July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Jean-Georges Vongerichten serves buckwheat noodles for $36 and a pot of rice for $45. It takes a three-star Michelin chef to make Japan's most basic dishes unaffordable. Welcome to Matsugen in lower Manhattan.

Why are the noodles so expensive? Because they're slathered with uni -- the truffles of the sea. The sea urchin roe is milky and orange and has a brilliant mineral tang. Clings to the coarse, earthy buckwheat like moss on wet stone.

The rice gets roe too. Sticky grains fill a cannonball-size crock. Heat turns the urchin from slimy to spongy. It smells like concentrated Pacific Ocean.

Not everyone will appreciate these intense, unadulterated flavors, but those who do will regard Matsugen as Vongerichten's best since his eponymous flagship restaurant opened on New York's Upper West Side in 1997.

Expect to see Japanese diners. The menu is written in Japanese (English descriptions are underneath). Fish is from the Tsukiji market in Japan. And the day-to-day operations are run in partnership with Japanese -- the Matsushita brothers.

Vongerichten, who owns a worldwide empire of restaurants, is frank about leaving the cooking to others.

``I wanted pure, clean Japanese flavors, without my French and fusion tendencies,'' he writes in his blog.

Matsugen occupies the space that used to be 66, a Vongerichten venue that served high-end Chinese food. Things look pretty much the same: fish tanks and dining room in back, lounge area up front. Hard surfaces create a bustling atmosphere, making it tough to appreciate $160 boiled beef.

Waste of Wagyu

That's right. Wagyu is served shabu shabu. A gas burner is brought to your table. It heats up underseasoned vegetable broth. You dip the meat, so marbled with fat it practically dissolves in the mouth.

Warning: Shabu shabu deprives the flesh of a beefy, broiled char. It's more of a study in soft textures and subtle flavors (read: colossal waste of money). Next time, I'll order the grilled version for $135.

Waiters help navigate the long menu. They recommend three shared courses before soba and dessert. Start with soup. Soy milk softens an intense clam broth. Chewy top necks add heft. Mitsuba (Japanese parsley) wakens the senses with a celery-like aroma. The Japanese have one-upped Boston and Manhattan for the best chowder.

Homemade tofu jiggles like Jell-O with a clean soybean rush. Bluefin tuna is so striated with fat the flesh is white; a blowtorched sear coaxed out a hint of meatiness. It's excellent, but for $65, it needs to be outstanding. Better versions are available elsewhere, where the slices ooze with warm, fishy fat.

Nobu Rival

Try the eel instead. Six ginger-infused bites for $28. Or slurp more intoxicating sea urchin -- this time with a yuzu gelee to cut the oceanic aroma. Miso black cod might rival the famous version at Nobu. It looks like a toasted marshmallow: Sweet flesh glistens beneath the burnished skin.

Matsugen's Kurobuta pork belly is the Wagyu of swine: Intense marbling provides the perfect ratio of meat to fat in every soy- and garlic-braised bite. And then there's plain old grilled chicken breast. Here it's as flavor-packed as a thigh and swathed in fatty, gamy skin.

Finish with soba. There are three choices: delicate (like good ramen), smooth (darker, denser) and coarse (outstanding, with an al dente snap).

Dip in sesame sauce, duck soup or a more traditional dashi, soy and mirin broth. Slurp. Repeat.

Their quality makes Matsugen a worthy, albeit noisier heir to Honmura An, the Zen-like soba temple that closed last year. Leave it to a French chef like Vongerichten to give us one of the city's best Japanese noodle joints.

Rating: ***

The Bloomberg Questions

Cost? Appetizers: $6 to $65. Large plates: $20 to $160. Soba: $12 to $36.

Sound level? Quiet at the bar; loud in the dining room.

Date place? Yes.

Inside tip? Waiters know the sake list inside out and they fluently describe Japanese ingredients.

Special feature? Try the grapefruit dessert. Looks like the fruit. Tastes like the fruit. But is made of jelly.

Private room? No.

Will I be back? Yes, for the cheaper dishes.

Matsugen is at 241 Church St. at Leonard. Information: +1-212-925-0202; http://www.jean-georges.com.

What the Stars Mean:
****         Incomparable food, service, ambience.
***          First-class of its kind.
**           Good, reliable.
*            Fair
No stars     Poor.

(Ryan Sutton writes about New York City restaurants for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this review: Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 22, 2008 00:01 EDT