638 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 935-3400

Finding lunch in Midtown usually entails an overpriced salad at Pax, a salty soup at Hale & Hearty or some sort of salad bar trough-food. Or a sandwich from just about everyone. In short, lunch is dull. With Glaze right near my office, a little fresh air of variety has been added.

As the name implies, Glaze does teriyaki. More specifically, a Korean/Japanese blend of teriyaki. Teriyaki beef, teriyaki salmon, teriyakeitofu... I suppose that their main competition would be the Teriyaki Boy chain, but less schlocky and more chic. And it helps that they taste better, too. I won't go into the eatery's resume. Plenty of others have already written about its localvore philosophy and the chef's background at Rosa Mexicano. I'm more interested in what they're making and how well it's made than I am in regurgitating a press release.

In the past couple of weeks, I've wandered into Glaze about a half dozen times and tried a good chunk of their menu. So far, every dish I've had has been impressively good. And hey, it always feels nice to be able to watch the staff actually preparing the food fresh in the open kitchen. The weakest link so far has been their Miso Soup, which, being loaded with mushrooms and scallions and greens, has the potential to be the best miso soup I can remember having. The only downside is that they use far too much miso resulting in a rather salty broth. If they cut that down... likewise, Glaze tends to go overboard on the teriyaki sauce. I typically ask them for half the norm because otherwise you run the risk of barely being able to taste the otherwise perfectly charcoal-grilled food it glazes.

I've had their Chicken Thigh (dark meat), Chicken Breast (white meat), Pork Loin, Tofu, and Sirloin. All come with a choice of white or brown rice (though who would choose to order white rice with this dish is a mystery to me) and a small side salad. Glaze is open through the dinner hours, which is great on those days when I'm working through the setting sun, but it really isn't set up as a "restaurant". I wouldn't go here on a date unless I was hitting on a co-worker. It's small, well lit, with no table service and in the winter, I'd leave my coat on. It gets quite drafty in there.