adamru
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Posts posted by adamru
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I'm not arguing it takes a restaurant time to work out kinks, and I had the fried chicken just now and it was excellent, sweeter than I've ever had anywhere and very good. It's rare to have fast food fried chicken where you can appreciate the quality of the meat. The 8 piece was breasts and legs which was great and worth the price. But the $3-$4 price for the sides... I appreciate the quality over quantity issue but there were about ten sugar snap peas in one container, a few chopped pieces of asparagus in the other. The potatoes and mac and cheese are good sized portions and values. The lemonade, I think there's basil in it and it's a great savory contrast to the sweetness of the chicken. The bags of 6 badass fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, they're little bigger than quarters and they have the feel and flavor of chocolate chip shortbread.
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shopsin's is filled with toys. maybe not children, but there's connect four at every table for example. it may not be the escapism you're looking for.
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Actually the brunch at Aquavit is great. It's a buffet brunch that includes a lot of dishes that appear on their cafe menu - a variety of herrings, salmon, meatballs, and much more plus the price includes bloody marys and juice. It's more decadent than hip though. For hip, I'd suggest Clinton St. Baking Co. on the lower east side which has amazing pancakes, biscuits and pies. Only downside there is no reservations and long waits, unless you get there when they open. If you want to sit outside, Cowgirl Hall of Fame in the West Village is hip; it's southern food. Norma's you can book on opentable in advance if you're worried about reservations and it's seriously decadent and as expensive as Aquavit but that does tend to be a place people bring their children.
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I was there about 130pm and I was told there would be no more fried chicken for the rest of the day though they were filling the orders of people waiting, so I just missed it. apparently they're having a problem with the temperature and it's coming out undercooked. also there are no cookies yet.
fortunately everyone seemed accepting of this and willing to try the rotisserie, though customers seemed surly and the counterpeople a bit overwhelmed by them. they should put up a sign that says they're out of fried chicken so you don't wait in line to place your order and not find out til you're at the front because that wasn't going well, especially when everyone can see the kitchen test-frying pieces in the back.
the quarter chicken, there's no surcharge for white meat but at these prices there shouldn't be. it was a good sized piece and I got a side of the slow roasted potatoes and a piece of cornbread, that was $9.75 with tax. I thought the potatoes should have been softer, they had a snap when I bit them.
I'll definitely go back for the fried chicken and the place smells amazing.
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I never have a reason to go against the goodness that is the Strip House but I was in the mood for something new and indulgent Saturday night, having given up eating anything worth writing about for all of lent and so saturday night I went to Quality Meats at 57 West 58th Street, hidden away by lots of scaffolding and sleeping homeless people.
The restaurant looks good. Dim lighting, bare bulbs hanging from meat hooks in a tasteful way, leather tile walls, hardwood ceilings, and a tiny room by the bathrooms with a plush leather chair, table with telephone, and anima's head mounted on the wall. If the meat were on display the place would look like a Francis Bacon painting come to life. In a good way.
We were seated upstairs which seats as many as the first floor does - maybe 40 on each floor. After being seated, my girlfriend used the bathroom and two different people came over to ask if I was dining alone despite the fact there were two menus on the table. When she returned we were asked what we'd like to drink - there's no cocktail menu but we did then ask for a wine list - and the list also contains beers. I had an IPA and the one interesting thing about the descriptions of the beers is that they listed the region they came from and a description of the label on the bottle - mine was from San Diego and the menu read it had a picture of a gargoyle on it to keep evil spirits away - but it told nothing about the actual beer. The wines by the glass were poured from the bottle and the beers arrived in a full glass but were not poured in front of us which is I suppose why they describe the bottle image, so you can picture it while you drink it.
Food. The amuse was two thin slices of a radish with a dollop of sour cream.
We passed on the appetizers, more interested in trying all the sides. We ordered the corn creme brulee, the creamed spinach souffle and the crispy potatoes with my girlfriend's trio of filets and my 24 ounce rib eye. They don't tell you what the trio of filets are but we were optimistic.
To pass the time til our food's arrival, we were served a bread basket of five rolls in a pan with melted butter and seasoning atop them. They were warm moist fresh excellent. Next came a waiter who made our tableside steak sauce. (I just read the mention of this in New York's magazine and felt like sharing.) He wheels over a table atop of which is a wooden box with glass canisters, fresh herbs and small bowls of ingredients. He announced what he was doing, poured, mashed and snipped, and put the heavy marble bowl of sauce on our table. It would have been nice to have explained or described what he was doing.
