Executive Chef Yuu Shimano’s namesake Restaurant Yuu was recently awarded one-Michelin Star, six-months into its first year. The restaurant is celebrating its first anniversary by launching new spring and vegetarian tasting menus. The French 15-course omakase experience embodies the Japanese principle of omotenashi, or mindful service, rooted in selflessness and sincerity. It forgoes stuffiness to create a dining experience that is more casual and fun, than rigid.
Chef Yuu’s path is a blend of art and culture, shaped by his upbringing in Japan, which is rich in culinary tradition. He also immersed himself in classic French gastronomy while cooking at top French restaurants, which defined his culinary style. At Restaurant Yuu, each dish is a narrative of his experiences across Japan, France, and New York.
Guests are seated at a beautiful L-shaped 18-seat tasting counter; a carefully curated collection of classical and jazz music plays in the background as the curtain rises on Chef Yuu and his all-star culinary team, including Executive Chef Shuji Furukawa (formerly Executive Chef of The Gallery by Odo); Chef de Cuisine Simon Ek (former Chef de Cuisine of Aquavit); and Executive Pastry Chef Masaki Takahashi (two-Michelin-starred Narisawa in Tokyo) working in unison to plate the first course, adding an air of theatrics.
Beyond the counter is an open kitchen with state-of-the-art equipment featuring a custom-made Molteni oven, a Binchotan charcoal grill, a dedicated pastry station with a pie maker, and baking ovens for Chef Yuu’s signature Duck en Croute.
The new spring menu embraces the season’s best produce and locally sourced fish. The experience begins with an amuse bouche that features five small bites; standouts are Mussel, shiso leaf tempura, pickled fennel, and mussel ume gelee, a small bite of heaven, and Foie Gras mousse, whiskey, honey crisp apple, and red miso.
Following course standouts are the smoked Surf Clam (Aoyagi), mixed with salt-baked celeriac, fava beans, and green beans finished on the Binchotan charcoal grill and dressed in caviar, chives, surf clam foam and garnished with lime zest; sliced diver Scallop, with mignonette gelée and radish, served carpaccio style; Oyster with sugar snow pea; and Abalone Risotto, abalone braised with kombu dashi, tsuyahime rice cooked in the abalone braising juice with abalone liver and bamboo shoots for texture. It is served with a nori rice crisp with Hokkaido Uni sprinkled with nori powder. The chef recommends starting with the risotto and taking a bite of the crisp in between for this dish.
Note: at this point of the menu tasting, guests are asked by the server or one of the chefs if they would like to adjust their portion sizes depending on their appetite.
Choice of charcoal grilled Sawara with fish consommé, okra, kombu and nori butter, mandarin oil dusted with a citrus zest or Arctic Char with trout roe, white asparagus and crème fraiche.
The following course offers a choice of Salt-Crusted Lamb, baked in salt crust with mint and lemongrass served with broccoli puree, miso marinated zucchini with clam jus and bearnaise sauce or Squab Ballotine wrapped in foie gras, pistachio, innards, and cabbage wrapped in squab skin.
The only constant is Chef Yuu’s signature Duck en Croute, the show’s star. It begins with a Hudson Valley-sourced duck that is dry-aged in-house for four weeks, then fire-roasted and layered with a paste made of minced duck leg, mushrooms, and onion, topped with foie gras, then wrapped in spinach. Executive Pastry Chef Masaki creates an ultra-thin pie shell daily with a unique design that changes with every service. It is then baked and sliced into equal portions for each diner and served with a fond de veau made of duck stock, foie gras, black pepper, and cognac.
Executive Pastry Chef Masaki’s hyper-seasonal desserts: Mojito, served in a cocktail coupe, with white rum and lime jelly beneath its mint three ways: espuma, mint sorbet, and mint oil, finished with tonic water foam and Sakura, a spherical meringue filled with Sakura sauce, champagne rosé gelee and sorbet, topped with wild strawberries and sprinkled with dehydrated Sakura to resemble the cherry blossom petals falling from the trees.
Guests are then escorted to the parlor area to complete the experience with Chef Masaki’s eye-catching mignardise creations accompanied by tea, coffee, or digestifs personally recommended by the staff.
Vegetarian Menu:
Chef Yuu has also launched a 14-course vegetarian tasting menu. Highlights from the amuse bouche are Radicchio tartlet topped with mushroom, walnut puree, and Mimolette cheese and Daikon, sunchoke and apricot. Onto the more significant portions, Sugar Snow Pea, served in a beautiful donut-shaped dish with Nama Yuba; White Asparagus, imported from Provence, France, is battered with freshly house-made panko, then fried, and drizzled with cara cara orange and Pedro Ximenez white port sauce; Red pepper, stuffed with lentils, Kanzuri paste and Coriander seeds; fresh baked Brioche with freshly turned nori butter is exceptional; Vol-Au-Vent, porcini and morel mushrooms and espresso sauce.
The dessert courses are the same as the standard tasting menu and features: Mojito, Sakura and mignardise.
Additional Notes for Editors:
Chef Yuu trained at Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, Japan, and Lyon, France, graduating in 2002. He spent the first 12 years of his career in France, beginning at the two-Michelin-starred La Villa des Lys at the Hotel Majestic in Cannes before becoming the Chef de Partie of Meats and Sauces at three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris. In 2017, he was tapped by Tokyo Restaurant Factory to open MIFUNE New York, where he served as Executive Chef for five years and garnered a Michelin plate.
General Manager-Sommelier Akio Matsumoto (three-Michelin-starred L’Effervesence in Tokyo)’s Wine and Sake Program, offers a combination of traditional wines by legacy producers and a vast selection of more progressive wines from small producers and growers. It has been composed to elevate the flavors of the cuisine and provide a wine experience unique to Restaurant Yuu. The Wine and Sake Program offers two pairings: a standard Wine & Sake Pairing and a premium Noble Wine & Sake Pairing.
An eight-seat wine bar adjacent to the L-shaped chef’s tasting counter serves an eight-course menu that features the most sought-after and popular dishes from the standard tasting menu.
Location: 55 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Website: https://yuunewyork.com/
Phone: (347) 422-0270
Instagram: @restaurant_yuunyc
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday; seatings at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Capacity: Chef’s Tasting Counter: 18, Wine Bar: 8
