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Dieci – Excellent Japanese Style Italian Food

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Dieci is a restaurant in the East Village serving Japanese style Italian.  Often times when one culture tries to adapt another culture’s cuisine to its own taste, the results are a disaster.  However, Japan has been able to take other cuisines and create something is different yet still good.  In particular, Japan is known for its French, Italian and Chinese cuisines.  In fact, Japan has Michelin star restaurants in such cuisines.  Dieci gives you a flavor for what this type of cuisine is.

The restaurant is a small room in the basement level.  It’s intimate and the type of place you would bring a date.  The service is always excellent and it’s an enjoyable place to have dinner.

Zuke Tuna Salad

This is sliced tuna with squash, snap pea and greens in a truffle soy dressing.  The tuna and vegetables are good quality, but the dressing was a bit too sweet.  It’s an alright dish, but I thought was a bit of an odd choice to put on the menu and didn’t really stand out. 7.5/10

Potato Gratin

This is small baked potato topped with uni.  This sounds awesome although I found that the uni and potato didn’t really do much for each other.  It’s well cooked, but it ends up just tasting like a creamy potato. 7.75/10

Chawanmushi

Chawanmushi is a savory Japanese egg custard that I grew up eating.  However, the chawanmushi at Dieci is far more decadent than what I grew up eating.  It has foie gras pureed into it, which gives it a much richer flavor.  It’s topped with mushrooms, chives and savory broth.  This is one of my favorite dishes here and I highly recommend ordering it. 8.5/10

Uni Egg Scramble

This is scrambled egg topped with uni and sturgeon caviar in a savory broth.  This is another dish I really like here.  The creaminess of the uni, saltiness of the caviar, the savory broth and egg really pair well together.  This is a great dish. 8.5/10

Brussel Sprouts

This is roasted brussel sprouts topped with parmesan, miso and walnuts.  It’s a pretty decent dish although I wouldn’t say it stands out. 7.75/10

Fluke Sashimi

This is fluke sashimi in a yuzu pepper and ceviche sauce.  This dish works better than the zuke tuna salad.  The sauce is not overpowering and goes well with the fluke.  8/10

Tagliolini

This is squid ink tagliolini with calamari in a tomato sauce.  The tagliolini is has great texture and is perfectly al dente.  The tomato sauce compliments the tagliolini and calamari perfectly.  This is another dish that I really enjoy at Dieci.  8.5/10

Ramen

This is ramen noodles in a spicy lamb bolognese sauce.  The noodles are al dente and bolognese sauce is hearty and goes well with the ramen.  8/10

Fettuccine

This is fettuccine with sea urchin and calamari in a creamy sauce.  The pasta, uni and calamari are good.  However, I found the sauce a bit lacking in flavor.  If the sauce was a bit more flavorful this dish could be a winner. 7.75/10

Filet Mignon Steak

This is a filet mignon steak topped with a truffle soy reduction and mushroom couscous.  The steak is excellent and the sauce pairs perfectly with it.  The mushroom couscous is a nice side dish to go with the steak. 8.25/10

Japanese Red Snapper Chazuke

Chazuke is a simple Japanese dish that I also grew up eating which is simply rice with tea poured over it and topped with seasoning.  This is a more refined version with seared red snapper on top of grilled vegetable rice ball with hoji tea soup poured over it.  The fish was perfectly cooked and went well with the rice and broth.  This was a nice dish.  8/10

Chocolate Soufflé

This was a special.  It was a chocolate soufflé with earl grey ice cream.  The dessert is pretty self-explanatory and was really good.  If they happen to have this, definitely order it. 8.25/10

Overall, while not every dish is a hit, the dishes that are good are excellent and it’s become one of the restaurants that I regularly go to.  I highly recommend checking it out.

Address:
228 E 10th Street
New York, NY 1003
(212) 387-9545
Dieciny.com

Curry Ya – A Japanese Curry Specialist Worth Checking Out In The East Village

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Japanese curry is a homey and very satisfying meal for me.  It reminds me of growing up as it was one of those things that I thought was so good when I younger.  While curry is probably most associated with Indian cuisine, it is very popular in Japan.  Curry Ya specializes in Japanese style curry, which is a mild brown curry usually served with a meat, white rice and pickled daikon.

The restaurant is a thin space with only counter space seating enough for maybe 12 people.  Because the restaurant is so small, there can be waits at peak times particularly on the weekends.

Condiments

Condiments are on the counter in front of each seat and consist of red pickled radish, pickled onions and toasted garlic.  I highly recommend using all of the condiments as they go great with curry.

Berkshire Pork Katsu Curry

This was a deep fried pork cutlet with curry and rice.  The batter was crispy and not oily although not quite as light as a really good version.  The meat was nicely tender and decent quality.  Overall, the pork cutlet itself was pretty good although not amazing.  The curry is flavorful and quite good, definitely better than most other places in NY.  8/10

Dry Curry

This curry has ground beef with chopped onions, carrots, celery, raisins, a hard-boiled egg and fried onions.  The first picture has a deep fried croquette made of mashed potato and ground beef.  The second and third pictures have a mini Berkshire pork katsu.  The croquette was good and goes well with the dry curry.  The dry curry is much thicker than the normal curry.  It’s more heavily spiced with a stronger curry flavor than the regular curry.  This is a nice change from the normal curry and tastes great with rice.  8/10

Homemade Hamburger Steak Curry

This is hamburger with curry.  I like hamburger, but I generally prefer a fried item with curry, so while this is pretty good, I prefer the fried items and curry.  7.75/10

Baked Hamburger Curry

This curry rice baked in the oven in a cast iron skillet with cheese.  You can change any of the dishes on the menu to the baked curry.  While I generally prefer fried items with curry, we got the hamburger since this curry is heavier and we thought a fried item might be too heavy for this.  This curry is heavier because of the cheese, but I found this really delicious and probably the best dish at Curry Ya.  8.25/10

I enjoy eating at Curry Ya and I eat here regularly.  If you like Japanese curry then I’d definitely recommend trying it out as it’s the best version I’ve had in NY.

Address:
214 E 10th St
New York, NY 10003
(866) 602-8779
nycurry-ya.com