Steve Cuozzo

Steve Cuozzo

Lifestyle

Can this restaurant reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s?

Bring an appetite, but leave your mind behind, when you drop into Honeybrains.

The new Noho restaurant is co-owned by a neurologist, and it claims to be more that just a mere grab-and-go spot for grains bowls and avocado toasts. Rather, it bills itself as a “public health care initiative set in a cafe.” Really?

Co-owner Alon Seifan, a neurologist who practices in Hollywood, Fla., and has a medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, says menu items were created with “micronutrient”-packed ingredients in mind — meaning specific foods with allegedly brain-benefiting properties, including certain veggies, fruits, legumes, whole grains and healthy fats.

For example, Seifan said, walnuts have more omega-3 than other nuts, so they’re used in the “Mediterranean mind salad.”

Seifan doesn’t claim that walnuts or any other particular foods can directly prevent Alzheimer’s, as some press reports have incorrectly stated. Rather, he says certain foods fight inflammation, improve circulation and metabolism and promote “nutrient balance.” Weaknesses on any of those fronts, he tells The Post, “can increase your risk” of the dreaded, memory-killing disease.

“Inflammation occurs in the blood, which bathes our organs, which in turn can relate to brain inflammation” — believed by some scientists to be a cause of Alzheimer’s, he says.

At Honeybrains, dishes like a hummus bowl with chickpeas and lentils aim to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.Francesco Mastalia

Honeybrains’ dishes are fine and sometimes quite good. Flaky sea bass with spiced sweet potatoes and wilted kale ($13) was better than most fast-casual fish. Mediterranean Mind Salad ($11) with baby spinach, hummus, chickpeas, quinoa and spiced walnuts was made vibrant by green basil-and-honey dressing.

But health-minded promotional blurbs — like “where nourished minds and thriving bodies enrich lives” and “products to nurture your well-being and your brain” — festooned around the clean, colorful space can short-circuit your gray matter to the point that you hardly notice what you’re eating. And only the owners will be enriched by peddling a 12-ounce bottle of Energy Flow, a house-made blend of nine juices, tea, serrano pepper and coriander, priced at a mind-numbing $9.74 including tax.

And, other than a wide choice of honeys for sale — all “made from bees that are healthy, homebound and happy” according to more signage — Honeybrains doesn’t seem much different from Sweetgreen, Fresh & Co., Chopt and the like.

Mediterranean Mind SaladFrancesco Mastalia

To hawk its message, Honeybrains is holding a series of free Thursday Night Talks (6:30 to 7:30 p.m.) hosted by experts on wellness — the first on Thursday featuring Seifan himself.

But, you’d think a place that excitedly touts “superfoods,” “healthful” and “organic” ingredients, as well as “easy to understand nutritional content labeling” might offer such basic data as calorie counts.

None is available, including for belt-busters such as Cobb salad made with olive oil-poached tuna, organic slab bacon, blue cheese, spiced walnuts and eggs. The menu instead has hieroglyphics-like symbols informing us that the dish contains fruits, vegetables, omega-3’s and legumes.

“We don’t care about calories,” Seifan says. “When people start to think about calories, they start to rule things out.

“Science says that if you eat enough good food and stay away from food overnight” — meaning shortly before you go to sleep — “it doesn’t matter how much good food you eat.”

Great — but just serve it without the sermon.

Honeybrains, 372 Lafayette St.; 646-678-4092

The restaurant has a golden wall of honey products for customers.Francesco Mastalia