Teisui

This week’s fashionplate features our new Bey jumpsuit at yakitori newcomer Teisui. We had a res on a Saturday night and this place wasn’t very crowded, not sure if people don’t know about it really or why. The servers are very attentive. I chose to do the sake pairing with my tasting menu. Some stand outs were the foie gras and sea urchin custard which was creamy and delicious. I also enjoyed the kaiseki course that was a bunch of little snacks. The tsukune, which were little meatballs with eggs was also a simple but well executed dish. The duck breast was delightful as as the chicken thigh. This is a unique restaurant and menu. All the sakes were very good and the som/​waiter was very knowledgeable. My dining companion was as enthralled with this meal, he found it overpriced but I think he was looking more sushi to be fair.
Now on to the fashion part of this fashionplate. The restaurant was half empty. It was mostly couples and there was one larger group dinner of six. Definitely a place to dress nice.

Amazing new restaurant with a phenomenal chef new to New York from Japan. The 10 course tasting menu offered deliciously distinct flavors and the service was top notch. Amongst our favorites: Hassun (sesame watercress, chicken skewered on bamboo), Tsutsumi-​Yaki (a soup «shot» with chicken tender bites, mushrooms, and onion sauce), the «Rabbit Miso Cappuccino», the Tsukune (meatballs dipped in egg yolk), the chef’s special selection for sushi (all I can remember is that it was tasty and I loved the salmon roe!), and the Anmitsu dessert (kuzu-​mochi, black sesame, matcha ice cream, fruits, honey brittle cracker). A beautifully decorated restaurant with an intimate ambiance. Perfect for a romantic celebratory occasion. We’ll be back!

KenScale: 8.0÷10
New York City has lately been seeing an influx of Japanese restaurants from home, especially with sushi and ramen. Yakitori is another type of Japanese food that has been popular with the New York City diners, but you would typically not associate with the grilled meat on skewers with high-​end dining; they are more typical in various izakaya bars located in neighborhoods like St. Marks in East Village. That’s why I was intrigued to find that a new restaurant opened up in Flatiron for a high-​end yakitori style food from an owner of a hotel atop a mountain, inspired by ryokan (Japanese country inn). I took a plunge and overall had a satisfactory experience.
When I first saw that Teisui offers only one tasting menu at $ 150 per person (including taxes and gratuities), I knew they had be doing something special, not just serve a string of predictable skewers. The meal already started pleasantly with flavorful chawanmushi with uni and foie gras in it, followed by a dish called «Hassun» (an assortment of gindara (black cod), kiritanpo (cylindrical mashed rice), chicken and watercress salad) that was also quite a nice bite. The kitchen certainly doesn’t shy away from putting together a show. A mix of chicken tender, mushrooms and onion sauce came in a wrapped plastic bag, and was delicious, and the Kyoto miso «cappuccino» where you pour miso broth on top of pieces of rabbit meat had nice balance of flavor as well. Some dishes were somewhat predictable and I felt the consistency of flavor and texture was somewhat off. I honestly can’t remember anything special about the haru tori-​mune (chicken breast with pumpkin purée, bamboo shoots, fava beans and fiddle heads) or kamo «minazuki» (duck breast with red wine sauce, powdered duck and seasonable vegetable). If the kitchen was going to highlight the yakitori side, why bother serving a pedestrian sushi plate (the one served on my visit had a piece with flounder on top and another with chu toro with uni and ikura and the latter somehow didn’t taste as it should be despite the combination of various ingredients that I so much love)? On the other hand, though, I was pleasantly surprised with tori-​momo with couscous, where chicken thigh worked in a remarkably beautiful fashion with mashed potato, eggplant and couscous. That dish was the highlight of my night, with exceptional balance of flavor and texture where it shows the kitchen isn’t just playing safe. The next best dish was simple miso soup with red snapper and king crab in it, not only because the broth was absolutely aromatic but the way the kitchen put it together, placing a couple of Mt. Fuji rocks into the pot to create the sizzling effect that was just a sight to behold. The meal ended with anmitsu, a combination of mocha, black sesame, macha ice cream, seasonal fruits and honey cracker that I did enjoy but wasn’t particularly enamored with.
Getting a reservation at Teisui is easy, and I was actually shocked that the dining space was nearly empty, with only a couple of other groups sitting at the counter. Have they been not doing enough in the PR department, or is the concept of eating yakitori-​style tasting menu at that price point too much to take? I couldn’t tell. Anyways, if you are already shelling out $ 150 per person, why not go for the sake pairing? At least the pairing that I ordered had some really fantastic sake menus (there was actually one person from the company that produces one of the pairings who came over to us to explain its origin). I’m not sure why the restaurant has billed itself as a ryokan style restaurant, given the modern décor really didn’t give that vibe of some countryside resort. Teisui is not perfect, but overall the dining experience here is something that a curious diner could explore if you’re looking for a unique take on the art of yakitori.

