Sake No Hana. Discover Delicious Japanese Dining In New York

Anthea Gerrie Enjoys Japanese Fare Served With Theatrical Flair At Sake No Hana Beneath New York’s Moxy Lower East Side

Stepping from a yellow airport taxi into New York’s Sake No Hana is as full-on immersive as going straight from JFK to a Broadway show. Same assault of sound, light and mega-buzz on a nervous system recovering from eight hours in limbo, but in this case enriched by a treat for the tastebuds to complement the audio-visual feast.

Despite being quite a performance, Sake No Hana sits four miles south of the Great White Way on Bowery, Manhattan’s old Skid Row now regentrified where it heads from Nolita towards Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge. Access is via staircase descent from street level at the Moxy Lower East Side, a hub of hip hospitality in the most happening neighbourhood in town.

In order to keep my reservation in a huge, uber-glamorous dining room with those New York requisites, back-of-the-room banquettes booths from which to survey the action, gilded pillars and white marble tables reflecting back a modicum of light penetrating the dark, I descend straight into the buzzy restaurant packed to the hilt on a weeknight rather than queue to check into my hotel room first.

After the fluster caused by a delayed flight and even more delayed taxi ride thanks to gridlocked traffic caused by sinkholes at La Guardia, I need a drink. And what arrives at my host’s recommendation is not just any sake but a bottle of Hakuto Tokubetsu Junmai “Deep Faith”, star of the week in a guest sake rotation.

Maitre d’ Michael enthuses about the brave female brewmaster who with her husband and son continues to create it despite losing both the family home and part of the brewery to a 2024 earthquake. It’s the first of many intriguing stories Michael has to tell about what we are about to taste, including the unexpected salad which is the dish the chef most likes to make.

Sake No Hana has the theatrical feel of Zuma in London as well as a menu which goes beyond all the typical Japanese favourites but includes them – expertly-made sushi and sashimi are here as well as the finest wagyu – but also dishes Uptown Girls would appreciate, like the fabulous Kyoto spring vegetable salad which arrives first and might be my favourite dish.

It features all kinds of beans – broad, green, fresh edamame, all from the famous Union Square green market just up the road, topped with a dressing made from a heady blend of yuzu, miso, creme fraiche and aged Parmesan. Superfresh, crunchy with bubu arare rice puffs and surprising – just the kind of thing, along with the nourishing bowl of miso soup which follows hard on its heels, to revitalise the jet-lagged body and promote much-needed sleep down the line.

But first there are must-try dishes to be tasted, and like many top-end Japanese restaurants the raw fish selection contains not just one variety of tuna but three, including the buttery and incredibly delicious toro ($42 for the full flight). Of course there is my favourite Hamachi (yellowtail), and the always-welcome but less ubiquitous sea urchin ($21) along with the salmon, shrimp and eel I tend to skip in favour of the aforementioned. Naturally, most varieties come as sushi rolls – spicy tuna with avocado ($25) is a favourite – as well as pure nigiri with just the backdrop of a pearly rice bed, a big dollop of wasabi and mountains of palate-refreshing pickled ginger on the side.

For whatever reason, my companion feels compelled to order mushrooms ($19), and is rewarded with a heap of grilled shiitakes and the lesser-known maitakes, dressed with citrus kosho and mushroom soy). I had not intended to order meat at what was 3am UK time, but it was hard to resist a taste of the real thing when it comes to wagyu – sirloin imported from Niigata after being aged in an igloo and perfectly digestible in a thinly-sliced 4 oz portion ($85) – with beef this rich (A5, is the highest level of fat marbling designated by the Japanese government), a quarter-pound portion is really all you need.

As a restaurant appealing to a cosmopolitan clientele,Sake No Hana also serves Iberico pork ($24 for a portion of secreto) and the steak tartare and lamb chops which are not part of traditional Japanese offerings; there are also short ribs, chicken, lobster and the now-inevitable cauliflower, here served intriguingly as a green curry.

As a winner of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for the past three years in a row, Sake No Hana clearly has a list worth exploring, but I never get beyond my delicious bottle of sake, which I still find the best accompaniment to Japanese food, and they kindly heat the rest of the bottle for me to enjoy warm from a tiny ceramic cup.

I slept very well, dreaming of the sushi roll slices I was very glad to wake up up to, having had the presence of mind to ask for a doggie bag and get a mini fridge delivered to my room within 15 minutes of checking in and crashing out as soon as I had stashed my leftovers).