New York City: Jewel Bako (May 2017)

Jewel Bako - Great Omakase Tasting and Personable Sushi Chef

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.

 

New York: Empellon Cocina (February 2017)

My spouse and I dined at Empellon Cocina for dinner on a Saturday evening in mid-February 2017. (“Empellon” means “a push or shove” in Spanish.) The restaurant is open for dinner only on Tuesdays through Saturdays (closed on Sundays and Mondays). You can reserve a regular table using the Open Table reservation system, but to reserve one of the four spots at the chef’s table for the tasting menu, you must make (and pre-pay) for your reservation using the Tock online system. Chef/owner Alex Stupak, a former pastry chef, has worked at NYC’s wd-50 (now closed) and Chicago’s Alinea. He operates Empellon Restaurant Group, which includes Cocina, Al Pastor, Taqueria, and the soon-to-open Empellon.

When the East Village’s Cocina was renovated in April 2015, the restaurant built a special table that overlooks the kitchen where two to four guests can interact with the kitchen staff while dining on multi-course tasting menus. You can choose a smaller 18-course 1.5-hour $95 menu (available weeknights at 7:30 pm or weekends at 6:00 pm), or the longer 22-course 2.5-hour $165 menu (only available weekends at 8:00 pm). Accompanying beverage pairings are priced at $30 and $50, respectively. The high-top chef’s table is separated from the regular dining room by an open bookshelf, and it is a table, meaning that it does not border the kitchen as a chef’s counters would, but instead allows room between the table and counter for your personal chef to plate and present. Jason Beberman (formerly of Dressler, Miller’s Tavern, and Gramercy Tavern) was our chef for the evening, and he was informative and personable. 

Empellon serves Mexican-inspired cuisine a la carte that you can order a la carte or as a 3-course $42 per person tasting (which includes guacamole, one starter, one main course, and one dessert). A large format meal, which must be pre-ordered, feeds 6 to 8 guests, and includes a whole roasted pork shoulder served with tortillas, fried rice, chicharron, black beans, pickled red onions, mixed salad, and salsa. Reportedly, Cocina boasts NYC’s largest selection of tequila and mescal. Our tasting menu was inventive and unique and employed a variety of ingredients, preparations, and plating. A few ingredients displayed nixtamalization (an age-old alkaline chemical reaction that renders normally indigestible raw field corn edible). Our list of courses follows, but without too much details so it won’t spoil the surprise:

1.        Finger lime candy

2.        Conchas (“shells”) with cultured butter (fantastic rolls and butter with an incredible maize shot)

3.        Natas (“cream”) with uni
(Although a luxury item, uni is not my favorite ingredient, but this was excellent!)

4.        Savory rice pudding with caviar
(After eating the tasty uni dish, I thought to myself, “If only Chef could make me like caviar like he just did with sea urchin”, and Wish granted! My caviar dish was delicious!)

5.        Gordita inflada (“inflated”) with salsa verde mousse

6.        Trout flauta (This was one of the most memorable dishes, because it included trout sushi wrapped with trout skin and then topped with trout roe: it was like eating trout three ways! Somehow Chef managed to make the crispy shell stay together even when we had to bite it in two.)

7.        Kumamoto oyster with nixtamalized popcorn kernels

8.        Pozole explosion (sort of like a Mexican soup dumpling)

9.        Rice and beans (nice and crispy and served in slices)

10.     Burrito ends with sour cream and caviar (My spouse is still proclaiming the simple brilliance of this dish and wondering why other chefs don’t offer it!)

11.     “Scotch” egg (but with chorizo)

12.     Grilled chicken with “mole” (Mexican bittersweet chocolate sauce)

13.     Salsa (customized with our choice of peppers, garlic, onion) and served with masa crisps (made with the largest “molcajete y tejolote” [mortar and pestle] that we have ever seen!)

14.     Quesadilla with chicharron and “quelites” (greens)

15.     Inverse tacos al pastor (pork and pineapple from the “trompo” [rotisserie])

16.     Hoja santa “sacred” leaf summer roll (We thought that this licorice-tasting brilliant dish was the lone dessert course, but it served as more of a palate cleanser before the actual sweet offerings, which were terrific!)

17.     Ice cream tacos

18.     Orange sorbet with sal de gusanos (a little bite in an elaborate presentation to end this phenomenal meal)

Our extended tasting menu dinner at Empellon Cocina was one of our all-time favorite meals – we loved the casual atmosphere, the constant personal interaction with the chef, and the unique ingredients, innovative dishes, and varied plating and presentation. Highly recommended!