oakapple

And, to correct my earlier comment, it was truffle butter, not olive butter.

I have no hard facts, but I would guess thay are struggling. Saturday night should be the money night at this type of restaurant, and while they were doing a decent business, they weren't full. I've just checked on OpenTable, and you can get a reservation any night this week.

I agree. While I don't make a point of tracking every menu change in town, I don't know of any tasting menu that has yo-yo'd in price like this one. Our reservation was at 6pm, and when we arrived it was perhaps 20% full. Three hours later, when we left, it was about 80% full.

There's no need to suggest something sinister, when there are simpler explanations. To my recollection, it has been a long time since Peter Luger had a full rated review from any of the critics. Given that the critics spend most of their time on new restaurants, this is not surprising. There are probably many restaurants that would be rated differently if the critics got around to re-visiting them.That said, last year's New York Magazine annual restaurant issue listed Luger as "most overrated," and Bruni had a diner's journal piece on Luger's burgers that was extremely negative. So did Andrea Strong. However, when Bruni compared Luger to Wolfgang's (his 2nd or 3rd review after taking the job), he was in ecstasy over the Luger porterhouse, and Michelin gave it a star. So if there has been a decline, I wouldn't exactly say that it has gone entirely unnoticed. The most recent published criticism has been mixed. When a restaurant is allegedly uneven, it can be difficult for the facts to come out. On any given day, it can be spectacular or mediocre. As you read varying accounts, it could be because the restaurant is highly variable, but it could also be a case of "Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks." On the various steakhouse threads, all of the experts have their own favorites. There doesn't appear to be a consensus yet that Luger's has gone down. Some knowledgeable people think it has, and others think it's still as good as it always was.

My friend and I had dinner at Gilt last night. It is an opulent restaurant that is clearly trying to shoot for the moon, but doesn't always get there. Chef Paul Liebrandt's cuisine is adventurous, colorful, thoughtful, and frequently excellent. But there are too many dishes that fail to live up to their promise. The menu at Gilt changes frequently, and is still clearly undergoing some refinement. Frank Bruni complained that practically half the dishes carried supplements on top of a $92 prix fixe. On last night's version, I noted a supplement only on the Dover Sole ($12). We chose the seven-course tasting menu, which is $160 on the website, but was $145 last night. There were, in fact, something closer to eleven courses, including two flights of amuses bouches, white asparagus, foie gras, skate, lobster, a palate cleanser, Berkshire pork belly, cheese course, another palate cleanser, and a degustation of chocolate. Every plating was a work of art. I'm not adept at remembering ingredients, and Liebrandt puts more into each dish than any chef in town. We found the foie gras, the pork belly, and the cheese course spectacular. Especially notable was a decadent olive butter that was brought to the table with the foie gras. But both fish courses disappointed. The skate was only about the size of a silver dollar, and it failed to make any impression at all. And there were just two popcorn-sized lumps of lobster. The white asparagus wasn't as impressive as what Geoffrey Zakarian's performance of it at Country. The chocolate degustation was terrific if you're a choc-a-holic, but I think there should have been other options for dessert. Gilt is clearly trying to offer four-star service, and at times it succeeds. For instance, Gilt was just the third restaurant I've been to (along with Alain Ducasse and Per Se) that has your coat ready when you leave, without the attendant even asking your name. But there were peculiar glitches. The wrong wine glasses were delivered to the table: a captain whispered, "No, the bordeaux glasses," and the right stemware was quickly substituted. When you leave your table, the staff brings a fresh napkin. Or they're supposed to. On one occasion, a new napkin wasn't there immediately; on another, I had to ask for it. Frank Bruni complained about the $1,000 glass of wine at Gilt. It's still on the menu (a Screaming Eagle cabernet that's ridiculously priced everywhere). But more realistically, there are plenty of bottles under $100 at Gilt, and even a handful under $50. For a restaurant of this calibre, I can't complain about that. My friend and I chose a Martinelli Reserve Pinot Noir at $122 that was out-of-this-world. Gilt does gouge you in other ways. Cocktails are $15 apiece, which is on the high side, and we were charged $9 each for capuccinos. The room is small, elegant, and comfortable. The door to the kitchen is up a short flight of steps, and open to view, which detracts slightly from the magic of the occasion. The hard polished wood surfaces reflect sound, and when the restaurant fills up it gets a bit noisier than I'd like. The bill came to just a hair under $500, including tax. We went home happy, and much of the food was as terrific as it should be, but at that price there should be a sustained excellence that was lacking.

