Michelin star chef Alain Verzeroli (former protégé of Robuchon)
 

Thought I should mention the restaurant Shun in NYC (610 Lexington Avenue at 53rd street)
http://www.shun-nyc.com

Not yet Michelin star as they opened in June 2019.

New restaurant by Alain Verzeroli, who worked under Joel Robuchon at 3 Michelin star restaurants in Tokyo.

Beautiful interior design, spectacular food using French technique with Japanese flair. Daniel Boulud was in attendance having dinner while we were there #TMZ

4 course-menu for $155 is a great deal.

Highlights:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...28a728bbec.jpg
SHUN'S LONG ISLAND DUCK A L'ORANGE, BLACK MISSION FIGS & CASSIS ​​​​​​​



https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7ad602c423.jpg
STRAWBERRY SUDACHI "STONE," LEMON MARMALADE

Dined at Oriole (2 stars) and Elizabeth (1 star) in Chicago this weekend.

The dinner at Oriole was superb - favorites were the foie gras/blueberry, wagyu, sablefish, and truffle pasta. We also had the reserve wine pairings and really enjoyed them. The decor/build-out of the restaurant is inviting with a hint of mystery (you enter through an almost unmarked door into a freight elevator. Everything about Oriole is great and definitely worth a visit.

Had dinner the night prior at Elizabeth. As chef is gone for two months, she turned her restaurant over to Jenner Tomaska (former executive chef at Grant Achatz's Next restaurant) to create and cook an Ugly Fruits and Vegetables menu. We're big Jenner fans, so actually came for his cooking. Standout dishes were his mushroom tartlets, squab/beet/blueberry, squash-stuffed and wrapped sturgeon, and dueling spoons (caviar and cauliflower). He's only cooking that menu for one more week, though. Husband had the wine pairings which were fine, and I had the non-alcoholic pairings because I was driving; they were unique and inventive.

Dinner at de Lindenhof in Giethoorn (Holland), which currently has 2* but barely deserves one IMHO. Amuses were terrible - overly salty, sweety and spicy. I would have left after this or just ordered a main course if I had been alone. Service was rather impersonal and not knowledgeable about the food. The first entree was hamachi, heavily overly dressed. The next dish was better with eel (local - although the girl who waited on us wasn't sure it was, even though Giethoorn is famous for its eel!) and pike. The best dish was dessert - the pattisier managed to use local herbs and flavours to create some lovely yoghurt-based sorbets. No copy of the menu was given.

It's a nice restaurant with a lovely garden and would probably scrape by to get one star but I can honestly say this was one of the most disappointing 2* meals I've ever had.

I had the full 7-course tasting menu when I dined here in early July. I would be very surprised if Shun does not get a Michelin star - TBH, a restaurant at its price point kind of needs it to deserve sticking around. That said, it was well worth the visit. Loved the ambiance, the classy-yet-relaxed decor and seating, and the fantastic food. The only thing that struck me a bit wrongly was using poached Icelandic cod in a caviar cream sauce...the flavor of the sauce was great, but the cod was the wrong fish to use - it should he been something like Chilean sea bass or another flaky white fish.

Our concierge managed to get us a reservation at the counter, but for dinner, not lunch.

We have a choice of ¥7,000, ¥9,000, ¥11,000, ¥13,000 and ¥16,000 menus which we must select in advance. As hard as I have tried to find out the differences, all I can tell is that the difference between the middle and most expensive options appears to be the addition of the whole lobster (for two people) and a few other seasonal ingredients. All that the concierge can tell me is that "As for details of menu, it depends on season. They said it always deicide on the day. The almost Kaiseki cuisine have Appetizer/ Sliced raw fish/ Grilled dish/ Steamed dish/ rice and miso soup/ fruit."

Based upon this blog entry, I'm leaning towards the ¥11,000 menu (all 3 of us must have the same menu).

Any thoughts?

Sounds good to me! I don't think you need to overthink it. All will be sensational. And we also dined at the counter--it's fantastic. It's going to feel like the homiest 3* Michelin experience you've ever had! :p

Thanks for the reinforcement.

Upon rereading The Thousand Kyoto concierge's email, I noticed this sentence which I left out of my previous message: "Menu is different from the quality. The number of dish is same." OK, their English is not the best, but they have been extremely responsive; they got us into Wa Yamamura with only an approximately three weeks advance notice.

In addition, we are now confirmed at:

Narisawa and Tempura Kondo in Tokyo, both :-: :-: . Will decide on noodle shops and sushi restaurants for other meals while there.

Seikoro Ryokan, Tosuiro Kiyamachi, and Shigetsu (BG) in Kyoto.

Jibundoki (BG) in Osaka (a day trip to Himeji - lunch recommendation there? - and Osaka from Kyoto).

And still working on Hiroshima (two nights).

