Bar Tonno

[Daniel]

I am planning on going to Bar Tonno tomorrow. The new Italian seafood bar which L’Impero chef Scott Conant just opened. Has anyone been here yet? I really dont know what to expect in terms of dishes or pricing. Thanks for the help

[Bux]

Give us a report. I live a few blocks away and am intersted in checking it out soon.

[Bux]

Daniel, did you follow up on your plans? As for us, "soon" worked out to nine days. The short answer is that we were favorably impressed. The ambience and atmosphere is perhaps a bit "cool" for us, but the food is very good. It's tasty and interesting. There's some repetition in the herbs or sprouts reappearing in dishes so that it might seem a little boring to go through the whole menu and some diners just might be hungry enough to do that. We were content sharing five small dishes, two of them were very small. I suspect the average diner would have liked three to four dishes per person, although it appeared that we ate and drank more than some people around us. So the place is going to function in different ways to different people. I only hope those who come in and sit for hours with a glass of wine and a plate or two don't keep them from making a profit and staying in business

The question is not if the food's worth trying and eating. It is. Of course if you don't like raw fish and seafood, with some herbs, spices and marinades, it's not your kind of place to begin with and if you are adverse to tasting menu portions, you're even less likely to find happiness. We shared plates in spite of their size because things come out rather randomly. It was suggested that we place our order as we'd like each dish to come out, that is order a dish and when it's arrived, order the next round. When we ordered one dish each, we found out they came in succession and not in rapid succession. The pace of delivery along with the size of the dishes will almost ensure you don't overeat and ensure you eat slowly, which is really very healthy. You may however, find yourself thinking about a second bottle of wine before you know it. We had a $35 bottle of wine, 3 small plates @ $9-12 and 2 tiny plates @ $5, and as I said, left with our appetite appeased. I suspect that if all the food were put on one plate, we'd have gobbled it up in ten minutes and wanted more. More importantly, we really enjoyed the food.

A single fat marinated sardine (actually I think it was just half a sardine) was a highlight and cost $5. The same for a small plate of white anchovies. I loved the fluke at $12. It was one of the larger plates. Mrs. B thinks fluke is all about the texture and doesn't like it. It is about the texture (and the way it's seasoned) and I like that texture. This was the spiciest dish we had. Horse mackeral--three spoonfuls of it plus some turnip salad--was $9, but I don't know that prices were much higher than at a moderate sushi bar. Quality fish ad seafood are expensive and I thought the treatment of each dish was well conceived and well executed if not speedily delivered to the bar. Did I mention that the room is nothing but a long narrow bar with stools?

It's really not useful address for anyone dining with more than one friend. Service may even be too slow to enjoy it alone and we didn't see any singles. Go with someone who hasn't had a hard day at the office because you're going to need to spend some time talking. The music is loud, but not so loud as to prohibit two way conversation and the music was well suited to the place. The lighting is pretty good in that the room doesn't seem bright, but the food is well lit.

We didn't have a reservation and were told to wait a minute as the place was all booked, but that there were several covers that should have been showed up by now. The host counted empty seats and then sat us.

[SobaAddict70]

A slice of almost beefy tuna is the perfect match for a smooth, pungent sea urchin sauce, accented with a crunch of sea salt, while sardines marinated in olive oil achieve an almost impossible state of richness. Little Barron Point oysters are superb on their own, making a bit of jelled fish broth almost superfluous, but the fresh, sea-breeze flavor of kampachi, or yellowtail, took naturally to ginger oil, not exactly a classic Italian flavoring but one Mr. Conant has used for some time.

Chef Scott Conant of L'Impero at Bar Tonno is joined by Kyohei Fukushi, formerly the sushi chef at Morimoto in Philadelphia -- and the sum of their talent is an experience unlike any other.

Bar Tonno (Eric Asimov)

Soba

[Suzanne F]

Bux, is it possible to compare-and-contrast the fluke at Bar Tonno to the fluke at Blue Hill?

[Bux]

Bux, is it possible to compare-and-contrast the fluke at Bar Tonno to the fluke at Blue Hill?

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Probably not reasonably. I'm sure I've had the fluke at Blue Hill, but I don't remember having a dish that in anyway resembled the fluke at Bar Tonno where it was dusted with cayenne, chilli pepper or perhaps more reasonably, with very hot paprika. The peppers are all similar in effect, but I think that much cayenne would have been deadly. The style at Blue Hill is just so much gentler and I don't remember a preparation that was as raw. I could be mistaken but my memory of fluke at Blue Hill was one of rare, not raw and warm, not cold. We could also have had differnet dishes. Describe the one you had. It may stir a memory, or trigger a false one.

[cibo susci]

I went to Bar Tonno 2 times. I am a big fan of Bar Veloce and I ate the whole menu. I was great!! Plus It is late night !!