BryanZ
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Posts posted by BryanZ
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Haven't been back yet, but it seems as if they're moving more toward the seating arrangement at the new Noodle Bar. The four-tops at the front being gone and all.
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For all the reports of meals at Ko getting better, the one thing I can't get over is why they've stopped serving a different dish to each diner in each party of two. I'm fine with the dinner price hike, and even given my extreme skepticism with lunch I on some level appreciate that they're trying to raise the bar within their given concept. But why, oh why, would you ratchet back like that? At least let diners have the opportunity to try more and different things.
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Yeah, I had heard reports taht quality had slipped some. I'd put my meal at somewhere between Otto and Lupa, with a price to match.
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To me, the answer to that question is much more interesting than the list itself.
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I think as cocktails become more and more serious you are more influenced by stylistic differences that have been alluded to in other threads. This is especially true when considering a bar's drink list on the whole. Be it the influences of the head mixologist, the bartending team, or something else entirely you often times see similar themes manifest themselves across a menu. This, to me, is actually a good thing. Just as some people don't get the cuisine of Wylie or Liebrandt, their cooking would certainly go on my Top 5 list.
Lists of this nature are kind of pointless because once you get to a certain level of quality it really comes down to less objective factors. Better to just talk about the trend at large and define the traits that make a good bar. Then again, if you want to write an article about it, people love seeing lists.
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I must say, for my purposes last night Mia Dona fit the bill perfectly. I dined with a group of seven others with relatively simple tastes. The menu reads identifiably Italian but the Greek flourishes--creative uses of olives, capers, their respective brines, feta and other Greek cheeses--were enough to keep me interested. I also really liked the pitchers of beer. Good for a festive, group meal.
The cooking here won't win any awards, and this isn't a two-star restaurant in my book. Instead, it's a strong one-star place, and I think its customers would be better off going in with those kind of expectations. Its soulful, hearty food and offers the same kind of experience. Our server was very good at judging the dynamic of our group and quickly dropped any formal pretense with us. Again, this seemed more natural and our meal was for the better because of it.
I had the octopus--very meaty if a little bit overwhelmed by all the olives on the plate--and the mixed grill of quail, lamb, and pork--simple, but a nice plate of food. Also tried the gnudi; a pasta with tomatoes, basil and cheese; the branzino, the scallop with blueberry starter, the flank steak. Overall, I found the food to be quite consistent across the menu, both in philosophy and execution. Pastas ordered as mains tended to be a bit soggy, probably because they were finished before the meat mains were done.
All in all, no complaints. At less than $50 per person with a good amount of beer, I can't complain. I'd definitely come back if I was in the area.
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Stopped here with a friend for a couple half-glasses and some snacks. First time, and although I've been kicking myself nearly every week since the place opened for not going, I'm even more angry now that I haven't been frequenting this wine bar more often. I think the whole Viva-La-Wine-Revolucion-vibe-thing is a bit over the top, but I like how the place is serious without being at all pretentious. It takes some balls for a wine bar to offer nothing but reislings as their white, by-the-glass offerings. As Nathan wrote they do show a good and interesting range, but all the ones I tasted maintain the soul of the grape.
Also had the duck confit salad and the meatballs. Never had the latter at Craftbar, so I feel that I'm a bit late to the party in singing their praises. Very light yeah rich and mouth-filling at the same time. The duck confit salad is anything but. Think chopped duck confit with a duck fat dressing, garnished with frisee. The duckiness permeates the whole thing. A bit too rich? Perhaps, but certainly delicious and great with the minerality and acidity of the wine.
My only minor quibble is that the place is good enough that you'll want to drink and eat a lot of different things. Just a couple half-glasses and sharing those two plates with another person ended up at nearly $40 per person. It's a great experience, just not quite as cheap as I would like. This is not a wine bar that you go to get buzzed, at least not on the cheap.
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Personally, that's how I would source ingredients.
