Arriving at Kabawa for a late-night dine, my eyes were immediately drawn to one of the patrons standing at the bar, rum drink in hand, hips in mid-whine to the music. A fitting welcome to a restaurant that centers its food as much as it does its culture.
Kabawa is the latest from the Momofuku Group—the first to open in nine years—residing in the same Momofuku Ko space where David Chang long enticed diners down the makeshift alleyway for matcha-tea–dusted mille-feuilles and snow-like shavings of foie gras.
Now it’s Paul Carmichael's Caribbean cooking leading New Yorkers down the same corridor—ready to rip and swipe crumpled partha through heated guava chutneys and pepper jelly for a buss up and shut bread service and spear royal red shrimp, blushing with dried hibiscus and dollops of bright orange pepper oil. Prentension here is long gone: chefs in watercolor-dipped aprons swing between casual catch-ups with patrons and then wow them with solid hunks of goat shoulder, slow-roasted in an orangey-reddish Creole sauce that yells with habanero peppers.
Drinks lean into the islands with coconut water martinis, sorrel-flecked daiquiris (though, more daiquiri iterations reside next door at Bar Kabawa) and even a Caribbean lager made to tame any flames on the plate. And when you leave, bellies full and tongues likely still dancing, you'll hopefully carry the ethos of Kabawa home and remember to "Love Yuh Self."