Kawabun NYC

There’s a bonsai at the door, and lots of bamboo, but this outpost of a 400-year-old Nagoya restaurant fits right into Murray Hill, with beyond-comfortable velvet chairs and a green marble bar. The Japanese tavern food is perfect for sharing, so bring some friends or co-workers to drink sake and graze on clay pots of rice with seared sea bream, or gingery stewed wagyu beef. Or belly up to the bar and warm yourself with a toasty cup of genmaicha and some airy beef tendon korokke, while eavesdropping on a young consultant discussing his firm’s upcoming ski retreat, and how you should totally go to Burning Man next year, bro. When you need to impress some new hires or woo a client in Midtown East, Kawabun should do the trick.