The food arrived. The corn creme brulee was like a warm corn pudding, not thick but solid and as good as any creamed corn I've tried. The spinach souffle was a lump of creamed spinach. It's fair creamed spinach but not the Strip House's. The cripsy potatoes were great. (Note: They don't serve mashed.) The potatoes were maybe one giant potatoe's worth of quarter inch thick slices that came in a hot skillet and were topped with hot butter, rosemary and thyme at the table. The vegetable sides are $9, the potatoes are $7. With this we were not disappointed.
The steaks. I ordered mine rare, my girlfriend medium rare. Mine came medium rare but it was fine. It was probably as good as any rib eye I'd buy at Whole Foods and make for myself at a fraction of the price. It was $44 I think. Of the 24 oz., it was about 16 oz. bone. The bone was about 16" long and hung off the dish. My girlfriend received a sad looking filet. She sent it back, the waitress admitted she entered our order wrong and apologized. We had no complaints, we enjoyed the sides and she shared in mine til hers arrived anew. It shortly arrived very rare but we were hungry and curious and they got it close enough. The trio of filets is three filets about 4 oz. each. One is topped with crab meat and bernaise sauce, one with a thick bbq sauce - the only disappointing one as the sauce fills a good part of the plate - and the third if a beef wellington with a round puff pastry atop it. Two out of three ain't bad. It was $42 and far more filling than my rib eye. And from the look of the plain filet, the trio seemed the best value to order.
The manager came over before my girlfriend's dish arrived to apologize and either buy us another round or comp our dessert, we opted for the latter. The manager along with the hostesses appear to be the youngest people working there and the manager the most appropriately dressed for a wild night of clubbing. Her offer of a free dessert was great. When she came over later, mid-meal and said to us "I saw a face. Are you choking?" well that just seemed weird and wrong. If one of us was choking, we'd like to think the other would do something about it. For the rest of the night she kept watching us. Very strange.
Dessert was great. There are pints of ice cream available for $10, scoops for $6, a long list of flavors and a short list of sauces - chocolate, caramel or mixed berry. There's also a selection of personal pies for $10. We opted for the bourbon pecan chocolate chunk pie and a scoop of the coffee doughnut ice cream. This was a scoop of coffee ice cream topped with a small chocolate donut frosted and beneath the ice cream was crushed pieces of donut. Awesome. The pie too was one of the best and most original steakhouse desserts I've ever had. A small pie the size of maybe a well-portioned slice and a half it came in a skillet topped with small dollops of whipped cream and crust points. The pie itself was all filling no crust which just made it that much more enjoyable. Also there was an obscene amount of bourbon in it to the point it was numbing. This we felt was a good thing. I couldn't taste any chocolate in it though.
Our waitress who hid in the background for the rest of the meal after getting our order wrong came with the check which had the dessert in the total. She was unaware it was comped and came back soon with it corrected. A glass of wine, a beer, a rib eye, a filet trio, three sides, tax, $140. With dessert it would have been $156.
We're about the experience as much as the food and we had a great time. An over-protective manager, surly saucemaker bad waitress just make for a better story to tell about a meal later on so it was worth the price. But food-wise, we'd go back for everything we ate except for the steaks, which would unfortunately defeat the purpose.
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It's open, as everyone who got DailyCandy today knows. But despite that hype it wasn't too overwhelmed at lunchtime today. At 1pm the seating area where you're served had no line but it was completely full and the line was steady but short and fast moving for orders to go. There are about eight sandwiches to pick from, the cashew butter and jam which they pressed looked incredible, but I just bought a few danishes to go, sweet cheese, seasonal fruit, and an almond croissant which is filled with jam. The latter being a new take on one of my favorite pastries that I'll be sure to revisit. The danishes are about $3 each and the sandwiches all about $7. The pastries are put in bags, then laid out on a silver tray which they bring to the counter, it's a nice touch. Everyone was very friendly and unstressed.
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I read in the Best of New York issue that Maremma was one of the top new restaurants and also had the best macaroni and cheese so I went in for that and the gnocchi - all the pastas are more than reasonable for the portions you get for $16 - and while I favored the gnocchi which was light as air the standout dish was the bordatino di mare, five pieces of seafood polenta served with a tuscan ketchup which was spicy with fresh chunks of tomato but more dense than a salsa. I can't remember the last time I had fish sticks, but they were frozen and I was unimpressed at a single digit age, but these blew me away as an incredible comfort food I'll be coming back craving. Lightly breaded and so moist all the way through and a perfect portion for an unhealthy snack. It's only a shame they're not offered as a side instead to go with a pasta or as part of a pasta dish.
