Benu is a restaurant that flaunts its distinct aesthetic and personality: everything here is angular, modern, and minimalist. Decorative accents seem to explore the grayscale, from the dark laminated tables to low-backed seats and banquettes. Even the teapots and columns have angles. Still, the lively crowd is hip yet sophisticated, and well-managed service is pleasant and approachable. The creative, Asian-influenced menu follows suit with its offering of gorgeous, modernist, and minimalist dishes. Hand-pulled mozzarella might be bathed in a spicy, viscous, and dynamic house-made XO sauce, then topped with crispy ham and micro-basil—sublime and yet bold. An extraordinary fermented red pepper sauce again captures the palate when served with a Hokkaido sea cucumber stuffed with shrimp farce, cucumber balls, and onion purée. Other dishes might highlight Cantonese style, as in the blue crab rice porridge with truffles, layers of pickled ginger, and a quartered "thousand year-old quail egg" all enriched with egg white sauce and ringed with red vinegar. Desserts are equally ambitious, as in a creamy strawberry sorbet over tangy yuzu espuma and crumbles of flash-frozen white chocolate.