adamru

I went to R4D last night and on a comfort level alone there's no comparison to Chikalicious. I've never felt that comfortable squeezing between tables and knowing there's a line of people nearby waiting for my seat. Dessert was always so small and I never got a sense I could linger. Dessert was consistently excellent, but once the novelty of a deconstructed dessert faded I longed for something heartier and R4D definitely filled that void. One thing both Chikalicious and R4D do is maximize the potential of their space. I ate at the crudo and sushi versions of the space before this and it's an incredible transformation - warmer, darker, more intimate, and better suited for a date than then afternoon tea vibe at Chikalicious. Desserts were well-made, intense and a great value. My girlfriend had the apple tasting with its wine pairing, I had one of the glass desserts and the chocolate mint tea pairing. The chocolate mousse came warm in a tall glass taking up about 3/4 of it atop a layer of crunchies that tasted like puffed rice and on the bottom a layer of sherry jelly. You couldn't really get a taste of all three in one bite, instead it was a nice evolution through the three tastes and it was perfectly filling. The only comparison that comes to mind is a drinkable chocolate mousse I had at Applewood in Brooklyn. I didn't get to try every part of the apple tasting but the warm clear cider would be a worthy drink on its own on the menu. I didn't get to examine all the ingredients they have for sale but I know they're adding more soon. The chill-out indie music was a great complement to the dim light and decor and the staff was incredibly friendly and informative while making the desserts right in front of us. The check was a little over fifty dollars with tip which is as best I can remember the same at Chikalicious.

that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. thank you!

I was looking for a place, preferably sit down, that does cocoa very well and I'd read in last year's Best of Philly issue of Philadelphia Magazine that Yann Patisserie was the best but it has since closed down. Anywhere else worth trying? I don't know if that's an odd request but NYC has at least a dozen good options.

I passed by over the weekend and there were definitely people eating inside, but does anyone have a phone number to make a reservation? I can't find a website with one and no luck with 411.

for a long time I'd been passing hearth by thinking the cuisine and atmosphere couldn't possibly provoke escapism from its east village setting but I was completely wrong. the service was so warm and our waiter was not only knowledgable about every dish but actually seemed excited for us as we ordered. we arrived a half hour before our reservation as the bar we meant to begin the night with was closed and despite being busy they were good about seating us a half hour early, our table ready just as we ordered drinks at the bar - the dupont normandie pommeau (which if any of you know where to buy in nyc, please let me know) and the dupont cider. finding out the cooked to order entrees would take some time our waiter suggested an appetizer, something we sought to avoid as we ordered three sides instead, but he offered to split the frisee, a light and flavorful precursor of what was to come. I had the roasted bluefoot chicken, which I'd wanted to try but was loathe to cook myself and searching on menupages hearth's was the cheapest sampling in the city. the crisp skin and was so flavorful and the chicken melt in your mouth. I don't remember the escarole or beans but the dumplings alone could have made the dish. my girlfriend had the sirloin, such a large portion for the price and quality and I ended up finishing hers. originally she planned on having the pumpkin tortelli but there was so much pumpkin the night before at the city harvest / taste of new york benefit that we didn't want to risk one more course of it. the sides were great, hen of the woods, sweet potato puree and the gnocchi which would actually could have been ordered as an appetizer. stuffed we still made room for dessert and the apple doughnuts were actually that, I think we expected fritters. small warm glazed doughnuts with cream and an apple compote which made a great topping for the trio of ice creams we ordered as well. the vanilla was intense, peanut brittle outstanding, but the pumpkin ice cream failed to impress, not because we were sick of it but it seemed the weakest in flavor. I rarely repeat restaurants but I'm going back in a few weeks and I can't wait.

I ate at bistro du vent late one night last week. I live in the neighborhood but kept passing it by til when I believed the new menu took place on november 1st. I hadn't eaten there before and I likely won't go back. the appetizers were excellent, the butternut squash soup and my girlfriend had the prawns. but the entrees, I think the bacon wrapped rabbit loin was undercooked and overly rich. the sweetbreads were decent but better at casa mono. the restaurant was empty save for one other table that left as we arrived. the waiter talked to the departing couple for many many minutes while we sat waiting to just receive the menus. if I wanted a meal like this with better service, I'd prefer pigalle.

I don't know when the upstairs opens or when the downstairs menu is going to expand, but I couldn't wait any longer to try the recently reopened Spotted Pig and went with my girlfriend after last Thursday's Kanye West concert, getting there around 11pm. Method Man and Notorious BIG were pumping out the stereo over the din of an incredibly lively and completely packed room with a few notable locals that give it the tavern atmosphere of the Canterbury Tales if they had been written by Tom Wolfe. After a short wait for a table, "one star Mario" and "one star Kenny" as they referred to themselves made their presence known and both seemed either very pleased or very amused by their Michelin rating. The menu is still abbreviated on the ground floor, too sparse to choose a worthwhile appetizer and entree and some of the more offal-inclined dishes that are listed on their website aren't there anymore, but the roast pumpkin salad and the roquefort burger were there and were as good as ever and arrived in only a few minutes. By contrast in the fifteen minutes we waited at the bar for a table, we could never get the admirably tireless but still neglectful bartender's attention. The dessert menu had all the offerings from the past and the ginger cake with vanilla cream arrived warm, moist and very rich. I can't tell or imagine what if any ground floor renovations were done, so if you liked it before it hasn't changed and if you didn't, there are likely Michelin guide readers ready to fill any empty seats.

of course by the time eight to ten people join that group in the church basement on tuesdays, they're bound to realize they don't have a problem, they have a solution, and back to dinner they go.

so, philadining, tired of you dear readers taking time from pointing and clicking through egullet to point and laugh at him for eating at studiokitchen so often, asked me to give an opinion of my meal there if for no other reason than to assure you all that he doesn't pay $1000 a night to eat ten portions at a time only to then post about it here under assumed names. I was there this wednesday night and the best of my recollection follows: what would you expect when you read six men and four women paid $100 a head to get into a house along drexel university's fraternity row on a dark and stormy night, spending hours huddled together, bikers and athletes oohing and ahhing around a large table while a suspicious man with a ponytail documented the vice on his digital camera? you'd think kegs, condoms, and regret. but it was courses not intercourse, wine - no beer, and nothing but satisfaction at studiokitchen this past wednesday. living in manhattan, philadelphia doesn't seem so far to go for a great meal, especially when too often I'm just willing to make the trip for bassett's ice cream and a turkey sandwich at reading market. sure, some things may make the trip - an hour on amtrak - feel uneasy: torrential rain, signal delays and our menu and dining companions being out of our control. but the train offered time to dry off, the signal delays even more time to dry off, not choosing our menu meant no regrets about having not tried something, and one thing we - my girlfriend and I - knew we'd share with everyone at the table is a love of food. chemists, software developers, educational directors, consultants, doctors, foremost authorities on curling, radio producers - they have to eat after all. upon arrival with our wine dry and everything else wet, six of us found each other outside moments before we were due to ascend to the house, and after our own introductions we were greeted by shola, chef and host, who opened the door and led the way inside and upstairs to a warm lit, candle-scented, thomas newman score-filled dining room. found therein are four chairs on each side of the table - wide, plush in ultrasuede - and one at each end, but none better or worse than any other whether you want to be near the sideboard to examine the standing and chilling wines, near a flatscreen monitor embraced by a wall panel showcasing the highlights of dinners past and around which shola's repossessed plates pile resembling less a dirty countertop than a damien hirst installation. but if our meal wasn't art, it was music, and jazz at that. for after the doorbell announced the last of the guests and coats are hanged and hands are shaken, after much chatter of food, of favorite meals near and far, the din of the room diminishes for the preparation and presentation of each dish, commencing with the amuse. and then it's a performance. it's one in the way everyone turns to the playbill of a menu and glossary at their seat before shola starts a new movement. one in the improvisation of the arrangement of food on the plate ten times over. one in the way flavors repeat, recur, and play against each other - if music can be as fluid as liquid, surely here the opposite is true and vibrantly in the lentil emulsion and white truffle horchata. and it's jazz in the way every meal is both original and an evolution of the previous, how the next meal couldn't exist until the current one is worked out - if he never made the bomba rice with tomatoes and rock shrimp before, could we on wednesday possibly have enjoyed the rice with parsley puree and escargots? having gone to birdland a few nights earlier, the question prior to that too arose over how to dress for jazz. this isn't the symphony of le bec fin and it's not the cacophony of your favorite cheesesteak joint. true the wineglasses are aligned at each seat and every practical utensil arranged, the places set for any high degree of formality one wants to bring to the occasion, but go there once and after your glasses have been refilled, your bottles uncorked and yourself decompressed, after you realize every dish is so tender as not to need a knife, the formality just like the food melts away. come dressed in your best favorite clothes, the best outfit you've ever broken in so there's no guilt and just enough room in waist or hips for a third portion of the bergamot-scented lamb or seconds of the fromage blanc ice cream. dress just so and you'll come and go looking and feeling your greatest following your new best and favorite meal. after said meal, drunk on nearly four hours of this decadence, coffee arrived. I can't recall six courses encompassing that much time yet the trip from plate to palate to art installation on the shelf on the wall, from the signal delay heading down to the rain delay heading back, was far too fast. for the invitation from our hostess, I'm ever grateful and for the ride through the rain and back to the train station, equally as much. everyone and everything encountered over those four hours was an absolute pleasure. if any of you who have eaten there already and who plan on returning regret not having such a poetic retelling of your evening, by all means invite me back there. really, please, any of you... and I know I talked about everything but the food but philadining does the definitive work of taking the pictures and writing the thousand words they're worth. I'll return you now to his regularly scheduled commentary.

I went to cafe gray for the second time about two weeks ago - the first time, when it first opened - and I had the chance to try the indian summer menu... yellow tomato coulis, chicken a la king, my girlfriend had the pork chop... and the taste and size of the entrees exceeded all expectations. I don't go there for haute cuisine, I go for exceptional comfort food. If there's any restaurant in the neighborhood this is meant to compete against, it's cafe des artistes where I've been many times before but I'm 27 and wanting a menu and decor updated for my generation I find cafe gray to be ideal. it's disappointing it's as empty as it is as often as it is but they've managed to create an escapist environment with flash and flavor that doesn't suffer overkill by scenesters. the only other place that seems to do this well is pegu club in soho - no snobbery, superior service, sex appeal, and just as there you forget the dirty loud street down below crowded with the dos caminos overflow, at cafe gray you're transported somewhere more glamourous than a shopping mall, almost more glamourous than nyc. it's where one would go to live that wallpaper magazine fantasy. the service on my first visit was mixed as there was no one at the host stand and after waiting I had to walk into the restaurant to find someone to seat me then because no one checked my name off in the computer system opentable told me I was a no-show, but this last time the staff was warm, the food was prompt, and after wondering what the chef was holding in his hand on the lid of the silver dish for the noodles, the man who explained the answer - or at least hazarded his best guess - took over as our waiter for the rest of the meal. I don't know if he was a floor manager, he was in a jacket and tie, but there were no flaws in transition. (versus one meal at tabla where when ordering the tasting menu a new waiter took over and started delivering the wrong courses.)

With few exceptions, I haven't had every dessert at every japanese restaurant in the city. Overall I've found them subtle, sometimes to the point of forgettable on occasion. I think that subtlety is the nature of the cuisine though. The soy milk pudding was worse than anything I'd had anywhere else and the bonzai chocolate cake superb not just for a japanese / fusion restaurant, and I was just saying that was a nice surprise.

