Luskus at Tørst is a unique, 1* Michelin tasting menu only restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. When you’re around this particular neighborhood, Tørst is a beer-only bar and it’s certainly no dive bar either. My friends and I hanged out with a mix of locals, hipsters, yuppies, and to our relative surprise, business people from Denmark in casual suits while waiting for our table. So you’re wondering, where is Luskus? It’s actually behind the heavy sliding door in back.
Luskus is a small shoebox dining room that might fit around two dozen diners with an open kitchen with three cooks and Executive chef and owner Daniel Burns.
We opted out the beer pairing (the beers served from the taps of Tørst is very unique) and stuck with the non-alcoholic options of Reed’s ginger beer and Hops soda. Both drinks have the spice aspect despite having a sweet, carbonated drink that pairs well enough for their complex food.
We started out with snacks of caramelized broccoli and treviso dusted with celery salt and chorizo. The hearty beef tartare with chives on a delicate wispy black pepper. Both snacks were delicious and complex.
More snacks arrived at our table – lobster relish with hazelnut mayonnaise on a seaweed biscuit, cod head with knakbrød, and fried oyster, sweet potato purée on braised cabbage leaf. All were delicate bites that looks minimalist but certainly packs flavor. The fried oyster was pretty interesting to pair oyster with the earthy sweet tuber.
The cured mackerel with tarragon vinaigrette and purple daikon was very tasty. The oily fish was nicely balanced by the refreshing, herbaceous vinaigrette and the sweet purple daikon.
The bay scallops, silverberry, uni purée, and maitake mushroom chips was amazing. It’s briny, savory sweetness that was the overarching flavors that I’m getting on my palate. I adored the delicate crispiness contrasting the creaminess.
The main course out of all of the flurry of dishes we had was ribeye, beef heart, salted plum purée, and smoked celeriac. The beautifully cooked, tender ribeye was delicious and the tissue thin slices of beef heart intensified the beefiness and mineral flavors of the dish. The side of hearty, creamy cranberry beans was lightened up by pickled kohlrabi and herbaceous sauce.
Our pre-dessert of buttermilk sorbet and sorrel was astounding. The sorbet almost feels like ice cream on the tongue but so clean, tart with a touch of sweetness and the vibrant sorrel readied our palates whatever it might hit it.
Our dessert of green juniper ice, chocolate crumble, butternut squash Italian meringue, cranberry and butternut squash purée, and chestnut crumble was sublime. The herbaceous and floral (think along the lines of gin) juniper ice was creamy like ice cream. The bittersweet chocolate crumble added texture and the purees added some sweetness and tartness (the latter for the cranberry).
For our petit fours, we had vanilla ice cream with honeycomb candy enrobed in dark chocolate on a thin chocolate chip cookie. This particular sweet felt like a childhood sweet but a bit grown up.
This tasting menu dinner was great. Unexpected flavor pairings that worked wonderfully and there’s always an herbaceous element to make most plates refreshing. Making the schlep to Luksus is worth it and I would go there again.
To view more photos of this dinner, please CLICK HERE or view the gallery below:
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Luksus
at Tørst
615 Manhattan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Phone:(718) 389-6034
The tasting menu is $75 per person, not including beverages; beer pairing is an additional $45