At $ 150 per person (including gratuity) for the ten-​course tasting menu (just under 3 hours), my wife and I really enjoyed our celebratory dinner for our first wedding anniversary.
We are huge fans of yakitori joints and our expectation was a fancy version of that (a sort of yakitori-​kaseki mash-​up). Basically, we hoped to be dining at a 1-​Michelin star restaurant before it earned the star.
Food: Interspersed between amuse-​bouches and fancier dishes was some great classic yakitori pieces: chicken meatballs; a small rice ball; skewers. Everything delicious. The non-​yakitori dishes worked as well and the chef really succeeded in bringing out memorable tastes, particularly with vegetables. These dishes reminded us of various restaurants we visited in Japan. The sushi course was composed of two small but delicious pieces (toro and uni).
My only two quibbles would be the hot chicken stew served in a plastic bag as well as the miso soup (with whitefish) served right before dessert. The reason: it’s summer! While these dishes would impress in northern Japan or snowy New York, they seemed out of place one day before June.
Ambiance: Most patrons are seated at the high-​table behind which the chef and his apprentice are working. If the food is a riff on yakitori then the design is a riff on the sushi counter! We liked seeing the chefs at work (and not just rotating chicken skewers on the grill but really putting/​plating the dishes together). This was a highlight.
Service: Hard not to provide excellent service when only two couples are dining on the Monday evening of Memorial Day weekend! At any rate, the main waiter was affable and responsive. Still, he seemed tentative on the basics of Japanese cuisine. Also nice was they offered us free sake since it was our anniversary. They also accommodated my wife’s aversion to uni.
My main suggestion here is that they allow the waitstaff to serve the drinks from behind the chef’s counter. Otherwise, there will be a lot of awkward reaching over the patrons to serve water/​drinks and replace plates and utensils. This is how they did it at the Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo.
In sum, this place has everything it needs but the vibrant crowd to let the restaurant live up to its full potential. Just to generate pizzazz, they should run a $ 99 eight-​course tasting menu, add one additional piece of sushi, and a touch more yakitori. Give the people what they want! This will get them the following they need to return to their very well done current tasting menu.
We hope to return for our second wedding anniversary!

This place is a true gem. I think it’s quite new, and I came on the recommendation of a colleague.
It serves what it calls a yakitori kaiseki. Kaiseki. It is a form that showcases both the food and the art behind the preparation of the food. To the person below complaining there are too few skewers, I think you are probably looking for something else. And to compare this place to pure yakitori places like torishin or yakitori totto doesn’t do this place any justice at all. This is beyond yakitori. Yes the portions are small but there are 10 courses and I was quite stuffed afterwards. Furthermore one would surely prefer something that is of this quality than to have 10 subpar overpriced yakitori skewers at a certain other yakitori place.
The highlights were:
1. The rabbit, which is drenched in a cappuccino like miso soup. Rabbit is so tender and flavorful and the miso is not your regular bland miso.
2. The duck, each bite bursting with flavor and juiciness.
3. The chicken thigh, which is seasoned so well it feels like the flavor completely resides inside the meat.
4. The miso soup, which is prepared using a pretty interesting method. You’ll see it when it’s served!
Overall, every dish is pretty good and strikes a good balance between presentation and taste, which is what kaiseki tries to achieve.
Service is impeccable, and every minor detail is taken care of. They also do not accept tips, in accordance with Japanese tradition.
Anyways, if that’s the kind of experience you are looking to try, do it. You won’t regret it. If you are looking for just yakitori and want 50 skewers to yourself, go elsewhere hahaha.