My girlfriend and I had dinner at Ninja at 9pm last night. We knew it was on Hudson and Duane - it's across the street from Danube - but the restaurant would have been very difficult to find had there not been a ninja doorman standing outside. Walking from a half block away to see this large squat man on a Manhattan street at night he immediately evoked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for me. Upon being greeted by him, it was instantly clear he was instead a ninja version of Turtle from Entourage on HBO. Without seeing his face we knew he was white, american, and he wanted us to have an awesome time. He led us behind the door to the hostess stand. There are two women here. One a hostess with her face uncovered and one a girl masked who is, let's say, standing guard. The hostess, while not the girl I've been speaking with to make my reservation immediately knows which party we are and I wonder if we're the only 9pm party that evening. (Afterward I realize we probably were.) She shows us into an elevator past the hostess stand and calls the doorman to return, he does so with a lantern in hand, to lead us on our "adventure." The clearest comparison here is to the entry experience at the Jekyll and Hyde Club on 57th Street. Earlier in the day when I explained where I was having dinner someone suggested, "oh, like Mars 2112" and I got defensive because I knew dinner was going to cost a few hundred dollars and it couldn't be like that. So I spoke about Pomp Duck and Circumstance, the german dinner theater experience which made a stop in NYC about ten years ago on its way to Vegas, turning DeWitt Clinton Park into a black tie gourmet Cirque Du Soleil - Cabaret dining experience. But no, this was the Jekyll and Hyde Club. We asked our guide in the elevator if it's true he had to audition for his role here but he laughed that off and explained that no, he'd been training to be a ninja his entire life. I admire that he stuck to character to make the experience more believable and enjoyable but his body language, voice, energy, ethnicity were all in complete contrast to that. Off the elevator on the second floor our guide gave us a choice, we could take the boring or the exciting path to our "lodge." We chose the exciting of course, and we were lead through dark cavernous hallways, up and down steps, until finally we reached a gap where I think a bridge was supposed to appear or fall down for us to walk across. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to use our own ninja skills to jump the divide and so we were lead through a doorway and took the boring path the rest of the way. On the way we passed one party of four, themselves eating in a "lodge." Also along the way were several masked staff members all in similar poses to the woman guarding the hostess downstairs. A lodge is a small room about 7' x 7'. I really want to get the imagery right for you so let's say it like this. Imagine being in a booth at a diner. Now imagine that booth with one light overhead - a 30 / 70 / 100 watt bulb set to 30. And imagine on three sides of your booth there are faux-stone dark gray cavern walls that cannot be scaled to escape. And one side are three sliding black wooden doors that are barred and that a row of bars across at eye level have the spaces between them filled and blacked out so you can't see anyone coming or passing you at eye level. Okay now remember the diner booth? Instead of that, it's a rough-hewn black wooden table with holes in it (maybe the kind that would come from a sword fight for authenticity's sake) and that instead of a cushy booth seating you have foor plain chairs that I don't recall being padded. This is the "lodge." It's like a third-world interrogation room. Oh and making it more difficult to get in and out, there's a folded tray stand behind the seat which they never actually even need to bring food during the meal. Despite all of this, we're hysterical because it's novelty and we continually want to see what's going to happen next. We're optimistic for the food and the possibility of magic. An actual japanese person arrives next, face unmasked, and presents himself as our waiter. He creeps to the middle door in a crouched position, makes a specific hand motion raising his right arm as if about to attack, makes a noise or says a phrase to announce his arrival, slides the door, rises and greets us. His departure is much the same way and this occurs with every appearance, so maybe ten arrivals and departures in our time there. It never gets old for us, and he seems truly happy that we're enjoying ourselves. He brings us the drink menu which offers cocktails, wine and sake printed on a black scroll that he keeps wound and tied in his belt and then unfurls on the table. After this the dinner menu arrives with the same fanfare. On the bottom of the dinner menu it's explained the menu has ninja secrets within it and cannot be removed from the restaurant. We actually think for a second there's more to the menu than meets the eye and there are fun facts about ninjas or backstory or something somewhere but no, they just mean the menu itself. The menu offers six tasting menus ranging from two at $80, the most basic ten-course as well as the vegetarian, and they go up to $200, the most expensive being the beef and caviar tasting menus. A la carte, they offer sushi, rolls, hot and cold appetizers, entrees, salads and soups. I can't imagine the menus were cheap to produce but they weren't proofed, Maine lobster appeared as "main lobster" throughout. Curious we ordered a variety of hot and cold appetizers, salads, and rolls. After ordering they brought hot towels in a laquer box. However he didn't leave the box and there was nowhere but just on the table to leave the towels after using them. We ordered tap water, they brought a large bottle of Voss and didn't charge us for it. It came up as tap on the check. Our cocktails came next, sake and green tea liquer were ingredients in a majority of them. The first dish to arrive was the cebiche. It was a cold appetizer, a half tomato, quartered, topped with fluke sashimi in what must have been an oil dressing. That's about all I could say about it. Next was the tuna. Three bites of tuna - there's no toro offered a la carte - paired with three hot tubes of cooked rice reaching twice as high as the bite of tuna. The sauce was made from japanese sweet or rice wine, he corrected himself often in describing things and left us a little confused. This was a standout course but it probably came to $5 a bite. The next three dishes were the best tasting, the best value, and the most creative of the night. All of these dishes I would order again, although the first, the roasted roll, a roll of sea bass wrapped in rice and seaweed then roasted and sliced into at least a dozen pieces, required some sort of either cream sauce or soy sauce. The sauce from the tuna would have been fine. It was chewy and tasted a little dry toward the end. All the flavor wasn't cooked out of the fish but all the juices were. Next was the creme brule. A hot appetizer but it would make a great entree. It's basically pot roast. There's beef in a pot, topped with hot foie gras on a bed of au gratin potatoes which is from what the meal gets its name. Ordering it we had no idea what to expect but it was much more an authentic american dish, the only sense of fusion being the foie gras on top and the decorative pot. I don't think it's possible that it could have been baked all together because to eat the parts individually they didn't pick up the flavor of the other elements. Next, the last of the three great dishes, was the salad, the suno-mono. It's the biggest bargain on the menu at $6. We ordered one, like we did one of everything else, but he brought and charged us for two. We didn't mind - they're small and they arrive in a cocktail glass. It's shredded chicken and spinach at the very least, at the bottom of the glass, all under a foam - the foam's what sold us on it - which tasted both salty and sweet. I wish I could tell you what the foam is made of but I didn't write the word down, I only recall the answer being a hyphenated japanese word. The most similar taste to it would be the broth of the toro tartare with plum at Morirmoto in Philadelphia. One thing I ordered off the tasting menu, and maybe you can order whatever you want from it if you ask the kitchen, is the shizo and yuzu granite. It arrived next, rolled in cellophane paper like hard candies, they were granite bites that melt in your mouth as you suck on them. Nice presentation but no flavor. Now dessert. Our sushi hadn't come yet, and our waiter knew that, but he returned with the dessert menu. Five choices, a soy milk pudding, a chocolate mousse, a chocolate cake with ice cream, a cream cheese cake, and something else, I think it involved fruit. We opted for the soy milk pudding for curiosity's sake and the chocolate cake with ice cream. I asked him if it was a warm or molten cake and he said it was. It wasn't at all, but it along with those three previous courses were the culinary highlights of the night. After ordering from the fine paper dessert menu about the size of an index card, he took it, took out a lighter, set the menu on fire, and as it disappeared into a flame, he presented us each with... ...two business cards for Ninja! And he hoped we'd come again! This was the magic? The menu didn't just go away in a cloud of smoke, the man set fire to it with a lighter right in front of us. We could have done that. And then business cards? Thanking us for eating there and hoping we'll come again when we still haven't gotten to the sushi course yet and we'd just ordered dessert? That all seems wrong somehow. Of all the things he could have made appear, maybe a little toy, paper throwing stars, something, but not that. Sushi. We ordered the korean BBQ roll and the kampyo roll. I've always liked the sweet squash rolls from Hedeh which is my favorite sushi in New York. Our rolls arrived on a piece of wood that nearly stretched from one end of our cell to the other. It came with chopped chunks of ginger, but no wasabi. He did bring out soy sauce. The korean BBQ roll didn't need anything, it was beef wrapped in rice and then lettuce. The BBQ wasn't anywhere as sweet as the kampyo so the contrast in flavors worked out. The rolls were about $12 each. Five pieces of BBQ, ten pieces of kampyo which came wrapped in the squash. I didn't know why there was so much more of one roll than the other, but it's because he decided again to bring us and charge us for two instead of one roll. Dessert. They never offered coffee or tea until they cleared our dessert away. The soy milk pudding was runny in texture like sour milk and was topped with a granite. It tasted like nothing. Absolutely no flavor at all could be attributed to it. And it looked gross, so that's that. The next dessert, the chocolate cake with ice cream, was called the bonzai. It arrived at the table as a potted bonzai tree. A flaky crunchy pastry made up the trunk and branches of the tree, the green of the tree on every branch was more of a custard than an icing and the soil was the chocolate cake. It was cold, came out in small clumps, it wouldn't hold together but it was moist in the pieces that held and not at all grainy. Beneath the cake was two kinds of ice cream, I think green tea and vanilla, and there was a small slice of strawberry that never repeated so maybe it found its way in there by accident. I think desserts were $10 or $12 - there are no prices on the dessert menu though - and the cake was worth it by far. I didn't really expect anything better than the soy milk pudding. I always feel like japanese restaurants don't make efforts with dessert. Everything is mediocre and the dessert menu even more limited at Bar Masa, and the bento box at Nobu gets old fast. So as far as japanese desserts, this is up there for me with the tirami su fondue at Hedeh. I admit before the check came I started to feel claustrophobic. I don't know if they have non-caged seating, but I am glad we were given a four-seat lodge for the two of us rather than a two-seater which they also had. I'd like to see other people, and I'd like to see what they order and how they enjoyed themselves by comparison. After the check, $200 with tip - it could have been more since drinks and dishes had different names and lower prices than what we ordered - the waiter found a masked ninja guide to show us out. He took us the boring way, and then, before a door that would lead to a room that houses the elevator, he sought out his third eye to look past the door, performed for a solid thirty seconds some sort of motion with his arms to cleanse the way ahead, then he slowly opened the door to reveal... no one blocking our way to the elevator! Then I pushed the down button and the elevator came. We turned around and like Mary Katherine Gallagher jumping to one knee and shouting "superstar!" in the old SNL sketch, our guide jumped down to one knee, and shouted "thank you!" while unfurling a scroll stretched between his two hands that read, well, "thank you!" We arrived at the ground floor, it was two hours later at this point and the hostess was gone, but the doorman was not. He was still very happy and energetic, come to think of it now, Chris Farley in that movie where he plays a ninja, that's exactly the personality if not the size of the man that comes to mind. If I went back, I'd get a tasting menu, I'd bring more people, I'd have a few drinks beforehand, and I'd have a laughable fun time. I'm not going back any time soon but if it still exists a year from now I'd be curious to see what improvements were made to keep it afloat and running. They need to be open much later and they need to realize courtesy is not entertainment. I wanted to be scared or shocked or awed about something, anything. I did leave smiling and full but I could have done that twice over several other places in that neighborhood. If you're in the neighborhood, I think Upstairs at Bouley is the best show in town right now.

