A chef with molecular ambitions is taking Williamsburg’s My Moon to a whole new orbit.
The once Turkish restaurant is known more for it industrial chic décor and open-air dining deck than its food, but new chef and el Bulli protégé Ivan Vilches is now bringing flavors culled from his native Barcelona — and haute cuisine’s cutting edge techniques — to the fore.
“We’re currently playing with smoke; we smoke a sea bass carpaccio on oak in front of our customers,” Vilches said. “The waiter lifts the crystal bell that covers it, and the smoke billows out. It’s a lot of fun.”
Similar touches of whimsy and experimental cuisine are evident throughout Vilches’ extensive menu, like foie gras salt-cooked with raspberries, tangerine, macadamia nuts, and PX reduction ($11), razor clams with mango caviar and ponzu ($9), and grilled octopus with pimenton, olive oil, and potato foam ($9).
You can rack up quite a bill with so many bite-sized bits to choose from, but special tasting menus — two tapas dishes, one starter, and one dessert for $35, or five tapas, two starters, and two desserts for $55 — are nothing short of a steal.
“I always recommend that first time customers try the tasting menu; it’s the best way for them to get to know our food,” Vilches said. “But you need to come with an open mind, because you don’t order yourself — the kitchen decides what to send out.
But with a chef as accomplished as Vilches in the kitchen, you’re in good hands.
My Moon [184 North 10th St. between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, (718) 599–7007].