I've been meaning to visit Nebraska Beef (15 Stone St btwn Broad & Whitehall) for a while now, as I live only ten minutes' walk away. The first trouble was that I couldn't find the place. Stone Street is in two segments, and I kept looking for it on the cobblestone segment between William St and Coenties Slip. Once you get to the other half of Stone St, Nebraska Beef is fairly conspicuous with its huge orange sign. Many of the various restaurant guide websites misname the place. It's not "Nebraska Steakhouse," but "Nebraska Beef – A Steakhouse." The menu's signature item is simply called "The Steak," a 32 oz bone-in ribeye dry-aged for 28 days that's about as thick as any ribeye I've seen anywhere. It's a wonderful piece of beef, and Nebraska cooks it expertly, with a deep char on the outside and a juicy medium rare interior. I was unable to finish it, but the steak made great leftovers the next night. I was impressed with the prices at Nebraska Beef. That enormous ribeye is only $37.95 — obviously not a budget item, but there are plenty of steakhouses that would charge more. There's also a 7 oz filet on the menu for around $20, and if the quality is anywhere near the ribeye, it's a great deal for someone who doesn't want a huge steak. Even by steakhouse standards, the decor is of the Plain Jane variety, but service was friendly and efficient. They are open only on weeknights, as in that part of the Financial District there is hardly any foot traffic on weekends. On Wednesday evening, when I tried it, I think there were more people in the bar than were seated at the tables. There are four steakhouses in the area: MarkJoseph, Flames, Bobby Van's, and Nebraska. On this showing, Nebraska has the best ribeye of the bunch, while I prefer the strip at Flames. MarkJoseph has the superb Peter Luger-style Canadian Bacon and an excellent Porterhouse. I'm not sure where Bobby Van's fits in, except that it's the most crowded of the bunch. I'm looking forward to another ten-minute trip to Nebraska.

Someone who heads up a large global empire may be too far removed from what is going on in the trenches. I am not defending it, merely observing that it can happen. I seriously doubt that Vongerichten ever told his staff to be snooty. One can only hope that Bruni's comment (and others like it) will provide a wake-up call.I would add that the lovely models at Perry St were extremely gracious when I visited there, so we should be careful not to paint with too broad a brush.

I think Valenti was spending the majority of his time at Ouest anyway, so I wouldn't expect that there is a noticeable difference.

In general, the more serious the restaurant, the more serious the review. Many of his one and two-star review targets seem to bore him. Instead of just describing the retaurant, he struggles to find a theme, or he brings in irrelevant comments to fill the space.

No restaurant is perfect, and even four-star reviews usually pick a nit or two. That said, the complaints here were a bit louder than one usually finds at a four-star restaurant. I suspect that Bruni thought long and hard about whether JG deserved to keep its stars. I also suspect that if the identical restaurant opened today in another part of town, it would receive three stars.There were probably other factors that made Bruni hesitatant to demote JG. He has already demoted two of the five restaurants that received four stars from his predecessor. I think there would be a credibility issue if it starts to look like he is categorically rejecting previous opinion. How many sacred cows is one guy going to slay in a year and a half? Also, there are only 5 four-star restaurants right now. At some point, the top rating starts to become irrelevant if it's too hard to get. It's possible because, for all intents and purposes, all of his other restaurants are in the hands of underlings.

The Bruni review gives the impression that the menu has become fixed in amber, aside from the usual seasonal adjustments. If true, that is certainly a very different thing than continuing to innovate while retaining a handful of "greatest hits."

MJ Grill is under new management. Although the signage and decor remain the same, it is now an Italian place. Within the next 2-3 months, it will be renamed Amici. One thing that hasn't changed is the lack of a dinner crowd. Just like every time I've been there, you find oceans of empty tables once you get past the bar. You've got to wonder if an unremarkable Italian place is going to have any more luck at attracting patrons. The menu doesn't break any new ground. I had a rather dull crab cake caesar salad, although my friend loved the veal parmagiana. There is still a cheeseburger on offer, but I have no idea if it's as good as MJ Grill's version. On the whole, it's a menu that could have dropped in right out of Little Italy—which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing, but it's not going to turn many heads. Service was extremely slow, despite the lack of patronage. We were offered complimentary after-dinner drinks, which unfortunately we had to decline.

Yes, a solid performance by Mr. Bruni. The introduction on JGV's sprawling empire was a bit overdone, but it certainly was a note that had to be sounded. The comment on his disappointing meal at JoJo is consistent with my experiences there.Bruni has not lived in New York for most of the last decade, so his comments on the restaurant's evolution—or the lack thereof—cannot come from personal observation. Is the menu really as static as the review implies?

