NYCReview
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
Dr. Clark
Included In
Dr. Clark was destined to be cool from its inception. The Chinatown restaurant lives on Bayard Street in the same space of former sceney spots like Lalito and Winnie’s. Owner Yudai Kanayama also operates time-tested fun destinations like Nowadays in Ridgewood and The Izakaya in the East Village. Before the restaurant even opened for service, it was profiled in Vogue. And, most importantly, Dr. Clark is the only place in New York City exclusively dedicated to serving food from Hokkaido, the northernmost (and chilliest) region of Japan. Like we said, cool.
This Japanese spot’s allure, though, is that it follows through on the promise of a scene, all while serving delicious Hokkaido specialties. You might witness your server bum a cigarette from a diner with a tiny purse on the sidewalk, or accidentally lock eyes with someone you deem an internet ingénue. Equally captivating - or perhaps more so depending on your interest in Cool Downtown Life - will be a table filled with plates of smoky salmon jerky, fresh crab, and squid stuffed with uni rice.
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
Our favorite approach to eating at Dr. Clark is to bring four-ish people for a group dinner at a dark booth inside or a covered kotatsu table on the sidewalk. Start with some natural wine or a frosty glass of Sapporo, then build your meal like you’re the event planner of a seafood parade. We particularly love the bowl of kaisen featuring sweet crab, assorted salmon and tuna sashimi, roe, cucumber, radish, uni, and steamed egg - all laid over sushi rice so delicately cooked you can taste each grain. Even if your diet resembles that of a grizzly bear, Dr. Clark’s plate of smoky-sweet salmon jerky (a practice common within Hokkaido’s indigenous Ainu communities) will likely outshine all the salmon you have loved before.
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
When you inspect the rest of Dr. Clark’s menu, you might feel compelled to try the restaurant’s headliner jingisukan - a barbecue dish popular in Sapporo that involves cooking thinly-sliced mutton or lamb tableside on a skillet shaped like an upside-down bowl (said to mimic a warrior’s helmet). Dr. Clark’s jingisukan is worth ordering for the sheer purpose of getting front row seats to a lamb-and-crunchy-onion grilling show, especially if you supplement your meat with mushrooms and yaki udon that get cooked in all of the sticky, sweet leftover lamb and vegetable juices. But after a couple visits, we consistently found our lamb to be overdone. Either keep a close eye on the meat as the server grills it tableside, or focus the bulk of your attention on the seafood dishes mentioned above.
In another world (without luxurious crab or bites of exploding salmon roe), Dr. Clark would probably be an eye-roll restaurant full of people who are dying to tell you about their renovated one-bedroom apartment in Chinatown and the next cool thing. But the quality of Dr. Clark’s Hokkaido specialties makes its coolness substantive and exciting. So you and your friends can feel on-trend and full of exceptional fish all at once.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
Squid Stuffed With Uni Rice
Addictive Cabbage
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
Salmon Jerky
Risotto Omelette with Crab & Ikura
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
Hokkaido Kaisen
photo credit: Teddy Wolff