My last whisky review of the year turned out to be of one of the best whiskies I drank all year, and I am very happy to say that my last restaurant review of the year is also of one of the best restaurant meals we ate all year. It wasn’t planned this way: this was not our last meal out this year and nor did I save it up for the end. We ate at Foxface Natural on our weekend trip to New York in mid-October and the only reason it has taken me so long to get all the meal reports from that trip up (see also Gouie, Momokawa and Semma) is that I had such a backlog from our summer travels. But I am very happy to close the year in restaurant reviews out on such a high note. For it was indeed an excellent meal. Before I can tell you about it though I have to give you some caveats.

Those caveats are these: I’ve known the owners of Foxface Natural, Ori Kushnir and Sivan Lahat, for almost 20 years, from the early years of the food forums. We’ve eaten with them in New York and the Twin Cities long before they were restaurant proprietors; we’ve argued and agreed about food (and more) for a long time. And so we didn’t have a standard experience at Foxface Natural. Yes, there were comps (though we managed to talk them into letting us pay for most of the meal) but we also put ourselves in Ori and Sivan’s hands and had them construct a menu for us that would maximize our experience, given that we couldn’t come back in a week or two to try more. So we got smaller portions of some dishes and their choice of what might be the most representative Foxface Natural dinner on the night. All of which means you would be within your rights to view this an unrepresentative experience or a contaminated review or both. I wanted to put that up front.

As you may know, if you’ve followed the coverage of Foxface Natural—very positive reviews from Helen Rosner, Pete Wells and Steve Cuozzo; some massive folly from Robert Sietsema—Foxface Natural is a somewhat unusual beast in the restaurant world. The owners, who, as food forum veterans know, have very rigorous standards, have managed to create the kind of restaurant they would like to eat at in New York by removing the biggest obstacle to success for anything idiosyncratic: they purchased the building that houses the restaurant. It’s not that they’re opposed to making a profit but that the construction of the menu is not driven by the shadow anxiety, “will people eat these things?”. Unsurprisingly, the answer has therefore resoundingly been “yes!” They very quickly became one of the hottest tickets in town, their success driven in part by repeat custom.

This is both because the menu is not drawn from some sort of contemporary restaurant template and also because the menu is dynamic. While there are some iconic dishes that seem to always be on it (the kangaroo tartare), the fish and seafood dishes in particular are driven by what becomes available to them from the small boats they work with. Much of it is local—though not all: Sietsema’s folly involved outrage at the thought of $28 being charged for two prawns sourced from Hawaii, as though this is not the going rate for sweet prawns of this quality at sushi restaurants of similar ambition as Foxface Natural. Similarly, the kangaroo, unsurprisingly, comes from Australia, but the Boer goat is sourced from upstate New York.

There is a kind of eclectic internationalism, or global cosmopolitanism—as I refer to the broader genre—on display here: the kangaroo tartare for example, has a kitfo-adjacent spicing; Mexican flavours abound; one of the gelatos features timut pepper (a relative of Sichuan peppercorn). But the dishes are all united, the menu given coherence by a shared emphasis on ingredients of high quality prepared in ways that put the focus squarely on them. Even when dishes comprise multiple ingredients, there is nothing muddied about the flavours or textures. Though neither cuisine is obviously name-checked on the menu—at least on the one we saw—the obvious touchstones here in terms of approach are Japan and Spain, both countries in which the owners have spent a significant amount of time.

I have not mentioned the chef, Dave Santos until now, and I don’t mean to slight him. His own Portuguese cooking background and his experience cooking in serious kitchens is crucial to the success of what Foxface Natural is doing. But this is the rare restaurant where the owners aren’t just the source of financial cushioning and/or the faces in the front but are actually co-creative directors on the menu. And, of course, people who ate at Ori and Sivan’s previous place, the tiny sandwich shop that first bore the name Foxface, will remember both being very active in that kitchen as well.

Alright, so what did we eat?

