Japanese and French cuisines are two of the most acclaimed around the world, so perhaps not surprisingly there are a decent number of Japanese chefs successfully showcasing their skills in French restaurants (but not the other way around). Just looking at Tokyo, you have multi-Michelin star establishments such as L’Effervescence, Florilege and Sezanne, and in Paris a number of Japanese chefs have made their names in places such as KEI, Restaurant A.T. and Magma. In the Stateside, particularly in New York City, there are also places like L’Abeille in TriBeCa and Restaurant Yuu in Brooklyn that generated considerable buzz from creative Japanese chefs. One place in the city that had been on my list for a while was HOUSE Brooklyn in Greenpoint. The restaurant’s chef, Yuji Tani, started out with his own restaurant in Tokyo, HOUSE Tokyo, before relocating to NYC and opening the Brooklyn project. On my recent trip to the city for a work conference, I decided to check out HOUSE with my wife Jun, and we really enjoyed the meal at the restaurant.

If I can summarize the dining experience at HOUSE in a few words, it is elegant French cuisine with minimalistic Japanese sensibilities. While French is traditionally known for rich flavor and opulence, chef Yuji gave his own spin on the cuisine through fresh ingredients and understated yet refined cooking in a multi-course tasting menu (currently priced at $180 per person). One dish that quite aptly epitomized the chef’s culinary philosophy was matcha crepe. The clean flavor from the crepe, with tofu mousse, turnip leaves, grapefruit and anchovies inside, was quite wonderful; it was certainly unlike anything I have experienced from other French crepes before and I thought to myself that I could eat this every day for breakfast or lunch. Monaka is a popular traditional Japanese dessert and chef Yuji brilliantly decided to turn it into a savory dish by adding marinated Sakura trout and yuzu pepper Greek yogurt mousse inside instead of the azuki bean pasta that is typically used. Another showstopper from our dinner was the white asparagus; we both loved the crunchy texture of the asparagus and the complexity of flavor coming from soy sauce koji rice, asparagus puree and oeuf mayonnaise greatly enhanced the vegetable’s flavor.

For a fish dish, the kitchen brought out red sea bream and green onions accompanied by green onion and anchovy paste, seaweed sauce and miso turnip puree; it was a beautiful expression of the sea. Fried oysters with passion fruit curry puree and charbroiled squab were also delicious in their own ways. If you are a foie gras fan, then you would definitely wish that the restaurant keeps the foie gras pilaf, which came as the last savory course and chef Yuji looked very proud to present to the diners, on its menu permanently. As Jun remarked, it was a dish that was destined to be delicious, with a gorgeous pot of foie gras, pickled cucumber, green onions and teriyaki sauce. The dessert was also a delight, with souffle cheesecake and basil granita and salted vanilla ice cream not overpowering my palate with sugar bomb and instead stimulating my senses with elegance and balance.  

Getting a reservation at HOUSE is not as challenging as other top restaurants in NYC, but the counter seating (which runs twice each evening from Wednesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.) has a limited number of seats so I still highly recommend booking in advance, especially during the weekends. If you want to explore how sake pairing would work with Japanese accented French food, you are in the right place at HOUSE. While Jun and I have developed more appreciation for wine than sake throughout our marriage (we drink wine almost every day at home to pair with Jun’s excellent cooking), we still enjoyed the diversity of flavors from the sakes featured in the pairing option (at $150 per person for 7 course pairing, $120 per person for 5); the pairing options do have some wines included and if you are inclined to get wine instead, there are some interesting options on the wine list with focus toward natural wine producers. The restaurant is located in a larger industrial space with a dashi broth shop and a high-end craft shop so you can check it out before or after the dinner depending on your reservation time. Jun and I were very impressed with the minimalistic and precise cooking at HOUSE, and we would love to visit again in the near future.      

KenScale: 8.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.25/10)

Address: 50 Norman Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Website: https://house-bk.com/

Reservation via Resy