My spouse and I visited BONDST for dinner on a
Saturday evening in mid-October 2017. We booked our places using the online
using the Open Table reservation system; however, we also called the restaurant
to ensure seating at the sushi bar. Note that you can only make reservations
for the dining room at BONDST; you cannot reserve a place for the lounge, which
is first come-first served. BONDST is open daily for dinner only.
BONDST is located in the East Village, near NoHo,
on Bond Street (as its name implies!) near the intersection of 4th
Street and 4th Avenue. The restaurant occupies three
floors of an historic brownstone. The 75-seat bar area/main dining room/sushi
bar is located up one flight of stairs from the street, whereas the lounge is
located down a flight of stairs from the street. A third-floor houses the
upper-level dining area, including overflow dining and a private tatami room.
(None of these areas seems handicap-accessible.) Although the lounge and the
dining room share the same menu, seating is more casual in the basement lounge.
Décor is minimalist, featuring wood and neutral tones. The main dining area
contains a small bar with a few lounge seats adjacent, preceding table and
semi-circular booth seating; the bustling sushi bar with tables adjacent occupies
the rearmost room.
Although we sat at the center of the sushi bar positioned in
front of the head chef, he did not actually make any sushi for us; in other NYC
Japanese restaurants that we have visited (including O Ya, Kura, Jewel Bako, and
Brushstroke), when we have been seated in front of the master chef, he has
prepared and handed/served us our sushi piece by piece personally. In fact, the
head chef at BONDST prepared only sushi rolls on the
night that we dined, rather than sushi or sashimi. We missed that service
element at BONDST.
BONDST serves Japanese cuisine, offering
both an a la carte menu and several tasting menus. We chose the lowest-price tasting
menu ($95 per person); the mid-priced $120 menu included the addition of
sashimi, and the chef steered us away from the $140 highest price option,
saying it was too much food. We ordered the shishito margarita and a Sapporo
while we waited for our food service to begin. Our tasting menu included the
following courses:
1.
Sea-salted
edamame
2.
Mixed greens with
ginger dressing
3.
Oyster with
mignonette and spicy tuna on crispy rice (served simultaneously)
4.
Sushi sampler
5.
Fish with parsnip
puree, mushrooms
6.
Sea bass with
sesame-crusted rice
7.
Miso soup
8.
Two different desserts
(bread pudding with whiskey toffee sauce, and the ricotta cup with macadamia
nuts and bayberry granita)
We enjoyed the energy of the loud and busy atmosphere at BONDST; however, we prefer a more personalized and refined
sushi experience.
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