Sneakeater

Gramercy Tavern's Champs Elysee is seriously good. Thanks, donbert.

Degustation shouldn't be there no matter how you slice it, but the problem is that they shouldn't have said "Cheap Eats". What they really mean is "Mid-Level and Below." Like maybe they're right and Lupa belongs on a list like this. But there's NO WAY you could call it "Cheap Eats". (Not to mention my beloved Franny's -- Franny's probably belongs on this list, but anyone who followed this list's recommendation of DiFara would be pissed as shit, if they also followed the Franny's recommedation, to see Franny's getting the same designation of "cheap".)

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/restaurants/ch...ats/2006/18479/ Hey, look, a whole new set of stars! So in what universe is Degustation "Cheap Eats"? Oh, I see: the one where "cheap" means that "entree prices seldom exceed $20".* I guess if you're a restaurant that doesn't have entrees, then it doesn't matter that an agglomeration of small plates sufficient to constitute a meal will exceed $50. ________________________________________________________ * I know I'm showing my age, but THAT'S CHEAP?????????????? I remember when an entree price that exceeded $20 seemed astronomical!!!!!!!!!!!

I walked to NoMeat last night with the intention of trying the newly friendly-priced lounge at Del Posto. When I arrived at about 8:30, there was a 20 minute wait for lounge seating (they now take same-day reservations for the lounge, BTW). So I figured this would be a time to cross the street and see what Morimoto's like. I was seated, as per my preference, at the sushi bar (which I assume is not the same thing as the Omakase bar). The restaurant itself was far from full. Mostly empty you might even say. If you go to Morimoto expecting the quality of food you'd get at a top-level restaurant, you'll be disappointed. If you go expecting mass-market food, you'll be pleasantly surprised. In other words, Morimoto is an OK restaurant. But it's a very expensive one. If it weren't for the Ando interterior -- his first work in New York! -- you'd never go there. I started with the oyster foie gras appetizer. I was planning to get something cold, but I couldn't resist a dish that had all three of oysters, uni, and foie gras. The dish didn't work. First, the teryaki (sp?) sauce was too sweet. Second, the uni didn't appear to be of very good quality, or else it was overcooked. In either event, it was mushy and flavorless. Third, the foie gras was merely ordinary -- and such small pieces! Low-level fusion cooking (albeit with purportedly luxury ingredients). For my entree, "duck duck duck" was a foregone conclusion. This was a very crispy roast breast and leg, a sandwich of duck meat on a "croissant" (in quotes because it wasn't crescent-shaped) made with foie gras, and, for the third duck, what was supposed to be a lighty-fried duck egg but turned out, in the event, to be a quail egg. There were two dipping sauces: a red miso sauce and another, tarter one. Other than that it was kind of gross (and the sandwich was soggy), there was nothing particularly wrong with this dish. But there was nothing particularly good or special about it, either. For the amount of money charged, you could do better. Dessert was a "strawberry salad", strawberries, currants, and gooseberrys with a balsamic vinegar reduction and, on the side, lime-basil sorbet in buckwheat cookies. The sorbet was good (although the people at Otto needn't be losing any sleep over it). The cookies were good. The fruit should have been magnificent, but it wasn't very good fruit. If a top-level restaurant is going to serve a dessert like this, the fruit should be jewel-like, and bursting with flavor. This stuff wasn't. It will sound like I'm holding Morimoto to an unfairly high standard. But Morimoto charges enough to warrant that. You could eat at Perry Street -- or Oceana! -- for this kind of money. At these prices, above-average doesn't cut it. (I liked my White Lily cocktail.)

Even though, if asked, I would say that Angel's Share up the street is a "better" place, in my heart of hearts I think Decibel is more fun.

DITTO to "it's fun".

This may be really significant.

I'm glad to hear you say that, cuz the Del Posto menu on Menupages looks a lot like the menu I had there in April (or thereabouts). So I'm glad to hear you say that they've lowered their prices since then.

1. The way I read the menu on Menupages, Del Posto's tasting menu is $120, not $60. 2. I'm sure your averages are right, but why is it that, when I look at the two menus on Menupages, Del Posto's looks more expensive to me than Babbo's? Is it because Babbo genuinely has some fairly cheap stuff and some fairly expensive stuff, whereas Del Posto's menu is concentrated higher? Without doing any calculations, it just looks like most of the numbers on the Del Posto menu are higher than most of the numbers on the Babbo menu.

They must have really lowered their prices since I was there.

Based on my one meal there, other than curiosity, no.

Do you mean Taim? ← No. Taim looks better than the place I mean.

I had that sandwich, or something very like it -- although it was called something other than a Sabich -- at an Isreali sandwich place on either Thompson or Sullivan somewhere between Washington Square Park and Houston. It was very good. Maybe someone else knows better where this sandwich place is.

The wine geeks will want to know about the pairings. I was too caught up in the date to pay careful attention to the labels, but in broad brush: With the anchovies: A Gruner Veltliner from the Kamptal. Probably my favorite wine of the night, actually. A textbook example of what's good about Gruner Veltiner: the fruit, the minerality, the crispness. I could go on. With the chanterelles: a white grenache from the Languedoc. Probably my least favorite wine of the night. Seemed flabby after the Gruner Veltliner. With the tuna: a Burgundy. Big surprise. Ummmm, it was great. With the lamb: something from the Rhone. With the bison: a Barbera.

Finally ate at the upstairs dining room at Country. I incline more to the Oakapple view than the gaf view. It's true that probably none of the dishes in my five-course menu was transcendent. But not only weren't there any misses, there weren't any near misses. I thought the general level of the food was very very high. It's true that this is very non-startling cooking. In that, it's like Town -- although the dishes at Country were busier and richer than the more streamlined cooking at Town. But it was the same basic idea of very high-level preparations that stay well within the fronteirs of traditional cookery, but nevertheless aren't exactly like anything you've had before. We were pretty much offered the five-course menu as if it were the only option. The waiter made clear, however, that if there were anything on the menu that either I or my guest didn't want, the kitchen would accomodate us with something else. The detailed description of the food is going to suffer a little, because quite frankly I was concentrating more on my dining companion than on my food. It's the mixed blessing and curse of summer in New York: you can get a reservation at Country with no problem, but your date's summer dress keeps your eyes off your plate. I think, as gaf did, that the standout of the trio of canapes was the caviar-mint-cream mille fuille. Without remembering his review, I asked the same question, as I ate it, as he did: how can such a small bite carry so much flavor? And it's true that the rest of the meal did not live up to the promise of that canape. But that just means that Country is an excellent restaurant rather than a stellar one. The frog's leg-and-garlic amuse works, I found, if you swish the frog's leg around in the garlic cream before you eat it. Beyond my having worse table manners than gaf, probably my greater enthusiasm for that dish than his is attributable to my baser tastes: fried? garlic? what's not to like? For our first course, my date and I both opted for the fresh anchovies instead of the heirloom tomato salad (happily for both of us, tomatoes reappeared later in the meal, because the bites of tomato I had at Country last night were the best food I've had this summer). The anchovies were served with Seranno ham, making a sort of culinary pun, as the ham supplied the saltiness the uncured anchovies of course lack. For the next course, there was no choice: chanterelles with nectarines (and the foam that inevitably had to appear somewhere in the course of the meal). Now it's not like I am now going to wish for nectarines every time I have chanterelles, but this was a fine dish. No choice for the next course either: very rare tuna with those perfect tomatoes. Talk about bites carrying unbelievable amounts of flavor. There's nothing like a perfectly ripe tomato at the height of the season. Oh, the tuna was good, too. For the final dinner course, I opted for the lamb-three-ways, while my date opted for the bison au poive. The lamb was shoulder, loin, and sausage. Very good. The bison was tenderer than I usually find it, but unfortunately no more flavorful. So it was good that, along with the pepper sauce, it came with a horseradish/bison jus cream. Also very good. It's here that the wine pairings (and perhaps thoughts of post-prandial activities) began to kick in. I could not tell you what we had for dessert. As for the wine pairings: they were all fairly obvious, but also all perfectly appropriate. I think they were something like $100 per person. But the wine kept flowing (did it ever). What I haven't talked about yet is the room, which while not to my taste (too fussily traditional) is objectively beautiful. And the way the tables are widely spaced, giving you a level of comfort you get at only the highest-level New York restaurants. And the service, which is exactly as good as everyone has commented. Oh, and the Parker House rolls: the part of our dinner I am probably most craving today. Country doesn't work as an "everyday" expensive restaurant. Too elaborate for that. But it's very good for an "event" restaurant. Especially if you want a place where the food will be of a very high quality, but won't shock or obtrude. I enjoyed Country very much.

AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There used to be dozens of Hungarian places in Yorkville. My favorite was Czardas. Now, they're all closed . . . but one. The last Magyar standing. Mocca. On 2nd Ave, between 82nd and 83rd. Not the greatest. But a good value. And all that's left.

And please understand, I am NOT trying to discourage you from having a meal there. Quite to the contrary, I hope you do. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

True, but when I go to a restaurant, I don't like to have to worry too much about price. (Meaning, I like to worry about price beforehand, when deciding where to go -- but not when I'm ordering.) I like to order whatever I think looks good. It's not like I automatically go for the most expensive options -- but I don't like to feel like I have to be confined to only the cheapest things on the menu, either. So if that's DP's range, chances are you're gonna fall out somewhere in the middle. Which is costly. The only way for it not to be costly is for you to purposely confine yourself to only the cheaper options. I remember, after my one meal there, thinking it was an expensive place.

Hey that wasn't Flushing. That was Prospect Heights!

I personally think it's more a matter of expectations raised by the pre-opening publicity and the room itself. Speaking for myself, I think with that kind of room (and that style of service), the food has to be better than not having anything "seriously wrong" with it.

Or China. Or Mexico.

Looks like Alfanoose is still open (although of course it's on Maiden Lane): http://www.alfanoose.com/

Pig's ears.

Continuing this off-topic sub-thread, I don't like Chinese pig's ear preparations, either. (Chinese and Mexican are all I've had.) I just don't like pig's ears, I guess (I was shocked to find there's a part of the pig I don't like). The reason I don't like them is the same as EMW's: the texture. And you know, I don't know a single European-descended American who likes them. This might just be a texture many/most European-Americans can't stomach. I'm going to put them in the "You Had To Be Born In ________ To Like ________" thread on the "General" board.