When my friend mentioned that there’s an ultra exclusive Japanese bar / restaurant in NoHo called Bohemian, I was immediately intrigued.  What do they serve? Why would anyone not want their establishment to be full of patrons?  As it turns out, there is an appeal to knowing a place that isn’t known by most people like some other places around the area, inundated with tourists or loud college kids (woo hoo NYU!).  Anyway, my friend scored a reservation (he got the phone number through a friend who has eaten there as well) and I was excited to see what makes this place tick.

We took a look at the menu and decided to get their tasting course plus a few other dishes to try out the highlights (according to FourSquare).

Farmer’s Fresh Vegetable Fondue was beautiful and a great appetizer to whet your appetite.  Personally, I can probably eat these vegetables without any dip, but what they provided was a nice thousand island-like sauce to go with it.

Pictured above is the uni croquette which was creamy and had a great umami flavor.  Enjoyable and easy to eat in a few bites.

We also started with a plate of Herve Katz’s Assorted Cold Cuts which were good, but nothing particularly memorable for me. However, I am generally not falling off my chair for cold cuts anyway so take my comment with a grain of salt.

Who can resist having Washu-Beef Short Rib Sashimi? The melt-in-your-mouth feeling in the beef was there, and all of us wharfed this down pretty quickly.

A cast-iron pan is brought to our table loaded with vegetables and with a Pan Roasted Branzini. The vegetables around it were nicely cooked and soft though a bit salty. The branzini was flaky and worked well with the vegetables when eaten together (since the fish itself had a mild flavor).

Here is the Wagyu Beef Mini Burger, which was definitely mini. In terms of flavor and other important aspects of a burger anyone cares about, I wasn’t particularly impressed…we do have a lot of good burgers in NY so it is hard to say this was particularly unique (even with the wagyu beef).

The Ikura Caviar Rice Bowl was tiny and simple – caviar with rice.

Their soba was a bit too salty for my taste, but was still good. I always enjoy noodles so it was nice to end the meal this way.

My conclusion – It’s nice to go to a place where there aren’t loads of people waiting for a table or has the noise level of a club. The food wasn’t memorable, but I would say it’s a great place for drinks. It’s also a good place to catch up with someone or even have a date. Their decor is interesting and looks like they have these pieces of art around, which makes it have more character. All in all, I had a good time but not sure if I would want to go back for dinner but probably for drinks.

Bohemian
Great Jones Street
New York, NY
Phone number unknown