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It's not easy to enjoy an entree that arrives two hours after you sit down. Especially when it's a single raviolo. If the food arrived at a reasonable pace I would have enjoyed dinner a lot more. But forty minutes to receive foie gras and cold shrimp in a broth? Another forty minutes for gnocchi and then another forty for a raviolo? I can't believe there's a good reason to wait this long for such easily prepared food. I can't imagine how long a tasting menu must have taken.
The foie gras topped with a layer of almond milk foam, a smear of pomegranate sauce and a little stack of what tasted like burnt raisin toast - in a good way - was by far the standout course. The squid ink gnocchi I was after had no flavor it was so overwhelmed by the blue cheese and braised bacon chunks that were bigger than the gnocchi. And the duck breast, about ten small rectangles of it, tasted just like the bacon chunks as well. The raviolo were two circles of unsealed pasta on the top and bottom of the filling which was overwhemlingly yellow pumpkin and a bit nutty in flavor. The risotto was very soggy and milky but the spiciness saved it and the sweet shrimp were no match at all for the flavor of the broth.
The waitstaff was plenty attentive and the bread plates always refilled but I don't know what holds the kitchen up. I got the impression the restaurant closed down midway through our meal. I'm happy to have tried the place but I don't feel I would have been a regular here with wd-50 and Thor turning out much better and more creative complementary flavors faster than they do here.
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According to their website they're closing the 14th, Tuesday.
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did you have the tasting menu? I'm going for the first time tomorrow.
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sure, I'm drunk, but I can say that all six cocktails on the menu at buddakan are excellent. or all five plus one as we also tried sin which is on augie's menu but was not on the menu tonight. they made it anyway even though they're still working on it and it was flawless creamy dessert cocktail. earlier I watched the bartenders make drinks at the bar before dinner and they asked for feedback. heat has too much lemon juice. rhyme, one of the best drinks I've ever had is basically alcoholic root beer and I found nothing wrong with that. they're all priced at about $10 each.
another difference between augie's menu and the menu tonight is that the prices are lower. for example, the tuna spring rolls are $12 instead of $14 and the sizzling crab is $51 instead of $57. no complaints and everything was a value. the sizzling dungeness crab, for two, contained about three broken-up crabs in a suace which was more like a rich very hot chili bean ragout that filled a large serving bowl about 1/3 way full. the dish came with one cracker to break the claws for us to share which was awkward but they did bring enough lemon slices and extra napkins for two to clean up afterward. that course could have used smaller forks to pull the meat out but otherwise it worked best eaten with our hands.
the dishes arrive in whatever order they are prepared which is true at fatty crab where I ate saturday night as well but I still find it odd to receive appetizers after my entree. in this case we received the three tuna spring rolls, an abundance of rock chili shrimp (more than you get at bar masa and better and for less money) with two cups of pineapple sauce which is tart, clear and just a little hot, and we ordered a plate of frog legs. both my girlfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed the frog legs which provided about twenty little golden nuggets of meat and which did not taste like chicken, and which were in itself another huge portion, but which tasted like whatever you close your eyes and imagine chinese food tastes like. in a good way but it's the only way we can come to describe it. but there's not a dish we had that we would not repeat.
after our entree came the steamed ribs with chinese mustard though we never tried the mustard. on their own they had a cool, sweet flavor, there are five, maybe six, ribs that are cut at the table. though oddly, they were only cut in half. fortunately they were tender enough that after being cut into two portions we could easily seperate them with our hands. the only ribs that I've had close to being this good were the tea smoked ribs at yauatcha in london.
service was exceptional. and in the starr world best compared to morimoto in philadelphia. at a recent meal at el vez, they were clueless, telling people it was a two hour wait at a half empty restaurant with an overcrowded bar at 6pm whereas in morimoto in philly, they're just friendly, capable and on. they were on here. they're young, they're friendly, they're aware, they're accomodating, at least in that they no had no problem letting us enjoy our drinks past our reservation time in the lounge and then seating us in the grand hall as we requested. there was just something about the morimoto nyc host staff that was off. it's odd too how much older the hosts are at morimoto than here or at del posto, they were just off.
