Urban Aprons

So I know that I am about 2 weeks late in posting my NYC restaurant week review.  I unfortunately didn’t get  a lot of writing inspiration from the restaurant that we went to (not that it wasn’t delicious, maybe it was just that the pictures didn’t turn out great…).  However, lucky for me, NYC ended up extending restaurant week through the end of February, amazing!  Aaron and I decided to take advantage of this deal one more time and celebrate Valentine’s Day a couple of days early at BONDST, a Japanese restaurant in NoHo (which means north of Houston St., I am still learning these things).

Since this was meant to be our romantic evening of dining, and our reservations at BONDST were not until 10:00, I decided to start our evening with an appetizer and some wine at our apartment.  A couple of months ago I had burrata mozzarella for the first time and have been dreaming about it ever since.  If you don’t know what it is, it is the creamiest, richest fresh mozzarella you have ever had.  I figured that our restaurant week portions would probably be very small at  a $$$$$ restaurant and that we had better have something a little more hearty before dinner.  I left the burrata out for about two hours before so that it could reach room temperature and then made a simple bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, salt and pepper.  Shoot, this is bringing me to a food obsession that I have to tell you about.  For Christmas this year, Aaron bought me a gallon of Theros Olive Oil.  It is by far the most delicious, fruity olive oil that I have ever tasted.  Even its color is absolutely beautiful.  I could seriously drink this stuff.  So I brushed some slices of baguette with Theros, toasted them, and then served the crostini with the bruschetta and burrata.  I know this doesn’t go with our Japanese dinner at all, but I had been waiting for a special occasion to splurge on the burrata.

Needless to say, the burrata was just as delicious as I had remembered and we even had enough left to have for lunch the next day!  If you are looking to try this delicious cheese at the place that I first did, try Frank, an authentic Italian restaurant in the East Village (be sure to arrive early to secure a table, we had to wait 2 hours!).  They have this cheese shipped in from Italy every weekend!

Okay, on with our date night.  We ate just enough bread, cheese and tomatoes to tide us over until our reservation time.  We knew it was a good sign when our cab dropped us off on a quiet cobblestone street (Bond St.) in front of where the restaurant should be and we couldn’t figure out where it actually was for a couple of minutes.  It looks like a residential building, and I love when it seems like a “secret” place that only you and a few other know about.  The ambience of BONDST was great, dimly lit and sort of trendy feeling (but not in an annoying way).  We had to wait a few minutes for our table so we grabbed some cocktails at the bar.  I had the Lychee martini which was not too sweet and pleasantly strong.

We took an elevator up to the second floor dining area and were seating in a private corner.  It always feels great to be in a place where people are laughing around you and having a great time, yet you feel secluded from the action.  The restaurant week menu was basically a Bento Plate.  We both started with the tofu miso soup with wakame and chives.  It was hearty, oniony and savory.  A perfect beginning to our meal.  We were also served complimentary edamame.  The Bento Plate came with spicy crispy shrimp with yuzu calamanci vinaigrette and chipotle aioli, sake soy braised hijiki, gobu and tofu, and a steamed yuba chicken dumpling with sesame tofu.  My two favorites on the plate were the shrimp and hijiki.  I had never had hijiki before but it had an excellent chewy texture and tons of flavor for something so small.  You could choose either rolls or sashimi to go with your Bento plate, so Aaron got the sashimi and I got the rolls ( this is what we usually do so that we can try as many things as possible), both of which were delicious and as feel like most sushi rolls are, a party in your mouth.  The main entrées and stars of the Bento Plates were the Broiled Chilean See Bass with saikyo misa and New York Strip Steak with caramelized shallot teriyaki and 12 year balsamic.  These were both very tasty, but the Sea Bass was out of this world.  It was perfectly cooked and melted in your mouth.  It had a delicious sweet/salty rub that had been seared onto the skin side of the fish.  I think there was a lot of brown sugar in the rub because it really almost tasted like candy.  We didn’t want to be finished with it and took our time savoring each bite.

For dessert we ordered the Lychee Panna Cotta with strawberry rhubarb compote and the Chocolate Meltdown with espresso ice cream and fresh cream.  We ate all of it before I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture.  Oopsies.  So obviously, we enjoyed it very much.

Aaron and I both though this was an excellent value for $35 each.  The portion sizes were considerably generous and because there were so many different things to try, we ate slowly and savored every bite.  Next time, the burrata prior to dinner will not be necessary.  BONDST is definitely a restaurant that our budget would normally not allow for us try so many different things.  I have heard that they have a skewered sea bass entrée that I am going to be tempted to return for.  Maybe for my birthday!