BryanZ

After a long gestation and a bevy of press coverage, Marea supposedly opens tomorrow. It's expensive and the menu is huge. A possible four-star contender? At least it's got the right address. Menu, per Eater, Marea.

I'd heard the same, but that it would still be potentially hard to get a 4 to 2 adjustment. We were flexible with time, though, and they were able to make the switch for us. As for the sous chef comment, Chef Benno is still the Chef de Cuisine, no? I see sickchangeup's comment above that he should be until at elast the end of the summer...you were just making a joke? I hope??? ← The rumor on the blogs is that Benno is leaving to do his own thing very shortly.

So far all very good recommendations, but you have to know what you're in for and set expectations accordingly. A "foodie experience" can mean many things. From walking around the Greenmarket to Chinatown to Michelin-starred dining, all have their merits. If your family doesn't "get" food, I might actually advise against Katz's. For every person I've taken there who has loved it, I have another who was near outraged at paying $17+ for a sandwich. Even to me, Katz's is not cheap, but it is still clearly worth a visit. If lunch is an option, JG, the main dining room, is absolutely going to be your best bet. You might also check out the $50 tasting menu at Degustation, though the counter seating could be an issue if your family is large. The small plate features at the likes of DFF, Tabla, and Anthos are also worth checking for haute-ish food on the cheap.

Perhaps with supplements?

We did not. We drank a bottle of Buty something or other from Wala Wala for about $65. I will say that while our interaction with the wine captain was limited, she was patient, informative, and friendly. Our captain was good, when he was there, but once our meal got under way it was clear he had many other responsibilities to attend to.

Why did you get the impression that gratuity was included? The $400, fine. The 20% service fee, a bit weird but I'd consider that the gratuity based on the wording I saw on Eater (I would assume this would be explained when making a reservation for those not so inclined to read food blogs).

Visited the East Hanover branch a couple weeks ago. Not bad at all. Didn't love the satay--felt they were rather anemic--and thought the hokkien mee could've used some more balls, but other than that all was good. Service was perfunctory, but I'll be going back. Very cheap.

Went back to BH@SB for lunch on Sunday and still really like the place. With that said, I wasn't as wowed by what was on the plate this time around. I think there are a couple reasons for this. Firstly, while May is prime for springy ingredients, the variety simply cannot match what's available in late-August and September. Even with fewer courses at this lunch, there was far more repetition of ingredients. Secondly, the restaurant felt "stretched" on this visit. Another eG member visited on the same day, for dinner not lunch, and we independently arrived at the same conclusion. In my case, the servers handled most everything professionally--with the exception of a rather lengthy wait for a coffee refill, even after a second request--but seemed quite harried. I attribute this to the fact that they really slam the kitchen with the first 11:30 lunch seating and that there were many VIPs in house because of the Beards. We got what I would call the standard-plus treatment--an extra "premium" course, a little more attention--but this was nothing compared to what a couple tables around us were receiving. It was actually amusing to see a a few members of EMP's staff at the table next to mine. They were shown quite a good time. Anyway, the place remains incredibly pretty. New to me were the animals they have temporarily pasturing out on the hill right next to the parking lot. Lambs (or are they sheep?) Babies Unfortunately, we did not have the chance to eat these or their parents. Amuse round 1 Asparagus soup, beef salami Amuse round 2 Beet burger, asparagus wrapped in pancetta dipped in toasted sesame Amuse round 3 Veal marrow, paddlefish roe. Our party of four was given two halves to share. Just a couple bites each, but this was super tasty, especially on the crusty bread they serve there. The most memorable course of the day. Sea robin, saffron, ramps I'd never had sea robin before, and a little research reveals it's a scorpion-type fish commonly found in the North Atlantic. The fish was very firm, probably cooked SV at a very low temperature. I'm not sure this was the best method for this fish (or perhaps this was just a strange choice of fish), but I still enjoyed the dish quite a bit. The saffron and ramp components played very well together. This Morning's Egg, asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, morels A BH classic, and for good reason. Probably the tastiest dish of the day. Even my father, notorious antagonist and disliker of runny yolks, enjoyed the synergy of this plate. The only quibble was that there were perhaps too many pine nuts in the broth, at times overpowering the dish as a whole. Tasting of suckling pig - Loin, cheek, jowl, snout, ear Very porky and a nice range of flavors and textures. The skin on the cheek was quite difficult to cut, however, and was easier to eat with one's fingers rather than with silverware. Oh well. Parsnip added a nice sweet-bitterness to the dish. The woody herb on the plate looked like rosemary but was somehow much milder. Chocolate-beet cake, coffee ice cream; parsnip cake, bergamot ice cream, parsnip foam Like last time, the desserts were fine but not necessarily memorable for me. Some cake, some ice cream, some sauce atop or below. A very well-rounded meal that really felt like spring. With that said asparagus came up four times and parsnip three times (twice in one dish). I was kind of hoping for a bright, acidic rhubarb dessert, but oh well. We spent the next hour walking around the farm, buying overpriced souvenirs from the gift shop and overpriced produce from the farm's market. Really, it was a very pleasant way to spend the day. The place is unique and special to be sure, but I think it's at its best with a wider swath of ingredients at the kitchen's disposal.

