David Levine
Google
Yes, you want to eat here, I don't care who you are. Go ahead and make a reservation now. Now for the review.
Food: The yellowtail sashimi with brown butter, white soy, and citrus was... kind of boring? The execution was flawless, and every single individual flavor was good, and the fish itself was slightly warm, which helped to bring out the aroma, but there just isn't much there to work with. Nothing wrong with it, just boring for my palette (but people call me the umami bomber, so I'm biased). Your taste buds may enjoy this, if you enjoy tasting raw fish relatively unflavored. I might even order it again - it's not bad, but nothing to rave about, except perhaps the audacity to plate such a simple dish here is notable. And thank you too for that simplicity.
I had the "Hot Honey" pizza, and let me tell you that the *only* other slice of pizza heaven within an hour's drive - known as PizzaLeah - finally has competition. My first slice passed my "will it stay erect?" test, which is where I hold a slice the way a New Yorker would when walking down the street, folded in half. This pizza doesn't droop and stands erect. That speaks to the structure of the dough and baking process. Beyond that, the flavor profile was off the charts awesome. Just the right balance of tomato sauce and toppings. This pizza also passed the most difficult test of being taken home in a box and then eaten cold for breakfast the next day and loving it.
Lastly, there is the side order of pastrami kimchi fried rice, a dish that remarkably echoed a dish I'd just made up a few days earlier for myself: Pastrami potato latke with kimchi (equally good, btw). The dish was well executed and I liked the taste, but I found the pastrami lost in the dish; I would have preferred larger chunks of pastrami, basing that off my own cooking experiments, but this is such a slight criticism.
For desert, we had the Basque style burnt cheesecake, which was refreshingly lighter than a traditional cheesecake and I thought it was a nice way to finish off with something sweet without being too heavy.
Service: The service was excellent and was the perfect balance of being attentive without being annoying or absent. The food came out quickly.
Atmosphere: was good, actually I could even call it great. Of particular importance: It's not noisy so you won't need to shout to talk across the table, and there's plenty of space between tables. It's very comfortable. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the atmosphere, and I love it. It doesn't get 5 stars because it didn't rise above being merely really good to being wow, 5-stars!
So, there it is. They are currently booking up weeks or months in advance so book early to get a spot.