to get to the grand hall, you walk through the lounge, down a flight of stairs to the basement and you're in a two story dining hall - which looks smaller than the pictures I've seen on eater - maybe it seats forty tops. it has a medieval feel yet it's definitely intimate and they had no problem sitting several parties of two at tables for four with parties of four and larger sharing the communal table. through that dining hall is the way to the bathrooms which are defined mens and womens by the adam and eve mural which is similar to the mural behind the hostess desk in a renaissance style. the rest of the murals are chinese influenced. I don't know why there's a disparity as they work against the space making it feel more like a castle than a temple. I do know the bathrooms are very very dark.
having been to all the new neighborhood restaurants now I firmly believe there are three ways to create a new fancy restaurant. you can make it severely modern like morimoto, you can make it old-school luxe like del posto or you can make it so dark you don't notice it's neither modern nor luxe. and that's the buddakan way: it's spare, it's dim, it's rustic if anything, and it works. the only intimidating factor may be the ten foot long hostess desk at check-in which is like that of a luxury hotel check-in counter in front of which a half dozen men in suits and a coat check girl all linger. but unlike morimoto and del posto they're all very down to earth and eager to please. also there are lots of people roaming the floor in ear pieces who are aware of who you are and what your situation is. I see this too though as a boon as they were conversational and helpful.
so dinner for three drinks - we had the first three at the bar - four appetizers and an entree was just under $150 before tax and tip. we left completely full and completely ready to go back. it's not competing with morimoto and it's a class above xing and fatty crab and I think it's the most laid back, service oriented, and most importantly delicious of the three new hot spots in the neighborhood. this seems affordable enough to keep both repeat business and maintain a certain scene. unlike morimoto and del posto the bar scene here seemed fully developed after one night and I'm sure the young skin and smile baring bartenders don't hurt.
to note, there is no tasting menu which seems out of place in new york and when after reading everything today about the importance of letting the reservationist know in which room you'd like to be seated - when we called back to ask for the hall the reservationist had no idea what any of the rooms were called. still, they did when we arrived and it was a joyous experience.
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answering my own question, augieland now has the menu posted for buddakan.
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Does anyone know the menu? I'm going Monday night and oddly enough the only thing I know for certain is that their meals do not begin with an amuse bouche.
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Nigori, that's it.
From the producer's website:
"The bottle should be shaken each time before pouring due to the high rice content that settles in the bottom of the bottle."
I wish I'd known that. They didn't shake the bottle before pouring and left the bottle on our table to pour for ourselves. I never thought to do that. Is that normal to shake a bottle before pouring? Or, I suppose not since most sake arrives in its own carafe not its bottle?
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I went last night hoping for Meatpacking District sushi redemption and left a little disappointed. I think Whole Foods produces a higher quality although it is priced at about Whole Foods prices. The biggest letdown was that the spicy salmon roll contained rather dry cooked salmon.
The restaurant is just off 10th on 17th Street, and there's still no sign but the curtains do read Naka Naka. They seat 14, and they were half full at 9pm which made the space look busy as its so small. The waitresses are in traditional dress and serve you at either a table or at a low communal platform with eight stools around it. No one sat there. Everyone gets an amuse of cooked spicy tuna in a small bowl. It was dry and not very spicy, but plentiful enough that we probably didn't need to order an appetizer.
Fortunately we did order one and it was the highlight of the meal, six wasabi skin pork and vegetable dumplings for about $7. They tasted much fresher than the raw fish that followed. It's a little off-putting that everything is made up a few stairs in a hidden away kitchen. When you're satisfied with the taste of your food it's fine, but when you're not you're left to question the quality of the fish and the conditions under which they're preparing it.
We also ordered a bottle of Nigiri(?) Sake. It's a cold creme de sake. I never heard of that, I never heard a milky sake before but I enjoyed it. There are two reasonable priced selections, a small bottle was $12, but then the sake menu jumps to the $40 a bottle and up range.
After our meal they brought us two large coffee mugs of tea rather than small cups and a bottle which seems contradictory with their desired atmosphere.
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Did they ever correctly bring you the smoked salmon appetizer? I really wanted to try that for the squid ink gnocchi that came with it. Fortunately I found it on the menu at 71 Clinton too.