The thing I like about this place is that it's so cheap that even with a miss, it's never more than few bites and, at most, $9. Surely, you can eat well at other places for $60/person. What you can't do is try as many dishes and drinks. Of course, there's Chinatown and all that, but that's hardly comparable. Indeed, less ambitious to some extent and perhaps a more integrated concept. Still, I think D:FF is more fun and where I'm more likely to return, all things considered.

From the website: Sandwiches served with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro, chili mayo & bread baked by Parisi Bakery.

From the folks who own Kampuchea comes Num Pang, a new Cambodian sandwich shop. Really, it's more a shop than a restaurant, as ordering takes place on the sidewalk, but right now it's putting out some seriously tasty sandwiches. The three I tried were better than any of the sandwiches I've had at Kampuchea. Not sure why that is, but I really felt they were spot on this weekend. The veal meatball was definitely my favorite. Seriously tasty. It almost seems sacrilegious or some kind of weird fusion-y thing--veal meatballs, tomato, mayonnaise, pickled veg, really?--but it really works. This is also one of the less expensive sandwiches. Pulled pork was nice, they're clearly using high quality pork, and really reminded of NC-style whole hog barbecue. I think it's because the pickled veg and sriracha create some kind of bastardized NC-style sauce, but it worked. Also tried a couple bites of my friend's crab cake sandwich. At something like $15.95 this is not a cheap sandwich, but they really pack it full of crab. There must've been three or four good-sized cakes in the medium-sized sandwich. To be honest, probably the richest of the lot. I think that the prices are fair, but I wish the sandwiches were a bit bigger. Not really for the sake of value but because one sandwich alone feels a little small to be a meal. Naturally, I ate two, plus about a 1/5 of my friend's crab one, but that's excessive. A sandwich maybe 25% larger would be perfect. Still, this place is good and easy. My friend lives only a few blocks away and finds himself thinking of reasons why he shouldn't go. If the quality stays the same, it'll definitely be one of my area go-tos.

Went back on Friday this week. Got there just after 6:30 and the dining room was very full. The place still remains very popular. Two dishes were markedly worse this time. That's the bad news. The good news is that they're still putting out tasty food and a gentle price point. $4 for a can of Porkslap is a good deal, and the wines are fairly priced too, even if the reds are served way warm. The dishes that fared poorly this time were the pizza and the pig ears. The former is now firmly in the not-worth-ordering category for me. It seemed even more flatbread-y this time and just floppy. Rather bland. The pig ears were nice and crisp on my first visit, but this time either they're using larger ears from an older animal or they simply weren't fried as much. As a result, the centers were very chewy. I liked the crispy surroundings enough to finish the dish but the center of a couple of the ears was unpleasant. The dessert, a crepe with sauteed caramel apples was a throwaway. Totally fine, but you can get something better from an NYU-area crepe stand for a couple dollars less. Pretty much everything else remains really solid. The crispy chicken was kind of a surprise hit. It's just a chicken tender, but with the waffle and all it works. $60/person all in with a round of cocktails and two bottles of wine for four people. With that much alcohol you would almost certainly do worse for the same money anywhere else.

