Review: BarFry
Josh DeChellis racks up frequent-fryer miles at his temple to tempura
- Metromix.com
- By Jacqui Gal
Photo credit: Noah Kalina
Read this article on Metromix.com
Who needs an excuse to indulge in a meal consisting almost entirely of fried food?
BarFry, the West Village’s new tempura bar, is attempting a brave feat: convincing New Yorkers to ignore their nutritionists in the name of Japanese culture—or, at least New York’s derivation of it.
The restaurant is a collaboration between partners Rick Camac (5 Ninth, Fatty Crab) and chef Josh DeChellis (Sumile, Jovia), who took great pains to create the lightest possible batter by testing about a hundred prototypes.
What results are crispy morsels of vegetables, meat and seafood, which arrive in wooden boxes with a choice of sauces: red chili citrus, jalapeno soy, sweet miso, wasabi remoulade. There’s also a pot of salt to season the pieces to your liking.
The tempura on offer runs the gamut of ingredients, from the simply prepared shrimp, pumpkin and shiitake mushroom, to the more complex crab cake, pork dumpling and beef beignet.
Taking the menu on a curiously Louisianan detour is a selection of po’boys. Along with shrimp, pork cutlet or chicken fried steak varieties, you’ll find a crab cake po’boy—a crabmeat patty served atop thinly sliced pickles and iceberg lettuce, on a squishy white roll. (But where was the salt-it-yourself policy now? The po’boy that arrived at my table was slightly over-salted.)
And of course, there are vegetable sides—to cut the oil—including sautéed pea leaves, cherry tomatoes and spinach. Any self-confessed wasabi addict should head straight for the wasabi snow and snap peas—it’s one of those rare opportunities where you can taste the zing of freshly shaved wasabi (not the powdered green stuff), which works a treat on the peas, with the help of a little salt.
The downside? It’s expensive. When faced with a menu of about 20 types of tempura, you’d likely want to order them all. If you did, it would cost you upwards of $100.
That said, there’s clearly a complexity in the preparation, which certainly justifies the tab. Take the tempura beef beignet: At $6 per piece, it’s pricey, but the flavor combination of short ribs with fermented black beans and a mix of chives is arguably worth the outlay.
So far, locals have been bringing their kids for the early shift, from about 5 to 7 p.m. After that, the crowd gets “younger and sexier,” DeChellis tells us.
White tiled walls, a long brown leather banquette and wooden bar stools give the place a Mediterranean feel, but the lack of carpet or other insulation makes it pretty noisy. With a bar that runs the length of the restaurant, the setup lends itself to a migratory dining experience.
Start at the bar with a cocktail like sake sangria or passion fruit basil martini, order some tempura when feeling a little peckish, and then retreat to one of the tables for po’boys or a burger when the hunger pangs set in.
If you’re still up for dessert, the sorbets and ice cream are made on the premises, and include flavors like concord grape, bay leaf and green tea.
Net results: what people are saying online
Village Voice: “[The restaurant’s] antiseptic lack of color, and a menu dominated entirely by tempura, might tempt you to think you’ve wandered into an insane asylum—but one in which you’ll happily be committed.”
New York Times: “The food has gotten better with each passing week, and when Mr. DeChellis cuts loose and really cooks there are honest pleasures to be had at BarFry.”
[“Gawker:http://gawker.com/news/eating-out/barfry-not-barfy-but-not-boffo-301920.php]: “A menu comprised almost exclusively of fried food will become wearisome somewhere between the fifth and sixth nugget of batter and cholesterol.”
Time Out: “[DeChellis’] light frying style passed muster with a tough critic: my skin, which detects oil the way a retired linebacker’s knee can tell you if it’s going to rain.”
New York Sun: “It’s more like you’re enjoying a near-endless array of nuggets and morsels, each of which just happens to be juicier and crispier than that it has any right to be.”
BarFry
50 Carmine St.
between Bedford and Bleecker Sts.
212-929-5050
Mon.-Sun. 6 p.m.-12 a.m.