Brushstroke
“Will come back…(as soon as my bank account reloads)
Also, Chef Bouley, and Chef Yamamoto (?)”
“After trying kaiseki at other well-known NYC restaurants, Brushstroke comes on top for me.”
“I will definitely have to try Ichimura in the near future — so envious of the lucky diners at the sushi bar!”
Brushstroke
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$$ Price range Above $61
8 reviews
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I had the best tasting menu experience ever in NYC here at Brushstroke. Just to give you context, I find most tasting menus to be too long (Eleven Madison Park killed me at over 4 hours). Brushstroke has a $135 8 course tasting menu (Kaiseki) that changes seasonally, and we were there for just over 3 hours. Japanese cuisine lends itself well to tasting menus because many of the foods are more clean-tasting, fresh and light… which is perfect for multiple courses.
We had the Winter Kaiseki Tasting Menu. Seven out of the eight courses were phenomenal. I felt that each course was just the right amount of food (again, another EMP comparison is that theirs were unsatisfying bite-size courses). Plus, everything was served in a timely manner. A few minutes after finishing each course (time enough to talk about it and relax), the very efficient servers whisked everything away. The courses ranged all different styles: soup, rice, sashimi, fish, etc.
The one course that fell flat was the one that just had a lot of stuff going on — there were oysters, battered cod and oysters, salmon covered under foam(?), two slices of duck, and some kind of roll. Visually, the oyster was off-putting given it's huge size and the pink sauce it was floating in; meanwhile, the duck seemed out of place amongst all the seafood. The cod and the salmon was the best part of the course.
By the end, we were all stuffed. The last course is dessert, and while I always have room for dessert…. I was struggling here. If you want to end on a refreshing, light note, go with the whatever sorbet option is on there. We had the lime sorbet and it was delicious.
My friends got the $100 wine and sake pairing and LOVED the choices made by the highly educated and clearly-passionate-about-his-job sommelier. Next time, I'll go for that choice.
I'd highly recommend this place for:
People who love Japanese and are looking for something delicious that isn't sushisushisushi
People going on dates. That place has a very warm ambiance and isn't terribly big.
Special occasions that won't break the bank
The star of brushstroke is the kitchen. Decor is minimal… No white table cloths. Everything is wood with potted plants and Edison bulb light fixtures. They have an open kitchen where you can watch the chefs prepare the food meticulously. The kitchen is DEAD silent. No Gordon Ramsay type situations here. Watching them work was beautiful. Like a symphony orchestra playing a master Vivaldi concerto together. The chefs all had lazer sharp focus. I could've watched them all day! There are many pros and cons of the restaurant.
The food is the star of Brushstroke. All the flavors are very clean, light and beautiful. None of the main ingredients are masked by heavy sauces. The main ingredient in every dish shines. I think that's the beauty of Japanese cuisine. The ability to let the main ingredient be itself. If you can manage to eat 8 courses try the kaiseki menu. The ingredients used are a mixture of local and pure Japanese. The sashimi option from the kaiseki menu was phenomenal. Otoro just simply melts in your mouth. Another memorable dish was this savory egg flan. The broth was a beautiful dashi. I wasn't a fan of the local duck breast as the main course option I chose. Duck skin is what I always look forward to because it's so crispy and works delightfully with the fat but the entree had very little skin. Disappointing. The creme brûlée was amaaaaaazing. You will be tempted to order the matcha option but don't snooze on the creme brûlée.
The problem I have with Brushstroke is the service staff. For a Michelin star restaurant the service was underwhelming. After watching Burnt with Bradley Cooper, my significant other and I questioned "how many points would they have lost if we worked for Michelin?" And the answer would be a LOT. We have been to a few Michelin starred restaurants and this by far had the worst service. The service is very slow. The sommelier forgot our sake order because he was in the middle of a tasting. They gave us the sake complimentary but that's unacceptable to forget an order ESPECIALLY for a restaurant of this caliber. That's why you shell out extra $$$. For impeccable service with memorable food. When asked about the ingredients used in the dishes I was given very abrupt answers with a tone that said, "don't bug me anymore." It isn't a personal experience like at Del Posto where they refer you by name (same amount of Michelin stars mind you) or the amicable vibe from Eleven Madison Park. The service here is very stiff and cold. They made us wait about 35+ minutes for our dessert. While the couple next to us only waited 15. I couldn't understand why our dinner took nearly 4 hours to consume. On top of that we had to ask 3 times for our check. Even at the Olive Garden they don't make us ask more than once. Unacceptable.
