Shoji at 69 Leonard Receives Three Stars From Pete Wells | Eater NY

"I awarded this 12-seat Tribeca sushi and kaiseki restaurant three stars, and there should be no empty seats, no matter how many New Yorkers are off lolling at the beach. Derek Wilcox—who cooked for seven years at Kikunoi in Kyoto and then at a sushi parlor in Tokyo’s Ginza—started as a pop-up here and was kept on permanently by owner Idan Elkon in June; he has put the restaurant in the top tier of the city’s Japanese restaurants. His kaiseki tasting follows the rhythm and seasonality of the form: an opening of lengths of chilled eggplant that looked like short, thick noodles, given a cool bath in the light sauce for somen and laid over two tongues of bafun sea urchin the color of a nearly ripe persimmon, a dish that shooed away the heat and introduced the summer urchin harvest theme; an eel scorched on one side with a lick of wasabi and puréed salt-cured plums thinned with dashi; sashimi; and takiawase, a plate of simmered vegetables — and seafood that included what I called the most flavorful piece of octopus I have ever put in my mouth. In addition to kaiseki there’s a significant sushi menu, and I’m not sure any competitor outflanks Shoji on the quality of seafood it serves or the timeliness with which it serves the specimens most worth tracking down. Tasting menus range from $190 to $295 with service included, and there’s a list of beers, wines, sakes, shochus and Haitian rums." - Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya