Aska

Die-hard fans of that most stubbornly durable of recent big-money dining trends — the intricately realized, tastefully spare, painstakingly precious Scandinavian tasting menu — are flocking to the new, Michelin-approved version of Aska, which the serious-­faced, hypertalented young Swedish chef Fredrik Berselius has reopened in a dark, vaguely foreboding space on South 5th Street in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. Your impatient, diet-conscious critic is on record as being weary of the Scandi dining craze in general, and the studied tasting-menu conceit in particular, so it pains me slightly to admit that despite the presence of funereal black linen on all the tables and the incessant nattering of a “50 Best Restaurants” know-it-all in a far corner of the otherwise silent room, every one of Berselius’s ingenious creations — chewy pig’s-blood pancakes topped with amaranth leaves, puffs of flash-fried lichen poured with mushroom broth, sorbets flavored with birch bark or wild strawberries — is worth the steep (a prepaid $265 for the 19-course “full experience”) price of admission.