We enjoyed the experience overall. There are very limited seats and I think they require reservations– $ 150 prefix menu only (10 courses– takes almost 3 hours to finish all). I find that they have way too many staff although they are all friendly and attentive.
The food wasn’t bad but wasn’t amazing either– see all in pics! You basically see how they plate your food, the seats are around the bar/​open kitchen area with the chef.
Would be a good date spot if you have the money to swag its intimate and you can enjoy a long dinner.

This place is without a doubt worth the cost. Based on the service, the food and atmosphere, the price point fits. Very authentic but the plating wasn’t as meticulous as I expected it to be. Due to the sake paring, I stopped paying attention to the plating, which I suggest you do as well ;)
The flavors of all the courses were extremely well balanced and thought through. I would compare it to a couple places in Hakone, JP — that’s how authentic the dishes are.
Do give yourself some time because this is a place where you can easily kill a few hours.
My favorite was the chicken meatballs. Those little balls of meat were delectable. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and the staff is very accommodating.
I’d love to visit again if they change up the menu.

I had read about Teisui opening about a month before it did, and as a big fan of Japanese food, I was stoked to see what looked like a delicious restaurant opening nearby. I ended up booking a reservation about a month after it opened, but perhaps if you book on OpenTable, you might not get a seat at the counter /​chef’s table — we ended up sitting at one of the few seats off to the side along the wall. That said, it’s still a nice atmosphere — high ceilings with old-​school incandescent bulbs and a bookshelf sandwiched in encased brick that gives it that typical trendy NYC feel. With low-​key EDM usually being the choice of music in the background, dinner had a very chill vibe to it. The drink menu is solid as well, with an extensive selection of sake in particular.
The menu here is simple — a 10-​course kaiseki tasting menu that comes in very reasonably priced (IMO) at $ 150, inclusive of gratuity. It’ll be interesting to see how much the menu changes with the seasons — or if they change it up at all — but at the very least, the base menu is fantastic. You start right off on a very decadent note — a chawanmushi topped with foie gras and uni, which is absolutely delicious and creamy. The egg custard has perfect flavor and consistency, but the cold piece of uni is a really nice contrast, and the creaminess is amplified by the fattiness of the foie. Next up was a plate with four different bites on it; I really liked the miso black cod — cooked to perfection, not overly marinated, and very flaky — as well as the kiritanpo, which was smashed rice cooked in a similar manner to yakitori. It was chewier than regular rice, almost like mochi, but it was crisped perfectly on the outside and had a light sweetness that worked really well against the overall savory flavor of the dish. We then moved into the meat dishes, starting with boiled (?) chicken that was served wrapped in hot broth in plastic wrap (!). The chicken was very tender and intensely flavored, and the mushrooms added a nice little bid of acidic flavor to what was a very savory dish. We then went on to the rabbit miso cappuccino, which honestly was probably my least favorite dish of the night. The rabbit itself was good (albeit it was a quite small portion), and I enjoyed the miso for the most part, but it definitely was a dish that seemed to lack the same kind of flavor that the rest of the meal brought. To close out the first half of the meal, we finished with tsukune — a fantastically delicious pair of chicken meatballs served on a skewer and dipped in a poached egg yolk. The presentation of the dish is fantastic — you have a very elegant metal skewer holding the meatballs in place, with the egg yolk fitting perfectly in a small divot next to it. With just the yolk, the intensity of the egg flavor is really noticeable when you dip the meatballs in it… definitely one of the highlights.
Before the next course, we had a palate cleanser — with ikura in it! Definitely one of the more interesting ones I have encountered, but the light flavor of it really helped reset the taste buds as we moved on to the meat-​heavy portion of the meal. The yakitori served with beets and an arugula-​wasabi sauce, with a dash of salt on the side, was excellent. The chicken is cooked with more care than most yakitori places, and the arugula-​wasabi sauce was perfect — the arugula being dominant, but with a creeping spice at the end as the wasabi makes itself known. This was followed by a delicious few bites of duck breast served in a hearty red wine sauce, as well as seasonal vegetables that were plated in an elegant fashion around the rim of the dish. The following plate was another yakitori skewer (this time with thigh meat — and again cooked perfectly), but it was served on top of couscous, little whirls of mashed potatoes (they looked like meringues) and lightly grilled eggplant. A bite of all together was exquisite. We finished up the main courses with a few pieces of sushi — it was okay (the flounder was good, while the singular tuna roll piece with uni and ikura was a bit too much in one bite), but I honestly thought this felt like a somewhat forced nod towards a popular Japanese cuisine. The grand finale is a giant cauldron (hyperbolic, perhaps) of miso soup. Rocks from Mt. Fuji are heated to 700 degrees and dropped right in, heating the soup to boiling temperature almost instantaneously. The soup itself is a huge quantity for two people, but it has really rich flavor, largely due to the copious amount of scallions. The pieces of king crab and snapper, though, had a very rich miso-​infused flavor in each bite. We finished up with an anmitsu — a very solid version, although it’s not the best I have had.
To end this lengthy review — I really enjoyed our dinner here. The food is classic Japanese but gently infused with Western sensibilities to create a very unique and absolutely delicious dining experience. Highly recommended, and I cannot wait to come back again!

