The Gallery

“A very quaint and charming gallery where you can even enjoy lunch. The featured art during our visit was a one-piece animation display, which was fun to see. We ordered the lunch bento box, and it was beautifully prepared. It was with small temari sushi, soba noodles, and fall-themed appetizers all arranged so elegantly. The food and ambience were cozy and relaxing, and the service was very warm and welcoming.”

“Went here for the ramen collab. The miso broth was good but with only 2 slices of pork and the noodles being not firm enough, it was only okay. I wished everything else was as good as the broth. We had the chuutoro app with uni and that was good but not amazing. Service was great though. Overall for the price I'd really want a ramen that transports me back to japan.”

“Went for the special pop up ramen even with Chef Watanabe. Tried the tasting menu and enjoyed all of it. My favorite was actually the wagyu appetizer. The ramen was good and full of flavor, but similar to miso ramen from other restaurants.”

“Had a quiet lunch. Nice atmosphere but nothing really remarkable and memorable about the food. The cheese in the crab maki roll completely overpowered the crab. The chilled soba with wagyu is nice and thats all about it.”

“Let me start with some background on this restaurant. THE GALLERY by Odo is created by two Michelin star chef Hiroki Odo and is located in New York City’s Flatiron District. It’s a unique concept that combines a restaurant with an art space, and it is the sister restaurant to Odo, a two Michelin star kaiseki restaurant next door. According to their website, it offers high quality Japanese cuisine while also serving as a creative platform for exhibitions, workshops, and live performances. I came across this restaurant online and decided to give it a try, and it happened to be during NYC Restaurant Week. At first glance, the menu looked appetizing, and $60 per person felt reasonable. There were four of us, and we all ordered different dishes to share. However, the very first appetizer was already disappointing. The sashimi did not taste fresh at all and even had a slightly earthy flavor, and the sauce was very ordinary. From that moment on, our expectations dropped significantly. We also ordered fried oysters and beef tongue. The oysters were poorly fried, and although the beef tongue looked good, my friends and I literally chewed for about five minutes before swallowing our first bite. The texture was extremely tough, and we couldn’t figure out what cut of meat it was. Next was the crab spring roll, which honestly tasted like something from the frozen food section of a supermarket. There was barely any seafood flavor, the wrapper wasn’t crispy, and the inside felt soggy. Another appetizer we chose was the wagyu. You can tell just from the presentation that it didn’t look appetizing. I tried a bite of my husband’s, and it seemed like low quality trimmings, mushy, poorly plated, and overall very disappointing. The whole dish just left us confused. It honestly felt careless, and I couldn’t understand who designed this menu. Was the chef actually involved? For the main courses, we each ordered different dishes. One of them was a burger which I didn’t photograph, and it looked like something you’d get at a diner. The chirashi bowl tasted like supermarket sushi, not fresh at all and completely unremarkable. The udon was also very average. All four of us left feeling empty and unsatisfied, wondering what we had just eaten. After several disappointing Restaurant Week experiences, we started questioning why we never seem to get a good one. We also wondered whether the restaurant’s regular menu is like this as well. Overall, we left feeling confused. In hindsight, maybe $60 per person means we shouldn’t expect too much. But when the menu is designed by a two Michelin star chef, it’s hard not to have higher expectations. Regardless, the food was genuinely under average.”