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BarFry is a new-millennium tempura bar, a place where you can get fresh shrimp fried in the classic Japanese way, or veal terrine in a tempura crust, or even tempura chicken-fried steak stuffed into a fairly delectable New Orleans–style po’boy sandwich. The architect of this unlikely concept is the facile and talented Josh DeChellis, a chef who has mastered a variety of cuisines (seafood at Union Pacific, Japanese fusion at Sumile, Italian at the excellent but doomed Jovia) over the course of his long, somewhat star-crossed career. Now, like many talented cooks in town, he seems to be following the David Chang model by setting up shop in a smaller, less expensive room and cooking the kind of food that, presumably, he loves. The room at BarFry is covered in utilitarian white bathroom tiles, and because the house music plays incessantly, it’s really loud. There are eighteen varieties of tempura on the menu (try the shrimp, the sticks of eggplant, the curly green peppers, and the yellowfin tuna), four tricked-up tempura sauces (the “jalapeno soy” is the best), and some generally excellent sides, like pea leaves dusted with lemon zest and XO sauce. DeChellis’s non-tempura specials are generally excellent, too, particularly the tuna tartare, which he leavens, inventively, with pickled ramps. — Adam Platt

Shrimp and eggplant tempura, chicken-fried-steak po’boy, sautéed pea leaves.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (10/22/07)

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• Restaurant Openings: Margaret Palca Bakes and BarFry (8/27/07)