Amazing food, service and décor. Waiter very knowledgeable about the wine and sake. Only one option which is the tasting menu. Only open for 4 weeks. Best dish was chicken thigh yakitori with buttery couscous. Hope to be back !!

The wine pairings are so on-​point and truly complement each dish in unique ways — I was gushing to the waiter & sommelier for half of the meal (both of whom were extremely friendly). I’m definitely going back & trying the sake pairing.
It’s a solid 3-​hr experience for the 10-​course tasting menu, which fyi is their only offering right now. Also crazy impressive that in their 3^rd week of service, they already have one of the best tasting menu experiences in NYC. Nailed it.

Teisui kaiseki — A wonderful flavor, texture, multi-​dimensional yakitori wonderland experience. All meat are juicy and tender throughout the meal, with different taste and texture combination revealing or more accurately put, surprising us with layers of delicate flavors. The service was also impeccable.
Tsutsumi-​Yaki (chicken tender with onions and mushrooms wrapped up in a plastic bag to keep the aroma!) brilliant idea to always wrap up anything mushroom — they just smell heavenly after cooked!
Rabbit meat — juicy, tender and little chewy. The taste of buttery thickness and foamy miso cappuccino balance each other in terms of salty savory and creaminess, which also add layers to the juicy rabbit meat.
Tori-​Mune Konsai!!! My favorite dish of the night. Amazingly juicy and tender chicken breast meat with two flavorful sauces — arugula plus wasabi cream, and red beet cream. The chicken breast is loyal to its original flavor — just lightly salted, which gave room for the two sauces to increase flavor complexity of spiciness, freshness, sourness in addition to the original sweetness. Amazing taste, amazing presentation — well done Teisui!
Kamo mushi-​yaki: duck breast, read wine and seasonal veggies.
Really really well-​cooked duck meat — meat is soft, juicy and tender. The sourness of red wine and fruity flavor from yuzu is very tasty, however a bit overwhelming that I can’t taste the original flavor of duck meat in this dish. But but, the residual taste is amazing! Light aroma from duck fat with a refreshing fruity/​winely note.
Tori-​mono with couscous:
(Chicken-​thighs, mashed potato, eggplant and couscous) — another favorite dish of the night! YUM! As the dinner proceeds to almost the end, we had a lot of state, flavor and texture wonderland exploration. Just like all the Hollywood blockbusters or best-​seller stories — here the peak of the night comes… time for something more incremental — right amount of carb from creamy mashed potato and couscous brings the satisfaction to a new level! Chicken meat is again tender, juicy and flavorful! It is flavored with soy sauce, but unlike most tariyaki place where the chicken meat is marinated with overwhelming sweet soy sauce, the flavor is well-​balanced between the soy sauce and the original chicken meat flavor.
Lastly, the dessert! Yuzu jelly, green bean, with honey milk ice cream — absolutely delicious!
Teisui demonstrates its unique deep understanding of yakitori and creativeness upon that understanding — all dishes are bold in expressing a new exploration of presentation, flavor, and taste! Good luck Teisui for the coming Michelin star of 2017 selection!

