Hav & Mar

Hav & Mar is a seafood restaurant in Chelsea from Marcus Samuelsson. The name reflects Samuelsson's Ethiopian and Swedish roots ("hav" means ocean in Swedish, while "mar" means honey in Amharic), and the inventive menu pulls from both countries with a range of other influences. For a handy tutorial on what to expect, start your meal with the “Swediopian.” You’ll get a buttery piece of berbere-cured salmon topped with a tangy mustard seed caviar and sour buckthorn. Sometimes, the menu will stray from Sweden and Ethiopia altogether and give you something like a waffle with rock shrimp and uni butter. No matter what they do with the loose theme, eating here is exciting. It’s also a pleasant space. They do an upscale urban seaside thing, with an industrial dining room that has minimalist wood paneling and colorful patchwork mermaids on the walls. Come with a group—there’s plenty of room—or bring a date when you want to surprise someone with something completely different.