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This place is on the corner of the 11th and 2nd. It's been something of a sleeper hit for the past couple of years but has gained more cred with the foodie set in more recent months. I usually don't eat much sushi in Manhattan, but the $31 omakase plate seemed like a great value and worth trying.
Stopped by last night and made a reservation at the bar. Despite this, this is a relatively new-style sushi-ya where you order from a waiter. I split the mini-appetizer tasting with a friend and ordered the omakase plate for myself. The omakase plate consisted on this night of seven rather large pieces of sushi, one huge piece of feel, and a half tuna-shiso roll. The uni was tuna were very good, though not up to, say, Yasuda-quality. Some of the other pieces were just good but nothing special. The other few were somewhere in the middle.
In the end, I did find the quality of the fish to be quite good. This is a very good neighborhood spot. I'd be curious to put it head-to-head with Ushi, but based on what I've heard it might come up short when compared to that better known establishment. Where it falls short in my opinion is in the details. The rice isn't particularly distinctive, nor is the tea. And dessert, perhaps expectedly, seems an afterthought.
I'll go back if I'm in the area and am craving sushi. It's not, however, Yasuda-downtown or anything of the sort.
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Wow, it's amazing how different our meals were. Many of our snacks to start were the same--though not completely--but our courses themselves could hardly be more different.
Did you get a menu or take notes? Your recollection of the meal is much stronger than mine. And you reminded me of the egg dish and a similar crudo-type dish that we also received. It was a lot of food, and I now think I'm probably forgetting a dish or two--the ramp martini was strong. I must say, the only dish I have serious envy about is the foie. I'm sure theirs is completely unadulterated goodness. I do also wish I could've tried the pork, but I was very happy with the lamb, easily the best neck preparation I've had.
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It depends if you want unequivocally great experiences or the ability to say, "Yeah, I've been to X, it's not as good as everyone says it is." A lot of those restaurants-- Daniel, Luger's, even Per Se--probably fall into that latter category. They're all more than worthy of a visit, especially if price is relatively no object, but they probably won't show you anything you haven't seen or at least read about before.
What you could do, is hit some of those places for their greatest hits. For instance, the potato-crusted fish or duo of beef at Daniel. You should be able to get those at the bar/bar room. Or go the Picholine for like two cheese plates and a bottle of wine. Obviously, the same strategy can be employed at the cheaper places on the list like DiFara's.
If it was me, I'd say definites are EMP tasting menu and Masa. I haven't been to the latter, however. And hope that Corton is open before you leave.
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A couple points.
First, there's a more than negligible chance that I'm misremembering the the type of fish. I do believe it was wahoo, however. Another eG member was at BH@SB that night and also partook in the Farmer's Feast so it might be useful for him to chime in if he's reading.
Second, I'd be more deflated to receive a piece or species of fish that the chef deemed less-than-completely-appropriate for the dish. If Barber had decided that wahoo was the best fish for the dish, that's what I want in it. What bothers me about a lot of contemporary cooking--be it farm-to-table or hypermodern cooking--is that some chefs are willing to put some kind of philosophy before flavor. Of course on some level, I tend to agree with these chefs. For instance, I understand why some chefs refuse to put threatened fish species on their menus. But if Barber was faced between choosing a local, freshwater fish to accompany the chowder and the wahoo, and he believed the wahoo to be better, I'd happily take the wahoo every time.
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I didn't find the light at all objectionable. A little low for a contemporary fine-dining restaurant, but certainly better than many other places.
The seafood thing brings up an interesting point, as it can't (or perhaps shouldn't) necessarily be staunchly local. A bit of reading shows that wahoo are caught in the Atlantic. Does that constitute local? I don't know how or where one draws the line.
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I was here on Friday to take part in a Farmer's Feast, and I must say this place is fan-freaking-tastic. Definitely a top-five meal on the east coast for me. Our reservation was later in the evening, but we arrived an hour early to walk around the grounds and get a drink. The facility is beautiful and reminiscent of great countryside temples of gastronomy in Europe. The fact that it's also a working farm sweetens the deal even further.
On our explorations we may have wandered too far into the grounds and may have set off a couple motion-detecting alarms, but no animals were harmed in our forays. My only criticism of the grounds and building is that it almost feels too clean, too Disneyland. This isn't to say that the operation feels sterilized and overly commercial, it's just a bit too idyllic to have grounds and buildings that nice. The dining room even feels a little bit too Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware. It's pretty but perhaps a caricature of itself.
As long as I'm getting the most minor of criticisms out of the way, I might add that the cocktail program includes far too many vodka-based drinks. Some more creativity might be in order here to match the rest of the specialness of this restaurant.
So the general outline of the Farmer's Feast has been documented many times here on eG. I'm here to reiterate all the praise that's already be heaped onto this most engaging of meals. I'm not one to indiscriminately sing the praises of local, farm-to-table cooking. In fact, I'm often skeptical of it. This restaurant, more than even Chez Panisse, made me a believer, at least for the few hours we were there.
The onslaught of snacks that begin the meal is generous to say the least. Favorites among these items included the tomato burger, the charcuterie (of which we may have received an extra serving) and the "snout chips" ("face bacon's" more badass sibling). Pretty much all of the items served to being the meal were special, however.
A brief and enlightening interlude to explain that tomatoes would feature in many of the courses served as a much-needed break point between all the snacks and the beginning of the plated courses. On a large wooden tray, one of the captains presented easily a dozen varieties of tomatoes grown on the farm and supplied by original Blue Hill Farm in the Berkshires.
Among the savory courses, I most enjoyed a piece of grilled wahoo served over a vibrant lobster-corn chowder and a turkey dish that was deeply flavorful, bordering on gamey with perfectly crisped skin. If I'm recalling correctly a tomato salad, a crudo dish, and a braised lamb neck main also were consumed.
Desserts were a bit of a step down, as I don't feel the understated elegance of the produce comes through as well in the pastry world. They heeded our request for lighter desserts and brought out many fruit- and acid-forward desserts that we appreciated.
Finally, service was excellent. We had two main front waiters who explained the dishes, but I honestly felt as if everyone, even the runners were invested in the food. Getting someone's attention never required more than a look, a commendable feat in a restaurant this large. The wine list is quite extensive and a bit more expensive than I like, but I found a few glasses that worked quite well throughout the meal.
So all in all, a meal that, for me, surpassed expectations. Easily worth two Michelin stars and worth the trip.
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I stopped by this place for a later dinner on Friday night and had a decent meal. I came away liking most of the dishes individually but perhaps found the overall meal a bit unfulfilling. Nathan got the mood right when he said it feels like a dinner party. The service is charming--as it certainly must in a place this small and cramped--but the whole operation feels just a bit amateurish. Not necessarily in the execution of the dishes, but it doesn't feel like a Serious Restaurant.
Four of us had seven or eight plates, all but one of which were savory. As others have noted, the dessert was the low-point. Some unobjectionable chocolate cupcake with crispy chocolate candy-things on top with chocolate chip ice cream. Across the board I liked the creative spicing and the Indian inflection. There were unexpected notes of heat, acid, and bitterness that I found quite pleasing in the small plates staples that make up the menu--see: sliders, dumplings, pork buns, crostini/bruschette/stuff-on-bread, etc. I quite liked the foie With that said, I felt the food here lacked a bit of an identity. The Indian influences were not enough to canvas an identifiable cuisine (and I do not count "small plates" as a cuisine).
All in all, I didn't spend that much--just shy of $40 splitting a bottle of wine four ways--but I just didn't come out liking the place as much as I could have. It's good, and I'd go back, just not to try to cobble together a full meal.
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Even Per Se's offering at lunch is cheaper than at dinner. At least I thought that was the case a while a go. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I can't think of a single restaurant in the city that offers a lunch offering more expensive than dinner. To me, the closer analogy is original the late-night menu at Ssam. More creative food offered at off-hour at a premium price point.