Whoever argues about the price is totally missing the point here — as one of the top notch Kaiseki places that just opened in NYC, Tuisei definitely was trying very hard to grow its popularity and I could see it through both the fresh ingredients and the flawless service.
Nothing to choose from on menu, as everything is fixed by the chef. Also service charge is already included in the charge. Came down at 150pp, I would still say it is quite a bargain.
Now switching to food — I’d say while the menu only contains ten courses (including the complementary one it will be eleven), every single dish demonstrates its unique characteristic. My personal favorites are — chicken thigh cooked with mushroom/​onion and wrapped in a plastic bag (so as to keep the aroma, smart move!), rabbit with miso cappuccino (wondering how they came up with this idea, so innovative!), duck breast (so tender and juicy, with a slight yuzu touch!). Of course, dessert would always be my favorite part and I deeply enjoyed my ice cream sugar cookie.
What I like the most about Teisui is its focus on detail and its creativity. Definitely one of the strong candidates for 2017 Michelin star!

Went with a friend who had been there before on a Wednesday night. I have had meals like this before at other restaurants in New York and Japan so I prepared myself to be overwhelmed with the amount of food. But what I experienced was the 10+ course meal was not overwhelming at all and I left completely satisfied. The service was similar to what I have experienced in Japan– meticulous preparation and well organized. The meal was Japanese but a lot of the ingredients were American so the food was a great combination of the two. It’s worth every penny!

No wonder this place is half empty! If you want yakitori, you are better off at Tori Shin or any of the Totto’s restaurant. This place will not survive in NYC!
Food was overpriced and mediocre at best and service is a JOKE!
Let me start with the service. We requested 4 seats at the bar and we were seated at the table even though bar seats were empty during our dinner. The hostess spilled our bottle of wine all over the table and me — although she did asked if i was ok, she ran back to the kitchen without apologizing, wiping the table or the glass. When we requested to speak to the manager, the hostess came back to apologize (but NO SIGN of the manager), After 5 min, we asked if the manager would ever come over and the waiter was confused and said he didnt think we wanted to speak with her. Not sure what part of «Can we please speak with the manager» doesnt he understand?
Half the time, our waiter forgot the name of the ingredients or didn’t know what was in a dish. This is a PRIX-​FIXE only restaurant, so you would think the waitstaff would memorize everything they need to know! For our palette cleanser, again he couldn’t remember the ingredients, so he told us it tastes like the ocean! GROSS! And yes he was right the Ikura was so fishy that it tasted like a dead fish in my mouth and i had to split it back out.
My friend had a piece of the rabbit and it was so chewy because it was a piece of fat. (There were only 2 small pieces in the dish). The waitress asked if my friend was ok with the dish and my friend said she got a piece of fat. To our surprise, the waitress gave a small laugh and walked away.
4 out of the 10 dishes were just chicken yakitori skewers with some sauce — and honestly you get better skewer at Tori Shin or Yakitori Totto for $ 4 than the $ 15 they are charging at Teisui.

Sat at the counter and had a wonderful, unique/​creative kaiseki (yakitori influenced) dinner tonight at this new, modern Japanese restaurant.
Only offer a reasonably priced 10-​course tasting menu (they added another course, so technically 11).
No a la carte menu, but they should add one. I really wanted to order more of their sushi.
Nice selection of wine by the glass. Enjoyed the Duval-​Leroy Cuvee Brut, Bailly-​Reverdy Sancerre (Loire) sauvignon blanc, and Davide Bentivegna (Sicilia) red.
Excellent service. Gratuity is included.
Another potential NYC addition to the 2016 Michelin list.
: A