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I arrived for my 10pm reservation tonight around 945pm. It was somewhat busy but not so much as it appeared the same time last Monday. The hostess suggested we have a cocktail downstairs in the lounge and we did. All the cocktails in part are made with teas, sake, and japanese liquers and were an improvement over those we had last week at Morimoto in Philadelphia. The lounge seats about twenty people in alcoves and behind screens and was quite intimate. The service was excellent. The menu downstairs has a limited number of dishes plus the entire raw bar menu. When our table was ready we went upstairs and our waitress followed with our drinks which she would transfer to our checks. All was well.
Then we were seated in a busy but not full restaurant.
In the Urbandaddy interview, Morimoto mentioned there is not a bad table in the house. Let me tell you where he may have overlooked. When you walk in, and you're at the hostess stand, turn to the left. Apart from the main dining room there is an alcove with a few tables. We were seated at a corner table at the back of the alcove surrounded by walls closing in on us. There was no view of anything but the empty table beside us in the corner and we couldn't be more detached from the vibe or mood Morimoto is meant to evoke than if they seated us at a table in Del Posto.
Nothing against the wait staff. When our waiter brought our menus I said to him, I hate to bother but is it possible to seat us anywhere else? I think he understood and he came back a few minutes later and said there were none then but may be one opening soon. We waited but in all honesty when you've been drooling over a menu for weeks and craving a certain experience, and ready to drop hundreds of dollars and then you're in a dim concrete alcove, the mood has passed. So we finished our drinks and asked the waiter for our check. I said there were no problems, we just wanted our check and thank you. Then the manager came. And he seemed to feel horrible for us and told us there would be a table soon and then he comped our drinks. And we said thank you and we went to get our coats. And then the manager stopped us again and said we could go down to the lounge and they'd buy us drinks until a new table was ready but we just wanted to go and it wasn't his fault either. He gave us his card and told us we'd get a better table next time and we left.
I think it would have been a perfect night if they seated us anywhere at all in the main dining room or at least in view of it or if we never left the lounge. But when you make a reservation weeks out and when you go to an establishment of a certain quality, well, they should either reserve this space for walk-ins or convert it to a coat check. I still love Morimoto in Philadelphia, it was as good as ever last week and if anyone's ever been there they know there really isn't a bad table in that room.
I still look forward to eating at Morimoto here but as I told the manager, tonight was just not meant to be that night.
Dinner at Pastis was awesome though.
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Sneakeater, you asked earlier about how your friend could get a table. This morning my girlfriend called up for a table for this Saturday and they put her on a twenty-five name call back wait list for a reservation. I called myself just now and they offered me a late table Saturday night or a more reasonable one for next Monday and I opted for the latter. I've eaten a number of times at the Philly restaurant and they recognized that "I'd eaten there before," I assume they meant Philly since I canceled my table for last night so it seems that repeat customers even this early on are getting the priority.
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docsconz, I read your review from December just now and I agree with the portions being small and prices obscene, although I suppose now you get two or three ounces of meat instead of one ounce for the same price. And I'm glad the hostesses were more courteous. I can't see why they wouldn't try to be more useful, or try to seat us when the restaurant is near zero-capacity. One did nothing all night but walk back and forth from the back each time with a new hairstyle. Six times, and with short hair, that's not easy. But all the servers were pleasant, prompt and overall excellent. It did strike me as absurd after reading your review, to learn that the lounge tables were forbidden from receiving anything from the main dining room, 1. because it's such a thin line seperating the two and 2. because it's a waste of a kitchen who's not cooking for anyone else. I'm sure we could have spent $400 easily last night if more dishes were available to us, we just didn't want to surrender the more casual atmosphere. I think that's a huge mistake on part of management and one that should be flexible with the capacity of the room.
Having gone once now the memory will stay with me, a positive one, and eventually I'll go back. And I think come a year from now after everyone eats there once, it'll pass or fail on repeat business but I think Del Posto did an excellent job for better or worse in defining itself and seperating itself from other Batali restaurants, italian restaurants, other three or four star restaurants and I don't mind overpaying for a stark, defined experience. I do that at Cafe Gray too. Although no one seems to like that either and they manage to give you huge portions.
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After a weekend dining down in Stephen Starr territory, at El Vez and Morimoto this weekend, I was more than ready to compare the food, service and atmosphere to my 9pm reservation last night at Morimoto in Manhattan. But just anxious to get out of the apartment a few hours before dinner, we decided to have a drink and snack in the lounge at Del Posto across the street and were so sold on the experience we spent the next three hours there, canceling dinner across the street after our fourth plate was cleared.
