{"id":321958,"date":"2025-10-21T19:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/321958\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T19:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:48:17","slug":"nyc-restaurant-kabawa-is-the-best-fun-fine-dining-in-east-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/321958\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Restaurant Kabawa Is the Best Fun Fine Dining in East Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Momofuku Ko space<\/a> in the East Village has been transformed into two restaurants: Kabawa<\/a>, where Barbados native Paul Carmichael pulls from his experience cooking around the world for an exuberant choose-your-own-adventure prix fixe meal; and the more casual Bar Kabawa<\/a> for daiquiris and patties next door. The Kabawa prix fixe is a true delight: $145 for a starter, main, dessert, and plenty of surprises from the kitchen.<\/p>\n

How do you make fine dining fun? If you\u2019re trying to channel the spirit of the Caribbean like chef Carmichael, you hire a team whose members exude joy when they talk about the dishes influenced by the chef\u2019s heritage, put on an energetic soundtrack, and throw a disco ball in the wine room.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a short cocktail list with influences from the Caribbean \u2014 a rye, peanut, and whey option was a recent standout. But don\u2019t overlook the wine list. Kabawa inherited Momofuku Ko\u2019s wine cellar, and the friendly, knowledgeable sommeliers can recommend bottles under $100 that pair beautifully with the menu \u2014 we went with a mineral-heavy red from Sicily.<\/p>\n

The counter-top seats look into the open kitchen in the center of the space. Come with a group of four if you can \u2014 you\u2019ll get seated around a corner, which is ideal for conversation, views, and tasting as much of the menu as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Momofuku Ko space in the East Village has been transformed into two restaurants: Kabawa, where Barbados…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":321959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,141333,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-321958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dining-report","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115413890103313376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}