Whenever my wife Jun and I visit New York City, we lean toward going back to our old favorites instead of checking out new places. With limited time we typically have in the city in any given trip, we would rather go to places where we know the people working there and know the excellent food coming from the kitchen. One place that I have wanted to check out for a while, though, is Penny, which seems to have become a much hyped seafood restaurant (and a sister restaurant to Claud in the same building; we have yet to visit Claud either) with glowing reviews everywhere. When we were in the city earlier this month for my work commitment, we finally checked out Penny, and wow the restaurant delivered!

The concise menu at Penny consists almost exclusively of small plates designed for sharing. We started the meal with an ice box of different raw seafood items such as oysters, shrimp cocktail, mussels and scallop crudo. Each piece was fresh but nothing to be impressed with. But then the tuna carpaccio arrived. This simple looking dish completely changed the tenor of our dinner. We certainly have eaten a decent amount of tuna carpaccio at other restaurants, but Penny’s version was probably the most ideal version of the dish, with an impeccable combination of chewy texture and citrusy flavor that made me keep saying “Wow!” Every dish that followed made its own statement. While it was rather small in portion for a $22 price tag, the baked razor clams were addictively delicious.

Jun doesn’t even love mackerel that much, but she couldn’t stop admiring the beautifully cooked piece with radish that the kitchen brought out; it was definitely one of our favorite dishes of the night. The freshness of the beets accompanied by trout roe was spot-on, and halibut with ramps also would not have been out of place at a fine dining restaurant. After all the wonderful savory dishes, we had to finish our meal with the famous ice cream sandwich. I couldn’t recall then whether I had seen an ice cream sandwich that looked like what Penny put together with ice cream in between two thick slides of bread, but I certainly didn’t complain with the beautiful outcome. Even if you are full toward the end of the meal, this is a must-try dessert.

Not surprisingly, getting a reservation at Penny is quite difficult. The restaurant is primarily for walk-ins with limited seatings available 14 days in advance; the turnover is relatively quick so if you avoid prime-time hours, you may not have to wait a ton of time. The casual vibe of the restaurant, with a long counter table and alluring lighting, makes for a fun night on all types of occasions. The wine list at Penny is also very impressive; if you are a fan of Champagne, the restaurant has a killer bubbly list with many grower Champagnes in the relatively reasonable price ranges. Now that we have visited a very large number of restaurants together, we have found that the hype behind a restaurant does not necessarily match the quality of the food coming from the kitchen. I’m happy to report that Penny absolutely lived up to its hype and we can’t wait to go back again or check out Claud in the near future next time we visit the city.

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

Address: 90 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10003

Website: https://www.penny-nyc.com/

Reservation via Resy