Walking in, between the two sets of double doors, there are two valets, definitely not doormen from their dress or demeanor, who look bored out of their mind, and a small and incredibly sweet woman behind the coat check counter who seems in complete opposition to every wannabe model coat check girl in town.
Past there, we walked into a sort of subdued modern opulence. I thought it was going to look like Daniel, but it was really a spacious high-ceiling hotel lobby in subdued chocolate tones. Up the left side stairs, we made our way into the lounge. Making it clear to the hostess - one of two who looked like she really knew how to pull off evening clothes on a budget - we only wanted the lounge, she didn't walk us over but told us to sit wherever we liked, and we did, behind the railing, in front of the piano, and in full view of all comings and goings.
In retrospect we could have done as some diners had, and walked in with no reservations. I had read in New York's fall preview issue that the only dress code at Del Posto was going to be no tank tops and no sandals, and it was pretty clear watching those who did and did not have reservations, that anything goes. The women, all half the size and age of their dates, were in jeans, clingy and revealing tops, and rhinestones. The bar crowd revealed hoodies, tee shirts and cargo pants. You can either argue that this robbed the environment of its class or its stuffiness. Either way, it's what kept it at the level of luxe hotel lobby.
Our waitress brought us the menu / wine list - there's no cocktail menu but I think that's true of all Batali restaurants - and there are about twenty small plates from which to choose, all on average $18 each - low as $13, high as $30. There are no pasta dishes as we were told they would be too difficult to share but what if you didn't want to share? Anyway, ordering the tricolore with apples, it was disappointing to learn that meant greens and not pasta.
We picked four dishes to start which our waitress coursed. A porcini frittata - fluffy, hearty, moist, hot, tasty, easily consumed. It came with two pieces of brushetta topped with chopped olives. Next, the disappointing tricolore. Even for a salad, especially a $13 salad. Both of these were brought out one at a time to share. A server sets silverware, a server returns carrying a silver platter with the plate of food and a smaller sharing plate. They're white china with small painted purple flowers. Pretty quaint. There is new silverware and a new sharing plate for every course. The next two dishes though were not brought to share which was fine and wise. My date received the proscuitto with black pepper seasoned pineapple which was sliced even thinner than the meat and I received the carpaccio which was heavily flavored with olive oil. The carpaccio the waitress explained, was not covered in tomato sauce, it's just that the meat is red. I just thought that was an odd comment to toss out there since we're clearly looking at a plate of red meat in front of us. Again, both of these were delicious. But here's the thing. I know good food, and I know what I like, but is Del Posto serving the absolute best ingredients it can for the prices? Both of these plates must have been a quarter pound of meat? Less? And they're about $16 each. The evening continually succeeded in terms of taste and preparation of food. And I pay for an experience when I go out, and the joy of watching everyone, of being with someone I love who is as happy to be where I am as she is, to hear pleasant music - the pianist took requests - to be treated well, to escape and feel that I'm in maybe another city and definitely a different neighborhood - I got all of that last night and it was worth the price. But portion size for the price? I think that's the hugest flaw here. (As well as the dress code. But if people feel well-dressed and comfortable in what they're wearing that's fine. I just sincerely hope they didn't walk out of the house to go to Del Posto in what they would wear to Spotted Pig.)
So at this point things are good enough that we cancel our table at Morimoto not wanting the atmosphere across the street to spoil things. We were having too good a time and well, I've read the Morimoto forum.
Next we order the lobster frico. This dish was tasty. It's lots of pepper and peppers, supposedly a lobster's tail worth of meat, and made with cheese and potatoes but no egg. We enjoyed this despite two things: 1. I'm almost convinced there was no lobster in it at all saved for the appearance of a tiny diced piece, and 2. it completely fell to pieces and was impossible to eat with anything but our fingers. Still, what we got in our mouths, we liked. Finally, we had the gran fritto. This was $30 and was two pieces of every fritto on the lounge menu, each I believe was fried and prepared a different way. There was the salted cod which we could have eaten all night. Seaweed which were the largest portions and like nothing I've had before, cauliflower and sweet potato which were like tempura and a bit out of place, and baccala in a red sauce. With the chef's compliments there was a double fried artichoke in the middle. We joked with the waitress that it was okay that it was completely inedible because at least it was free.
