odo New York

Visited in February 2025
Lunch
Rating: Two Michelin Macarons

My trip to the USA ended culinary with a visit to the Kaiseki restaurant odo.
Kaiseki Ryori (懐石料理) is a traditional multi-course Japanese dining experience with each course defined by a particular cooking method, using seasonal ingredients to create delicate balance of texture, taste, and visuals.
Two seatings are offered here at lunchtime, one at 12 noon and the other at 1:45 pm.
When you enter the location, you first walk through a somewhat dark bar area and then through a very dark corridor, where they take your jacket. The actual restaurant is then a kitchen-counter area made of light-colored wood, where 12 guests can be seated. A menu neither can be viewed in advance on the website nor is available afterwards.
In addition to the usual water, I ordered a Yuzu Breeze mocktail made with yuzu, honey, soda water and mint. It tasted excellent and was obviously homemade, as it contained real yuzu zest.

I had also announced that I would like a glass of sake later in the menu. But they didn’t come back to that.
Right at the beginning, I was able to observe how wooden crates were being handled, in which sea urchins from Hokkaido are usually delivered.

The starter set a very high level, with sea urchin and caviar as ingredients. A rectangular preparation of tofu, which had a pudding-like consistency, was accompanied by a gel-like dashi broth and yuzu abrasion. The combination tasted excellent.

A doughy piece made from glutinous rice was served alongside mushrooms and baby spring onions in a beautifully mild white miso soup.

Thin grilled slices of Wagyu, A4 quality, with Sancho pepper as the only spice had deep fried tofu chips and a very excellent salad of lotus root, cucumber, little carrot julienne, crushed peanuts and shiso flowers to accompany. The meat was fantastic, both in terms of quality and preparation.

Sticky rice, seaweed, pickled ginger, wasabi, shiso, chutoro (medium-fat tuna), madai (red seabream) and ikura (salmon roe)
Very nice combination of rice, vegetarian ingredients of different flavors (salty, sour, spicy, fresh, earthy, umami) and textures (crispy, soft, crunchy, grainy, creamy) and two different pieces of very good quality fish.

At the end of a Japanese menu of this type, a filling course is usually served, with noodles or rice as the main component. Here, homemade soba noodles in dashi and a kind of shabu- shabu made from high-quality Wagyu meat have been combined in this cold dish with micro shiso, chives, radish sprouts and a Japanese version of bottarga.

Milk ice cream, a scoop of chestnut puree, meringue, some cookies as a base, matcha powder and a tuile made up the final dessert. This was served with smoked hot tea.

Summary

High-level ingredients were prepared by applying traditional Japanese cooking techniques. This was different from the usual Japanese meals that are typically arranged around a sashimi or sushi core. These 6 courses in part combined preparations that I knew before, e.g. the shabu shabu type of meat with the soba noodles. Everything tasted well and for me, the restaurant is worth a return visit.

Website of the restaurant: odo