Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar

Address: 239 E. 5th Street, New York

Phone: 212-979-1012

I think I have found my favorite restaurant in NYC, or maybe one of my favorite restaurants - Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar. I like that the restaurant is small and cozy with 16 seats surrounding the open kitchen and I absolutely love the franco-spanish tapas menu created by the very talented young Chef Wesley Genovart, who was trained at Jean Georges' Perry St restaurant.

The space which the restaurant now occupies used to be Grace's Kalbi Bar and before that Jewel Bako Robata. Unlike the Robata grill bar and Kalbi Bar that went out of business, Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar, with its very high quality, inventive and delicious tapas menu, is here to stay.

Since all the menu looked equally appetizing, we decided to go with the chef tasting menu to spare ourselves from the difficult task of picking what to eat. The 5 course tasting menu we chose came with Poached Egg, Mackerel, Poached Cod, Suckling Pig and Caramelized Torija dessert. I love every single dish and I couldn't get enough of the suckling pig and Torija.

My only regret is that the restaurant has been opened for 2 years and I have only found out about it now. It is still fairly easy to reserve a table even for Fridays, and I hope it stays that way. I would not be too happy if it turns into a Casa Mono or worse, Momofukuko.

Eu Wen and myself

can't remember the exact name of this dish, I believe it's mackerel

Slowly Poached Egg, Jamon Serrano, Chorizo, Smoked Cheese and Rice Cracker Crusted Asparagus

Olive Oil Poached Cod, Guanciale, English Peas and Mussels

The Chef himself serving us the Suckling pig with Sweet Garlic Puree, and Porcini Mushrooms dish

The Sous Chef torching the Torija (spanish bread pudding) to create the Caramelized Torija with berries dessert

Gan and Eu Wen enjoying their dessert. We wanted to order more Torija but had to rush to the karaoke :)