Where Colin Ate: Golden HOF, Sushi Ikumi, Nuyores, The Onion Tree Pizza Co.
Plus: a new live music venue and bar with some serious pedigree
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.
This week was a bit light, but I hit some great spots, including an Indian pizza joint, some highly anticipated new openings, and a restaurant that continues to elevate even with all its early success. Having the trifecta of Mixteca, Sip & Guzzle, and Dear Strangers all within a block of each other has also upped the West Village bar game quite a bit over the last few months. While I didn’t write about them below, if last week is any indication, they are also a pretty good bet on where to find me for a nightcap.
Colin
Bridges
📍 Chinatown
🍽️ French
I hadn’t been to Bridges since the wonderful pop-up they did with La Doyenne from Paris, and decided to roll over as an early evening walk-in last week. Chef Sam was fresh off vacation, filled with inspo, and it was all on full display with the new menu additions. My friend and I decided to order pretty light, but to try to check out as many of the new dishes as possible, and it turned out to be one of the best meals I have had here, which is already a super high bar. Dinner got off to a great start with the raw spot prawn toast. Two delicate spot prawns atop toast with a thin slice of plum, which added a nice bright note to the sweetness of the prawns. Next up was a really juicy Bonny melon topped with tête de cochon and coppa, a fun play on the classic. Cured tuna and dates continue to surprise me every time. It is such a perfectly balanced dish. This time, the spring onion really showed through and left a nice bite on the finish after the sweetness from the date subsided. After the tuna, we received the mackerel, which is always a favorite fish for me, but this prep was unlike any I had previously seen. Chef Sam said he got the idea from his recent travels and served the mackerel cut into bite-sized bits with cucumber and a green chile pickled relish that was offset by a bit of brown butter to dress the whole dish. It was a really fun bite. We also ordered the Instagram-famous Comte tart, now being served with perfectly ripe tomatoes that made it my favorite version of the dish yet. The final dish, however, may have been my favorite savory course of the night, a boudin noir-stuffed squid with green tomatoes. It all worked so well with the hearty boudin inside of a well-cooked squid, offering a nice chew, brightened up again with great tomatoes. Desserts were absolutely on fire this evening as well, with the really well-layered chocolate and hazelnut tart that gets a really nice texture from the hazelnut praline hidden between the crust and the chocolate. The dessert I couldn’t get enough of, though, was a melon sorbet topped with plum granita and figs. It hit all the right notes and is a dish I will be thinking about for a while.
The Onion Tree Pizza Co.
📍 East Village
🍽️ Pizza
The Onion Tree has been around for about a year now and has been on my list to try for about that long. Ever since I tried Pijja Palace, the Indian sports bar in LA a few years back, I had wondered when food like this was going to make it to NYC. The Onion Tree, while not being a sports bar, does serve a few traditional Indian dishes, but also serves them alongside pizza and bar food with Indian twists. The pizza in particular is really solid and served in two styles, either Romana or Napoletana, either classic or with Indian toppings. We started with a really good version of onion rings piled high that came with both a coconut and a green chutney for dipping. My favorite of the starters was the really delicious chicken wings, though. Massive wings coated in a spicy tamarind ginger sauce, they may now be my go-to wing order for any night home watching a game. Alongside the wings, I am still craving the paneer makhani pizza that we ordered Napoletana style and was fantastic, topped with tomatoes, paneer, cream, tadka, fenugreek leaves, and red onions. It all worked really well, and the dough was as good as that of many top pizza spots around, which cook this style. I would definitely come back for all three of these dishes and am interested in trying a few more pizza combos in the future.
Golden HOF
📍 Midtown
🍽️ Korean
The bat signal went up last week, and a crew of some of the best eaters I know decided to check out Golden HOF, the newish spot from Chef Sam Yoo of Golden Diner. The restaurant initially opened as part of a dual concept before recently switching it up and simplifying to Golden HOF, taking over the whole space. We were led to the downstairs area, which offers the full menu, complete with grill tables where you can cook the meat in front of you, just like a traditional K-Town BBQ. We started out with a small seafood tower, filled with oysters, clams, shrimp cocktail (dashi poached served with spicy chojang), a really good tuna tartare with shrimp crackers and my personal favorite, a half cold poached lobster tossed in spicy garlic aioli. A top-tier way to start any meal. After the tower, we received the corn cheese, a fairly traditional dish I have seen before, but this one almost reminded me a bit of Mexican elote, with the pickled jalapeño and cilantro. Buldak chicken and pork dumplings were another fun dish, in a spicy pepper sauce topped with a truffle pecorino. We split a burger for the table, which I will definitely be back for, topped with gochujang aioli and a scallion bun. It was a sneaky highlight of the dinner. Rose Rigatoni was a fun, chefed-up Korean spin on the spicy rig you see all over town and was a good version. Kimchi stew, along with japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) is always a must for me at all Korean BBQ spots. We also went with one of the “mixed sets” for meat that featured strip, picanha, pork belly, and short rib, all cooked right on the table and eaten immediately with rice, herbs, or with the house banchan. Since this was a “Golden” restaurant, we also finished with a small version of Golden Diner's honey butter pancakes for dessert. They were as good as ever.
