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By remaking the old Pier 116 fish shack into a new-fashioned Japanese restaurant, chef-owner Adam Shepard might have just hit upon the culinary concept Smith Street lacked most: inventive Asian. The dishes emerging from his bustling open kitchen are creatively presented (a banana-leaf-tied stack of spicy-sauced chicken wings, for instance) and packed with deeply harmonious flavors. Roasted maitake hand rolls are seasoned with garlic confit; charred long beans are blanketed in sesame miso and crushed tofu. Although Shepard lards his house ramen Momofuku-style with rich Berkshire pork and smoked bacon, the menu more often veers to light and fresh flavors, like the refreshing medley of peas, beans, citrus, and olives that accompanies the silky konbu-cured black cod. In a place where sake cocktails abound, wine often gets short shrift, but the two bottles Shepard has selected—a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and an Aragonese Garnacha—do his impressive food justice. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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