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Dining | New Hyde Park

Two Culinary Cultures, From Raw to Well Done

ROOM TO CELEBRATE Julaine Greene of Bay Shore was greeted with a sparkler on her birthday at Two Steak and Sushi Den.Credit...David Lougheed Sanders for The New York Times

TWO Steak and Sushi Den in New Hyde Park has been open only since March, but it has already surpassed its older sibling, the very good Four Food Studio and Cocktail Salon in Melville. They share a very talented executive chef, James McDevitt.

Prices at Two match the high quality, but with careful ordering you can enjoy a meal here without breaking the bank. We saw plenty of people splurging, though, especially on Saturday night.

The first thing patrons see at Two is the large, semicircular sushi and yakitori bar, which is backlighted in red. To the right is a spacious lounge and bar; to the left are two dining rooms, one sleek but casual, the other more formal, with carpeting and a stunning white stone wall. Having the bar off to the side keeps the noise and crowds there from dominating the restaurant.

The first salvo from the kitchen was naan, hot from the tandoor oven. Beautifully blistered and glistening with garlic oil, it was paired with a roasted jalapeño-cilantro yogurt dipping sauce. Then came the amuse-bouche: a cold shrimp tidbit on one night, a square of boneless chicken perfumed with truffle oil on another.

Some of the prices are breathtaking. There are two Wagyu beef selections, a 10-ounce rib-eye for $180 and a 4-ounce strip steak for $75. Regular steaks are in the $40 range, except for a small filet mignon and a skirt steak, each $29. Other meat and fish entrees are mainly $30 to $40. There are less expensive ways to sample the food here, however; the terrific burger, for example, costs $18. Cooked medium rare as ordered, it was mounded with bacon, grilled onions, cheddar cheese, a slice of tomato and shredded lettuce. The French fries with it were crisp and delicious.

Another budget-friendly option is a platter of selections from the yakitori bar, tasty bites served on a bamboo skewer. I chose 6 from a list of 17 (each about $3), which made a fine entree for someone with a light appetite. They included juicy teriyaki chicken, even better chicken “oysters” (the tender nuggets of dark meat from the back), batons of asparagus wrapped in bacon, flavor-packed skirt steak sparked by lemon and green onions, pork belly with green onions and ponzu sauce, and a whole, head-on shrimp in the shell.

The menu’s small plates, which range from $12 to $21, were also fun. Grilled asparagus was a treat, paired with baby artichokes and paper-thin slices of Manchego cheese. A half-dozen gyoza in a curried mustard sauce also hit the spot. Best of all were slices of juicy braised pork belly topped with crunchy fried oysters, pickled jalapeños and matchsticks of Asian pear.

Reasonably priced openers included the lush sushi selections (most $6 to $8) and the very large portion of edamame ($5), which was made for sharing. Salads are also sharable. We gave high marks to a classic Caesar and to a baby iceberg topped with tomato confit, bacon and a blue cheese vinaigrette.

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An assortment of yakitori.Credit...David Lougheed Sanders for The New York Times

We tried two steaks, a bone-in, dry-aged rib-eye and a prime, dry-aged New York strip. Both were top of the line: beautifully charred, juicy and cooked to order. Each arrived with four sauces: classic Bordelaise, two-pepper, wasabi béarnaise and Argentinean chimichurri. The steaks were equaled by à la carte side dishes like fingerling potato purée and roasted wild mushrooms. Pan-seared halibut atop a cauliflower purée was a fine seafood choice.

Service ranged from good (when we were seated in the more formal room) to super (in the more casual cafe).

Desserts were as exciting as the rest of the meal. We loved the silken panna cotta and the warm chocolate cake topped with blackberry compote and teamed with a scoop of Creamsicle-flavor ice cream. The scene-stealer, though, was the liquid nitrogen ice cream, prepared tableside. Vanilla cream and liquid nitrogen are mixed in a metal bowl till the cream turns to ice cream. Add-ons include strawberries, housemade Oreo-style cookies, peanuts and sauces. This customized sundae is show-biz at its best. So is Two itself.

Two Steak and Sushi Den

1270 Union Turnpike

New Hyde Park

(516) 358-2222

twoonline.com

DON’T MISS

THE SPACE Stunning restaurant with a sleek cafe, a more formal dining room and a sushi and yakitori bar with dining booths. Complete wheelchair access.

THE CROWD Casual midweek, dressed to the nines on weekends. Few children.

THE BAR Lounge and bar off to one side. Wine list of more than 100 bottles ($29 to $125), a reserve list of 50 bottles ($125 to $725) and 13 sakes ($16 to $145). Wine and sake are also available by the glass.

THE BILL Lunch entrees, $12 (grilled chicken sandwich) to $46 (20-ounce rib eye). Dinner entrees, $18 (burger) to $180 (10-ounce Wagyu rib-eye). Prices are high, but so is quality. American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Discover are accepted.

WHAT WE LIKED Sushi, edamame, yakitori, grilled asparagus, gyoza, fried oysters-pork belly combo, Caesar salad, iceberg salad; halibut, New York strip steak, rib-eye, potato purée, roasted wild mushrooms; all desserts.

IF YOU GO Lunch: Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner: Sunday through Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. to midnight. Reservations are essential.

RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t Bother.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section LI, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Two Culinary Cultures, From Raw to Well Done. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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