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2016-05-16
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If one were to visit Okra, a new-ish Sai Ying Pun restaurant without doing 60 seconds of googling, the fact that it is a fine dining Japanese restaurant will come as a complete surprise. For a start, it is tragically located in the un-hip section of town, smack dab between two very hip neighborhoods (SoHo and Sai Ying Pun). This choice of location almost immediately gives the restaurant a sense of rebellion - almost as riotous as not having a single dish on the menu that contains the restaurant
Instead a solemn Japanese sushi master behind the counter, you instead encounter two American bros, one of whom is the restaurant's Chef, Max Levy. Mr. Levy hails from New Orleans, where fish comes blackened or smothered in traditional cajun style. Here it is treated with all of the due respect of any good sushi-ya. Upon ordering the daily sashimi preparation ($280), the waiter asked that we trust the Chef aka. Max aka. 'the tall white guy'. The trust was re-paid in the form of lovingly fat Norwegian wild salmon and deeply satisfying slices of parrotfish and Spanish mackerel. Trust me it was tasty.
There was blackened fish of sorts in the form of unagi don - marinated and roasted salt water eel served over rice that had been gussied up with sesame, soy, and pork fat, thus dialing the savory dial to a 11. That dish was found on 'The B-Side' of the menu, which indicates a larger dish for sharing. On the smaller dishes of the A-Side of the menu, we loved the fried brussels sprouts ($58) which had been simply tossed in homemade XO sauce and sprinkled with sultanas for a bit of sweet and sour.
It is clear that Mr. Levy is a student and advocate of Asian flavors, but at times may not fully appreciate the subtlety of the craft. Home made tofu, treated in the manner of dish salad tricolor, where the mozzarella and basil are replaced by tofu and shiso respectively sounded better than it tasted. The house made tofu was grainy and dry, rather than the silky elegant as it ought to have been. The shiso was like the unwelcome party crasher - the guy who causes a scene, drinks all of the beer, and ultimately leaves a negative impression of what would have been a lovely evening.
Once the diner realizes that they are indeed eating in a Japanese restaurant, the best surprises come in the form of the decidedly non-Japanese fare. Those brussels sprouts for a start, but then there was the 'love handles' ($188), the tail flap of beef that while generally is very affordable, can turn into an intensely pleasurable cut of meat in the right hands. In Mr. Levy's hands, the love handles are marinated in olive oil and soy, cooked to a meltingly tender medium rare, and paired with roasted spring onions and pickled radish for an awesome contrast and lovely bite of food.
There are other quirks that make Okra a love-able restaurant - the affordable sake list, charming wait staff, and a sound track that is basically my gym play list (Social Distortion, Bad Religion, etc). But to define Okra, look to that dish of beef flap as a perfect synopsis - the origins are austere yet unconventional, the technique is undoubtedly French, the flavors unmistakably Asian, and the outcome is unquestionably delicious.
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