For the amount you are paying at this restaurant I was very underwhelmed. I think this restaurant needs the service staff to work on their communication skills with each other. There is absolutely nothing wrong with their food. It is perfection. I think I would come back but just for lunch.
3 stars.
Amazing amazing food and service!! I came here in a party of two and had the Chef's choice (omakase) menu with the wine/sake pairings and I left the happiest, fullest, and with just the right amount of tastebuds-stimulated, sake/wine-induced buzz that I've ever had (or at least in a really long time).
The omakase menu might change but after quickly perusing the Kaiseki menu that it has a lot of overlap with the regular Kaiseki (small bites) tasting menu, so note that this while reading this review.
We had 8 courses total: oyster and uni scallop with a lemon foam, golden crab chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with black truffle, sashimi selection, blue shrimp and scallop dumpling in clear tuna broth (really herbal and would be perfect for a cold winter day), the snapper tempura with zucchini flower and green mustard leaf, Canadian Fuji-pork apple confit and lastly, the mushroom and lobster egg don in donabe pot. For dessert, we had the sake creme brûlée, which was phenomenal.
The one that stood out to us the most was the Canadian Fuji-pork Apple confit. Every bite was amazing and was enjoyable from the first bite to the lingering retro nasal savory-ness that filled every breath out. I remember sighing a lot in happiness while eating this. Also incredible were the chawanmushi with black truffle and the tempura plate. The chawanmushi was a perfect combination of crab, steamed egg custard and truffle flavors (though one of the two custards we got definitely had much less truffle than the other). The tempura plate was amazing too, but not because of the red snapper but because of the tempura mustard leaf and zucchini flower. It's amazing how delicate and thin the layer of tempura was and how it added texture to the zucchini flower and mustard leaf without taking away from the flavor. The sake creme brûlée was the perfect way to finish, as adding the sake made the creme brûlée much smoother than other creme brûlée and went well with the sake soup. I thoroughly enjoyed all the rest of the dishes but as one can probably tell, I'm not myself much of a raw foods fan (I especially am wary of uni and oyster but the uni and oyster dish had the perfect amount of lemon foam to lift all the briny and rich seafood flavors).
I do want to try the Oregon washu beef don next time though as opposed to the lobster egg don that we had this time.
The wait staff were also the perfect combination of warm/friendly and professional. We were primarily served by Faith and Catherine. Faith was incredibly friendly to us and answered our questions about the taste menu well and even shared some stories about times she's eaten with her husband when I brought up my general aversion to uni. Catherine was also really professional and when she'd heard that we'd been to Boulet before, brought it up in a conversation with us as well. John Loats was my hero though in that I mentioned at the beginning that I was just starting to learn about wines and he gave really great explanations of what everything that we were drinking was and in addition to articulating the flavor profiles, he'd include stories about the sake filtration methods to the origins of Madeira (fortified wines created by mistake from sailors who tried to steal captains brandy and having the wine and brandy mixed together and oxidized with sea salt air).
Also, interesting piece of trivia, but the restaurant also frequently invites chefs (students and otherwise) from Japan's top culinary school, The Tsuji Culinary Institute to come and share their individual specialty dishes.
I loved this place and all the amazing staff and will certainly be coming back (when I can afford it again).
Wonderful! What a treat to be able to have eaten here on my last (rainy) night in NY. Located in a tranquil neighborhood in Tribeca, this lovely kaiseki spot is busy so make rezzies. I was lucky enough to get seated at the bar to watch the chefs and his sous chefs in action the whole night.