for better or worse I'm eating here tomorrow night. to the people who went to the pre-opening dinners, is it true I'd be underdressed without a jacket and / or tie? the mystery ninja on the other end of the phone told me "not so well" when I asked how jeans might go over there but was no less vague than that. I find it hard to believe they have a more demanding dress code than masa, nobu or morimoto but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I went to Morimoto when it first opened and had the omakase and I've tried it at least once a year since and I always thought every dish was the same every time because I always went in the spring and it was a seasonal menu but looking at those photos, it seems years later and no matter what the time of year you get the same food with the tasting, although I never once got a chocolate dessert with that menu before. It's always been the same high quality and a value for the highest-end tasting compared to what you get in NYC, but I wonder if the price or the menu will be different at all when he opens in Manhattan in the fall.

So much for my reservation there. I called on Wednesday. made a reservation for Friday at 10pm and was told to confirm it today. Instead they called me today to tell me they don't take reservations at 10pm - they don't seat past 9pm, that my reservation wasn't properly entered in their computer but hand written and stuck in their reservation book, and that they can't give me a table now on Friday because they're already overbooked. They apologized and offered me another day. I find it hard to believe that my reservation A.) wasn't properly made if I called them, they had my number and they knew my party size and time I wanted to dine there and that B.) they have no idea who made the reservation if it's true that it was actually hand-written in their reservation book. I never even would have tried the place had I not heard some girl who works there, standing in front of my table and talking Bouley's ear off about their opening when I ate at Upstairs the other night. I hope she's not the same girl who somehow mistook my reservation.

the number was in last week's times dining section... it's 212 274 8500. I'm trying it out on friday.

My girlfriend and I had dinner last night at Upstairs around 10pm. It was there or Bette and having read nothing good yet I opted for taking my chances as a walk-in downtown. We had the choices of sitting outside where a few of the tables were taken, or in the second floor dining room and inside was absolutely the right decision as nice as the evening outdoors was. Yes the room is cramped and we played musical chairs with another party so they could sit together, and with an open kitchen sure it's warm, but Bouley was cooking and it was an absolute party atmosphere. A packed room but no wait, we took a table for two directly in front of the chef's performance space and with him in house no one was interested in the sushi that takes up the first page of the menu. We started with two salads, all under $10 I believe, the asparagus was laid out atop blue crab, the tuna salad came in slabs and required a knife and fork rather than the chopsticks also supplied at every table. Both delicious, although the greens with the tuna were really just garnish, the asparagus offered a lot more contrast in ingredients. The tomato salad, while we didn't get to try it was much larger and more affordable than the similar appetizer at Perry St. where we'd eaten the night prior. I had the burger, only $12! with cucumber lettuce tomato onion, spicy ketchup and mustard on an english muffin. It was huge and cooked perfectly to order at medium rare. My date had the sirloin - they were out of chicken at 10pm, it came sliced over I believe a potato granitee. It was smaller than expected but it was under $20 too. The variety and intensity of tastes on the plate more than made up for size. For dessert we shared a piece of chocolate / vanilla cake from the pastry tray. It was a surprise that it came with a scoop of lemon sorbet and coffee ice cream. There are limited pastry choices or you can opt for the cheese cart. Service is uneven, but dinner for two was $65 before tip. If you want bread or if you want your plates cleared, more water, etc, you have to make yourself known. To pass the time everyone seemed to enjoy playing with the adjustable overhead lights. I was pleased that even though so many people went up to talk with the chef he was never distracted from the task at hand.

I had dinner at Perry St. last night - called at 7pm and got an 11pm reservation. They said if we arrived sooner we could be seated sooner and we were - having gotten there at about 10:45 the restaurant was more than half-empty. I believe they just started serving til 11:30 this week. My date and I sat in the front row of tables in front of the small bar where a majority of parties were seated. As in the Times review, there was still only one kind of bread, of which we were each brought a roll. They did offer more rolls more than once in the course of the evening though. And as in the previous review on here, the amuse is still a raspberry gazpacho which I wish had a place on the menu. We ordered five appetizers, no entrees. My date started with the tomato and mozzerella salad, a small hunk of mozzerella and thick sliced and stacked red and green tomatoes as well as smaller sliced cherry tomatoes. I had the dill broth with, I think it was summer vegetables. The chopped vegetables arrive in the bowl, a staffer pours the broth from a kettle, just enough to surround without sinking them. So I wasn't quite sure if it was meant to flavor them or be digested, but a minute or so later our waitress apologized and brought a spoon. The wedge of lime on the side of the bowl was actually a perfect complement to the flavor of the broth. Next we shared the sashimi, crab dumplings and seared tuna. The tuna was perfectly edible and had a crispy outer coating it great contrast to the texture of the fish. I can't remember the sauce on the side, it was creamy yellow and looked like it had diced celery in it. The fish just didn't absorb it. Absolutely nothing stood out about the sashimi. The dumplings were great though, four of them arrived in a bowl under a pile of pea pods. They were a perfect temperature and had a perfect peppery aftertaste. Maybe a little too much soy sauce in the bowl though. For dessert, we shared the donuts with some sort of fruit compote. I believe the donuts were peppermint. They were horrible and if they can improve on them - they're warm and powdery but also dense and tasteless and putting the spread on them dissolves all the powder - then maybe they could replace the chocolate that comes with the check. By no means are they worth the $9 price of all the other desserts. My date also ordered the cheesecake - a much improved upon take on the beard papa cheesecake stick - flat, at least six inches long, and topped with a row of strawberries, a large serving of an intense strawberry sorbet at one end and a smaller scoop of cream at the other. I ordered the chocolate pudding, also very much worth the price. A large bowl with a chocolate shell on top of one half, whipped cream on top of the other half, and fortunately I was able to finish the whole thing to find the spongy chocolate cake bottom layer. The chocolates with the check were two pieces of dark chocolate covered ginger which could not have been smaller and two pieces of dark chocolate with a vanilla filling. We had two cocktails, I don't remember mine but the gin fizz on the cocktail menu was so medicinal it was undrinkable. Overall, the staff was unbelievably friendly and the service, except for the spoon, was excellent. They make a presentation of how the food is brought out but the important thing is it was brought out rather quickly and the only courses I wouldn't order again are the sashimi and the doughnuts. The tuna and the dumplings, the cheesecake and the pudding are all worth trying. Our check was $125 before tip. The entire atmosphere of the room from the music to the decor, and not just the curtains, go a long way in transporting you from feeling you're dining on the West Side Highway.

