It was a cold winter evening in New York and it was dinner time. I bundled up and headed over to the Bryant Park Hotel. Inside this beautiful hotel is KOI, an upscale Japanese restaurant.
This place was packed because they are pretty popular. As always I had a reservation. You really can’t go anywhere in New York without one.
The great thing about KOI is all their dishes are small so they are ideal for sharing. This also allows for tasting more things. So first out was the Koi Crispy Rice. This was slices of rice that were deep fried to be crispy on the outside. Then it was topped with spicy tuna. The tuna was pureed until smooth. There was a little hint of spice in the tuna. They also included a slice of jalapeno on top of the tuna. This added some crunch and additional heat. The combination of the rice and tuna went really well together. They were bite size too so it made it easy to eat all at once.
The next dish was the seared tuna. The tender tuna was served on top of a seaweed salad. There was crispy garlic chips in the center of each slice of tuna. The garlic added crunch and extra flavor to the tuna. The dish was very light and not overly filing. It meant I still had room for more items.
The Kobe Style Potstickers were delicious. These potstickers were pan fried until they were crispy. They served a scallion Ponzu sauce for dipping. This was basically a sweet soy sauce. The flavor of the sauce went perfectly with the tender filling in the potsticker.
The Edamame Dumplings were unique. The tender dumplings were stuffed with mashed edamame. It created a smooth texture that was very creamy. The dumplings were placed in a mushroom Mirin broth. The mushrooms were chopped up to make them easier to eat. They tasted amazing in the very savory broth. I could have eaten these all by themselves.
The chef’s tempura selection was great. They offered up sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and onion. All of the vegetables were extremely fresh. There was great crispiness to the tempura batter. They served a sweet soy sauce that was great for dipping. The sweet potato was my favorite because it was soft and sweet. The green beans were my second favorite.
Finally the last item out was the grilled skirt steak. The steak was extremely tender. The flavor from the Shiso Chimichuri sauce was amazing. It had a savory, salty taste.
They served a side of ginger shitake fried rice. The rice was full of ginger flavor throughout. It was different from any other fried rice I have ever had.
KOI was an amazing restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious. I want to go back right away. Check them out at www.koirestaurant.com/new-york
Enjoy!
T
