Ikigai

"At this kaiseki restaurant in a Fort Greene townhouse, you’ll find wonderful Polish-inflected Japanese dishes, like a traditional potato dumpling made with sweet mochiko flour, filled with warm cheesecake, and nestled on a bed of sweet-tart raspberries and sour cream. The dining room, which looks like a woodworking masters thesis, and the backyard tearoom are just as delightful. Little details, like milk bread and rhododendron kombucha in that tea room to start, make a 12-course meal at Ikigai a great choice for an intimate, relaxing celebration. Interestingly, this place also operates as a non-profit, donating earnings from their $165 tasting menu to an organization that combats food insecurity. " - will hartman, willa moore, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick, bryan kim

"You’ll find wonderful things like a traditional Polish potato dumpling—but made with sweet mochiko flour, filled with warm cheesecake, and nestled on a bed of sweet-tart raspberries and sour cream—at this Fort Greene restaurant with a backyard tea room. Polish flourishes on kaiseki-style dishes make Ikigai stand out, but the restaurant is also noteworthy for operating as a non-profit (they donate earnings from their $165 tasting menu to an organization that combats food insecurity). Little details, like milk bread and rhododendron kombucha to start in the yard, make a meal in the all-wood dining room a great choice for an intimate, relaxing celebration." - molly fitzpatrick, bryan kim, neha talreja, willa moore, will hartman

"It’s not every day that dinner begins in the backyard of a Fort Greene townhouse, convincingly retrofitted into a Japanese tea room. Ikigai’s serene dining room looks like someone’s woodworking master’s thesis—a monochrome rainbow in shades of brown from natural to deeply charred. There are outlets to charge phones, shelves to stash purses concealed beneath the 12-seat counter, and a pair of black-and-gold chopsticks for each guest to take home at the evening’s end. Small details like this make the experience of a 12-course meal here feel special. The kaiseki menu with Polish influences (a nod to the chef’s heritage) has several highlights, like a delicate truffle chawanmushi, and a potato-mochi dumpling with a cheesecake filling that brings together the best of two great dumpling traditions. Though Ikigai doesn’t quite reach the heights of our favorite tasting menus, to its credit, at $165 it doesn’t quite reach their price points either. Also to its credit, the restaurant operates as a nonprofit, benefiting an organization that combats food waste and food insecurity. photo credit: Evan Sung photo credit: Evan Sung photo credit: Evan Sung Ikigai's peaceful tea room alone justifies a visit. As you sip a complimentary glass of rhododendron kombucha in the fresh air, you’ll feel miles, not yards, from the near-collision of a stroller and a CitiBike you just narrowly circumvented on Lafayette Avenue. Come here for an intimate, relaxing special occasion: like a birthday when your age ends not in a 0 or 5, but maybe a 1, a 3, or a 7. Food Rundown photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Milk Bread The milk-bread roll is fluffy and sweet, and the nutty miso butter studded with roasted buckwheat seeds (the savory version of ice cream cake crunchies) is good enough to justify ignoring the provided knife and swiping your bread directly through it. Corn The first dish served at Ikigai’s counter is one of its best. Accompanied by a meaty-looking wedge of juicy marinated nectarine, this lightly set chawanmushi (near-liquid at the top) is silky and creamy, with a funky earthiness, care of truffle and aged parm. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Raw This course is split into three small servings of raw seafood: shima aji, scallop, and saba. The first of those is a highlight of the entire meal—the striped jack is rich with brown butter, but brightened with blood orange zest. Okra The texture of this risotto is interesting, but also a little off-putting. Thickened with okra starch, it's served cold with crunchy bits of sea bean (that occasionally trick the brain into believing they’re undercooked grains of rice) and ice plant buds that burst like marine Gushers. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Uni A quail egg in the hole within a toasted disc of brioche, surrounded by husk cherries and Hokkaido uni. This is an exceptionally pretty bite of food—and yes, that’s bite, singular, because diners are encouraged to down it in one. (It’s not impossible, but a challenge even for a professional eater’s well-exercised jaws.) With its good looks and a luxury marquee ingredient like uni, this dish should be the menu’s lead single. In practice, it’s anticlimactic. The creaminess of the uni is muted, dominated by the tartness of the husk cherries. photo credit: Evan Sung Wagyu Freshly grated wasabi discharges an electrical current that ripples from your tongue, under the skin and muscles of your face, up to the highest point of your skull, where it dislodges a long-lost happy memory from the second grade before dispersing harmlessly in the furthest reaches of your inner brain. It’s a perfect sparring partner for the outrageous, buttery fat of the wagyu. We’d gladly eat three helpings. photo credit: Evan Sung Knedle A traditional Polish potato dumpling is reimagined with sweet mochiko flour and a warm cheesecake filling, nestled on a bed of sweet-tart raspberries and sour cream. It’s wonderful." - Molly Fitzpatrick