oakapple

Difficult indeed, but the fact that it is subjective doesn't mean one can't have an intelligent discussion about it. Newspaper editorials are subjective too, and yet, all newspapers have an editorial page. I would say that those who believe $50 is too much for dinner have a simple solution at their disposal: don't spend it. By all means, if you don't see the value, don't spend it. I agree that, with Masa, part of the issue is whether a $500 dinner can ever be worth it. My feeling is that, yes, it conceivably can be. However, with high-end dining you can't think about it proportionately. Is a $500 dinner ten times better than a $50 dinner? Probably not. The $500 dinner is for those who are able to appreciate incremental improvements in luxury, and have the money to pay for it.

Yes indeed. The menu has a new section, "From Our Broiler." Choices include petit filet mignon ($24), double lamb chops ($28), young veal chop ($32), full-size filet ($34), sirloin ($35), t-bone ($38), or the "Compass Signature," a 40oz porterhouse for two ($72). By New York standards, these are very attractive prices for steaks. Non-steak mains are in the range of Angel Hair Pasta ($19) to Lobster ($32), with others from $22-28. The early-bird prix-fixe is $33 for three courses.

There are many restaurants in NY that are far more crassly commercial than Spice Market, e.g., just about any restaurant in Times Square. We live in a crassly commercial city. Spice Market fits in well, methinks. Of course, it's not for everybody, but luckily, you have plenty of other options. Had Amanda Hesser given the right rating (two stars, perhaps), we wouldn't be having this conversation.

The Compass website indicates that the new executive chef is someone called Valdo Figueiredo. Anyone heard of him?

From your description, it sounds like you ate at Bar Masa, not Masa.

This excellent review appeared on Chowhound.

A similar rumor that Masa was in trouble appeared in She Loves New York. Incidentally, Jean-Georges Vongerichten has clamed that V Steakhouse is the most profitable food & bev operation in the mall, and frankly that is a lot more believable.

I ordered by the glass, as my companion was not drinking, so I didn't check out the bottles. Their by-the-glass prices were in line with comparable restaurants, or perhaps even a dollar or so less expensive.

I did not take note of whether people were eating at the Bar, but it looked like a heavy scrum of people primarily drinking.

A restaurant that's been around since 1885 probably can't be considered obscure. In Zagat, it's tied for 11th among steakhouses, with a food rating of 23.

A friend and I went to Wallsé Saturday night. It's a beautiful restaurant that could pass for an art museum if it weren't serving such wonderful food. On a cold fall evening, Wallsé offers the perfect getaway from the elements. To start, I had the Spätzle (a kind of Austrian pasta) with braised rabbit, wild mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, and tarragon ($15). Our server guided me to this, and he wasn't mistaken: it was a wonderful dish. Both my friend and I were beguiled by the crispy cod strudel with a stew of carrots and ginger with black trumpet mushrooms ($27). Cod is the humblest of fishes. The highlight of the dish is the light, flakey, almost ethereal strudel crust that surrounds it. I don't normally have dessert, but who could resist when things were going so well? We shared the Quark “cheesecake” with chilled quince consommé and elderflower sorbet. The menu puts "cheesecake" in quotes because it's made with a very light cheese, giving the cake a consistency just slightly more solid than whipped cream. The quince consommé came in a separate dish, and it almost seemed superfluous to the excellent cake. Perhaps combining the quince with the cake would produce an even more successful offering. When Wallsé called to confirm our 6:00pm reservation, they asked if we wouldn't mind showing up a little closer to 5:45. This happened to suit our plans, but I was mildly insulted by the suggestion. Although the request was phrased politely, the intent was obvious enough: "we're trying to turn the table." My feeling was that they offered a 6:00pm reservation, and they should stand by it: serving the next customer was their problem, not mine. Indeed, I was just faintly aware that the efficient service was perhaps too efficient (the appetizers arrived just moments after we ordered them). None of this should take away from what Wallsé achieves, which is creative Austrian cuisine, prepared to near perfection. Appetizers are priced from $11-19, entrées from $26-35. All desserts are $9. We had a tough time deciding what to order, which may mean that we have to go back!