The first things to come out were the aforementioned controversial sweet prawn and a dish billed primarily as Maine uni but which featured that uni atop cured bluefin tuna which sat atop fried pig ear—a purple shiso leaf sat on top of the uni. We had no complaints about the prawn in crudo form, which Ori informs, “is dipped in a dashi of itself, which amplifies umami”, the papaya salad it came with, or the return of the heads fried to a crisp. We did have a complaint about the uni in that they gave the two of us three pieces, thereby causing some stress on our marriage. Next up was a small order of their oysters casino which features house-made ricotta and their own wild boar ham. Also very good but perhaps the one dish on the night that we could have taken or left. (By the way, I don’t mean to cause any more shellfish/pricing commotion: the check shows a $26 comp for the oysters but normally $26 gets you six roasted oysters; this was one of the dishes they gave us a smaller version of).

The larger plates were a steady stream of highlights, each one threatening to become our favourite of the night. First up, squid from Monterey atop black lentils cooked in fish and squid stock with the squid’s ink (sometimes supplemented, I was told, by purchased ink if the squid didn’t contain enough ink), served with roasted pepper coulis and a lovely pilpil made with the same fish stock. Just exquisite in its subtlety. Juxtaposed with it was a smaller than usual portion of the altogether heartier kangaroo tartare, served with a charred eggplant mousse which seemed only ephemerally eggplanty at first but came on strong with each bite. The Sardinian flatbread that came with both could be a highlight served just by itself as a bread course.

But the dish of the night for me was the golden tilefish/amadai (from the far end of Long Island). This featured tilefish fried to a crisp (with the crisp scales on top) and an exquisite fennel dashi poured around it and the red pepper that provided just the right amount of counterpoint. Perfect execution on all components and perfect composition of the dish as a whole. The last large plate by contrast had the biggest flavours of the night: smoked Boer goat shoulder with North African spices, more eggplant and fermented okra. The goat somehow both fell apart and maintained its integrity (and essential goatiness).

And so to dessert. Out came a scoop each of both their gelatos. One with prickly pear along with mezcal-lime curd, coriander poundcake and tajin seasoning sprinkled over; the other featured timut pepper and buttermilk with roasted plum underneath and almond meringue on top. Both were outstanding. I favoured the prickly pear by a hair, while the missus preferred the timut pepper-buttermilk. And then we were done.

Ah yes, wine. Foxface Natural’s other calling card is an all-minimal intervention wine list (again, the owners feel no need to cater to preferences other than their own) presented with remarkably low markups. We had met old friends for drinks prior to dinner at Gomi, the wine bar across the street. The missus, being a lightweight when it comes to alcohol consumption chose not to drink any more. I began with a glass of an excellent sparkling Vouvray (from Francois and Julien Pinon) and followed up with an even better orange wine (the 2021 Mille Lieux sur Peaux from La Grange de l’Oncle Charles).

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate and drank, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and to see how much it all cost.

Oh yes, the space. It is not large: only 28 seats, I think, most of which are located on the long counter that dominates the room. Some smaller tables have been added since the restaurant opened but this is not a place to go with a large group if you wish to be seated across from each other. The counter is a great place to eat alone or as a twosome or trio. The atmosphere is also excellent, with pleasant staff and comfortable and able service.

As I noted earlier, we requested that they let us pay for our meal as it was our first visit to their restaurant. In practice this meant we were comped the oysters and the wine anyway. The total with tip thus came to just over $275. Yes, if we’d paid for everything the total would have been closer to $320 (adjusting for the oyster portion) but at $160/head that is still a screaming value for the quality of the meal (in Manhattan no less). We are very jealous of our friends in New York who get to visit often. If you live in New York and have not yet been, or if you’re planning a visit soon, I could not recommend a reservation at Foxface Natural more enthusiastically. It will certainly feature high in my list of the best restaurant meals we ate in 2023 (coming tomorrow).