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All of those four reasons are valid, but one must weigh them accordingly. I would hazard that the most significant reason for Jean Georges' popularity at lunch is due to reason 1 to the extent that the others are rendered effectively insignificant (i.e., no matter how beautiful the room, relaxed the service, or flexible the menu, lunch would not be recommended nearly as often as it is now if it was priced at or near current dinner prices).
So to return to reason 1, yes, in absolute terms the price is low, but to me, and the reason I see it recommended here on eG, isn't necessarily for this low absolute dollar amount. More importantly, you're getting a much cheaper, as you put it, facsimile of a distinctive dining experience at a more accessible price point. You can say, "I went to Jean Georges, the Michelin three-star restaurant," no matter if you got six courses with cheese and two desserts or just the standard two plates for $28.
In much the same fashion, if Ko could theoretically do two seatings at lunch offering an abbreviated menu people could get a "taste" of the Ko experience. People who go into lunch at Jean Georges know they're not eating dinner. I don't see why the people savvy enough to have read up on Ko and faced the reservation system couldn't adjust their expectations accordingly.
Surely, there could be logistical or financial issues at play here that I'm not privvy to. I just don't see how one could debate the theoretical viability of a "Ko-lite" at lunch. Whether a short, high-volume, lower-cost lunch would be more financially successful than what is currently being planned is beyond the scope of this discussion at present.
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I don't think a half-length meal would necessarily be rejected or resented by the customers. At least among the eG set, lunch at Jean Georges seems to be the preferred meal. There's this idea that it's more relaxed, more flexible, and certainly less expensive. To this extent, lunch is pretty much always recommended by "foodies in the know" as something of a "secret" (certainly more so than dinner) much like the original late-night menu at Ssam was.
Of course, this isn't to say a shorter lunch experience would be better, it just would strike me as more likely or obvious. Then again, Momofuku has been known to go against the grain and succeed with the unexpected.
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It will be interesting to see if this new lunch offering at Ko becomes what the late-night menu at Ssam Bar first was, an insider's way to get some of the most exciting food in the city largely insulated from the majority of the dining population. This seems, to me, to be a bold move and in direct contrast to many distinctive fine-dining restaurants who make themselves much more accessible at lunch--JG being the most obvious and most lauded example.
Although the dining room at Ko is clearly not built for volume, why not offer something like a five-course menu for $65 or $75 and get people out of the door in 1.5 hours? Perhaps this was considered?
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It should also be noted that one could have a great meal at Picholine in the bar area for the $60 origina budget if one is willing to subsist on cheese and wine alone. Truly a distinctive program, but I guess not the full meal experience. The gift cards, even if you had one, do not work in the front area.
Obviously Ssam is a great idea but with the rennovations you can't get in there. Noodle Bar is obviously also create, but if I had one big meal in NYC as an out-of-towner I'm not sure I'd go to ANY of the Momos (including Ko). Something with a bit more grandeur, rather than the Momo minimalism, is probably in order.
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Well that was the most disturbing thing I've read today.
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I might add the Bar Room at the Modern. You could also have a pretty solid meal in the Gramercy Tavern Tavern Room if you're into that farm-to-table style of food. Also, if you bump you budget by a few dollars and don't order wine Blue Hill comes into your scope.
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Ditto what Nathan said. I've been a few times for drinks because it's conveniently located, easy to pop in to, and is relatively cheap. This isn't a serious cocktail lounge by any means--the bartenders, in my experience, can't go off-menu and play it loose and fast with a lot of the drinks so that there's even a good bit of variation from visit to visit. With that said, the drinks are fundamentally pretty tasty even if they're not all that special. The bar snack are indeed much the same. Simple but solid, and not expensive.
I had one meal there when they were doing their Thursday night suppers but haven't been for an a la carte meal. The Thursday dinner was really enjoyable--perhaps more for the dinner party atmosphere--and a killer bargain. The food is tasty and well-prepared, analogous to some of my favorite restaurants in North Carolina.
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I do. Oops.
In NY for 1 night!
in New York: Dining
Posted
I actually think Toloache is pretty solid if you're into hautified Mexican cuisine.