Ramen and fried chicken, perfected

It's tough to start out with a mandate for perfection, even if you're Curt Hennig, whose fall in the ring to a Beefcake Barber proved once and for all nobody's (Mr.) Perfect. From a dude looking to be the pre-Wrestlemania VI Hennig of Japanese food: Wafu

Opening today with the defiantly humble tagline "Wafu is perfection", 'Fu has given the back-alley izakaya concept a more gastro-lounge appeal thanks to a central long/ tall communal table, a wall of Japanese movie posters, and giant lanterns made of paper, so clearly they’re not the Green variety. Wafu's go-to is its ramen, a serious bowl featuring wheat flour noodles (housemade with special alkaline water) swimming in a broth with chicken feet and roasted pork knuckles; the other must-get’s fried chicken done Korean-style from a whole bird that’s steam-cooked, deep-fried, and paired with spicy Red Dragon sauce, which they presumably had to load Anthony Hopkins up with, to get him to make a movie with Brett Ratner. On the drinks side, cocktails like the apricot liqueur/ Cognac/ OJ Valencia and the vodka/ gin/ creme de cacao Russian are made in stubby Japanese shakers using exact rituals that even measure the number and timing of shakes, just like the personal trainer who makes sure Louie Anderson is putting in enough work at Dairy Queen

Wafu also reps a secret private back dining room that, when not used for events, will be screening old-school Japanese movies like the original B&W Godzilla, which was about as perfect as really shoddily produced low-budget movies with horrendous special effects could possibly be.