Ikigai | NYC

A not-for-profit tasting counter that's the kind of place where you notice the small details. This excerpt from a Conde Nast article: Ushered through an unremarkable below-ground door, we walked past a chef’s counter, and into a courtyard styled like a Japanese tearoom, complete with shoji screens and potted Japanese maple. Seated, we received a cold towel (one of the kindest acts on an NYC summer day) and a cup of rhododendron kombucha—followed by a course of pillowy milk bread. Ikigai isn’t afraid to do things a little differently. The owner Dan Soha is a first-time restaurant owner; the kaiseki tasting menu, courtesy of Rafal Maslankiewicz (ex-Masa and -Eleven Madison Park) carries Polish influences; and Ikigai will be run as a not-for-profit enterprise with any profits going to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, an organization that redistributes food waste to food-insecure communities. On the night we visited, Maslankiewicz’s menu included an okra risotto with sea beans and a quail-egg-in-a-hole topped by uni. But nowhere was the hybridization more evident, and less expected, than during dessert—a delicious knedle-mochi dumpling with raspberry and sour cream. The plating (and service) here is unfussy, so don’t come expecting lavishness—the price tag at $165 a head occupies a more sensible middle ground, too. Do expect a tight wine pairing; although you can go off-piste and get your bevvies à la carte. I was thrilled to see Yamilé on the menu, a delightful non-alcoholic sparkling rosé made in Copenhagen. Ikigai is the kind of place where you notice the small details: the cool indie playlist, the under-the-table shelf for your purse, and most of all, the calm energy that sits around you.