I should point out that for the gran fritto plate, they had to push two tables together for us to put it down. So again it baffles me that the only reason they don't serve pasta in the lounge is because of table space. Also, in contrast to Motimoto across the street which was overflowing with people all night long, Del Posto was at its peak, a quarter full. It would have been nice to offer us a dish from the full menu. The kitchen could not have been that busy, especially as one chef kept coming back out to the hostess stand.
For dessert we had the aged parmesan tasting and the chocolate and rum tasting, served one at a time to share. Both dishes, they're $18 each, are great for sharing though I'm not sure if they're listed as such. They're certainly overwhelming. The cheese came with a goat cheese bread, a pear mustard made I believe from a pear with mustard seeds in it soaked in simple syrup then thinly sliced - I wish I knew where I could find this - and a jelly, a 25 year-old balsamic vinegar and a honeycomb. The goat cheese bread was a nice contrast to the one kind of bread they'd been serving all night long, a potato ciabatta. I'd have thought they'd have more kinds of bread available. The cheese I'd definitely have again. I only wish the condiments came in a slightly greater abundance, it was more like a tease of them.
For the chocolate tasting, there were three dark chocolates and three sugar cane rums, the third poured having the strongest fruit flavors and being the best tasting, especially paired with the equadorian chocolate. It must have been the sommelier who came over to bring the rums. They came on a silver tray, each bottle was presented and explained in detail. Not at all in a condescending way as each explanation began with a "as you must know..." without a hint of sarcasm. I'd have been so much more interested if he wasn't talking through the song I requested. The rums tasted more like cognacs and it was more chocolate than any two people can consume so i had it wrapped and I'll bake with it later.
For all this, six plates, two dessert tastings, two glasses of wine and two cocktails - the rust colored tonic water was explained as being housemade and colored because of the quinine - the cost was $212, we left $250. I don't know what the tip is to request a song. I'm not that smooth. The pianist left about ten minutes before we were done and the same sort of music was played low over speakers. As kitschy as a pianist may be, hearing the same thing piped into the room sounded bad and cheap.
I would go back. I'd go back to the lounge and try everything I didn' t have this time at least once. There's also a full dessert menu in the lounge, at least ten desserts, but none looked too appealing so we opted for the tastings. The bar is a different scene, no food is served though it's in the same area, and we were the only people eating in the lounge during our three hours there. I'm trying Morimoto Saturday and if it looks anywhere near as insane as it did last night at 1030pm, well, I'm glad I didn't let it ruin the experience of last night.
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I had dinner at Urena on Saturday night hoping for some sort of molecular gastonomy experience as there doesn't appear to be a website or listing on Menupages to preview the menu and I was sold on the hype. I honestly wouldn't have minded that the restaurant is in the middle of nowhere, way too bright, and completely devoid of atmosphere if the food met my expectations but in terms of creativity, the dishes went downhill after the amuse bouche which was the previously mentioned sardine dish. Our party ordered the seven appetizers listed and it made for a nice night of tapas but no better than Tintol a few days before. The one dish that I'd have again is the rabbit confit and leg which was rich, decadent and one of the only hot appetizers I believe, and it even reminded me of something similar I had at StudioKitchen. The rest were a blur of average crudo. I would go back for dessert, having not had it but reading the menu and finding the most creativity there. As I recall the petit fours were a dark chocolate basket, a sherry soaked nut that tasted like a crackerjack and a lemon gelee which tasted like a Sour Patch Kid.
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I had dinner at Blaue Gans last night looking for cold weather comfort food in the proximity of location and price to Upstairs at Bouley and I was not at all disappointed. It's a large open and warm room maybe just a few watts too bright, the walls of the restaurant and bathrooms covered in unframed foreign art, film and theater posters perfectly arranged but looking like they'd been there forever giving it that instant sense of history and comfort that the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien achieved.
The room was empty at about 630 and near full at the time we left two hours later. The service was excellent, personable and knowledgable, and the food arrived very quickly. The waiter told us certain dishes were not available from the menu but never mentioned which ones before announcing the specials, some of which are written on a huge wall mirror, but it didn't interfere with our ordering.
We shared a duck salad to start after being correctly told that my date's entree wasn't very filling - the pasta special of three four cheese ravioli with shitake mushrooms and long thin strips of zucchini, in a sauce of pumpkin seed oil and pesto ($18) which was rich and perfectly executed but for the price and for being an entree it could have come with one or two more. I had the fried chicken ($20) which was two large boneless pieces of white meat accompanied by a hefty serving of potato salad and a small container of lingonberry sauce which I'd never think to have with fried chicken but it served as a great contrast to the meat which was seasoned but neither too spicy nor greasy. I understand that some people knock this sort of subtle bistro fried chicken as being inauthentic - I've especially read this about the fried chicken at 24 Prince which I thoroughly enjoyed as well - but to feel full and clean and almost fool yourself into thinking you ate healthy is a good thing.
