The durational murals will all the time have its day. Jeanne Dielman. Lonesome Dove. Ponderously weighty, they carry their very own gravity. The eating universe isn’t any exception. I have spent hours upon hours soldered to my chair on the benevolent mercy of the Nice Man (usually an precise man, although not solely) feeding me at Vital Size. Day turns to nighttime; night time turns to nighter night time. A few of the most astonishing meals of my privileged life have transpired this fashion. So have lots at which my ass fell asleep and I longed to hitch it.
A multicourse tasting might be transcendent or it might probably, as I’ve written earlier than, drown a chef’s abilities in too-muchness. I left one latest two-and-a-half hour meal feeling extra depleted than restored. It wasn’t simply the time spent. These meals have change into so voluptuously costly — a number of the metropolis’s high tasting menus and omakases now command $450 or extra a seat earlier than any of the add-ons — that the ache is not incidental; it’s a part of the important taste.
I’ve been heartened currently to see a small counterprogram motion rise: the ancillary à la carte. First, Hirohisa, a Michelin-starred kaiseki on Thompson Road, switched its focus from full meals to choose-your-own adventures, recasting itself as Soba Ulala, the place the tempo, size, and number of the meal is yours to determine, with a lot the identical spate of every day specials and identical consideration paid. Then there may be Hiroki Odo, whose namesake Odo serves a historically extravagant multi-dish kaiseki that’s been praised as one of many metropolis’s nice tasting menus and who opened Odo East Village as a type of fine-dining izakaya with a menu paying homage to the nine-course authentic however with the spirit of a jazzy Tokyo bar.
The stress’s off; the meals isn’t. The house on East fifth Road, with coat pegs on the naked wall instead of bowing-and-scraping attendants whisking away each encumbrance, units the tone. A pal who joined me recalled soaking the hangovers of youth right here in bowls of the previous Minca Ramen Manufacturing unit’s Tokyo tsukemen. Now, with the reasonably larger knowledge of age, we sipped shochu highballs, their carbonated sizzle sweetened with skinny slices of kumquat, and welcomed complimentary tiny cups of rice porridge with seaweed, ginger, and a fried tangle of child sardines.
The menu places a robust emphasis on a extremely seasonal, always-rotating number of seafood. Hugo Yu.
The menu places a robust emphasis on a extremely seasonal, always-rotating number of seafood. Hugo Yu.
The menu folds out like a map to observe, charting a path from sakizuke (starters, named for his or her cozy complementarity to sake) to mukozuke (sashimi) and wanmono (soups), by means of to yakimono (grilled dishes), agemono (fried), and takiawase (simmered), however the precise choices are so depending on the seasonally accessible fish that it’s extra a class information than the rest. For specifics, a small firm of three or 4 servers descend to clarify that tonight’s owan — a golden-brothed soup served in particular person lidded bowls for slurping — comes with fried bream or fried amberjack or that tonight’s grilled fish is Boston mackerel with miso. There’s invariably uni, flown in from Hokkaido, and the season’s new asparagus for those who’re fortunate.
Nearly all the cooking is completed by one silent, chinstrap-bearded chef (Odo’s deputy, Koji Toyoda) on a single creaky fuel burner and a stupendous copper-topped charcoal grill. Elements might be humble, like shirauo — illustratively known as icefish in English — small and scraggly and a contented pairing with a bottle of beer when dusted with bottarga in a deep-fried pile. That’s ok for me. Dishes begin at $9 (just a few miso-charged dominoes of cream cheese or some dashi-marinated tomatoes), and a lot of the menu stays under $20 (I noticed two dishes marked MP — “market worth”). I by no means discovered that I missed the hifalutin, a rigor that may shade in a short time into mortis. There was A5 Wagyu steak to order for anybody who wished it — grilled uncommon, the flame of the binchotan charcoal nurtured with a handheld reed fan — and furry crab served with golden vinegar jelly and shiso flowers. However there was simply as a lot to understand, with out the pomp and circumstance, in a stewed little bit of tongue, braised in miso and purple wine. A bowl of rice with soft-set scrambled egg. Barely churned ice cream, nearer to chilly cream, delicately flavored with hojicha and studded with walnuts. Even with a prolonged order, drinks, tip, and a little bit of the Wagyu, I nonetheless left one dinner for 2 at about half of what I might’ve spent at Odo’s full tasting uptown.
Little question I’ll be again to the opera-length kaiseki when the drama of event requires it. However not most nights: I discovered a brighter spark on this disarticulated model. In some unspecified time in the future throughout my meals, the jazz soundtrack gave technique to a Nina Simone music, the good medley from Hair that Simone made her personal within the late ’60s, a thumb within the eye of the haves and a celebration of the free-to-be pleasures of the have-nots. “Ain’t acquired no cash,” she rumbles. “Ain’t acquired no class.” Who wants it? Huge end: “I’ve acquired life! ”
Scratchpad
Odo East Village
Good for GF
With none actual compromise — and the way usually can I say that? — all the menu is gluten free.
Like It? Purchase It.
Chef Odo additionally runs Odo at Residence, promoting a lot of the identical tableware used on the restaurant.
Drink Up
I want there have been beer on draft, however I’ve no complaints about Odo’s fastidiously curated sake checklist.
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In the event you choose to learn in print, you may also discover this text within the Could 18, 2026, concern of
New York Journal.
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In the event you choose to learn in print, you may also discover this text within the Could 18, 2026, concern of
New York Journal.
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