As soon as you step into this establishment, you’re whisked away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan into a cozy peaceful restaurant that is modelled to look like an authentic traditional Japanese ryokan/​inn — from the decorations on the wall to the industrial bar style seating, you can tell that no expenses have been spared to immerse diners in a Japanese style atmosphere and experience.
Sticking with the Japanese theme, the restaurant keeps its menu simple and effective — monthly rotating prix-​fixe style 10 courses for $ 150 (tip included) and $ 90 for wine pairing and $ 95 for sake pairing. We opted for the wine pairing to go with our meal and our waiter introduced us to our friendly sommelier (who proved to be extremely knowledgeable) and explained how the tasting menu focuses on «yakitori» or skewered chicken and pointed to the charcoal grill in the open kitchen where the chef was preparing dishes for other patrons seated around the U-​shaped bar seating.
Shortly after, our first dish came out — this was actually an amuse-​bouche so it’s not on the menu picture I uploaded but it was a Chawanmushi topped with Uni (Japanese savoury steamed egg custard topped with sea urchin). My mum regularly makes steamed egg custard at home so I’ve had a lot of it growing up but this was better than any my mum had ever made — the egg was perfectly steamed and the sea urchin added a layer of complexity to the dish, whilst not overpowering the savoriness of the egg custard.
I won’t go through every dish (even though they were all spectacular), but rather my favorites —
Tsutsumi-​Yaki — this dish came thin plastic wrapping tied with a cute bow that the chef instructed us to pull in order to open up. Inside was a chicken and three mushroom stew that released an amazing aroma as soon as you untied the bow — the chicken itself was extremely tender and the enoki, shiitake and oyster mushrooms brought the dish together with their earthy profiles and varying textures.
Rabbit Miso Cappuccino — whilst having a peculiar name, this was explained as the dish came out — a bowl with a few pieces of rabbit meat inside and a small cup filled with frothy miso cream. We were instructed to pour the miso into the bowl and have it with the rabbit meat. This was the first time having rabbit meat and to me it tasted like chicken, albeit a bit more firm. The miso cream itself was delicious — our whole table scooped up as much of it as we could out of the bowl after finishing the meat and commented how we should have just drank it in the cup in instead!
Kumo Mushi-​Yaki — this was the most beautifully presented dish of the night and was equally as tasty — duck breast in a red wine sauce with seasonal vegetables. The duck was seasoned and cooked to perfection and surrounded by an assortment of vegetables decorating the plate in a wonderful manner. I mentioned the sommelier earlier and now might be a good time to bring her up — the wine pairing was spectacular with all dishes so far being complemented with wines that the sommelier had picked herself. The red that came with this dish was a Grolleau, Gamay and Cabernet blend that perfectly complemented the darker, gamy flavors of the duck.
Ishiyaki Teisui — the chef came over to explain this dish — Ishiyaki meaning grilling stone and Teisui being the name of the restaurant of course — this dish itself was a miso soup that the chef brought over in a big pot and proceeded to drop the grilling stone into, heating it up before our eyes and using a ladle to serve our portions. The miso soup had pieces of red snapper and king crab inside that balanced out the saltiness of the dish — perfect!
Overall I had an amazing experience at Teisui — the immersive décor, authentic food coupled with the delightful wines picked by the sommelier made this definitely a night to remember.
During my meal I counted 17 seats at the U-​shaped bar seating, I have a feeling that once the word spreads about how spectacular this place is, there will be a long waitlist to secure one of these coveted seat. Definitely come here and experience it before it gets too popular!

Had the tasting menu with wine pairing. Everything was spot on, especially the wine pairing! The food was also very tasty and the presentation was insane — very impressive. It is very good value, especially when you realize that gratuity is included. Small intimate space but very chic. Definitely a good date spot! Left feeling pleasantly full, just the right amount of food. Will be returning!

Whoa! We were shocked by this fantastic tasting menu experience.
A.) no dish was over spiced or over salted, you can taste and appreciate the presence of every single ingredient.
B.) wine pairings were 100% on point, EXTREMELY delicious and seriously enhanced every course beautifully!
C.) clean, effervescent flavors in every course.
D.) every course better than the last; texture, flavor and aroma. Impressed on all counts!
We will definitely be back

I had the pleasure of attending a 12 course tasting with wine pairing this past Saturday. The restaurant was very cozy and intimate. The staff was attentive and avaliable for any questions you had. The presentation of each dish was lovely with a detailed description. My favorite dishes were Hassan (king crab, kiritango, chicken burdock, & watercress), Sushi (blue fin, tuna, salmon, & uni), & Chicken Breast Root Souse (thigh meat, red beets, & argula sauce). And, kudos to sommelier. She did an amazing job with the pairing of the wines and champs. It was not traditional Japanese cuisine, but definitely worth the experience. I will definitely be going back once they are open to the public.

Great new place. Cool atmosphere and great menu