313 Church Street – Tribeca
http://www.tribecacanvasnyc.com
Comfort Food/Asian Fusion, Notable Chef

Tribeca Canvas is a new venture by Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who has Japanese restaurants around the globe and is a reigning Iron Chef. We love Morimoto, his famous restaurant in Chelsea. What is interesting about Canvas is the departure from traditional Japanese into American Comfort food.  Of course each preparation has an Asian twist, but it is on the more fattening side than his usual fare.

The design of this space is as unique as its food concept.  The walls are covered with canvases which are painted with simple black trees.  The light fixtures pick up the theme with vines painted black to mimic the tree branches.  The entire scene is quite like a Danny Elfman set with a Japanese ink brushed effect.  According to the design profile, it is inspired by Tribeca’s art scene and Tribeca’s origins as a green parkway.  Either way, its pretty cool.  My photo depicts the restaurant at night, which may contribute to the Danny Elfman feeling – dark shadows, perhaps.  The photos following are from the Canvas website.

 

 

 

As with the whole run of our Holiday Extravaganza, we chose to taste multiple appetizers rather than order entrees.  Everything is made to share as it seems to be in so many places these days.  It was extremely dark, so I was not able to get photos of the food.  I have included others’ photos with credits and  links to their blogs.  Some rather fun ones to follow!  Check them out.

We started with the Chicken Kara Age ($8) from the Snack Menu.  Canvas defines it as buttermilk drenched Fried Chicken with Ginger Jalapeño Sauce.  This was a great opener of chicken wings traditionally battered and deep fried like larger scale fried chicken.  The jalapeño sauce was a nice Mex-Asian twist.  I did have similarly fried chicken at a Japanese non-traditional chicken restaurant in Hong Kong called Yardbird.  Karaage is a Japanese cooking technique of cooking meats marinated in soy, garlic and ginger, coated in flour and fried in a light oil.

From the Appetizer Menu we chose Escargot Takoyaki ($10.50).  Takoyaki is a Japanese ball shaped snack generally filled with octopus, pickled ginger and green onion.  This is clearly not an American comfort-food influenced dish.  The twist on this French appetizer was to encase in a breading and deep fry it like a takoyaki.  The result, pretty damned amazing if you are an escargot fan.  All of the butter, garlic and spices were encased inside the breading with the snails.  I thought it was like an escargot croquette.  Just one warning, let them cool off.  The contents inside will take the skin off the roof of your mouth not unlike the equally awesome stuffed peppers at Mother’s Ruin.

Next we had the Shrimp Nachos ($13), which Canvas considers a signature dish.  I am not a giant fan of nachos in general because of their heaviness.  This is the way its done!  But nonetheless, they are still nachos.  They are served with ranch dressing and Gochujang aioli. What is gochujang?  It is a fermented Korean condiment.  Think kimchee flavor and mix it into a mayo and you have Gochujang aioli.  Add a few jalapeños for some additional heat and shrimp instead of meat.

Next we tried the Pork & Shrimp Gyoza ($8.50) or Japanese dumplings inspired by the original Chinese Dumpling.  These are drizzled with hot oil.  Wish there were more on the plate.  Perfect dough.  This is not your average dumpling.

Finally, we had the Mac & Cheese ($12) from the Pasta, Rice & Bread Menu.  It was a solid 4 cheese mac and cheese but it was topped with a poached egg.  Yum!  Rich, creamy, delicious, filled with cholesterol This photo was taken by a 5 star chick eatin’ 5 star meals.

The cocktails at Tribeca Canvas were also quite nice.  The bar is on the small side, but pretty cool.  It would probably be fun to have drinks and snacks at the bar here.  They are open until 4am, so I am quite sure it is a late night scene.  Don’t forget to hit Macao Trading Co. next door while you are there!

We really enjoyed this spot and will likely go back pretty regularly to try out the whole menu. The prices were quite reasonable when trying apps.  Next time we will venture into the Salad and Entree menus and share a bit more about the specialty cocktails.