Restaurant Yuu

"This Japanese-French chef's counter on the edge of McCarren Park in Greenpoint puts a premium on performance. For the most part, the staff's over-the-top attention to detail will only elevate your experience—but sometimes, it gets a little silly. For one thing, the show-stopping signature duck pie has its own theme music. The 13-course tasting menu here costs $300. (A shorter $180 menu is served at the bar.)" - bryan kim, willa moore, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick

"This Japanese-inspired French restaurant maintains its one-star status for its $300 tasting menu." - Eater Staff

"This Japanese-French chef's counter on the edge of McCarren Park puts a premium on performance, and the staff's over-the-top attention to detail elevates the experience. The signature duck pie, for example, has its own theme music, cribbed from the Netflix series Chef’s Table (actually)—though it's the abalone risotto we still find ourselves daydreaming about. The lavish 13-course tasting menu here costs $300, but there's also a shorter $180 menu served at the bar (there, walk-in seating is available, but reservations take priority)." - bryan kim, neha talreja, will hartman, molly fitzpatrick

"Restaurant Yuu, a One MICHELIN Star restaurant, is transforming into Bistro Yuu, a temporary pop-up focused on a unique and approachable dining experience. Diners can expect a three-course bistro style menu priced at $95 per person and a five-course dessert tasting menu for $120 per person." - Kevin Chau

"Restaurant Yuu puts on a show. At the start of every seating, a curtain swishes open to reveal the chefs standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the kitchen. Would it be appropriate—or awkward—to applaud? We briefly agonize over the decision, but choose to play it cool, along with the 17 other diners at this Greenpoint chef’s counter. The 13 lavish courses that follow showcase Japanese ingredients prepared in a French style, with more tweezers in action than your average brow salon. There's an emphasis on technique and performance so serious that it borders on goofy—the signature duck pie even has its own walk-up music, like a Major League Baseball player. It's corny, yet somehow endearing. photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte Sometimes, Restaurant Yuu's obsessive attention to detail delivers a truly singular dish, like an abalone risotto so gorgeous you may hardly notice the glistening Hokkaido uni plated alongside it. Sometimes, it’s a little distracting. Consider the theatrics of the wagyu shabu-shabu course. One chef steps forward to spoon dashi over your beef. A second chef expertly applies drops of baby-pink raspberry ponzu. Then a third chef arrives, on chive oil drizzle duty. Last but not least, a fourth chef delicately deploys some lime zest. The wagyu was delicious, but—figuratively speaking—this could’ve been an email. photo credit: Kate Previte Still, we’d rather eat at a restaurant that’s doing too much than one that’s doing too little, especially at this lofty price point. (At $300, the nearly three-hour meal works out to about $1.80 a minute, which, if you think about it that way, is kind of an amazing deal.) And when Restaurant Yuu does hit the right notes, it’s worthy of a standing ovation. Food Rundown Tasting Menu Restaurant Yuu occasionally hosts special dinners, but the $300 tasting menu is the standard option. (It's also available in vegetarian form, with notice.) There’s a shorter $180 menu available at the bar, and drink pairings start at $120 for a non-alcoholic option. Dishes may change, but here are a few highlights from our last meal: photo credit: Kate Previte Abalone Risotto The abalone is pressure-cooked in kombu dashi, and that liquid is incorporated into the risotto—which is further thickened by the abalone's liver, then dusted with nori powder. It's stunning, the kind of dish where you can taste every second of the labor and care that went into it. If our plate were collected with even a single grain of rice still on it, we would have climbed over the counter to retrieve it. photo credit: Kate Previte Lamb The lamb is baked in a salt crust with lemongrass and mint, then finished with mustard and brioche crumbs and a salty but bright tomato and clam sauce. Upon taking our first bite, we softly, involuntarily uttered an expletive. photo credit: Kate Previte Oyster A technique-forward dish that gets in its own way. A pea-flavored gel—compelling in theory, but in practice not particularly pleasant—smothers an oyster we would’ve loved to have gotten to know in a different context. photo credit: Kate Previte Caviar Supplement For $60, you may supplement your meal with quite a formidable quenelle of caviar—decorated with a delicate spine of purple flowers—on toasted brioche, atop tiny piped beads of cream cheese. We can’t believe we’re saying this, but it’s a little too much caviar, and overpowers all the accouterments. (File "Too Much Caviar" next to "Didn’t Need That Uni" in the cabinet for opinions we never expected to express.) photo credit: Kate Previte Canard Before it’s sliced and served, the spectacle that is the duck pie (a decadent cousin to the Wellington, with layers of duck that’s been dry-aged for a month, mushrooms, and foie gras) is paraded around the dining room like the Stanley Cup. As it should be! Chef Yuu Shimano presents the dish himself, while music from the Netflix series Chef’s Table plays—unironically. We wouldn’t blame him if he marched it out the front door and demanded passersby on Nassau Avenue pay their respects. The duck pie ultimately isn’t our favorite bite of food at Restaurant Yuu, but it’s a hell of a thing to behold. photo credit: Kate Previte Sakura Dehydrated cherry blossom petals are sprinkled over a meringue shell ready to burst with rosé gelee and sorbet. A beautiful encapsulation of spring." - Molly Fitzpatrick