Kaiseki Lite

"A multicourse tasting can be transcendent or it can, as I've written before, drown a chef's talents in too-muchness. I left one recent two-and-a-half hour meal feeling more depleted than restored. It wasn't just the time spent. These meals have become so voluptuously expensive - some of the city's top tasting menus and omakases now command $450 or more a seat before any of the add-ons - that the pain is no longer incidental; it's part of the essential flavor."

"I've been heartened lately to see a small counterprogram movement rise: the ancillary à la carte. First, Hirohisa, a Michelin-starred kaiseki on Thompson Street, switched its focus from full meals to choose-your-own adventures, recasting itself as Soba Ulala, where the pace, length, and selection of the meal is yours to decide, with much the same spate of daily specials and same attention paid. Then there is Hiroki Odo, whose namesake Odo serves a traditionally extravagant multi-dish kaiseki that's been praised as one of the city's great tasting menus and who opened Odo East Village as a kind of fine-dining izakaya with a menu reminiscent of the nine-course original but with the spirit of a jazzy Tokyo bar."

"The pressure's off; the food isn't. The space on East 5th Street, with coat pegs on the bare wall in place of bowing-and-scraping attendants whisking away every encumbrance, sets the tone. A friend who joined me recalled soaking the hangovers of youth here in bowls of"

Durational meals can carry their own gravity, with long seat time turning day into night and producing both transcendent experiences and exhaustion. Multicourse tasting can either elevate a chef’s talents or overwhelm them through too much food and time. Rising prices make the discomfort feel integral to the experience, with top menus and omakases often costing $450 or more per seat. A counterprogram movement favors ancillary à la carte formats that let diners choose pace, length, and dishes. Examples include a Michelin-starred kaiseki shifting to a choose-your-own soba experience and another chef opening a fine-dining izakaya-style option that keeps the spirit of the original while offering a more relaxed bar-like atmosphere. The dining space and service style reinforce this pressure-free approach.

Read at Grub Street