Todd36

On a somewhat serious note, we are supposed to have one of the better cafeterias in town, its actually been reviewed in the press, and trust me, it has its bad days. But those burgers are fine On a more serious note, on the way out the door, ADNY gives you what they call a brioche to take home. I would describe it as being more like a pantone, it has bitter orange peel and almonds. It is very light and very good. Hands down, that brioche, the two cheese course brioche and the canali are by far the best I've had in the US. They need to open a retail bakery.

As far as I know, the prices are about the same as when they opened. I don't think the problem is the food prices, its the wine. And I think Alain Ducasse may know that. About 1/3 of the bottles on the montlhly special list were in the under $100 a bottle catagory, and I think one was $48 if memory serves. About as many "cheap" bottles on the monthly special list as on the entire main list, and that is interesting. I would also say that for a French place, they believe in wine from around the world. For example, I saw a bottle on the list from the North Fork of LI and a monthly special from the former Yugoslavia. They also served me a sake with my tuna, and couldn't find sake on the wine list!!! Still, even with all of that, the wine gets very expensive in a hurry. The 3 glass paring set (its on the menu) is $90 and I told that is not really meant for the tasting menu, for that you need the 5 glass option, which is either $120 (which is what I had) or I think about $200. The pairing for the truffle menu is $220, the single glass we had was taken from that pairing. I think the printed and priced pairings are nice. It is good that you can point and say "I'll have that pairing" and then be sure that you will really have 5 glasses at the agreed upon price (and they topped me up a little). And 5 glasses in case you are wondering was a sake with the tuna, a port with the foe grais (I can't spell), a white with the fish, a red with the veal and a red with the cheese. I'll try to add more details later. Yes, there was no sparkling wine to start (unlike say Danube) and no dessert wine. I was thinking of getting a glass of maderia (they have some rare ones), but decided against it on the theory I would add at least $50 more to the bill. On the other hand, my prix fix was $220 I think (or maybe $225). Add one expresso at $8 and a $120 wine pairing and a $12 bottle of water, and we're at $360. We've now hit the price at Masa, $300 for food, I wouldn't have coffee, and $60 buys a very fine half bottle of sake. With tax and tip, we've hit about $450. I had dinner at Danube a few months ago. $65 prix fix and $60 set wine pairing. With tax, tip and coffee, something like $160. I can eat three times at Danube for the price of ADNY. Was ADNY better? yes. was the wine better at ADNY ? yes. did I get more wine at Danube? Yes (I thought it was a great bargain). Of course, someone is going to point out that I spent equal amounts on food and wine at Danube and only half as much on wine at ADNY. That is true. Still, $600 per person is more than I can bear. And note, while I don't claim to be a rich man (I'm not), I have a job that pays me enough so that I should be able to afford to eat where ever I want every few months. My co-workers think the prices at ADNY are obscene (Fat Guy may remember where I work, and he may find that interesting).

If anything, the hunk of veal I got was too juicy!!! The Salmon I had was perfectly cooked, but perhaps a little more seasoning would have been better. On the other hand, my Japanese dining friend thought the Salmon was world class, and she doesn't usually like Salmon (she likes more unusual fish).

That expensive glass of wine was a 1997 Meursault-Charmes, Clos de la Barre, by Lafon. It's $336 the bottle on the wine list, which makes a 4 oz glass at $56 seem almost reasonable. It was very good. More food comments. They give you a first class cheese puff as a freebe to start. It was very good. Glad that only give you one. They have two types of bread, both are good, but not super. Salted and unsalted butter, good, but not as good as $2 Polish stuff I once bought at Agata. From the tasting menu: The starter was pumpkin soup with crushed cheshnuts and I think thick bacon or some sort of smoked and salted pork product. It was very good. Next comes the carpaccio of blue fin tuna with eggplant caviar. This was very good. Based on that picture Ellen took, my knowledge of Japanese cooking, and the fact that mine came with pickled eggplant, I bet that shiny thing on top in her picture is a pickled piece of negmi or the like, the white part of a bunching onion. Next was the sauteed duck foie gras with purple figs and Banyuls sauce. Inside was raw and I mean raw. Very good, but the general cooking style here is raw everything. Then comes the fish. Wild Alaskan Salomon, lightly cooked (so he tells you) with a bearnaise reduction. Actually, I've been served rawer salmon elsewhere. It was very good, but actually needed a bit more pepper. The side on this was lettuce(!!!), slightly blanched I think. Very crispy salomon skin on side, almost like paper. General comment, they include no carbos in anything. No rice, no cous cos nothing like that. Now the meat. Roasted milk-fed veal with fall vegtables. The portion is rather large, like probably 6 ounces of meat. It's like butter, with a very mild flavor. I loved the assorted vegetables this was served with. Next comes the cheese and guess what, they have very good cheese. This comes with two types of what they called brioche, one sweet and one salt. They look like tiny cinnomon rolls actually, like a piece of dough made into a spiral. Both are worth considering murder. My dessert was the Pear declintion, which is pear cooked three ways and topped with carmel. It was good. My dining friend loved it. The most popular dessert seemed to be the chocolate souflee, which I will order next time.

I ate this tonight. The dark lines are a blend of soy sauce and balsamic vinger (I asked). This is the current presentation, except that the pearly thing on top is now two pieces of vingered Japanese eggplant. The base is vegetable, not fish. It's eggplant and something else, I think mushroom, but I'll find my notes tomorrow.

Had my dinner there tonight. More details will follow..... 1. Prices border on the obscene. 2. It's probably worth it. 3. I want to go back. 4. White Truffle tasting menu at $320. They are generous with the truffle. The pheasant sauce comes close to being worth murder, not to mention the egg dish that starts it off with silk. Note the cheese course is not included, add another $21. The tubot is good, the giant shrimp it comes with is evern better. 5. Baba Rum that makes every other baba rum I've ever had seem like junk. The channeled freebe thing they throw in, I think it's a cannili or the like, you know, covered with beeswax, was great and makes Payard's version seem like wonder bread. They also make first class chocolates, on the Mason du Chocolat level. Chocolate truffles are great. 6. The tasting menu at $225 is great, and does include the cheese course. The tuna capaccio is made with tuna I haven't seen in the best sushi places. Oddly enough, the best part was the vegtables served with the veal, which I can still taste. Cabbage cooked two ways for example. 7. We did one wine pairing and one glass (other person doesn't drink much). All first rate, and my first glass was Sake no less, the best I've ever had. On the other hand, a 5 flight pairing was $120 and that single very good glass was $56. 8. Too much food to eat. Portions are large. 9. Did I mention an expresso costs $8? 10. They have a light hand with salt, which I like. 11. They do turn tables on Friday and Saturday night, most of the tables do two covers. I saw this with my own eyes, and the waiter verified it. They seem to seat people as early as 5:00 on Sat. 12. The coooking is not fancy, dishes are simple and ingredents are few. You can taste everything, and it is delicate. I think that is one of the strengths of the style. It's almost like Japanese, in the sense that its almost sparten a little. There is also nothing to cover mistakes. 13. If you get the regular tasting menu, and the 5 flight of wine, and a bottle of water, and a coffee, and nothing else, it's around $450 a person with tax and tip. If you got three courses and ordered two bottles of the cheapest wines (at around $60 each), it's going to be about $300 with tax and tip. 14. Service is good and friendly. 15. You save money on breakfast the next day, they give you a brioche. 16. And in some weird pun, they give you carmels and lollipops.

I wouldn't think so. That Lamb for example - although a perfectly fine dish, and beautiful to look at - it doesn't seem to me very adventurous. The pork dish I had also I didn't think had all that many notes to it. Which is to say, although I thought the cooking exceptional, it seems he's playing it safer at the moment than I would wish for. ← After tomorrow, I will have my own opinion, but in a sense, the point above is a variation on the "can a hot dog be 4 stars" question. Since people seem to think ADNY does deserve 4 stars, does the fact that the food, while well cooked, seems to be a bit simple, raise any issues in your mind?

Soliciting recent diners of their views on Alain Ducasse at the Essex House and whether it is worth the obscene prices. Also, on views on the lower end of their wine list?

I haven't been there in a year, but the Mark is way to go. I've never seen the room full, you can stay for hours if you want, endless hot water for your fine qualtity tea leaves and good food. Good value for the money, I think its in the $30-35 range. It is a very traditional English china type room.

Had dinner at Klong tonight. Its pretty good. Green Curry Puff---had a nice fresh taste. Shrimp Paste Soup---good complex flavor, with some heat. Tofu and Shitake Mushrooms, quite good, but probably an American influenced dish. Roadside Noodles with Chicken. Might be the best noodle dish I've had in NY. Mandalay Basil---this is a mixed seafood dish. Quite good, spicy, at least two types of hot peppers. Quality of seafood was pretty good. It's quite different cooking from Wondee or Pam's. More subtle I think. This looks more like a fake asian bar when you walk in, but the food is quite good and I think more traditional than you would expect. It also seems to be well run. Hostess is Japanese, and she said everyone else working there is Thai.

Look at the last paragraph in the review: "But the bang for buck here is atomic. For those without wheels or navigational skills, the 61st Street stop on the No. 7 train is nearby. The smiling servers are both kind and wise: if you puff up your chest and request your dishes very spicy, they will rightly redirect you to moderately spicy, which is spicy enough. Like Pam Real Thai in Midtown and too few other Thai restaurants in New York, this one does not pander. But it sure does delight." The NYT recently had that feature on Pam's (and that article was glowing). Based on this review, it seems Bruni has been there. And he likes it. Could he think NY has two 2 star Thai restaurants?

Is that $100 per person??? ← Yes, you could spend that. You don't have to, but it can get a little pricy. We spent about $75 a person and we didn't drink very much. It's a typical high end Japanese ala carte place, where you order many dishes. Depending on what you order, that can get expensive.

Ate at EN last night, on Hudson. With a Japanese friend who had eaten there before and does a lot of high end NYC Japanese dinign for business purposes. 1. Atmosphere. It's a big slightly loud place. They play nice jazz. It's a 30-40 year old trendy crowd. It's an attractive place, with tasteful and expensive furnishings. People are clearly coming here for the way it looks. On the down side, sat at the counter that surrounds a large water pool, a somewhat dirty and scummy looking water pool. 2. Service. Not good. They lost chunks of our order and seemed generally disorganized. Too many people working, and running around. They need a firmer hand. 3. Pricing. Not too bad for food. Terrible for Sake. They get around $8-12 for a two ounce glass of mid range stuff. Costs more per ounce than say Bar Masa. The most overpriced sake by the glass I've seen in NY. 4. Food. Mixed. Fresh tofu was the best I've had in NY. Omlet was terrible. Sashmi was above average. Crab and rice pot had not so fresh crab flavor and was salty. Eggplant with Uni was fair at best, and while I could see Uni, it tasted like nothing. Duck was good. Had some Japanese cold dishes and they were good. Overall, its a pretty place with a crowd attracted by atmosphere. I think they want to serve good food, but they are not being sucessful. And they need better management. It's also possible to spend $100 plus on dinner here.

Maybe he's been reading this thread

Without knowing more about the raw data Zagat uses, none of us are in a position to know whether 100 votes is statistically significant or not. Don't forget that current national political polls are based on a sample size of 1200 or fewer people, and are sampling a much more varied population I think than people who go to Per Se or Nobi.

You think and/or know that they throw out votes? For what it's worth, a Japanese friend of mine saw Tim Zagat speak last year to a small group at the Japan society and he said his strongly disagreed with the Zagat rankings of Japanese places.....