Very cool spot. Smaller than you might think. The multi-floor layout is kinda of deceiving, it's far from cavernous. Really liked the stained glass upstairs. Not sure if tables are going to be reservation-only, a la PDT, or just first-come, a la D&Co. I would imagine the latter. Stylistically the drinks are similar to those at D&Co. Very, very tasty. A higher percentage of drinks with salty or savory notes than you find at other bars. Smoked Palomino is very good, flavorful and refreshing and not too boozy. The Shifty (or somesuch name) is an interesting beer cocktail, very heavy on the spiced salt. Didn't get much of the advertised pineapple in the infused mezcal but did get some of the smoke and lime. This and the lapsang tea cocktail were very refreshing drinks on a warm night. Still in F&F right now, but I hope it doesn't get too crowded. They should do a good job with the door, so I'm not too worried.

Because you get five-courses for that price. That isn't to say that I wouldn't go JG over Bouley eight times out of ten and simply order less food for the same price, but you can't take away from the fact that the tasting menu at lunch at Bouley is a great deal.

It really wasn't any different than his review of the Waverly Inn, which I suppose is no excuse but at least he was trying to make the best out of what's clearly a bad situation.

I'm posting this here as opposed to the Best: Vietnamese thread because Nicky's really is just a banh mi shop. Was walking by today and needed a quick snack so a $5 sandwich suited me just fine. Wrong kind of bread--more Italian roll than baguette-but tasty all around. Wish they'd up the seasoning, both with spice and salt, but for $5 you could do much worse. Pretty efficient operation, too; I was in and out in about three minutes.

The lunch tasting menu is a great value (if they haven't raised the price since the review) and is worth doing just to try the new food and see the room. I'm not rushing back for the full-on dinner tasting with pairings, but lunch is cheap enough that you may as well see for yourself.

I somehow ended up meeting some friends at Fatty Crab UWS last night. Save for the rare dinner party, I can't say I'm up in that area too often, but I would have to imagine Fatty Crab is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. For now, I think the prices on a few dishes are a couple dollars cheaper than at the WV outpost, so it might even be worth the subway fare to check out the new location. Service was super laid back and friendly. Our main server had a strong grasp of the menu and made some good recommendations. They upsell pretty hard here--rice with this, rice with that, sides?--but there was none of the attitude you sometimes get at the Momos and other downtown, "cool" restaurants. As reported in the WV thread, food comes at random intervals, with seemingly little regard to pacing. From the first section of the menu we had the tea sandwiches and the sliders. The sandwiches were fine but the least favored of the evening. The pork-sambal aioli combo didn't see, all that organic to me and the whole sandwich was more dry than pillowy. Sliders were superlatively moist and quite tasty if not the most innovative dish. The fish fry was really good. A very simple dish and a bit light on the fish, but the frying was spot on. The hokkien mee is a pretty intense plate of food. The whole thing is kind of one-note and gloppy, making it hard to distinguish the various proteins, but I was really into the burnt caramel nature of the sauce. Very interesting. From the main section of the menu we had the black pepper mussels, skate, watermelon with crispy pork, and fatty duck. There was a pretty long lag between receiving the duck and all the rest of our dishes so perhaps it wasn't appreciated in the right context. It' a very rich dish and probably too fatty for some but I really liked it. The peanuts and puffed rice strewn through the bottom of the dish added some crunchy texture to an otherwise soft-chewy dish. The skate was a bit challenging for one member of my party--the crust seems to involve a large quantity of small dried fish--but this, too, I enjoyed. The mussels and pork were loved by all, however. With a couple drinks I spent just shy of $50, making the restaurant not quite as cheap as it perhaps professes to be. I think with all the specials around town it is possible to have a similarly formatted meal that's a slightly better value elsewhere. Still, the style of cooking here is unique and we were able to try a number of dishes that can't be found elsewhere.

