Penny — Restaurant in New York

Saw this only bar high-top sitting seafood restaurant recommendation from the 10 best restaurants in NYC (from NY Times) recently and brought my mom here with me. I heard this is from the same team of Claud, which I have not yet tasted. Frankly, the expectation is high.

Appetizer Ice box The box with two shrimp, two oysters, two clams, two mussels, and one scallop, paired with cocktail sauce, garlic mayo, and garlic citrusy sauce (maybe with vinegar?)

The shrimps are very sweet and almost creamy. The oysters and mussel both have distinct yet delicious tastes. I do not like the clams, which have the strongest fishiness. The scallop was cubed and drenched in olive oil and sprinkled with the cheese, sweet and yummy.

Sesame brioche and butter Cloudy soft brioche bread with melt-in-the-mouth sweet and buttery interior and salty and savory crispy exterior with sesame and salt. The butter is also sprinkled with salt, not whipped, but super smooth and the origin is Kerrygold (yes I asked). You know the brand, spreads well even when cold, cheesy, silky, dense and creamy. I highly recommend this combo. I skipped the anchovies: I have enough salt from the brioche crust, and from the butter.

Octopus and Potato Salad Old-fashioned potato salad with caramelized onion spiced mayo and topped with grilled octopus to perfection. Cubed potatoes added texture and the octopus is seasoned well with paprika/cayenne and maybe chipotle.

The Stuffed Squid Squid stuffed with sausage and veggie, grilled and then bathed in cumin, chipotle/pariaka, olive oil mixture. A bit underwhelming in taste combo as the best seller but I can why it sells.

Entree Striped Bass and Chicories Seared bass paired with berries, caramelized pearl onions, fried banquette croutons, and chicroies tossed in sherry vinegar/vinaigrette (all guessing, don’t quote). Surprisingly good fish with tender and flask flesh and SUPER CRISPY SKIN. The pieces of pearl onions are tender and soft to go with the chicories. The chicories with dressing is sweet and a bit bitter yet paired well with savory crunchy croutons and sweet dried berries (not sure what berries). The restaurant did learn from the previous reviews I believe, as the old trout that went away didn’t have the skin on and NO FISH IS GOOD WITHOUT A CRISPY SKIN.

Dessert Ice cream sandwich In between two slices of the salty savory sesame brioche are a layer of tangy fruit (apricot?) jam, a big scope elastic and thick vanilla ice cream on top of a layer of brown apple butter. Very complicated and savory dessert, as the cloudy soft bread and the jam are pushing the levels of the saltiness and tartness. The creamy yet solidish ice cream and the cold butter counter balance the notes and the texture well. Very cute display and is satisfying to finish the meal without being too overwhelming sweet lingering.

It is a typical downtown Manhattan priced Manhattan level food. Portions are small, flavors are big and bold, check is wallet-unfriendly. Good for date or for special occasions. Recommend 5-7 dishes for two people. Chefs and waitresses and hosts were super helpful and friendly. Great...

I get the hype. Food comes in small sizes but packs a powerful punch of flavors.

Everything is extremely fresh, the flavors are well balanced. Simple but sophisticated. We tried the small ice box with dressed razor clams as an addition. The scallop and the cocktail shrimp were unbelievable. Watching one of the sous-chefs very diligently placing anchovies on the butter that came with brioche was fascinating, it was almost as if he was creating an art piece. You can tell that people that work there take joy in what they do. We were even given a small tour of their dry-age fridge, the same anchovy chef’s eyes were glowing when he was proudly displaying the different fish that were in the fridge including a 60 pound tuna that was just delivered.

Anyhow back to the food. We finished our dinner with stuffed squid, swordfish and chocolate mousse. Stuffed squid is smaller than it looks in the photos, but had unbelievable flavors thanks to the harissa dressing that gave it earthy and a bit spicy flavor. The swordfish was an umami explosion in your mouth hole. So juicy and tender that it almost could have been a Chilean sea bass. The chocolate mousse was a perfect ending to our dinner- not overly sweet and perfectly dense.

Special thanks to Michael for being so hospitable. Can’t wait to go back and try other things on the menu, including their lobster that was sold out by the time we...

Absolutely incredible food and service! The wine menu is also top notch.

The ice box is a must to start and IMO worth the $39 price tag. The quality of their sourced fresh seafood is wild and I’ve never had shrimp as good as I’ve eaten here - which is saying a lot because I don’t even like cocktail shrimp. Might’ve even been one of my favorite bites of the whole night.

Getting the brioche loaf is also a must, if even just using it to soak up sauces from other dishes. Delicious.

If the carrot salad is on the menu, get it. This was probably my favorite overall dish. Incredible flavors.

I really wanted to like the stuffed squid and striped bass, but they just weren’t as strong as the appetizers. Still good, just not great like the others.

Wrap up the meal with their ice cream sandwich. The jam paired with it was great.

As others have mentioned, definitely a pricey meal, about $150 pp including tip, but you know what they say about seafood - “Good seafood is not cheap, and cheap seafood is not good.”

And this seafood is verrrrrry good. Worth it.

Oh - and in terms of getting a reservation, it’s just one long counter, so no real tables. I’d recommend just doing a walk in, putting your name in, and a getting a drink nearby to wait it out. We walked up around 6:45pm on a Thursday and only waited 30-45 mins at a bar two blocks away, and sat for dinner...