Matsugen.

The front of the house at Matsugen belongs to Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the Asian-inspired French chef whose restaurants include Spice Market, Perry Street, and the extraordinary Jean-Georges. Matsugen used to be 66, Vongerichten's tribute to the Chinese kitchen. But the Chinese tiger did not roar on Church Street. Gone are the red calligraphed pennants hanging from the ceiling, although a fish tank (and a single moray eel) remains, along with--in what is perhaps a final nod to the Chairman--a long, often lonely communal bar. The room is chic, austere, and ultimately a bore; the staff is attentive, knowledgeable, and almost uncomfortably obeisant. The furniture suggests an office (a really nice one), and the kindly jitteriness of the waiters (they are big on speed-clearing) may make one less consumed by the food than by the sense that the bankers and traders a few blocks down might not be the only ones whose job security is uncertain.

The back of the house belongs to Masa, Taka, and Yoshi Matsushita, three brothers from Tokyo who own soba restaurants in Hawaii and Japan. Soba is a kind of thin noodle made of buckwheat flour, served hot or cold. In Japan, it's eaten on New Year's Eve (toshikoshi soba, or "year-crossing noodles"), and given to new neighbors as a gesture of good will (hikkoshi soba, "moving-in noodles"). ...