A friend and I had dinner at Café Gray Friday night. It was a 5:30pm pre-theatre dinner, but we reserved only on Monday. Even when we left at around 7:00pm, the restaurant was not yet full. At first, we were seated near a family with young children. (I can't comprehend taking small children to such a place, but one sees it all the time.) They were well enough behaved, but to be on the safe side we asked to be moved. The staff offered us a nice table for two right next to the kitchen area, and this worked out perfectly. Service overall was top-notch. So many people have recommended the mushroom risotto and the braised short ribs, so I ordered them. These dishes are indeed delicious, but they are also the most expensive items on the menu. After each of us had had a martini, a glass of wine, an appetizer, an entrée, and a cup of coffee, the bill had come to over $200 with tax and tip. This is not an unreasonable sum to pay for dinner at a nice restaurant in New York, but the city has better bets for that amount of money. Some people love the space at Café Gray, and others hate it. After reading so many of the "hate it" posts, I'd expected something a lot worse. Café Gray is lovely, although the point of exposing the kitchen still eludes me. We had a nice time, but we were not transported. Putting such an elaborate place in the middle of a shopping mall looks like a gamble, and I'm not yet prepared to say whether it has paid off.

How are you so sure he'll open up a fine-dining restaurant? ← It seems to me a reasonable guess, assuming that Café Gray succeeds.

I seriously doubt that Jacques-Imo's was intended to be a neighborhood place, as that term is usually understood. For a restaurant of this type, if that's what it is, it practically defines failure. ← Oakapple, I'm not sure I understand your definition of a neighborhood place, or why that's a bad thing. There are hundreds if not thousands of achingly mediocre restaurants in NYC that have survived for decades. ← There's nothing wrong with being a neighborhood place, and as you correctly note, there are thousands of restaurants that aspire to no more than that. However, as typically used on eGullet, the term is nearly always mildly condescending. It suggests a restaurant that makes its living by not aspiring to very much. Jacques Imo is a nationally recognized "name brand" in the authentic New Orleans-style cuisine that New York doesn't offer in abundance. I am quite certain that the restaurant was designed to be a NYC destination for those seeking a bit of New Orleans without having to travel south. If it's no more than a convenient drop-in for neighborhood, Jacques-Imo's won't have achieved that objective. Perhaps it will settle in and survive at the lower standard we're talking about. However, I suspect the operating expenses and capital investment most likely presumed that the restaurant would be more successful than that.

I am not aware of being overly sensitive to salt. I don't generally notice the salt, so it seemed unusual in this case. That said, I always believe that you need more than one data point to establish whether a comment is a genuine weakness, or just an isolated event.

Unlike the original round of reviews, ADNY has been getting mostly favorable press. Both of the two local critics who've reviewed it lately (Steve Cuozzo and Bob Lape) have awarded four stars. I suspect Frank Bruni will weigh in shortly, but anything less than four stars would just prove Bruni's irrelevance. (Edit: I forgot the decidedly mediocre New York Mag review.) I am not so sure that the anti-Ducasse sentiment is political, as there's a far simpler explanation: ignorance. There are no other restaurants in America that are attempting to do what Ducasse does, and most of these critics lack the traditional culinary education that their forebears had. What they see is: "$150, three courses." While ADNY is no longer the only restaurant serving a $150 dinner, it's the only one that gives you only just three courses for that amount. A lot of these critics don't get it.

It's a fair question, to which I have an unsatisfactory answer. I am not very good at remembering precisely which wine I ordered, and I'm not qualified to say definitively that the cab really was a "steal" at $35. Perhaps it will turn out that it was objectively no steal at all. However, it was our subjective view that this wine was a bargain, especially when measured against the restaurant's overall price structure, which is rather high. This struck us forcefully when we dined at Tocqueville just a couple of nights later. The appetizer and entrée prices at Tocqueville are about the same as at LCB Brasserie Rachou, but Tocqueville has hardly any wines below $50 a bottle, and none at all below about $45-46.

Is Café Gray open for breakfast yet, and if so, has anyone had breakfast there?

I seriously doubt that Jacques-Imo's was intended to be a neighborhood place, as that term is usually understood. For a restaurant of this type, if that's what it is, it practically defines failure.

