Uzuki (95 Guernsey St.) opens today in Greenpoint, joining the Japanese-themed complex called 50 Norman, already home to the restaurant House with a 9-course tasting menu, pottery store Cibone, and Dashi Okume selling broths and accompaniments.
Every item on Uzuki’s menu is gluten-free. The Japanese newcomer’s main feature are soba noodles that are made of 100% buckwheat.
Uzuki is using Towari noodles, the same brand used by 123Dough, an organic sourdough bakery that opened a pop-up location last year in Greenpoint’s Blank Brooklyn at 192 Nassau Avenue.
At the helm of Uzuki’s kitchen is soba master, Chef Shuichi Kotani. Chef Kotani cultivates buckwheat locally at Blue Hills at Stone Barns Farm upstate. He has been perfecting his buckwheat soba noodles for over two twenty years and told Greenpointers that one reason he uses 100% gluten-free buckwheat noodles is for “health.”
Uzuki’s menu features 7 soba entrees, from ones filled with ingredients like Japanese roasted duck and salmon to the vegetarian Uzuki Soba Salad with spinach, cucumber, snow peas, tomato, tofu, and eggplant.
The menu also includes several appetizers like soba chips made from buckwheat flour and gomaae, which is a Japanese spinach salad.
Dessert options include a soba kanten jelly, shiso sorbet, and ice cream also made with buckwheat flour.
Uzuki’s drink menu includes several sake options, a gluten-free soba beer, yuzu soda, and teas.
The New York Times named Uzuki one of “18 New Restaurants to put on Your Fall List,” highlighting the restaurant’s designer, Aki Miyazono, who created the “spare and serene” space. The article also noted that Miyazono studied the art of making buckwheat noodles with Chef Kotani.
Uzuki also highlighted on Instagram that the team created and designed their own minimalistic tableware for the restaurant.
Uzuki is open Tuesday through Saturday, starting at 5 p.m. Reservations can be made on Resy.