Hell’s Kitchen knows a comeback story when it sees one. Manhatto, the newest restaurant to land on 9th Avenue, isn’t just another opening — it’s a return to familiar ground for a team with deep neighborhood roots.
The Manhatto team are no strangers to Hell’s Kitchen with Veerapat (second from left) previously managing Thai restaurant Room Service. Photo: Brennan LaBrie
Opened earlier this month in the former Shin Rokko space, Manhatto blends elevated, modern approaches to Japanese cuisine with global influences. The goal is to offer Hell’s Kitchen diners a cuisine that is innovative but accessible, said manager Veerapat Rugsasataya.
“This is, I would say, a party area,” he said. “People are not here to get educated; they’re here just to have fun and eat the food that they’re familiar with – not too complicated, but not too simple. I think we’re right in between that.”
Veerapat knows the neighborhood well – he previously managed Room Service, a Thai restaurant on 9th Avenue and W49th Street. In fact, that’s where he met the three men with whom he’d go on to open Manhatto. When Room Service shuttered during the pandemic, they parted ways, but eyed returning to Hell’s Kitchen with a restaurant of their own one day.
“We came back here because we love the neighborhood – and we shared a lot of good memories here back in the day,” Veerapat said.
The interior of Manhatto has a minimalist design common in Japan. Photos: Brennan LaBrie
Manhatto could have easily been a Thai restaurant. After all, three of the four partners specialize in the cuisine, including Pannavit Wongsung, who managed the former 9th Avenue Thai spot Taladwat. But the chef among them, Jaroenpol Wibulchan, is also trained in Japanese cooking, and opened Izakaya Fuku in Jackson Heights. His partners decided to challenge themselves with a Japanese concept.
“We needed to learn something different,” Veerapat said. “All the ingredients are pretty new to us, but since we have a chef with strong experience, we can learn it better that way.”
The burrata is crowned with katsuobushi – dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna flakes – which, along with pickled ginger, adds a kick to the sweetness of balsamic vinaigrette, grapes, strawberries and cherry tomato.
The uni mentai pasta offers a flashy spin on spaghetti – a spiral of noodles cooked in a creamy cod-roe sauce with spicy mayo and topped with snow crab, nori, salmon roe and uni. You can even pair it with a caesar salad, which is tossed in a sweet yuzu-ponzu dressing.
Burrata with katsuobushi, pickled ginger and balsamic vinaigrette and uni mentai pasta in a creamy cod-roe sauce with spicy mayo, topped with snow crab, nori, salmon roe and uni. Photo: Brennan LaBrie
While the fusion dishes pop out from the menu – see the croissant filled with eel and teriyaki sauce – Manhatto offers staples of an upscale Japanese restaurant, from sushi and sashimi to donburi bowls. But even these dishes come with flair – the ramen, for example, comprises A5 Wagyu beef in truffle shoyu broth.
Veerapat recommends guests try the uni mentai pasta, or the 12-ounce ribeye steak with fried rice. For sushi, he suggests the miso butter roll, which includes crab meat, seaweed powder, onion, asparagus, fried shallot and miso butter sauce.
Vegans can opt for the Hell’s Kitchen Roll with sweet potato tempura, pickled radish, shiitake, white seaweed, chive and curry mayo.
Manhatto, located at 783 9th Avenue between W52nd and W53rd Streets, is open 12-3:30pm and 5-10pm on Sunday through Thursday and 12-3:30pm and 5-11pm on Friday and Saturday.