New York Restaurants: From a Speakeasy Sake Bar to Smorgasburg to Superior Seafood to Vegan Sushi

My entire recent trip to New York felt like wandering down the rabbit, which we did when we went to Sakagura, a speakeasy-style sake bar (no cell reception, so no texting friends if they’re late) in a residential building where you need to sign in with facial recognition. So maybe Speakeasy 2018-style.

I came for unpasteurized sakes and izakaya fare. Here’s what it looked like:

sakagura-speakeasy-sake-bar — The sketchy entryway

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-nama — Every sake order comes with a flower decoration. Would my ikebana friend have been happy? I think so.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york — One nama and one Junmai Daiginjo from the $10 featured glass menu. The nama was young and harsh, but sweet enough to make it refreshing. The Junmai was relatively bitter but with a really floral nose, I think. There are 14 sake fridges with tons of by-the-glass options. You can see a fridge behind this tray. Its the dark brown wood in front of the glassware. You open the top and theres a map of the inventory of the fridge on the bottom of the lid that flips up.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-amaebi-cod-roe-squid — Amaebi sweet shrimp raw), salted cod roe, squid rings with grated daikon. Small bites to start from the gluten free menu.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-tofu — Jiggly tofu with bonito flakes and scallions. The tofu was a little too soy-flavoured for me. Not very nutty.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-fluke-sashimi — Great texture on the $20 fluke sashimi. The sashimi is the only really expensive thing at this restaurant. Its not a sushi bar, so best to stay away from it unless youve got deep pockets. But the texture of this translucent fish was cool. It still had a little snap to it. Great knife skills.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-featured-menu — My favourite sake. Another Junmai dai Ginjo from the featured list. They go by season, type, area. The list is incredible. This was elegant, clean finish, dry.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-sashimi-moriawase — Sushi Moriawase – $80. Super expensive but really tasty tuna, of course, plus fresh uni each piece tasted a little sweeter or a little funkier), amberjack and others that I don’t remember.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-pickled-plum-ume-onigiri — Pickled plum onigiri. The sushi rice wasn’t really seasoned, or was seasoned very lightly and the plum wasn’t too harsh and vinegar-y. I forget to pick it up with the nori on the left because I was sharing and got distracted by the sake.

sagakura-sake-bar-new-york-chicken — Chicken on a hot platter. The only meat dish we ordered. It was simple and tasty with crunchy bits that I love.

VEGAN SUSHI AT BEYOND SUSHI

We did a 180˚ and went vegan at Beyond Sushi. The highlight was the ice cream for dessert, which was coconut milk based but not too coconut-y. the sauces set it over the top. For vegan sushi, though, Sushi Momo in Montreal was much more interesting in terms of textures, sauces and brightness of flavour. I think because Beyond Sushi is a chain, the quality isn’t as high as it could be. But I’m sure they do better because of it. Rent is expensive and restaurant competition is fierce.

beyond sushi-new york-maki — Four rolls: one with mushrooms and truffle oil, another with sweet potato, another with squash, another Texmex-style one with black beans, and one with mango and cucumber. Everything was dabbed with aioli, but it was almost flavourless. The mango was underripe and acidic, the sweet potato wasn’t caramelized, and the avocado had no flavour at all. You don’t get much rice, so at $8 a roll, I had to order two more to be full. But prices are good, it’s still tasty, and though I would have been happier at an excellent fish-based sushi shop, I still felt good about what I was eating. #sustainable

beyond-sushi-vegan-maki-new-york — The carrot ginger dab was wierdly sweet on the avocado wrapped around a pickled vegetable roll. I liked the crunchy carrot and daikon pickles inside, but, well, Sushi Momo in MTL in better.

beyond-sushi-new-york-guacamole — The freshly fried and salted taro chips and guacamole with lime zest and togaroshi (I think) was the highlight of the savoury menu. I kept some chips and munched them with my second order of sushi for salt and crunch.

beyond-sushi-vegan-ice-cream-rosewater-pomegranate-molasses — Dessert: The highlight of the meal! Rosewater coconut ice cream with pomegranate molasses and black sesame coconut ice cream with plum wine syrup and sugar floss

OCEANA

Apparently the chef has changed here recently, and I think it’s supposed to have gotten better. I’d come back here in a heartbeat to try more seafood for sure.

I never want to be vegan because of great seafood. At Oceana in the Theatre District, we had a post-theatre, late night snack of fluke ceviche with squash and sweet citrus, halibut with ají dulce (sweet pepper), yellowtail with dill and cilantro, and maguro tartare. The tartare was supposedly marinated in the oyster mushroom pickling brine, giving it a little sweetness. My favourite was the fluke ceviche, though, because the lime gave a lot of flavour to the otherwise texture-foreward fish. I didn’t love the squash in it, though, which tasted a bit stale. We did arrive at 10pm…

SMORGASBURG

smorgasburg-poutine-montreal-brooklyn — And I almost bought these duck fat fries because they were advertising “Montreal poutine” with real cheese curds. They looked “authentic.”

smorgasburg-colorado-lamb-skewers — Everything comes in big portions at Smorgasburg, which means it’s expensive and way too filling to try too many things. But one of the smallest items I found were these lamb skewers. See the white? That’s the fat that keeps the meat tender on the charcoal. It’s Colorado lamb. All natural. Delicious. No sauce required. $3 a skewer.

smorgasburg-vegan-burger-chickpeas-and-olive-new-york — All the stalls seem to put demo foods in front so you can see what you’re ordering. These are two of the vegan burgers from Chickpea and Olive (they have a brick and mortar restaurant on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn). They’re gluten free if you get them on the flax-oat bread. Or you can get a patty on a salad with a super rich ranch dressing. The vegan cheese was a crazy bright yellow with a little char from the grill. The beet patty that comes with all the burgers was shredded and chewy and delicious. Some come with jackfruit. You can add avocado to anything. And there’s a whole lot of aioli going on. The patty is the big draw. It’s a great product.

I also got a $5 huge mango on a stick. I have a rule that I don’t pay more than $1 for a mango. I buy them overripe and in season (somewhere else) at the Jean Talon Market in Montreal. But I made an exception because this mango on a stick was all shaved into pieces and coated in lime juice and Tajin – chili powder and salt. Just how all mangoes should be. And the mango itself was super ripe and juicy and perfect. And at $5, it was one of the cheapest treats at Smorgasburg.

Tu-Lu’s Gluten Free Bakery

No trip to a big city is complete without hunting down a vegan bakery. We stumbled upon this one, Tu-Lu’s, in the St. Mark’s area of the city while doing some vintage shopping. After a lunch of organic soup and an açai bowl at a non-descript place a few blocks away.

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VEGAN SUSHI AT BEYOND SUSHI

OCEANA

SMORGASBURG

Tu-Lu’s Gluten Free Bakery

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