I did not try the madai with the herbal emulsion, but I would imagine the two dishes are generally quite similar. What I liked most about the buttermilk addition was how it was simultaneously creamy and tangy. One thinks of sour cream or creme fraiche in this way but somehow the dish tasted more complex. I'm not familiar with dragees beyond what a little Googling reveals, so I can't say what the crust is made out of. Still, the candied nature was fun without being cloying.

I eat at Jean Georges with some frequency and therefore feel pretty comfortable with the menu and experience. It's been at least a couple years, however, since I was last there for dinner. Lunch has always been such a great value and my schedule always allowed me to come in at least several times a year. With the introduction of the $58 chef's selections menu, however, a dinner visit was in order. Pretty much an excuse to have a nice, relaxed dinner with the family for a more than reasonable tariff. Two of us ordered the $58 menu and one ordered the normal $98 prix fixe. I'm not sure the normal menu is $40 better than the special menu, but we appreciated being able to try a few new and different dishes. The restaurant also accommodated one diner in my party who preferred not to eat the veal main course this evening and instead suggested an arctic char dish as a non-meat alternative. All in we spent $120 per person after tax and tip with light drinking. That's a good value at a formal three-star restaurant and a great value at a four-star one. I was actually slated to go a couple weeks ago but some schedule snafus pushed this meal back. This worked out for the better, as the menu is, as sickchangeup posted, really getting into spring mode. The spring $58 menu is, to me, more appealing than the winter version that was served up until last week or so. Amuse bouche are the same regardless of which menu you select. Tonight, hamachi with olive puree, carrot-ginger soup with orange oil, and a potato fritter with a truffle emulsion. The spring menu currently consists of peekytoe crab with asparagus, halibut with almond milk and chili oil, and veal with artichokes and a parmesan sauce. The dessert is a selection of four offerings culled from various quartets. In our case, the chocolate-caramel pop, chocolate cake, doughnut with prune dipping sauce, and apple soda with lillet foam. Perhaps some fruitier selections would've been better, but not really a huge deal. Not a single disappointment among these savory dishes, though perhaps the halibut was the weakest of the bunch. To say the almond milk was at first unpleasant would be an overstatement; more accurately, it was very assertive, unmistakably almond-y. I came to like it a lot by the end of the dish, however. If you don't like almonds, however, this is not the dish for you. My only actual problem with this dish is that the ramps that I was so looking forward to were somehow overshadowed by the snowpeas. The crab dish was classic Jean Georges, with a pretty strong hit of wasabi-mustard, as UE noted above. This dish felt very Japanese to us, like a crab sunomo, sour but also a little sweet, with asparagus instead of cucumbers. The veal was a surprise hit. Simply roasted, the sauce was so rich and salty and deep. On the normal prix fixe, I selected the madai with muscat grapes and buttermilk emulsion; char-grilled foie gras wontons with papaya, passion fruit, and spiced wine; and the almond crusted duck breast with amaretto sauce. This last plate is where you see the difference between the $58 menu/lunch and the full-on dinner experience. This was a serious array of food: a whole duck breast, carved tableside, along with a small slice of seared foie, some turnips and crispy potato slices, and a (somewhat forgettable) pile of frisee and hedgehog mushrooms. The duck was not the most tender nor the richest--there is certainly better duck in France and even in this city--but the candied nature of the crust and the sauce made the dish. Can't go wrong with foie either. The madai and the foie wontons, taken together, were a study in the range of this restaurant's cooking. The raw fish dish was understated, almost overly so, but there was a really pleasing, almost intellectual, interplay between the buttery fish, tangy dressing, bitter micro-herbs, and sweet grapes. The wontons, on the other hand, were bold and brash. This was the first time I'd tried this dish and it was the highlight of the night. The fruit and wine and slightly charred foie were quite memorable. I just wish the wonton wrappers were thinner and didn't stick together ever-so-slightly. Still, an excellent dish. Service was spot on throughout the night. We got out of there in just over two hours, about perfect. Our severs were not overly chatty but there when we needed them to be. One of the city's top tables to be sure.

