I Ate A 7-Course Dinner In A Basement While The Whole Room Controlled The Playlist

And it was the most fun I have had at a restaurant. Ever.

Tokyo Record Bar is located underground at 127 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The whole experience exists slightly outside of normal reality. Here's the setup: you descend into a basement that looks like something you'd find down a Shibuya back alley (dim, intimate, cherry blossom-adorned) and squeeze into what is essentially a small izakaya room. The chef decides what you eat. You decide what everyone listens to.

When you sit down, a server hands you a vinyl menu - a booklet of records spanning basically every genre and era imaginable. Every table in the room picks a song or two, and the DJ weaves all the selections into one communal all-vinyl playlist that soundtracks the entire meal. You might submit Elton John. The couple next to you might go with Jackson 5. Someone will inevitably pick ABBA and the room will collectively decide that's fine, actually.

Then the food starts coming. The seven-course omakase is izakaya-style. Expect things like salmon sashimi, octopus, something braised and rich toward the end like duck, and two desserts. In case you are still hungry at the end of the meal, they serve you a surprise course of fresh slice of pizza to-go.

The talented visionary behind the food absolutely deserves her flowers. Executive Chef Ignacia Valdés is a Chilean chef who came up through Michelin-starred kitchens in Paris and New York — Ze Kitchen Galerie, Contra, and Frevo, where she was in the kitchen when it earned its Michelin star. She's also a San Pellegrino Young Chef finalist. In a field still largely dominated by men, she brings a genuinely distinct voice to the menu: Chilean roots, Japanese finesse, French technique, all coming together in a compact high-energy kitchen. She writes a new menu every evening using fresh fish flown in from Japan and Europe, which means the seven courses you get on a Tuesday will not be the same seven courses someone else got last weekend. That kind of commitment is not nothing.

Tokyo Record Bar is the rare NYC dining experience that actually earns the word "experience." It's chaotic in the best way, the food is solid to stand on its own, and there's something weirdly moving about eating dinner while a room full of people collectively curate the soundtrack. You'll leave full on izakaya courses, slightly attached to the strangers you shared a playlist with, and weirdly nostalgic for a place you were just at.