• Sumile

  154 West 13th Street, 212-989-7699

  With the avalanche of new restaurants like Asiate, Riingo, and the Biltmore Room, the city is once again awash in fancy, Asian-influenced food. These new fusion houses have their charms, but the single best modest example of the genre is found at Sumile, in the West Village. This is the culinary home of chef Josh DeChellis, whose sophisticated Franco-Asian repertoire includes wheels of dungeness crab flavored with yuzu gelée (and Sevruga caviar), skate mingled with Japanese eggplant, and a fine poached duck breast spiked with a sake–and–foie gras emulsion. If you’re weary of fusion mania, then just order the veal pressé. It’s served with a tangy version of salsa verde and sprinkled with a platoon of crunchy, salty duck tongues.

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine