Since Former 15 East alumni Chef John Daley opened Ko in LES, it has been a tough to get into place. The eleven-seat restaurant with only the sushi bar and a small table, Chef Daley do it all by himself. There’s only one other waiter/ server/ host as staff. On a rainy, windy, late September evening, we arrived early for our reservation, but was turned away by the host.
“We’re not open yet” he said.
“Can we come in and get a drink first?” we asked politely.
“You can get a drink at the bar down the street” he replied.
Had it not been their long waiting list for reservation or the $75/pp cancellation policy, I might have walked away.
Both Chef and waiter were attentive, but seemed unfriendly. Perhaps offended by my camera (no flash, I promised), during the 2+ hours meal, both of them have managed not to crack a smile. We had the more expensive $190 full Omakase oppose to the “a little less, still expensive” Sushi Mono. As we approached the sushi part of our dinner, Chef Daley asked to have my camera put away. Something about “food are meant to be enjoy, not photograph…” I honestly don’t remember his exact words, but that was a first. May be Ko would like to adopt Corton’s practice and put their policy on their website?
After the sashmi and the cooked dishes, we had 11 pieces of sushi: Kanpachi, Shima Aji belly, Aji, Saba, smoked Attic Char, Kimedai, Botan Ebi from canada with smoked sea salt, baby sweet shrimp from Japan, Uni from California, Chu Toro from Boston, and Otoro from Boston blue fin. Notice, aside from uni and ebi, all pieces are fish, no shellfish.
Overall, I’d say the sashmi was better than sushi piece. The sushi rice was missing something, the balance was off, and it was falling apart as we picked it up. Yasuda said “rice is the most important part of sushi”, as my dinner coming to an end at Ko, I truly understand the meaning of those words. (Sep, 2014)
Food & Pixels Posts
Located in NOHO, right next to Carbone, behind a dark door is a cozy bar/ restaurant that only host 12 seats. If you didn’t look closely, you could walk right passed it and not realize there is a restaurant there. Other than the bouncer outside, the tiny little blue neon sign “ZZ’s” on the window, is the only indication of the place. Why would a restaurant need a bouncer you might think, but once we settled down into the room, we totally understand the need.
The small dimmed-lite room is a treasure box with lots of gems. There is a glamorous antique chandelier hanging atop; antique looking chairs pairing with marble top table. During the course of dinner, we were also told every pieces of silverwares and dinning wares are antique. The bar is equipped with a ice tub countertop. With all the bottles on the shelves and unnamed bottle of odd shapes and height tuck in the ice tub, it looks like a treasure island itself. But of course, guarded by the genius mixologist.
Everything on the cocktail menu are so temping, but at $20 a pop, we only each ordered one cocktail. We both agreed we’d have to come back, even just for drinks, and that we would sample everything on that cocktail menu.
We had heard that dishes are small bite size, and that the beef carpaccio is a whopping $105, so we have to choose wisely. The uni toast each have 5-6 thick, sweet, rich, deliciousness on it; sprinkled with chopped garlic and chives. However, the garlic was a bit too much for my taste.
The beef carpaccio by itself could be a little salty, but when it paired together with the sea urchin’s sweetness, the lobster’s fresh and crunchiness, and atop the airy crispy toast, it is a little piece of heaven. Oh, we found bits of clams on it as well. Bonus!!! Although it did came with a very, very steep price tag, it was worth every penny of it.
The cocktail, beef carpaccio are on top of our list to come back for. And next time, we will definitely try the tuna carpaccio with foie gras. (Dec, 2014)
Masa, the only 3 Michelin Stars sushi restaurant in New York, aka the most expensive restaurant in NY. Unless one is willing to pay a (at least) minimum $500/pp entry fee, one had no chance to set foot in this high court of sushi. We, of course, like many others, are still waiting/saving for that special occasion. Fortunately, Neta opened in the village, operated by a pair of Masa vets: Chef Nik Kim was the head chef at Masa for 10 years and Chef Jimmy Lau was the head Chef of Bar Masa, As soon as we heard that, we couldn’t wait to try it out.
Dark wood trims, pale white curtains, from the outside it is hard to tell that it is a sushi bar; it seems more like a modern French bistro. Behind the doors is a somewhat narrow space. Other than a few tables on the side, is a long maple wood counter that sits 20. The open concept kitchen took up most of the space. It has stove stations by the wall, prep stations in the middle, and sushi bar in the front. Chef Kim and Lau orchestrated in the front, with 5-8 all white wearing cooks prepping in the back. We grabbed the bar seats in front of Chef Kim. From where we sat, we full view of everything that was going on in the kitchen. We could see the cooks prepping our scallop-uni dishes, and Chef Kim carefully inspecting a giant slab of fish that was just brought in. We really enjoyed our view, our eyes were eating the dishes reach our table! There are two Omakase options available ($95 and $135), and there is also an a-la-carte menu. In hope to get the best experience, we went for the more $$$ one.