Nobu is still perceived as hip; its still the number one place that downtown summer lawfirm associates want to go to (many of when are from out of town). Zagat's is a democracy, and reflects popular taste to some extent. I think the most popular Zagat's places combine some or all of the following attributes: 1. At least good food (I don't like Nobu but it isn't that bad). 2. Recoginization from another review source (like the NYT). 3. A certain degree of hipness (my guess is that most Zagat's voters are under age 50 and like pretty things). 4. Approachability. A "normal" sushi place like Tomoe as opposed to a sushi place that serves Mantis Shrimp (which I don't like BTW) and other odd things as part of its normal menu. 5. Often, a pretty dining room. 6. A place where the rich and famous can be seen. Based on my own experience, places that get more than a 20 from Zagat's always seem to have at least decent food, maybe not great food, but at least decent food. In that sense, Zaget's is useful because it covers things the NYT doesn't (it also seems to be thicker this year; maybe they included more places). I don't think Zagat's is that useful for determing what the best places are, it reflects general tastes.

The Times does do weekly reviews for the 'burbs (Patricia Wells has done Conencticut for example). Given that, I think they should also have someone dedicated to the outer boroughs. And I think they should also cover budget restaurants---they are not the paper of only the rich. The only other paper in the city with what I consider decent reviews is the Voice with Seimesta (spelling), and he concentrates on the really unusual most of the time, true its budget, but its unusual budget places.

They need 3 or 4 reviwers (if the budget permits). 1. The real under $25 for Manhattan. This is where noodle shops, hamburgers, things like F&B should be, where you can really get dinner for $25. Also, much of what Semesta (spelling again) covers for the Voice could fit in here. 2. Over $25 and under $75 for Manhattan. This I guess is entry to moderate "fine dining." Where you can actually get a main, dessert and a drink for say $60. This is where say Otto or Dunguri belong. 3. Over $75 for Manhattan. This is fine dining and in theory, every restaurant should be aiming for at least two stars. Per Se, Sugiyama, Deanube etc. 4. One person to cover the rest of NYC. If the NTY budget permits, this would make the reviews much more useful. #3 is for tourists and those who really want fine dining, #2 is for people who want find dining on a budget, and #1 is for people who want something inexpensive. #4 keeps the rest of the city happy. Will the NYT budget permit this? Heck, I'd do #1 myself for free

Stopped by Bar Masa tonight, it was empty at 9:00 PM, 4 other people in the Restaurant. Had the sushi sampler, for I think $68. Good, but way overpriced. The wasabi was real though. 3 pieces cucumber roll, 3 pieces tuna roll, and I think 9 pieces Nigri. And 3 odd rolls of chopped things. Standard fish choices, like Salmon. No uni, or anything top shelf at all. Fish Quality was good, but equal to about $35 sushi deluxe at most places. For example, tuna was ordinary and not even medium fatty. The most shocking thing is that at least according to my taste buds, the rice was no good. According to bartender, they recently reduced the price (and Masa does not make the sushi himself). At least at the bar side, I think they are having trouble. The menu is very expensive, across the board, and I don't think the food is that good.

It's interesting, but I disagree with some of the rankings. Like everything else, people's taste in sushi varies. Tome has been unimpressive to me and I don't think it's close to #5 in the city. Blue Ribbon is mediorce (like my spelling), and shouldn't be as high as #11. No way is Taka #15, its decent at best and was poor last time I ate there. Zutto isn't even Japanese, its Korean and not #27. I like Esashi, it should be higher than #36. Sushi Seki should be higher than #12 (you really think Blue Ribbon is better??????) Soba Nippon is not my favorite but #86???? Same thing with Omen at #64. Nadaman Hakabuki at #55????????????? I've never eatan there, but people I trust have, and it's a top 25 place, although it's not a sushi place. Their sushi can't be thaty bad. Described as "very Japanese" in the spreadsheet. Sure, its in a major Japanese owned hotel..... I haven't eaten at Megu either, but at #30, you have to wonder. Overpriced it may be, but #30?????? Other strange thing is that the spreadsheet contains many references to WIner '04......