However, this is not without reason. Most people don't pay much attention to the bottle of wine once it's poured. But when dining in an expensive restaurant, most people do care about such matters as comfortable seating, quality service, noise level, and so forth.

Bouchon Bakery is Peter Meehan's subject in today's $25 and Under. He's underwhelmed:

There's quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that Keller is, in fact, at The French Laundry or the Per Se the vast majority of the time. Comparisons to guys like Anthony Bourdain or Bobby Flay are really inapt.Generalizing a bit, I think that any of the chefs that have four stars from the NY Times devote a considerable amount of time to their flagship restaurants.

I've just re-read U.E.'s review. All of the points laid at "Keller's" door were reasonable. Keller owns the design of the menu and its execution—regardless of whether he does these things himself or delegates them to others. Obviously, even when he is in the house, he is highly unlikely to have prepared your dinner himself, but if the execution is flawed, he is accountable.

We should be careful to distinguish the concept of the restaurant from the execution of specific dishes. The concept, without question, is Wylie's, and it is so different from anyone else's that one cannot imagine WD-50 without him.But on individual evenings, naturally he is not always there. I believe it was mentioned upthread that he takes every Sunday off. I'm sure Wylie would tell you, with hand on heart, that he believes his vision is being executed properly on those evenings. And if it isn't, the restaurant shouldn't be open. Even for so eccentric a restaurant as WD-50, the chef is an incompetent manager if he can't even take a single night off without adversely affecting what is produced.

I also think that his very generous take on Perry St leaves very little room for JG to be anything but four stars. Besides, there are only five four-star restaurants on the current list, which is (or is close to) an historic low. To reduce the number to just four would be perverse.Regardless of the outcome, Daniel will be only remaining four-star restaurant not reviewed by Frank Bruni.

According to Eater, Frank Bruni will review Jean Georges in this Wednesday's times—JG's first since Ruth Reichl's four-star review shortly after it opened in 1997. I don't know how, but Eater has pretty consistently known the Times review target in advance, so I take this as a reliable source.

My girlfriend and I were not at all impressed with the Café at Country. It was loud, uncomfortable, and pretentious. But we expected the dining room to be an entirely different experience, and we were willing to entirely forget our unpleasant experience in the Café downstairs. I should add that, despite Frank Bruni's imprecise co-mingling of the two, the Dining Room and the Café should be thought of as entirely separate restaurants under one roof. Bruni's three-star rating applies to the Dining Room, various asides about the Café notwithstanding. Your choices in the Dining Room include an $85 four-course prix fixe, a five-course tasting menu at $110, and a seven-course tasting menu at $145. We were in a celebratory mood, and chose the seven-course tasting. Our server then asked us which dishes from the à la carte menu we wanted included — a flexibility I don't recall at any other restaurant that offered a tasting menu. We named four particular items that interested us. Our server advised that he would confer with the kitchen, and in fact all of our choices were included in the meal. I didn't take detailed notes, and the online menu is outdated, so I can describe our experience only in general terms. There was a trio of amuses to start, of which the most memorable was a gougère filled with spinach. Another amuse was a delectable miniature poultry leg (I'm not sure of which bird). Perhaps I am forgetting a third amuse course. Along the way, we received a melt-in-your-mouth parker house roll with soft butter. Our seven course meal consisted of the following: 1. Foie gras terrine 2. Grilled white asparagus 3. Shrimp ravioli 4. Crisp Berkshire pork 5. Bison filet 6. Cheese course (Palate cleanser.) 7. Hot apple crisp (Followed by petits fours.) This was the best meal I have had in the last twelve months. While both Per Se and Alain Ducasse offered individual courses that were superior to anything at Country, each of them had at least one course that I rated—in relation to the price range—a disappointment. But there were no disappointments at Country, nor anything even remotely close to it. Just one outstanding preparation after another. We kept thinking, "It can't last; there must be a dud." But there wasn't. Service was highly attentive and nearly impeccable. We were also impressed with the timing of the courses, which came neither too quickly nor too slowly. I would have liked a bit more time to relax after our cocktails, but as the overall meal was spaced over nearly three hours, I could hardly call it a rush job. The wine staff upsells a bit too aggressively. When we asked the sommelier for a bottle of red under $100, her recommendation (a wonderful burgundy) came in at $110. We could, of course, have refused, but I suspect she realized that we weren't going to quibble over $10. And when our foie gras arrived, we were asked if we'd like a glass of sauterne to go with it. (Even downstairs, the waitstaff on our previous visit had done the same.) With our still-unfinished cocktails and the just-opened burgundy already on the table, this would have been more alcohol than the table would bear, and we declined. The Dining Room was formerly the hotel ballroom. It retains the original beaux arts tile floor and a gorgeous tiffany skylight, and is open to the lobby. The period details are wonderful, but as the hard tile floor reflects sound, the restaurant is just a touch noiser than I would like. Somewhat in compensation, the tables are generously spaced. It would take many more visits to determine whether Country is a four-star restaurant. But as I rate this one meal at least as highly as those I enjoyed at Alain Ducasse and Per Se, for now Country is four stars in my book.

