New York City: Piora (September 2016)

My spouse and I enjoyed dinner at Piora on a Saturday evening in late September 2016. Piora is open for dinner on Tuesdays through Sundays (closed on Mondays). You can reserve a table by telephone or by using the online Open Table reservation system. It was a pleasure to communicate with General Manager Jeffrey O’Connor.

Piora, which opened in 2013, is located in the West Village on Hudson Street (near Morton Street). The restaurant space previously held The Goodwin. The name “Piora” means “to blossom” in Korean. Piora’s executive chef previously worked at Tenpenny in Midtown (now closed). The owner has worked for Thomas Keller and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The restaurant serves Italian-Korean cuisine that reflect the heritage of the chef and the owner. Piora has been awarded one Michelin star.

Piora features three areas: a front foyer area with high-top communal tables, a long marble bar in the middle, and a sleek white dining room in the rear that overlooks a tiny garden. In the main dining room, leather-topped tables share a padded leather banquette that runs in an elongated U shape on either side of the room. The décor includes exposed brick and reclaimed wood, and the main dining space employs horizontal lines painted on the walls to draw your eye to the windows overlooking the foliage. The effect is polished, upscale, and cozy. In fact, the tables are arranged closely together; however, we were lucky to be placed at one of the four corner tables, both sides of which shared a white leather banquette.

We ordered the chef's tasting menu, although three a la carte options in each of three categories (appetizer, pasta, entrée) are also available; one selection from each group sounded vegetarian. Piora also offers desserts, and has a full bar as well as a good wine list.

Our courses follow:

1.        Miniature taco (filled with potato and egg and topped with osetra caviar)

2.        Toasted multigrain brioche (with a sunflower seed spread)

3.        Market vegetables ( raw, confitted, pickled, blanched, and roasted with Thousand Island dressing powder)

4.        Tomato Tart (skinless grape tomatoes with sesame, basil, toasted rice cake)

5.        Heirloom Carrot Tartare (minced and sliced, with mustard and caraway and served with grilled sourdough),

6.        Rigatoni (with octopus and sofrito)

7.        Yellowfin tuna (with sesame seeds arranged in a 7 shape)

8.        Dry-Aged Duck (with spiced peanut, concord grape, and root vegetables)

9.        Fiore Di Latte (a palate cleanser with raspberries, basil, aged balsamic, yogurt sphere)

10.     Chocolate Pudding (with hazelnut, salted caramel, brown butter)

11.     Mignardises (cherry gelee candy squares rolled in sugar)

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Piora with the creative and delicious food. Our only disappointment is that Piora no longer presents the chef’s box to your table when you order the chef’s tasting menu, whereby a server delivers a glass-topped wooden compartmented box that contains ingredients the chef will use to prepare your dinner. It sounded like a novel idea that we looked forward to seeing, but otherwise, it was an excellent dining experience!