Kyotofu: Tasting the Sweet Side of Tofu (and more!) in NYC

When it comes to dessert places in NYC, two restaurants come to mind:  Chikalicious in the East Village and Kyotofu in Hell's Kitchen.  Both places offer a 3-course tasting menu of desserts and are fun places to take visiting friends and family.

We recently met up with my brother, his girlfriend, and their friends while they were visiting NYC.  They had just seen a Broadway show and were ready to end the night with a meal of sweet treats.  So we all sat down in the sleek, modern space and shared the dishes of this Japanese dessert bar.

Black sesame sweet tofu ($8) with hoji-cha syrup and white sesame tuile.  I love the taste of black sesame because of its nutty taste.  We've had it in gelato, macaron, and mooncake forms, so we had to try it in sweet tofu form.  We added the hoji-cha syrup to sweeten our tofu and really liked the cool, creamy, sweet, and subtly nutty flavor of the tofu.  The tuile on top was light and crispy.

Kaiseki prix fixe ($17):  The chef's three course dessert tasting actually had 5 desserts all-together.  It's a great sampler of many of the dishes, is enough to share amongst 2-3 people, (we ordered 2 for the table) and everyone around the table could find their own favorite amongst all the dishes.  The tasting menu changes seasonally and at the chef's discretion.
1st Course:  Signature Sweet Tofu -Similar to a flan (in texture and taste), this dish was exactly as describe:  sweet tofu.  We liked it and the small cup was the perfect amount.
2nd Course(s):  Matcha green tea creme brulee had a strong green tea taste and I loved the mix with the creamy creme brulee texture.
Warm miso chocolate cake was a nice rich bite of caramel and warm melt-in-your-mouth chocolate.
Rhubarb strawberry cobbler cake tasted fruity and tart, which was a nice change from the other sweeter desserts.
3rd Course: Green tea nama chocolate also had a strong green tea taste, but this was mixed with chocolate.  If you like the taste of green tea, you will like this chocolate.

White sesame cake ($10) with caramelized bananas, banana sorbet, and shiro-an cream.  The cake itself tasted more like banana bread with the white sesame flavor coming from the ice cream.  

Warm miso chocolate cake ($10): with saikyo miso caramel, mochi, and azuki shiro-an (azuki is a red bean paste while shiro-an is a white bean paste).  This is the entree version of the tasting menu chocolate cake.  The only difference was that there was caramel inside.  (On a side note, our table was unexpectedly comped this dish because it was initially forgotten and was served late to the table.  That was a very nice gesture on the part of the staff.)

And inside this box came a plate of okara cookies with the bill.  Okara cookies are made out of tofu, but this were similar to French madeleine cookies in texture.  Maybe it was the abundance of sweets, but I liked how the cookies almost tasted like popcorn to me!  It was a great way to end our dessert flight!

Kyotofu is located at 705 Ninth avenue (btwn 48th and 49th Sts) in NYC.