NYC Guide: Benemon NYC
Address | 108 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
When we have large family dinners in the city, we usually head to Izakaya Mew because it accommodates larger parties and has a great menu with something for everyone, however for our most recent meet up we decided to try something different and headed to Benemon NYC. Benemon NYC serves Japanese comfort foods and craft sakes. Located in the East Village, Benemon has a warm and inviting vibe from the moment you walk in. The space has a bar with seating as well as several tables to dine at. The bar menu focuses on craft sake and craft sake cocktails and offers beer and wine selections as well. They don’t serve hard liquor, but the sake cocktails do not disappoint, they are excellent. The menu offers small plates—of which we ordered almost every option on offer to share as starters—, divided into categories of “garden”, “farm” and “sea” making it easy to quickly navigate especially if you have dietary restrictions. The menu also offers Donburi—Japanese rice bowls—and Japanese curry. For our “mains” we each ordered from those menus.
I tried to capture an image of each item we ordered but we ordered a lot! And with six diners excited to dig in I didn’t capture everything, but I’ll share the below with you.
TOFU FIRE—Light batter-fried tofu, sweet n’ hot chili sauce, topped with scallions
VEGETABLE TEN DON—Deep fried airy and crispy kabocha, eggplant, string beans, shiitake mushroom, okra, broccoli, lotus root and carrot tempura served over rice with our original savory tentsuyu sauce
SOFT SHELL CRAB—Deep-fried soft-shell crab, ichimi ponzu dipping sauce
UNAGI DON—Delicately broiled all-natural whole eel fillet drizzled with a robust, sweet eel sauce , topped with sesame seeds and served over rice with shredded nori
TUNA TATAKI—Seared tuna, Cajun spice, sweet miso-nuta sauce with scallions
GARLIC BEEF STEAK—6 oz. Angus NY Strip steak cooked rare*, crispy rice patty, savory garlic sauce
ANCHOVY FRIED POTATOES— Fried potatoes, homemade anchovy sauce, garlic, parmesan
CREAMY BAKED SALMON—Quartered salmon fillet, toasted creamy scallion-enoki mushroom sauce
HOT SQUID—Sliced squid, lotus root, shiitake mushroom, sautéed in a spicy red pepper sauce, topped with cilantro
RISE AT EVE—Juniper-infused sake, shiso leaf, sudachi syrup, dried lime
KATSU CURRY—Chicken Panko-breaded deep fried white meat chicken cutlet served with an all-vegetable broth savory curry
In addition to serving really excellent Japanese comfort cuisine, Benemon had great service and gave us an excellent experience.
