My spouse and I dined at Jewel Bako for dinner on a Saturday
evening in early May 2017. Jewel Bako offers dinner on Mondays through
Saturdays (closed on Sundays). You can reserve your table using the online Open
Table system, although you must telephone the restaurant if you want to reserve
a chair at the sushi counter. The restaurant has held one Michelin star for the
past eleven years.
Jewel Bako opened in 2001 in the East Village on East 5th
Street near Second Avenue. Sister restaurant Degustation adjoins Jewel Bako.
(The owners also once operated Jack's
Luxury Oyster Bar and Jewel Bako Makimono, both of which are now closed.)
As with other distinguished sushi restaurants in the city, the entrance to
Jewel Bako is discreetly marked. Inside, dramatic, arched wood slats creative a
high curved ceiling in both of the long narrow dining rooms. Closely arranged tables
on either side of the dining space each share a long padded banquette on one
side, with individual chairs on the other side. The back of the restaurant
offers an 8-seat sushi counter, where we interacted with talented itamae Mitsunori
Isoda. (This chef previously “cooked” for us in August 2016 when he worked at
Brushstroke/Ichimura.) On the night that we dined, Chef Mitsunori was assisted
by three other sushi chefs, one of whom was his son.
Jewel Bako serves Japanese cuisine, with an emphasis on
sushi and sashimi. The restaurant offers either an a la carte menu or one of many
tasting menus (sushi, sashimi, omakase sushi, omakase sashimi, or omakase
tasting). Prices are slightly higher for the tasting menus when you sit at the
counter instead of at a regular table. We ordered the omakase tasting menu, which
for $150 per person ($25 less at a table) included some hot and cold appetizers,
a sashimi selection (served all at once), two seasonal hot dishes (served
together and meant to share), a sushi selection (served individually), and
dessert. The chef served our sushi across the counter one piece at a time as he
prepared it, but servers delivered the other courses by placing the dishes in
front of us from behind.
Some of our courses follow.
·
Amuse: chef’s sushi selection topped with a
maple radish
·
Edamame
·
Phyllo cup filled with tuna tartare accompanied
by a pea shoot salad
·
Sashimi tasting (including toro, amberjack, clam,
mackerel, salmon, shrimp, and presented on a slate decorated with a prawn head;
unfortunately our server did not explain the various fish to us, but he did
offer us freshly grated wasabi)
·
Two hot seasonal seafood dishes including one
cooked “en papillote” (in paper)
·
Sushi (including golden eye snapper, barracuda,
madai [sea bream], sayori [needle fish], chu toro, and uni)
·
Japanese custard pudding (which they called
“bread pudding”, served with a fruity sauce)
Service from the regular waitstaff was slow. Our beverage
glasses sat empty for most of the night without anyone offering a refill. We
also waited about 15 minutes after we finished our sashimi course for the hot
dishes to arrive; in fact, we thought that our meal might be over at that
point, and we were ready to request our check, when the hot dishes arrived. But
we enjoyed talking to Chef Mitsunori as he worked, and his sushi courses were
timed perfectly.
Overall, we had a great (and extremely filling!) omakase
chef’s tasting meal at Jewel Bako.
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