Quick hits, Pop-ups & New openings
Sushi Ikumi: “Okonomi Night”
📍 Soho
🍽️ Sushi
I recently wrote about Sushi Ikumi, so I won’t get too deep here, but their “Okonomi Night” is one of the most fun sushi experiences I have had in a while. Okonomi, unlike omakase, lets the guest choose all of their nigiri, which feels like how sushi used to be served before the omakase craze. It really lets you curate the type of experience you want. I, for instance, don’t need four types of tuna, three uni, and salmon as part of my omakase and lean much more towards Hikarimono or silverfish. Ordering it this way was a ton of fun and allowed me to curate my perfect meal, doubling back on the things I really loved, and doing it at a really great sushi spot, which, to my knowledge, isn’t available anywhere else in the city. Sushi Ikumi offers this on the last Wednesday of every month, and while it is not necessarily a cheaper meal, it is definitely something unique and very worth checking out.
Nuyores
📍 West Village
🍽️ Peruvian
Nuyores is the brand-new Peruvian restaurant from Chef Oscar Lorenzzi (Contento) and wine expert Jonathan Charnay (Masa), which recently opened in the West Village. Their space holds a special spot in my personal NYC dining history as it is in the former home of Josh Dechellis’ Sumile on 13th St., where I had one of the first tasting menus that genuinely blew me away in the early aughts. The new restaurant pulls from Chef Lorenzzi’s personal background, having been born in Lima and working his way through some of the best kitchens in NYC over the years. I couldn’t have been more excited to check it out in its first week. I started with the causa tater tot. Causa, as explained to me, is a traditional dish that typically features a potato base topped with another salad (such as chicken, fish, etc.). For this version, the potato was served as a perfectly crispy hashbrown-like tater tot and topped with crab salad, avocado, and a quail egg. It was truly decadent and delicious. After this, the Chef sent out a ceviche, saying, “You can’t leave without trying a ceviche.” The delicate fish was topped with aji limo leche de tigre, corn, sweet potato crisps and onion. It was a beautiful ceviche and one of the best I have had in the city to date. The lobster rice was the next dish I tried, with large chunks of butter-poached lobster served over a really Chinese-tasting fried rice with peas and really brightened up with a mirasol aioli made from a fruity Mexican pepper. Making sure to get a little bit of lobster, rice, and that amazing aioli in each bite, I absolutely demolished this dish. I finished up with a plate of meaty lamb ribs, served with pickled pineapple and a celeriac slaw that cut the richness. I am very excited to watch this restaurant grow and to have another great addition to the neighborhood.
Birds
📍 Greenwich Village
🍽️ Bar/Music
Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to be invited to the new bar and music venue Birds by my friends Naama & Assaf from Lighthouse and Messy, as well as Steve Schneider from Sip & Guzzle. The space is very sexy and hidden on the west side of Downing St. The plan is to have great classic cocktails in a fun environment with incredible live music each night. It opens this week, and you will definitely see me there often.
Los Mariscos
📍 Chelsea
🍽️ Mexican
Last Saturday afternoon, I walked around a bit aimlessly, looking for a quick bite to eat, and eventually found myself at the criminally underrated Los Mariscos in Chelsea Market. While Los Tacos No. 1 gets all of the hype (deservedly so), people seem to sleep on how incredible Los Mariscos is. I popped in, ordered immediately, and sat down at the bar. I crushed an enchilada taco (spicy shrimp with cheese) and a ceviche especial, which is a tostada topped with shrimp, clams, scallops, and octopus. I add a bit of their cacahuates salsa to the ceviche for a bit of spice. Both are absolutely amazing. Pro tip: ask for a bit of their shrimp broth to sip on while you wait for your tacos. The mezcal selection is pretty fun and unexpected as well.