Scallop (with white turnip and black currant leaf): A light, but incredible dish! The “live” scallop was served as sashimi. The sauce, while light, had deep and powerful flavors that went great with the natural sweetness of the scallop. 19/20
Langoustine (grilled tail of Langoustine from Norway and red gooseberry): A phenomenal dish. The langoustine was lovely and tender while still being smoky/grilled. The sauce was the perfect consistency, had the right amount of richness with a slight amount of sweetness, and complemented the langoustine exquisitely! 20/20
Hake (tsar imperial beluga caviar, Swedish dark beer, and flowering dill): A signature of Aska, and it’s one of my favorite dishes in NYC! Perfectly cooked hake with a sauce that’s to die for! An amazing combo of richness, acidity, fish stock, beer, and dill. The caviar brings a nice salinity. 20/20
Quail (roasted breast of dry-aged quail with salted white truffle, aged black truffles, and sweet onion): While the quail was a tad overcooked, it had an amazing smoky flavor, and the sauce was incredible, with just the right amount of truffle flavor. 18/20
Black Walnut (caramelized whey and sweet woodruff): Aska’s desserts haven’t always been the greatest, and that was still true today, though I feel that’s generally a feature of Scandinavian/New Nordic restaurants. The dessert had a nice nutty flavor that went well with the caramel, but the flavors were a bit too subdued. The woodruff sauce, with notes of vanilla, cardamom, and cinnamon was nice and this dessert did have good differing textures. 16/20
Confections: A good end to the meal, but overall, quantity over quality. Everything tasted quite nice, but some things could definitely have been a bit sweet and again, very subdued flavors. 16/20
Besides those dishes, I was served: Sea Oak (blue mussel), Kohlrabi (compressed with linden leaf oil and linden flower vinegar), Vendace (a small tart with vendace roe marinated in lilac vinegar), Caviar (kingfish from Denmark, oscietra caviar from madagascar, and smoked eel), Custard (tail of lobster from Maine with wild carrot flower and salted white asparagus), Trout (gently cooked with reindeer moss, white currant, and flavors of northern New York), Black Trump (farce of dry-aged quail leg, wild leek, and a sauce of preserved blueberries), Gooseberry (a small tart with elderflower and peach leaf), and Sorbet (milk sorbet with grass-fed cream and meadowsweet cordial). All of those dishes were successes, and were all comprised of perfectly cooked fish/proteins with rich and delicious sauces! I do however feel Aska serves a few too many small tartlets, but that’s just me. 17-18/20 for all of them!
Overall, Aska is in the upper tier of 2* places for me. Fredrik Berselius is a young, daring chef, who isn’t willing to take culinary risks, and they practically always pay off! I’d highly recommend Aska, and if their pastry kitchen improves, I wouldn’t at all put winning a third star past them. While it hasn’t been great in the past, at times, the service on this visit was great! Due note Aska is a lighter menu/meal, which is perhaps something they can change/improve on, so I would recommend eating a little something before your dinner.
by Bonzo1640
4 Comments
I agree that service can be hit or miss. I prefer Aquavit for service but Aska for the actual food, so Aska has the edge for me. I will say it’s comical how many of their dishes require somebody going around with a teeny little saucepan though. I asked once and they said they only have one, I assumed they would have 16 back there considering 80% of our dishes required it. Real hero washing that thing every 2 minutes.
The langoustine dish was such a hit when I had it a few years back. Glad it’s still on the menu!
Interesting post! I don’t know this place. How it compares with other 2-stars like The modern? Also, how much does the menu cost without alcohol? Was is it easy to book?
Shoutout to Missy the Somm who absolutely rules and made the experience for us when we visited a while back.