Hakubai The Kitano New York Yukihiro Sato Hakubai
Cuisine: Japanese
Enjoy masterful kaiseki dinners in the dining room or a tatami room at Murray Hill's Kitano New York.
Openings: Lunch Tues.-Fri., Dinner Tues.-Sun.

Features

Hakubai, New York, NY


Hakubai Restaurant Review:


This sparse dining room with 84 seats is flanked by three tatami rooms, where you can enjoy multi-course dinners spread over a leisurely evening. Sit at the traditional low table (but your legs dangle comfortably) and watch a kimono-dressed waitress serve an array of dishes chosen by the chef. A kaiseki dinner begins with appetizers, each carefully conceived and part of the decoration in color and symmetry. Executive chef Yukihiro Sato is a master of the kaiseki tradition, which dates back more than 500 years in Japanese culinary history. It begins with house-made sesame-laced tofu that brings a cooling to the palate. Eel sushi follows, fat and luscious in its purity of flavor; a tender shrimp cake is sandwiched between tempura-fried matsutake mushrooms. Fried shrimp gets dressed in shiso leaf; a rich loin of duck rests on yam stems; and, finally, grilled dry sardine is drizzled with the sauce of an egg yolk. For dessert, try the "coffee jelly," with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. To drink, choose from a selection of wine, premium saké and shochu.