I was just there last month and the people next to us had a differently-priced meal, but the difference was negligible. I think they had an extra appetizer and the presentation (and weirdly enough, the order of dishes too) was slightly different. (e.g. We'd get 3 dishes each over 2 courses, they'd get 5 dishes at once). So I say go with whatever price-point you feel comfortable with - It's not going to differ TOO heavily. The other couple next to us had something with gold-leafs plated on top of which I always find extremely tacky... so we were happy we didn't go with the most expensive option :D The fatty tune was inarguably the best item of the entire course. I still dream about it.

We... utterly embarassed ourselves eating the fish, though. We had these small tableside-grilled sweetfish that we tried to get the meat off the bones, and after seeing us struggle for a few minutes the chef took my gf's fish, hit the head a few times and JUST PULLED THE ENTIRE SPINE AND BONES OUT. I didn't know that was possible. Then our neighbour told us you could also just eat the fish whole as the bones weren't hard at all.

... yeah.

You definitely won't regret going though, it's an adorable place. We noticed quite a few guests were very familiar with the chef, so I would assume they have "regulars" too, which I always enjoy seeing when I visit a restaurant.

The chef's English is definitely questionable, but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless - extremely friendly service.

Let me know if you have any other menu-specific questions since if you're going soon, the menu might still be similar.

That's very helpful [MENTION=771979]Smiley90[/MENTION]. Thank you!

The price point really does not matter. An extra $100 for the meal is not going to make a difference in the cost of this trip.

I just want to have a meal that we enjoy and that my wife or daughter don't get turned off by any ingredients; I doubt that my wife will like the lobster sashimi and probably both of them will not appreciate the grilled lobster head. To the best of my understanding that dish comes only with the most expensive menu.

And thanks for the heads up on the gold leaf, my daughter is allergic to gold and gets stomach aches when eating anything containing gold leaf.

I have tentatively selected the ¥11,000 menu. As I was typing this message, I received an email from the TTK concierge confirming my choice; they advised me that I have until three days before our reservation to change it. They had a question about dietary restrictions which I answered and mentioned my daughter's gold allergy.

Were you there for lunch or dinner? Which menu did you have? What were the courses?

We were there for lunch, this was our menu:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...14512d92f4.png

I think the biggest addition to the dinner menu is that it also contains beef/meat and not just fish-dishes.

The only thing that might be objectionable to someone who's not hugely into shellfish is probably the squid sashimi - it can be fairly chewy if you've never had it - that can probably easily be ignored and isn't offensive to the eye or anything. Or maybe the young/tiny sardines, but they're actually quite delicious I found.

We had WAY more objectionable sashimi at our Omakase/Sushi/Kappo-Michelin star visits than Wa Yamamura... Sashimi Sea Snail isn't something I... got down particularly easy.

Huh, didn't know there was such a thing as a gold allergy! But there you go, glad I was able to help :)

We LOVED Narisawa. You will, too.

There are so many great options that it's impossible to try them all. We had to cancel our Himeji day trip, so sorry we can't offer any suggestions. I can tell you that 3* Hajime in Osaka had insanely good food and presentation with some of the most horrendously bad service we've ever experienced at any multiple star restaurants anywhere in the world. I also can say that La Veduta at the StR Osaka was spectacular if you get a hankering for Italian.

We had lunch at Soigné in Seoul and it was a great experience and value starting at 70,000 KRW. It's a 1 star restaurant and deserving of it (at the very least). The main area is a chef's table surrounding the group of chefs working (the kitchen is set slightly further back). The chef is a per se alum and he and a few other staff communicated in English well.

The Korean-French inspired food was well seasoned, interesting and executed well. But it was a breath of fresh air to get really great service. It moved along at a good pace, but never felt rushed. They anticipated and served our needs quickly. We would definitely return.

I just wanted to call out more Korean restaurants. I hadn't experienced fine dining there, but it was a treat.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c2adab8f2a.jpg
prawn soup
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b6a79dbf6e.jpg
lobster poached in butter
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8ae5575b3d.jpg
Iberican pork smoked in traditional herbs
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0de85cbadd.jpg
modern kimbab

Sorry to bump an old post, but I'm curious what your thoughts on me trying to do Hanare omakase as a solo diner at the bar. Would that be out of place or unwelcome there? My wife does not eat sushi, and while she can find something she'll eat at most places, this seems like one that would be wasted on a sushi non-eater. So I'm thinking of trying it out some time when she's on a business trip 😄

There have been single diners at the bar for both of our experiences there. Sometimes a few single diners. So not out of place at all. When I have been there, we've had the entire group of diners always talking with each other anyway! (If you're remotely sociable, I'm sure you can do the same.)

I do agree that any omakase restaurant is not the best place to take a non-sushi diner. Especially for these prices!