I had an early dinner at THOR last night, about which I was cautious after having had a negative experience staying at the hotel in their pre-room service days, but at the very least the dessert presentation in Time Out this past week looked creative and promising and I thought for better or worse it would make a great story to tell. I know the restaurant opened on Tuesday and at the time opentable had reservations for almost every fifteen minutes throughout the first week but by the time I booked for Saturday, on the day prior, all that was left was 6:30PM and 10:30PM. I opted for 6:30PM, curious to see the type of crowd that poured in as we ate our meal knowing both the neighborhood and that fashion week was in town. My date and I were stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until 6:50PM and so we called to see if they'd hold our reservation knowing the restaurant would soon be filling up. Directory assistance still had no listing for the restaurant but we got through to the hotel which transferred us and we were assured it wouldn't be a problem to hold us a spot. We arrived, took a right before the elevators and we were at the ground floor restaurant, wallpapered in a black and white almost op-art print which somewhat resembled the tiling in the hotel bathrooms. the seating was low deep beige leather banquettes and black wooden chairs, modern, clean and simple. Our first encounter was with the hostess who offered the only attitude that we thought we'd find throughout. She made a show of finding our reservation on her monitor and then clicking and dragging our name to an appropriate table and I couldn't help but notice in the process that there weren't that many reservations in the system for the next couple hours. Indeed when we were seated under the skylit dining room the restaurant was nearly empty with staff standing around only having to cater to two or three other tables. We sat two tables away from an elderly couple who didn't seem to fit into this sort of hotel, restaurant or neighborhood and didn't seem to be enjoying it either. But fortunately we couldn't say the same. The service, in the hands of our waiter Noah was friendly and attentive, although one staffer seemed obsessed with brushing the crumbs off the table every time dishes were removed between courses. The bread basket came with a small dish of olive oil with four olives in it. The menu was split into cold and hot appetizers, fish and meat entrees, and dessert. We ordered appetizers, four brought out in two courses, first the hamachi tomato and avacado which offered I believe four or five bites of each laid out in rows. At the same time they brought out the trio of chilled late summer soups which I assume will only be on the menu another week or two. Two green, one red, all very flavorful without being too salty, and so light. The red was sweet and one green was spicier than the other and I'm sorry I don't remember what they all were and there's no menu on menupages to refer. I only remember the difficulty in that course was the presentation. They came as a row of shot glasses inside a wooden base from which one had to pull and sort of unscrew them with some difficulty to remove them. The next courses were gnocchi with I believe bacon and mushrooms, and ricotta ravioli - only three but it was an appetizer - in a butter sauce that had a touch of mint. The two dishes were in a nice contrast to each other - the ravioli being so light and with a welcome kick, the gnocchi and mushrooms so plentiful. We paired the courses with four drinks from the cocktail menu which I don't recall as well as it was my girlfriend's domain but the orange fizz was a sweet standout that went well with the pastas. For dessert we ordered a snickers tart which was a thousand times better than something similar I had at Spice Market when they first opened. The lollipops and malted that were featured in Time Out were the richest dessert, the lollipops are all filled with warm melted chocolate and are meant to be taken off the stick in one bite and let to melt in your mouth. It's a dough not a candy shell. The malted didn't quite fill the glass halfway but it was enough to wash down the pops which I suppose is its point. Also we tried the grape soda float with ginger ice cream. The ice cream already in the glass, someone else came out from the kitchen and sprayed the fresh kool aid-colored soda into the glass. Again they didn't fill it all the way up and in that case I wished they did. The only thing to complement it was homemade fig newton on the side, and if I had the choice I'd have preferred more soda than that. Before the check they brought out four small warm spongy cookies - maybe they were almond - with a basin center and a sealed tube of chocolate sauce, tasted a bit like nutella, in what looked like an ointment tube. It said Hotel on Rivington on it. The tube stood up in a glass stand and served to fill the cookie basins. It was a nice touch as far as pre-check petit fours go and I hope they continue to offer it. The freshness of ingredients, creativity of the desserts, and presentation of all the food really impressed us. I believe the check was about $120 and well worth it. For the latter part of the meal the chef lingered between the kitchen and the dining room and we had to tell him it was the best meal out we had in weeks - although in fairness we were in florida, and quality's not the same down there - but it was such a welcome return to new york dining and a great unofficial start to trying all the fall's new restaurants. I honestly hope this restaurant does well which is a lot for me to say for as much as I disliked my stay in the hotel. But I really wonder, since there were no more people there when we left as when we arrived, to where all the reservations disappeared...

