22-07-2025
Teakwood Thai Chophouse Doesn't Skip the Seafood
Opening
Yes, there are steaks, including a bone-in rib-eye and a New York strip, both with Thai seasonings. But the chophouse concept here by David Bank, the chef from Pure Thai Cookhouse and Land, with Bobby Chaemchaeng at the stove, is as much about seafood as it is about meat. The steaks (and also roasted halibut, fried whole fluke, fried pompano and roasted chiles with squid) can follow starters like crabmeat spring rolls, grilled squid and crispy smelts with Thai herbs. Inevitably there's pad Thai (with shrimp). Desserts include a roasted pineapple with mixed berry clafoutis. The room is done with marble, some taxidermy and a whimsical ceiling showing colorful fish in a dark sea.
345 Greenwich Street (Harrison Street),
In case you were wondering, 1986 is the birth year of Victor Delgado, who founded this Southern California chain of Tijuana-inspired taquerias in 2018, with Jorge Alvarez-Tostado. They're now opening in the West Village with a standing-room-only spot that will soon share space with Mixteca, an agave bar conceived by Jeff Bell of PDT and run by Victor Lopez of PDT. A plush downstairs lounge opening later will make three. Choices at the taqueria also include quesadillas, mulitas, vampiros and perrones, in combos or à la carte. (Thursday)
1 Cornelia Street (West Fourth Street),
When Covid hit, Marco Moreira merged his sushi bar into his adjacent Tocqueville restaurant; they closed, then reopened as 15 East at Tocqueville. The former sushi bar space now has a new owner, Jay Lim, who is calling it Fifteen East. He has installed Tasuku Murakami, who was at Sushi Azabu and the Lobster Club, as the chef in charge of this omakase (16 courses, $235). His specialty is using sake kasu, the lees from making sake, in the preparation, a centuries-old technique said to predate vinegar to marinate the fish. Most of the seafood he uses is imported from Japan, and cocktails also deploy sake kasu. An eight-seat liquor bar with an à la carte menu is part of the setup.
15 East 15th Street, 646-889-0018,
This grander, more elaborate restaurant is built on the foundation established over the past two years by the chef Salvo Lo Castro's string of Italian coffee shops. A dramatic entrance with an onyx bar, framed with lemon and olive trees, defines the dining room. The Sicilian chef's deep experience in Italy informs a menu of classics like truffled beef carpaccio, paccheri pasta with guanciale and pistachios, sole with mint, tomatoes and olives, and osso buco. His arrival in the United States in 2022 inspired his dessert of apple pie with ice cream. There's a small balcony where Aperol spritzes are served.
195 Spring Street (Sullivan Street), 212-334-1013,
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