For dessert we ordered the caramel mille crepe which they called something else but it was exactly that and was a hefty portion, maybe twice what they'd give you in a serving at Lady M. Also it came with a small portion of dark chocolate sauce on the side. I wished they'd suggested that desserts be shared as the quark dumplings with orange salad (both desserts were $8 each,) were the size of three small fists - two would have been enough for two people. They were delicious though having the texture and flavor of the filling of a cheese danish.
They only serve Austrian wine and beer and have no cocktail menu but they do have two house cocktails, one our waiter couldn't explain and the other an elderflower martini which I hate to say put to shame a similar martini at Room 4 Dessert which was just a little too perfumed. We also tried the silver pine schnapps with dessert which was just what we needed before heading back out to the cold and I say this in the best way possible - the scent and taste brought to mind the Home Depot at Christmastime.
As the restaurant got busier the waiter was hard to find for the check. At one point he brought the three tier petit four tray of apricot, raspberry and almond sugar cookies over and left us to it for about twenty minutes which was not at all a bad way to be left waiting for the bill. It came to $125 with tip and I'm still full at lunch today with no regrets.
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I found the chitterlings to be the richest dish we had and certainly salty, though I may have mistaken very difficult to cut as fatty. The woodcock, it just seemed like presentation over flavor. It seemed as though more preparation went into every other dish we ordered. Still I'd definitely go there again next time I'm in London and every dish contributed to the experience. Regarding the price, I realize the exchange rate is at play, but I'm rarely at ever confronted with an entree that's US$50 and with the woodcock the expectations didn't meet the price.
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Having read this forum for sometime before taking my girlfriend to London this weekend, this became the #1 restaurant on our list of places to try. We ate an enjoyable meal at Bistrotheque the night before, where the duck shepherd's pie stood out, and arriving Saturday night on an otherwise deserted block to a restaurant tucked into an anonymous structure it was surprising how similar both restaurants were to each other in architecture, interior and location.
I'd read the menus the days prior and was sorry to see both roast beef and haggis shift off the menu but it forced us and a friend to try something new. The bone marrow salad was exactly what I hoped it would be, plentiful and succulent, with more toast than you need. The only other restaurant I have this is at Blue Ribbon in NYC where it comes with an oxtail ragout to smother on the bread as well but there was enough flavor here not to need that.
Unless fowl is just that expensive, I'm still not sure why the woodcock was the most expensive thing on the menu that night. It's difficult to eat and there's not much meat on it. The only thing I remember most about that was the waitress returning with the brain spoon, as we soon realized the head of the bird was split open on the plate to be dug out. It was cold and the only taste that came to mind was edamame but it was an experience.
The better entrees were the beef mince with drippings toast which was more buttery than stew-like which it appeared as at first and the chitterlings with turnips which while I'm sure is the worst thing for your heart it was one of the best dishes I've ever had, so juicy without being too watery or salty.
For dessert we ordered the last half dozen madelines - it was nice being seated near the kitchen so we were constantly aware of what dishes were running out - the apple cider sorbet with a shot of vodka which we turned into an icy applesauce topping for the madelines, the blood orange meringue which tasted, in a very good way, like Lucky Charms, the warm chocolate pudding which is sadly like every other molten chocolate cake the world over, and the eccles cake with cheese. Not realizing that was more of a savory dessert we were happy it cut some of the other dishes and that they all contrasted from one another.
It was packed Saturday night, we arrived at 8pm and were there til the kitchen basically ran out of everything, but it's easy to book a table a week out on Opentable which is what we did. It fills up fast though as a few days before our dinner we couldn't change our reservation time.
The bill for three appetizers, three entrees, five desserts and one bottle of wine and tip was US$260 which seemed a bargain. The waitress was knowledgable but bad at recommending dishes as she kept saying everything was great which was true but still.
While in a completely different category the only other meal this weekend that was a real standout was Yauatcha. The Wolseley was a terrible disappointment.
Painfully Hip Brunch
in New York: Dining
Posted
I've seen pretty close to anything goes at Aquavit at brunch but I'd say jeans and a blazer are most appropriate for the space.