my intention was to find a special restaurant to take my girlfriend for her birthday dinner two weeks ago, somewhere neither of us had been before which was locally very limiting, and the friday prior to her birthday weekend I was watching the today show, saw charlie palmer was on, and realizing I'd never been to aureole, it seemed like a luxe and romantic option. the food on that last night of the spring tasting menu was heavy - no room for dessert - and the courses rushed - we were out in under two hours - and our hotel, the hotel on rivington, was a disaster anyway so I saw the weekend of the 4th, america's birthday instead of hers, as a do-over. we stayed at the mandarin oriental - preferring room service to asiate - and rented a car to go to the ryland inn which I'd never have known about had I not seen it on the relais & chateaux website while looking at aureole. it was easy to find, no traffic on the holiday weekend and, tunnel to turnpike to 22, we were there in about forty minutes. we parked near the front entrance and it was nice to see there was no valet which could have made it showy and less intimate. instead you step out your car to total silence - unlike most of 22 which is strip mall after strip mall, things quiet down about ten minutes before you reach the inn. going inside, you open the first door to the house yourself, they open the second as you walk into the foyer, hear the piano from the bistro / bar to the right which is lit in a dim contrast to the host desk where the hostess was very welcoming standing before the james beard award medal hanging framed on the wall behind her, adjacent to a painted portrait of the chef. I've had a couple days to think about it, and considering it's part of the history of the space it seems at home hanging in the inn along with all the historical new jersey prints in the rooms, the restaurant after all is new jersey lore. we were seated in an upstairs dining room where there were only five or six tables, and counting us, only four of them occupied. this sort of intimate space was what I was hoping for at aureole and at complete contrast to the dining room at daniel, although there the tables are better spaced than at aureole. despite the jacket requirement everyone seemed casual, relaxed if not celebratory, and anonymous. not to offend anyone, I'm absolutely aware there are wealthy and powerful people in this state, certainly moreso than me, but this was so nice in contrast to somewhere like daniel, to not naturally assume everyone in the room is more important than you and that they will likely receive better and more attentive service. it even brought to mind early reviews of per se that I read from people who would say if you didn't know the chef you'd suffer not getting the extras served to the tables around you. we knew no one at the ryland, we didn't suffer and the food and experience improved with most every course. since we weren't required to order the same menu for the table, my girlfriend had the traditional menu, I had the gastronomique. the menus vary slightly from what's currently described on the website, but the site gave a fair preview of what was to come. to begin we were poured a complimentary glass of champagne. we didn't do the wine pairing because eight courses offers a lot of pairings and 1. we didn't know how to drive back in the dark nor did we know 2. who was going to drive back but we definitely regret not getting to learn better from the sommelier as I can't recall one so unpretentious or enthusiastic. and one thing that may have added to the relaxed feeling of the environment is the all-around lack of accents. not that the staff should have the same accent as the nation of the type of cuisine they're serving, but if they're going to announce and intricately describe each course upon its arrival over the din of the room, to hear the description in a clear confident precise voice without having to bark it is a precious thing and such a thing we found here. I think of eating at the bar room of the modern last monday and hearing a hurried mumbled description when the plates were brought as if they learned the descriptions but not what the words actually meant. most times I think to myself since I know what I ordered I'd rather the server say nothing at all. this was not the case here. and with the exception of one female server who seemed very nervous even though she remembered everything just fine, she was one of three servers who were so baby-faced they couldn't have been in the service industry that long and yet behaved as if they'd been doing it happily all their lives. okay, the food. up until dessert, the traditional menu meant larger portions of less exotic ingredients but more than enough to sample from one another's plates. and while at aureole, where we both had the same menu, we were full halfway through the meal, we would have been satisfied here if dinner ended one third the way through but had room and anticipation for each following course. the amuse to start was a sablefish in a foam - I think yuzu - with a floral garnish, topped with a piece of dried seaweed over the bowl. this would be a precursor to a number of outstanding foams / purees / creams that would highlight a number of courses that night. a cherry foam in a shot glass with two fresh stemmed cherries on the side served as a palate cleanser, a foamy green garlic puree would top the cote de boeuf, a carrot puree would underscore one of the traditional courses and an almond cream was beneath one of my fish courses. the almond cream, maybe because it was the only combination of sweet and savory that night stood out in my mind as one of the most memorable tastes of the meal and I thought it would foreshadow creativity I would see in the dessert course. it did not. when we went to aureole, an elderly couple were both finishing their desserts when we were seated. both from a selection ordered the warm chocolate and hazelnut pyramid with chocolate sauce poured over them. this followed a lemon frozen yogurt inside a shot glass filled before you with a berry consomme, both desserts followed by about a half dozen petit-fours and a housemade fruit and nut chocolate bar. and then a bag of madelines. no one sitting around us that night were able to finish their desserts and one table unsuccesfully offered thier untouched plate of chocolates to the table next to them. my own dessert was three full-size portions of creme brulee (en parade) topped with different fruit garnishes and the two of us could hardly make it through one. but in that case at aureole we really wished we could have eaten them all. at the ryland inn, there was no selection in the dessert process. the traditional menu ended with an unmemorable chocolate tart and the gastronomique menu ended with a chocolate souffle with white peppercorn ice cream. the souffle was like a dense chocolate muffin, not particularly warm, fresh or tasty. the petit-fours, a bite-size pecan tart, a piece of dark chocolate and something else, were unimpressive as well, not as good as the jacques torres chocolate bedside in our hotel room back in the city. I was only so supremely disappointed by dessert because prior to that, it was the best meal either of us had ever eaten (applewood in park slope where I ordered almost the whole menu one night would come in second.) and even now it's not a question of whether or not to go back, but when. at the very least I'll return to experience the tasting menu seasonally and maybe even some a la carte items even sooner. I wish they offered a selection of desserts from which to choose even if they aren't more creative than these two were. I didn't see a dessert menu on the website and don't recall seeing anyone else eat anything different. does anyone know? but back to the savory, the chicken from the traditional menu was so rich and tender. both beef dishes delicious as well. her lamb outshined my cote de bouef which came with a small portion of braised oxtail and a salad I believe with some sort of smoked meat. both these dishes, I can't imagine if they were ordered individually as full-sized entrees that they could be any bigger a portion than we received. I was excited to try the quail eggs in brioche which were on the online menu but in the course of the actual meal the only quail egg was paired with a roasted mushroom, great in its own way and paired with the fish that was in the almond cream. the squab and foie gras on the gastro menu was the best course I've had anywhere ever. I believe it was at this point the sommelier returned to pair the course with a complimentary, complementary glass of red wine. after the cheese course we were invited downstairs to tour the kitchen and meet the chef, it was all so impressively calm considering how much had to be prepared for all the parties ordering the tasting menus upstairs. (I thanked God I didn't have to choose my own cheese from a cart as it's an area of great ignorance to me.) the gastro menu came with three blue cheeses which I was happy to try and increase my awareness but nothing beat a soft cheese dripping off a spoon on my girlfriend's plate. I'm sorry I don't know what it was. the check was a little over $300 which is my dining budget for a week but the price perfectly matched the value of the experience whereas at aureole the bill was $260 with tip and I felt I was being cheated. also drinks were relatively affordable as well. I had a macallan twelve year for $10, which goes for about $14 anywhere else I drink, and $16 at the hotel bar. it was my first great meal in new jersey and I look forward to my next. no car rental this time, I'm going to try the jefferson in hoboken this weekend.

