. The food was OK (in fact, the first courses were much better than the main course), but the presentation was what made it worth the trip. We each took turns samurai sword chopping our way through salt baked edamame crust and even helped set fire to our own dessert. The restaurant offers a large kids meal (chicken, shrimp, potato and salad) and Cam and I were able to split one with no problem.

A magician even came around at the end and, despite my attempts to jam him up, amazed all of us. If ninjas don't really appeal to you, check Time Out New York's kids restaurants page -- we found it really helpful.

our own private ninja room

bustin the edamame salt crust

really trying to take the magician down.