Bob Lape awards three stars to Cafe Gray in today's Crain's New York Business:

Tocqueville (15 E 15th St, 1/2 block west of Union Square) offers a quiet, civilized dining experience. The design, muted and refined, has a calming influence, and unlike so many modern restaurants, doesn't call attention to itself. The dining room is small and the tables reasonably close together—yet, you hear your companion's voice without shouting, and you don't hear anybody else's conversation. Even if you knew no more, all of these attributes would recommend Tocqueville to the discerning diner looking for an evening's escape without busting the budget. I chose Tocqueville mainly to please my mother, who's visiting from out of town. She ordered six oysters on the half-shell, followed by the seared Maine diver scallops with Hudson Valley foie gras. She pronounced both superb—and she is not easily impressed. My choices, alas, didn't turn out quite so well. I started with a salad listed on the menu as: "Cato Farm Connecticut Aged Dutch Farm House Cheddar" with "shaved fennel, frisee, roasted pears, hazelnut balsamic vinaigrette." That's quite a mouthful, and it looked wonderful, but was far too salty to my taste. I noticed that a diner at the table next to me left hers unfinished, so perhaps she had the same reaction. For the entrée, I ordered the Niman Ranch Pork Chop, which is served with "manila clams, fingerling potatoes and bitter greens with chorizo white wine and garlic." (All quotes from the restaurant's website.) The clams are an odd pairing with the pork chop. Once again, this dish was too salty, including the chop (which was thick and tender). Given my mom's endorsement of Tocqueville's cuisine, perhaps I just made the wrong choices. The restaurant was full on a Sunday evening, and I suspect many of the patrons were regulars. Service was efficient and friendly, although I grew mildly irritated at an over-eager server who punctuated each dish ordered with "excellent! ... wonderful! ... great!" On the other hand, over-eager is better than under-attentive. Appetizers are $12-28, mains are $27-36. Tasting menus are available for $75 (five courses) or $95 (seven courses). The wine list is pricey, with scarcely a bottle below $50. We lucked into a wonderful bordeaux at $48, which is about the cheapest you can do, but the pickings were slim at that price range. I don't think it would kill Tocqueville to offer a reasonable wine selection in the $35-45 range.

Thanks, Pan. That was the infamous review in which Bruni touted LCB Brasserie as the ideal escape for white-collar criminals who've finished their prison stints. Bruni also said: That is no longer the case. We were delighted to see plenty of young people in the restaurant, including the table next to us, which had four ladies in (I would guess) their early thirties. It's not a party joint, but neither is it catering exclusively to aged La Cote Basque patrons.

LCB Brasserie Rachou is an odd hybrid between the four-star destination that La Cote Basque once was, and the informal brasserie that it now aspires to be. The serving staff (many of whom pre-date the flood) are attentive and très correctement. The china and flatware would be at home in any three- or four-star restaurant. The patrons are all monsieur et madame. Every dish is served with a silver half-moon cover, which is removed with the obligatory voila! I ordered a cassoulet, while my mother ordered rack of lamb. Both of us were delighted. (I would note that the lamb came with four chops, which is generous as compared to the three I was served earlier this week at Gotham Bar & Grill.) To accompany, we ordered a $35 cabernet that I reckon would have been $50 in many restaurants. In a restaurant of this calibre, $35 for almost any bottle is a steal. Most entrées are over $25, and many are over $30, making LCB Brasserie a bit pricey for a two-star restaurant, but for traditional French favorites it still offers an experience that has become scarce in Manhattan. I would happily return.

Nice Matin (201 W 79th @Amsterdam) is beautiful to look at, but the entrées need some work. I ordered Sole "Milanese". It came inundated in an arugula salad of fennel, oranges, onions and olives. The salad was mentioned on the menu, but there was no mention it would be piled so high that you wouldn't know a fish was buried underneath. After some industrious digging I found the poor sole, which was not far removed from McDonald's filet-o'-fish. Another of my companions ordered the grilled sea bass, which she described as oily and over-cooked. My mother had a halibut dish that's not shown on the online menu. She said it was fine, but not at all what the description led her to expect. When we arrived, we were seated at a table so small and cramped that it would have been more at home at a cocktail bar. They agreed to move us, but we still ended up at one of the more claustrophobic tables for three that I've encountered at a legitimate restaurant. Nice Matin has the same chef, Andy D'Amico, as the dearly departed Sign of the Dove. When it opened, the critics generally were enthusiastic. William Grimes, never easy to please, was sufficiently enchanted to award two stars, which would be unusual for such a casual restaurant, even if the food were better. We didn't try one of the most praised dishes, the beef short ribs. However, on the strength of this performance, I don't expect to be back anytime soon.

It has actually been there a while — I believe a few weeks, at least. Although ADNY is apparently filling up most nights, reservations aren't that hard to come by. I did a search on the next available date, and November 22nd came back. MobyP wrote: If you ate there once a month, you still wouldn't exhaust the possibilities. The menu shows four appetizers and four apiece of fish & meat entrées.