I've never had to wait at blue ribbon sushi in park slope, and if you think it's too far out of your way you can follow up with dessert at the chocolate room a few blocks away afterward to get the most out of the journey. I was lured by the appetizers, the dynamite's a specialty, a baked scallop topped with smelt roe, also the tuna tataki with quail egg. (they don't always have toro.) both are very rich though so it might be a lot for a warm summer night. I had two different lobster rolls which offered a lot of meat but easily fell apart. the brooklyn blue ribbon sushi is a dollar or two cheaper on a lot of dishes so that might make the trip worthwhile to get an extra plate or two out of your gift certificate.

I hope that last comment wasn't targeted at me for reviving this forum. it's a rare indulgence that I rent a car to go out of my way to any another state for what's probably going to be close to a four hundred dollar dinner; I just wondered if anyone had any positive, recent experiences they can share about eating at the ryland. if not, worst-case scenario it'll be a pleasant surprise come sunday night. and what's with the "mid america eating sonic" comment?

I often commute through downtown jersey city to reach manhattan and today stopped off the hudson bergen lightrail at the jersey avenue stop and it was only a five minute, direct walk to melt. lunch was so fresh and filling, my indecisive friend settled on the happy jack which was enormous and came with a light pasta salad and I had the meltburger deluxe with swiss, bacon, citrus dijon and mango chutney. I know it's all about the grilled cheese here but the burger was such a great alternative to the neighborhood fatburger which doesn't offer as many cheeses, creative toppings nor cooks the burgers to order. bassetts ice cream was a welcome end to it all, and we lingered over the free-refill fresh lemonade as it's a not at all rushed environment. great to meet gleen to wish him well and if it's not inappropriate to say here, even the waitress was cute. looking forward to going back and best of luck to glenn!

has anyone eaten here lately? I'm having dinner here on sunday what with so many restaurants in nyc being closed on the weekend of the fourth and I was looking for a special place. already rented a car for the day, but is it worth the trip? anything worth trying in particular? and can my date and I order two different menus or could one order the traditional and one the gourmand for example?

okay, my first posting. after reading this forum for a while, I moved up my plan to eat at the bar room. I booked on opentable the night before and I had dinner for the first time there on monday night and I'd be inclined to go back, but more likely when I'm visiting the museum than going out of my way for it. with all the talk, I thought it'd be more of a destination restaurant. it was a better start to the evening than the star of it. but once inside the food easily trumped the environment and service which after my experience there says a lot. my date and I ordered a number of small plates to share and which could have arrived in any order but were paired by the waitress quite well. we started with the liverwurst which looked intimidating, the size of the cut and the amount of it, and it could have come with more than two squares of bread to spread it upon, but it took away all my bad memories of eating it in elementary school, quite flavorful with or without the spicy mustard. the best pairing was the scallops and the tagliatelle, creamy and the best pasta I can recall from a non-italian restaurant. the next pairing, the potato cassolette and pork cheeks, were again a tasty and a filling coupling, only disappointing in how easily the cassolette crumbled to pieces out of its dish. the tuna carpaccio reminded me of the small plates at bar tonno and in a good way. the cocktails were my girlfriend's domain, and we tried a few. I remember one made with pomegranate being rather heavy and unsatisfying; we had the most success with the myoga, light and fizzy with a skewer of candied ginger, which we ordered more than once. much greater success later in the night at the flatiron lounge. desserts, we tried a few: the procope and hazelnut dacquoise, I can't remember which was which, but both were satisfying. the citrus macaroon with ten-flavor sorbet - I was only upset by the cost, I don't think a scoop of gelato and a macaroon from la maison du chocolat is that overpriced, and there both would be bigger. the beignets were a treat, warm and fresh, not at all greasy and there were enough of the accompaniments - the maple ice cream was outstanding - to get through all four of them. the only tragedy of the evening was the service. we had alternating waitresses, the drinks we ordered between the second and third courses didn't arrive until dessert came as she asked if we'd like coffee with dessert, and we finally had an opportunity to remind her our drinks hadn't been brought yet. we thought that they changed our plates and silverware between courses was nice and normal but after the second courses a server cleared our unused silverware and bread too, then someone else came to wipe down the placemats, and the server who brought our third courses didn't bring new silverware, our waitress did it afterward. when we ordered our sampling of desserts, knowing the tables were small (and really very close together) we agreed she'd bring the first three out at once and then the beignets out last. the server however then brought all four at once. by the end of our meal much of the staff was catering to a table two behind me and our waitress passed several times before we could hail her for the check. I know it's a bar room, but our check with tip was $220 and I'd expect better service for something so many people talk about being worth three stars.