We have a tradition of celebrating our Spring Onion’s birthday with a weekend foodie trip, somewhere that can be reached from Boston without hopping on a plane. Last year NYC was a big success, and SO opted for NYC once again. She wanted dining options to be a surprise, but made one request, omakase.
Thursday night, the day of her birthday, we visited Sushi Ouiji. A small, unassuming place on Prince Street, actually hard to find because it’s hidden behind some street construction. A few steps down from the street level take you into a relatively small room, somewhat minimalist decor (no surprise). One wall is dark brown, the other light brown. There are just two works of art, a traditional Japanese print and a modern abstract depicting a big tilted block of red, meant to evoke Mount Fuji. The L-shaped bar had room for 3 along the short arm, where the 3 of us sat. The longer arm seated around 8. There are now more than about 8 tables in the rest of the room. The playlist for the evening was Chet Baker. Very chill, and SO had never heard of Chet Baker.
The meal started quickly with lovely bites of kampachi. The succession of 13 additional courses were utterly fantastic. Most of the fish was flown from Japan. At $149, this may be the best omakase value in NYC. We did splurge, repeating a couple of courses, and on a bottle of Hakkaisan Yukimoro “snow aged” sake. The description, “aged for three years in an insulated room next to huge mounds of frigid, mountain snow” was just too precious to pass up. At the end they comped glasses of a rose sake.
Friday night was Kabawa, a Caribbean joint from the Momofuku team. The restaurant is on an odd little alley, but a very interesting room. Kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant. Water glasses are Murano glass, and directly behind us in the window sill was a Murano glass pitcher next to a vintage Tiffany lamp. Not sure what the Carribean connection was, but somebody knows glass.
I think we found the shaved ice machine from the now-closed Kawi - it’s being used to make the house Daiquiri: a mound of shaved ice presented in a cocktail glass, and the full-strength Daiquiri poured over tableside. An amuse of crisp roti with various spreads was devoured. Highlights from the prix fixe 3-course menu were casava dumplings in creole sauce with cucumber, hertitage pork “chuletas can can”, offered for 2 persons but really enough for 4, and goat with a spicy scallop (!) creole sauce. Our SO really enjoyed the house martini, made with coconut water. Sides included rice, beans, and a small grean salad. An intermezzo pre-dessert of tamarind pods was an interesting experience.
Both lovely experiences. Service at both was warm, informal, and engaging.
Tommorow night we have another surpise in store for SO.