You HAVE to go with their tasting menu which is expensive at $135 pp by why else would you come here? You ain't going to order chicken teriyaki, I can tell you that. I was treated to such a lovely Japanese tour and I was beside myself with delight. I guess the chef sensed that so he put a little extra in my chirashi course and I got to sample for free a lovely after-dinner drink that the smart sommelier thought I'd enjoy. It was a all these little things all night that made this the best dinner I've had in NYC.
I can't pick the best dish of the night because everything was delicious and surprisingly filling. The chef played with hot and cold, and soft and hard textures. But the loveliest presentation was the tea-lighted tray with the leaf-wrapped salmon and the snail and all these other lovely little treasures that left an amazing memory on your palate.
And the staff were all super attentive and amazingly helpful. I wanted for nothing. After my dinner, the manager helped me with my coat, opened my umbrella, and walked me out the restaurant to point me to the safest route back to my hotel. I was a princess that night and I was royally smiling the short jaunt back to the W, while it drizzled softly and I took in the lights of the city.
David Bouley's restaurant maintains a fairly traditional style of Japanese cuisine and ambience (interesting because he is, of course, not Japanese). The decor is minimal, everyone talks in hushed tones, the food is elegant. Ordering a la carte is a great way to share with a small group family-style and ends up being surprisingly affordable. I suggest selecting 1-2 dishes from each section of the menu so you can have a taste of raw and cooked, cold and hot preparations. The ingredients change seasonally, but it seems there are a few staple dishes. We had jumbo oyster, uni, scallop appetizer which was interesting but is probably best for a seafood LOVER, as the "taste of the sea" was pretty prominent. Also order a vegetable or salad – it adds a nice balance to the meal and they are refreshingly simple. I also recommend the lobster rice pot, the clay pot provides about 6-8 bowls of umami-ful rice. Wagyu beef is a nice non-seafood pick that is so tender you can cut it with chopsticks. Order a selection of sashimi to share, I can't help but order extra uni. Dessert left me wanting more, very small and dainty to provide just a bite of sweetness to finish the meal (soy sauce gelato and green tea pudding are quite good but pricey). I will definitely have to try Ichimura in the near future — so envious of the lucky diners at the sushi bar!
I went to Brushstroke yesterday with my coworkers for our Christmas dinner.
We had 7 courses! We stated with a butternut squash soup and 2 crackers with guacamole and paté. The guacamole was amazing and the butter squash soup was delicious. I did not like the paté. I thought that it did not have its place in the menu.
After that we had a soup with mushroom and scalliops and it was probable the highlight of the night! As a big fan of raw fish I was very happy with the sashimi dish and was surprise wth the fat white fish! Usually white raw fish are not that fatty but this one was amazing! The plate with the beef was also amazing. It was so well cooked and the beef so tender!
then we also Tile Fish with a kind of Teriyaki sauce. The last dish did not wow me as I thought it was missing some salt: the rice and salmon dish.
We finish dinner with a matcha ice cream, red bean on the bottom and white chocolate on it!
A MUST ( if you like matcha flavor)
Excellent experience! A little late in posting my review but I got reminded of my visit to Brushstroke when a friend and I were discussing the Michelin list of NYC that we've visited. I went to Brushstroke may be in 2013 Fall/Winter for their tasting menu. I did not realize I liked Japanese food as much as I do until I dined here. Service was impeccable. My favorite was listening to the descriptions of each course brought to us. It made me feel like I was one of the Judges on Chopped or Ramsay's kitchen.
I took my girlfriend here for Valentine's day. The place had a special menu just for the occasion. For a restaurant with 1 michelin star, i was very impressed with the customer service here. My only negative are the tables. Our table and another table were quite wobbly, and they weren't able to fix it. For a 1 michelin star restaurant that charges an arm and a leg for tasty food, I would think you can afford new tables that don't wobble.
It was a multi-course meal and we opted to go with the wine/sake pairing. The sommelier was knowledgeable of his drinks. The food was top notch. Everything was clean, simple yet complex.
The star of the show was the wagyu during the meat course. Was also a huge fan of the oyster/uni app. Must come back to try their regular menu as well as try Ichimura