Momofuku Ko

Unlike some of the more hermetic, locally sourced, obsessively market-driven tasting kitchens around the city, the globe-trotting Mr. Chang and his executive chef, Sean Gray, draw their influences from all over, and their menu at this discreet Bowery restaurant changes not just season to season, but month to month and even day to day. You may encounter caviars flown in from Idaho during the course of your dinner, bee pollen gathered from apiaries in Connecticut, and mille-feuilles tipped with green-tea matcha from Japan. Add the endless other food-lab inventions (oyster foams, delicate shiso-leaf perfumes, etc.), beverage director Jordan Salcito’s eclectic list of beers, sakes, and wines, and the recent arrival of the new, reasonably priced à la carte Ko Bar next door, and you have one of the more consistently accessible, inventive tasting experiences in town.