BryanZ

Went to the Bar Room of The Modern today for an early dinner before a concert. I was very pleased with all the food, the portion sizes, and the concept in general. As the menu dictated, the g/f and I built our own mini tasting menus and shared our dishes. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about our experience. As others have said here, the food in the Bar Room alone is 3-star quality, and I pretty much agree with that assertion. I have been to NYT 3-star restaurants that pale in comparison to the food at the Bar Room and individual dishes here rise to that transcendent 4-star level. For the $60 p/p we spent w/o drinks there are few places in the City that offer the opportunity to sample that many high-quality dishes. Between us we had: Me (essentially the "What Frank Bruni Recommends Menu") -Smoked Eel Rillettes (served cold) -Sweetbread Ravioli with a Balsamic Sage Reduction -Braised Pork Cheeks with Sauerkraut and Ginger Jus The g/f -Steak Tartare with a Quail Egg -Parpadelle with Morels, Peas, and Pancetta -Muscovy Duck breast with a composed Lychee Salad -We shared the Beignets with Maple Ice Cream and Orange Marmalade I highly recommend everything that we ordered, and I want to go back and try everything else.

Psh, pasted out. Such a thing does not exist. Mario Batali's pasta was like a revelation for me. I just bought the Babbo cookbook, so now I'm going to try to recreate some his dishes.

An interesting disccussion. I'm inclined to believe that this type of place would only work if you have passionate, young talent who really want to make it in the food service industry. As people have mentioned, the CIA and other culinary schools rotate their students through both FOH and BOH as part of their training. In theory, this makes sense because these young culinary students are looking to make the restaurant business their lives' profession and thus want to have as deep an understanding of the industry as possible. To open a restaurant with this concept, however, seems more challenging. For the reasons numerous individuals have pointed out, it would only cater to people relatively new in the industry who want both FOH and BOH experience. I can't see a grizzled veteran broiler man coming to take people's orders and and bring them bread.

That is a long term goal. For now, I'm just updating my food journal since I'm eating especially well this summer in New York. In the past I would simply write down impressions after the meal. Now, however, I want to take notes as I'm eating so I miss as little as possible. Thanks for all the advice everyone. It seems that I need to invest in a decent quality notebook that travels well.

How does one subtly take notes in an upscale restaurant. I think I would feel rather inappropriate lugging in a notebook and busting out a pen as I'm eating my meal. I'm thinking perhaps I could use a voice recorder attachment with my iPod and simply set it on the table before my meal. This way I can discuss my impressions of the dishes over normal conversation and transcribe my notes on a word processor at a later point. Does this seem appropriate? Does anyone have any other advice?

Went last night with a 10 PM reservation in the upstairs room. The music didn't bother my dining partner and me (in fact my girlfriend rather enjoyed the vibe). We had the pasta tasting but substituted in Beef Cheek Ravioli instead of the Pyramids. As everyone has said, this was an incredibly enjoyable experience. The pace of the meal was good, service was accomodating but not cloying. Don't want to waste too much space here but we had a great time and love this restaurant.

I've had the problem with oversalting when trying to crisp fish skin. It's not bad but more salt that I would like. How important is heavily salting the skin? Is it more to draw out the moisture? If so, can I wipe the salt off after squeege-ing?

That is amazing. At my favorite grocer, they have you weigh the items yourself, punch in the code, and print out the label with the price on it. You could theoretically score some porcinis and ring them up as shitakes or something. I'm sure the checker wouldn't know the difference. It's a pretty crappy move though.

Excellent, thank you. Mid-high twenties for entrees isn't bad at all. Again, I need to make my way to Raleigh.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, and I hope that discussion continues throughout the summer. In two days, I will be returning home where meals at Babbo, Per Se, Jean Georges, WD-50, and many others await me; therefore, I'm not sure how much more I will be able to add to this discussion this summer. I will try to chip in when I can, however, and will be back in the fall, ready to continue eating and commenting my way through the Triangle.

Great review. This place will move up on my list of places to try. Can you offer us price ranges for apps. and mains?

Unfortunately, I don't think they offer the hardwood charcoal any more. I've been to this place for years, but I think they had to stop using the actual charcoal.

Like many people have said, I find people judging me, especially the checkout kids. It's funny because I'm usually about their age but then they give me these really weird looks when I'm loading up on the goat brie, "weird looking" morels, or legs of duck confit. I love buying truffles because I honestly think the checkout people get a rush out of swiping such an "exclusive" product. One of my favorite moments was when this old grandma, obviously retired and probably just working part-time, said something along the lines of, "Sonny, what you need this $500 hunred (sic) a pound mushroom for." I just smile and shrug it off.

I wasn't that impressed by the quality of the dishes. The half-Japanese guy's duck was really rare and, as Ming stated, did not have any of the fat rendered out of it. I'm surprised that Todd English praised him. I also found many of the presentations to be much to be busy. The plates looked crowded and muddled. Although I've never worked in such setting, I was shocked and appalled to see how that one girl wasn't even able to turn out one complete dish.

I'm looking forward to this again tonight. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Yeah, that is what confuses me. Is he only at Nana's and the Q Shack mini-chain now?

Please post details if you don't mind. Thanks.

no but i can say that scott howell is no longer affiliated with the place, hes been bought out. by the way it was NEVER his restaurant. ashley the chef of vin is a consulting chef for the place now. ← Thanks for the update. Is it still worth going to though?

As stated above, Mos Burger in Japan (and Hawaii) is awesome. I generally don't eat any big chain fast food but Mos Burger makes it worth it. Think of it like artisinal fast food burgers. Cluck-U in the Mid-Atlantic has a cult like following. Everyone says their regional Cluck-U is the best, but I have the pleasure of living near the original in New Brunswick, NJ, and even better one in Morristown, NJ. It's nearly always crowded with kids who need their clucker fix.

Has anyone been here recently? I'd like to hear more impressions.

There's a nice thread on lunch at Jean Georges and Nougatine that came up pretty recently. When I did my search on trying to find info for this thread I saw a link to that one.

I'm retarded and am having a hard time using the search feature efficiently. Anyway, I was wondering how much Jean Georges is charging for his 7 course tasting menu as of late. I saw some resources online that listed it at $115 but they were older sites. Is this accurate, has anyone been recently? Again, sorry for starting a new thread when there is probably a dedicated Jean Georges thread. If anyone wants to PM and teach me how to use this search more effectively it would be very helpful.

Has anyone been to this restaurant? I did a search here but didn't come up with anything. It seems very cozy yet elegant, and I want to try it out. If anyone has any experiences, please share. Note: Topics merged by moderator. -jogoode

That seems to be a general trend among foodies and non-foodies alike.

I like the show so far. It's nothing new but at least we're noot trying to marry someone off or make someone eat turkey testicles and rotten fish guts. I wish I was on that show. That NYC girl is pretty bitchy but I like her.