Checked out Tabla 10 tonight. I think it fits well within the restaurant's greater concept. This is a somewhat more interesting take on Indian food that is still generally recognizable as Indian. This stands in contrast to the fare in the main dining room. I've been to Tabla at least four times, counting visits to both floors, but never filed a full report. Oops. I've always liked the place, but never really find myself craving the food or rushing back. The menu has changed a bit since last week. I like how the kitchen is putting out new stuff. The kulcha was stuffed with spring onion and garlic. There was no duck neck sausage; a disappointment for me. No grilled mushrooms but now large tandoori chicken drumsticks at $5/piece. Here's a picture of this week's menu. Lots of carryovers, but some new dishes like I mentioned. Sorry for cutting out the prices. My b. All in all I enjoyed the food, though some items were a bit small. The chat was a good rendition if not particularly heavily spiced, but I've never been totally in love with stewed Indian vegetables so I'm not the best judge. The meats and curries are, to me, where the action is. The pork belly vinadaloo was really tasty, I wish there just a bit more belly. Only one smallish piece in the bowl. Shrimp is heavy on the black pepper, but I liked the preparation. Short ribs had a really nice cinnamon-type spice thing going on even if the meat itself was a bit stringy. The chicken legs were rather large and meaty. The tandoori preparation here isn't your typical heavy yogurt marinade but something much lighter and tangier. Very tender, almost to the point of being undercooked, and wholly enjoyable. Water pickles served as a nice palate cleanser but we could've easily gone without them. White rice would've been nice but $4 for a rather small bowl seemed a bit high. I thought the sea bass collar was a bit disappointing. Not bad at all, and I certainly didn't mind picking through the flesh, just a bit bland. If I have one complaint about the savory cooking it's that it's effectively lacking in any spiciness. I know this isn't really Tabla's domain, but many of the curries would've been much more full and memorable with a bit of heat. Desserts weren't really a high point, but they were appreciated. There was a duo of mini banana cream pies that many would consider a throwaway but were actually quite tasty and had a certain vintage appeal. We also ordered the kulfi trio off the Bread Bar menu and enjoyed that. Solid, especially the pistachio, if not particularly complex. Service was very solicitous, even if we only saw our headwaiter infrequently. All in, exactly $50/person including a cocktail and two beers after tax and tip. Would definitely go back, though Wednesday is kind of an awkward night. Also worth noting that the main dining room was, comparatively speaking, significantly more full than Tabla 10.

Hmm, that is kind of lame. I will say I've had two really fun meals there. Perhaps since you're only a party of two there's less gross revenue? Would definitely be good to get a clear policy going forward.

I don't think they ever were unlimited. I always approached it from the perspective of what's reasonable. I'd be curious to know if you had already gotten any refills up to that point.

I disagree. I think that EMP is among the very best restaurant's in the city and highly recommend it. I feel as though I'm not totally alone on this. For a similar style of French-y cooking, you might also consider Veritas or Picholine. The former has a nice bit of buzz around it with Pugin as chef. The latter has some pretty good value options that could presumably let you out the door on the lower end of your $100-$150 price range. Corton is pretty baller, too. If it was me, I'd be choosing between EMP and Corton, perhaps going with the latter because it's a bit more creative and a few dollars cheaper. If you want to factor in the room and service more heavily, perhaps my choice would flip.

Who is the chef there these days? Didn't Chris Lee leave to head up Aureole or something?