NYC 2 LONDON

Finally reopening after the fire that ravaged its interior last summer, the haute asian fusion fave’s take the opportunity to revamp their menu, adding highlights like veal tenderloin & sweetbreads w/ artichokes and oyster/black truffle sauce; roasted rack of lamb with South African spice; and butter poached lobster w/ ramps, sweet pea flan, and black trumpets (sorry, Chet Baker).

13 Barrow St. (at W 4th St.), New York, NY +12-212-741-6699

The Summerhouse, opposite 60 Blomfield Road, London W9 2PD +44-20-7286-6752 or summerhousebythewaterway.co.uk

What we’re about to say will shock you.

In fact, it might shock Peter Luger himself.

But, according to the Japanese, there is life beyond the porterhouse, the skirt steak and, yes, even the cheeseburger.

Life that starts with a singular, mind-bending focus on parts of the cow that you may not have known were edible.

We’re talking raw beef heart here, people…

And down the rabbit hole we go: Takashi, a new temple of unknown beef, is soft-open for dinner this week in the West Village.

The small spot seems like the eatery that Indiana Jones, Hannibal Lecter and Anthony Bourdain would open together after a night of hard drinking—all the meat comes raw, every one of the seven tables has its own grill, and the decor is comprised simply of a chalkboard explaining how meat is healthy for you (you’ve been saying this for years).

Clearly the main draw here is the selection of offbeat innards: flash-boiled Achilles tendon, grilled throat bone and the extremely hard to source Akase—the legendary fourth stomach.

We suggest you make good use of your personal grilling unit, wrap your charred meat in lettuce, down a good bottle of dry sake and make sure to turn on the retractable fan to siphon the smoke away from your date’s pretty eyes.

Then again, every good date needs a little smoke and mirrors.

456 Hudson St. (at Barrow St), New York, NY 10014 +1-212-414-2929 takashinyc.com

When striking out into unknown territory, it’s wise to bring someone along who knows the lay of the land, and even wiser to kill them once you’re comfortable on your own, cause sharing hidden treasure is for suckers. Leveraging a veteran restaurateur’s knowledge and generously letting him live, the dude behind Tri Tip Grill.

Setting up in a rustic nook with exposed wooden beams, a stone tile counter, and an open kitchen complete with a real wood smoker, Tip’s a casual meat palace from a first-time resto owner who enlisted the help of a multi-location-owning Cali chef known for creating tri tip beef that’s smoked & then charred, creating flavor crystals they claim’re “pink and dirty”, which is a bit of a shocker. Said tip can be had sliced over a bed of roadhouse onions and smothered in jus, or piled between daily-made rolls in sammies (“bucks”) like the Philly (sauteed o’s/peppers/pepper jack), the chipotle-sauced Border, the Bacon Cheddar (take a guess), and the Red Ranch sauce/fried onions/bleu Roadhouse, which’ll rip out your throat if you tell it you used to eat sandwiches like him in prison. Not-just-the-tip items include sandos rocking marinated & grilled chicken, tarragon-aioli-abetted salmon filets, and Romesco-sauced portobellos; burgers like the avocado/swiss/bacon/special sauced The Rock; and an array of salads, including a your-choice-of-protein joint called the Caesar Pleaser, aka, Brute et Horn-ay.

They’ll even bag up an entire char-roasted tri-tip that’ll last for days in your fridge, or just feed 5 to 6 roommates immediately, since eating hidden leftovers is uncharted territory for no one.

Concourse Level at 30 Rockafeller Plaza, New York, NY +1-212-664-1124

Just opened north of the river, Tsuru’s second casual J-dining outlet will feature the same generations-old sushi/katsu/teriyaki recipes lifted from co-founder Kensuke Yamada’s family in the Japanese fishing village Shimoda. The menu’s as animal-friendly as you can be while still eating them (line-caught Yellowfin, free-range poultry), and soy, sushi vinegar, and “Six-Hour Curry” are all made from scratch daily; plus, the wine list rocks an impressively thrifty 30% markup, greatly facilitating you becoming “Six-Bottle Blurry”.

Unit 3; 201 Bishopsgate, London EC1 9AN tsuru-sushi.co.uk

Risk. Intrigue. Mystery.

These are elements you know well. Tools deployed in certain situations of next-level gamesmanship.

But rarely on a first date.

So today we bring news of a place that understands: a tiny little gem of a new restaurant with a small menu of shareable food, a charming French host and a scene best described as… comfortable.

It’s a place we’re dubbing a Certified First Date Safe Zone^TM. And it’s open now…

Introducing Taureau, a BYOB fondue spot in the East Village helmed by a charismatic Frenchie, awaiting your next first date.

Opened by a seasoned fondue pro (Didier, who perfected his trade at his own Parisian fondue spot for 13 years), the small, skinny space is decked in white and red, spotted with two-person tables and set up for serving one food and one food only: bubbling cauldrons of cheese, oil and chocolate.

This is pretty much all you need to know: arrive with a bottle of Veuve tucked gently under one arm and a backup bottle of pinot noir under the other. Start with cheese, move to meat, finish with chocolate.

And don’t worry about the stove-like contraption built into the surface of your table: it’s designed to heat up the cauldron of fondue, but remain completely cold to the touch.

See: Safe Zone.

127 E Seventh St. (between First Ave and Avenue A), New York, NY 10009, +1-212-228-2222

Richard Sandoval’s huge, trilevel Latin-Asian restaurant, AvroKo’s Mexico-inspired design touches (teal-dyed burlap sack panels), and a supersize menu executed by Akhtar Nawab (Elettaria).

There’s also late-night Tuesday tequila tastings downstairs at La Biblioteca.

622 Third Ave. (at 40th St.), New York, NY +1-212-808-8110