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Dungeness Crab Salad
Shreds of Dungeness crab tossed with wild parsley and cucumber in dashi vinaigrette. The vinaigrette very well complimented the dish, it added acid and brought out the freshness and sweetness of the crab meat.
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Sawara Sashimi Salad
Another salad, but this time with sashimi. Sawara or Spanish mackerel is usually better in winter than summer, but that didn’t matter here. This sawara was soft, melty and tasty. The sheds of myoga, and tempura flakes sprinkles, added a nice crunch to the combination, and created a nice contrast.
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Grilled Scallop
Sweet, sweet scallop with Uni. My favorite combination. This scallop was grilled with garlic soy butter, and I squeezed in a little lime. Buttery and sweet!
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Softshell Crab Karage
Softshell crab was perfectly crispy and juicy but not oily. The shiso leaf karage was a nice refreshment. And there was a little surprise underneath. A little pile of corn karage, sweet and crunchy, great combination.
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Chopped salmon with Sichuan peppercorn oil
An unique take of spicy salmon. Salmon chopped and mixed with Sichuan peppercorn oil, has a little kick but not too spicy. Salmon was press onto a plank of crispy rice, and cover by shaved bonito flakes. Again, very nice contrast, mushy and crispy. Bonito flakes were all curled up, slightly moving, as if it was going to take flight.
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O-Toro– fatty, melty, lightly brushed with soy, just heavenly.
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Sawara
Sawara again, this time as sushi, garnish with ginger. Sweet and delightful.
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Kanpachi
Kanpachi was sweet, lightly brush with soy sauce and garnish what with appears to be fried dry scallop. Creative, and tasty!
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Sake
Personally, I don’t like salmon much. I think it is boring, and overrated. I normally don’t order it at sushi place. This salmon is soft as usual. The little mustard mayo on top did add a bit sweetness to it.
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Suji
Grilled Toro Sinew (neck). Melty with a smoke effect. Very, very good.
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Softshell Carb Karage
Softshell carb karage from earlier was very good, and we have a repeat here. This is complimented with a piece of dried plum on top. Very interesting combination.
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Uni Porridge
A spoonful of uni risotto, with shaved truffle. So dense and rich, plenty of uni. Perfectly executed. I only wish I could have a whole bowl.
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Unagi roll
Eel roll with cucumber. Very ordinary, although the eel was not overly sweet like other places. The seaweed, however, could be crispier.
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Plum Granite with fried duck skin
This was surprisingly amazing. The sweetness of Plum granite was just right. It is very refreshing. And the duck skin, reminded me of a good piece of Peking duck. I would never have thought to put the two together, but they completed each other.
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The signature, Bluefin-rich Neta roll– BEST tuna roll ever!!!
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Ume Shiso
A vegetable roll as final piece. It’s a good end note for a great meal. Leave a very good aftertaste.
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Butternut milk ice-cream
Neta was very well worth the hype. It met our expectations in many levels. The uni risotto was just to die for. Everything was creative, delicious, and beautifully arranged. However, I do wish to have a little more varieties since there were 2 karage and 2 sawara, not that they were bad. i also think it was a little odd that we had granite before the neta roll, as if the rhythm was broken off a little, not sure if that was intentional. For $135 a person, this is a great value alternative to Masa. Not long after our visit, we learned that Neta has earned 2 Michelin stars. Congrats Chef Kim and Chef Lau! (June, 2012)
note: We went to Neta back in June, 2012. Since then, both Chef Nik Kim and Jimmy Lau have left Neta together. The place is now manned by a former Per Se vet, and we have yet been back. Also, since Chef Kim and Chef Lau’s departure, Neta has lost its 2 Michelin stars.
Located in Noho on Thompson Street is Carbone, another venue by Major Food group. Carbone has that old school American-Italian theme, black-and-white tile floor, leather booth, dark blueish-teal walls, overly large menu, tuxedos wearing servers, all made me felt that I’m in a restaurant the “Godfather” dines in. Music was a little loud and so was the crowd. On this Wednesday night, I noticed that majority clientele were white mid-age males. And oddly, over half of the tables were occupied by male only parties. Strange… I think… Then the bread basket came along, and I forgot everything else. 3 kinds of bread to pick on, soft sesame roll, pizza crust like thick bread stick, and butterly garlic toast, all of them were just spectacular! More beard please!!
We ordered the Scampi alla scampi. It turned out to be the most expensive 4 halved and butterflied shrimp I have ever ordered, but it truly were the best shrimp scampi ever. The garlic and butter smell and tasted so good, we wanted to lick the plate. More bread please! From the “Macaroni” menu, we had the Spicy Rigatoni Volka, it was rich and a bit spicy on the first bite, but then you got hook on it and keep wanting more. Our waiter suggested for us to have the meatballs (off the menu). It turns out to be absolutely extraordinary, one of the best meatballs I’ve had, Meaty, soft, melt-in-your-mouth, and full of favor. If you come here, other than the fantastic veal parm, you gotta have the meatballs. Now, the terrific $50 veal parm. It is as big as an eight inches pizza. Was is worth it? Oh, HELL YES!
(Oct, 2014)