Yes, I'm not thrilled about this either. I don't think Tsukushi serves anything really expensive (it's not a sushi bar, and they don't have, I think, things like toro or uni), so I think the risk of a $100 food bill is limited, unless you really eat a lot. Still, they basically give you a bottom line total and that is that. Most of their customers are Japanese business types using company money and I've been told this sort of pricing is common in Japan (worse yet, it's considered bad manners to set a price in advance in Japan, which can lead to bad surprises, my very Japanese friend has had this happen to her). This sort of thing is why I like Sugiyama (where everything is prix fixed) and Ushiwakamaru, which has very good high end prix fish sushi options (where for example they tell you on the menu 15 pieces for $49 and it is good stuff). I mention Tsukushi becuase I think it's pretty good. I also think the end number you will be shown is typical for this sort of place in NYC, places that cater to Japanese businessmen are not cheap.

Another unusual Japanese Restaurant, which I mention with caution. It's called Tsukushi. The address I think is 300 East 41st Street. It's very close to the southeast corner of 41st and Second Avenue. There is no sign outside, look for a long awning that comes close to the street. It's open till about 2:00 in the morning. This is a quiet Japanese bar, usually with one waitress (who speaks at least some English) and a chef behind the counter, who is the owner and who speaks a little English. They serve beer, sake and hard stuff. Sake is $8-10 a glass for premium stuff. They serve very good food. Last night I had Japanese cucumber with miso, a bean sprout dish, broiled cod (very good), the best Japanese pumpkin I've ever had, decent sashmi, very good cold Udon with mushrooms and I'm not sure what else. The catch is that there is no menu. I don't mean no menu in English, I mean no menu, in English or Japanese. It seems the food varies from day to day, and depending upon how the owner feels, you get what he wants you to get. Pricing is also random, I paid $45 a person last night for food, plus a required 15% tip. I've been told pricing varies from visit to visit, and also depends on how many drinks you order. There is a very small hand written Japanese language menu for noodles and rice dishes, for which choice is allowed (they end the meal). They also do have the drink menu in English. I'm cautious about mentioning this place for a couple of reasons. The lack of a menu, random pricing and limited English makes it risky. I've always gone with someone Japanese, and am not sure how someone alone who is not Japanese would fare. They play light music, and it is a small, bright place. It does not fit your stereotype of a Japanese bar. The lack of a sign indicates they are not looking for random customers. The food is good. Lighter, less oily and less salty than typical for this sort of food. Several levels above the average NYC izayaka.

The key quote I think is: "During my recent visits to Indochine, the sauces tended to be too sweet. The meat and fish tended to be mistreated. I had overcooked duck, overdressed beef, rock-hard shrimp." After that, he doesn't need to say much about the food. My current NYT question is why do they have currently have an obsession with moderate Japanese places? How many have they reviewed in the last 3 months?

Pulled this from http://www.chetbacon.com/thai-html/Pad_Thai.htm 8 ounces rice vermicelli (either the sen mee or the sen lek style of Thai noodles or indeed any rice noodles will do). These should be soaked for a short while (perhaps 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the brand of noodles) until soft. 5-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped. 2 tablespoon chopped shallots quarter cup dried shrimp (these should be rolled, or roughly punded in a mortar and pestle to break them up) quarter cup fish sauce quarter cup palm sugar 2-3 tablespoon tamarind juice 2-3 tablespoon chopped, pickled raddish (mooli) 1 medium egg, beaten quarter cup chopped chives half cup roasted peanuts, very coarsely broken up. one cup bean sprouts basic condiments (chilis in fish sauce, ground dried red chili, sugar and crushed peanuts) at the table, to suit their individual taste. The above seems like a typical recipe, and it includes tamarind. If you google pad thai and tamarind, up comes lots of recipes. I have no idea what makes the common american version day glow orange, I've noticed the same thing. It can't be the ketchup they often put in. It's probably some sort of commerical sauce. In the scheme of things, making pad thai sauce doesn't seem that complicated or time consuming (it's not like making your own fish sauce from scratch), so I assume decent Thai places must make their own. At the risk of thread drift, I was at Pam's Real Thai last night and can report it was packed at 9:00, probably as a result of that NYT article. And in terms of why the hip young'ems found Klong, that block of St. Mark's is an extension of both NYU and Cooper Union (Sunrise Mart is in an NYU dorm and NYU has a large dorm directly across the street from that) and the block has long been a young hip Asian hang out---Witness the yakitori places and Go; young person't food and drink.