E-Gullet reviews are based on the diner's recollection, and therefore may be flawed. I am positive I had duck something-or-other as an appetizer. As I didn't remember the exact details, I checked the online menu. The rillettes are the only duck appetizer listed online, so I assumed that's what I had. Perhaps the online menu is outdated. As for the cassoulet, I felt it was was served at an excessively hot temperature that detracted somewhat from the enjoyment. The comments upthread suggest that others have had the same reaction. Your mileage may vary.

I returned to Keens last night with two companions who were eager to try an authentic New York steakhouse. I started with the House-Cured Salmon, which was wonderful. Last time at Keens, I tried the mutton chop, which I loved. I'm sure I'll have it again someday, but in the interest of science, I wanted to sample something else. I would have chosen the porterhouse (available for 2 or 3 people), but my companions prefer filet to strip. So I ordered the T-bone ($42), while they ordered the Chateaubriand for two ($90). The T-bone was correctly prepared to the medium rare that I'd requested, although I like a crisp char on the exterior that is apparently not in Keens' repertoire. My companions declared the Chateaubriand "best steak we've ever had." It was one of the largest hunks of beef I've ever seen on one plate. I tasted a bit of it, but their preference for well done steaks renders my opinion irrelevant, as I like to see blood on the plate. To finish, we shared (but could not finish) an order of bread pudding, which was terrific, but more than we had room for.

Of the three places Mr. Cutlets mentioned, I've tried only Sparks and was rather disappointed. That said, almost any steakhouse can have a bad outing, and many of the second-tier steakhouses can hit a home run on occasion. However, I am of the school that dry aging matters, so I am a little dubious that Sparks could ever make my list. However, I'll give it another try sooner or later. I've had great steaks at Wolfgang's twice, so for now they're at the higher end of the pantheon. Blogger Augieland recommended the ribeye at Strip House, and he was absolutely right, so Strip House is high on my list. I'm paying my 2nd visit to Keens tonight; it was terrific the first time, and we'll see if the consistency is there. For the life of me, I've looked for Nebraska over & over again, and I just can't find it. I was on Stone Street again last night. I looked up and down, and couldn't see the place. It must be the best concealed steakhouse in Manhattan. (Update: I was looking on the cobblestone part; per Sneakeater, I'll look again on the "other" Stone Street.) Craft sells its porterhouse and/or cote de boeuf at $125 for two, which is an extremely significant premium over most other restaurants in town. When I was at Craft recently, I wasn't tempted to take a chance at that price.

This was our weekend to try the casual "little sister" restaurants of the city's fine dining rooms, so after booking the Aquavit Cafe on Friday night, we proceeded to the Bar Room at The Modern on Saturday. The atmosphere here is far more raucous and lively than at the sedate Aquavit. There is just the ever-so-slight hint that the staff know you're at they're mercy. However, I was pleased that they were willing to transfer our bar tab to our table, something that even much fancier restaurants will often refuse to do. The menu is in three columns, labeled One ($9-19), Two ($12-16), and Three ($15-19). I haven't figured out the distinction between One and Two; they all look like appetizers to me. Column Three are the entrees, which the menu says are half portions. We were still feeling over-fed from our food orgy at Aquavit the night before, so we ordered a bit less of chef Gabriel Kreuther's food than we might have had under other circumstances. My friend ordered the gnocchi and the Austrian pork sausage (both from Column Two). I ordered the Warm Veal & Goat Cheese Terrine (One) and Crispy Tuna (Three). I was struck by the complexity of both dishes I tried, and they were both terrific. I was also impressed with my friend's sausage. (I had only a bite of her gnocchi, not enough to form an impression.) Chef Kreuther's cuisine deserves a more serene environment than the frenetic Bar Room gives it, but service was generally acceptable, and the place is impressive when you consider it's the cafe attached to an art museum. If I lived in the neighborhood, I'd stop by often just for a plate or two. Just about everything on the menu looks appealing.