Noodlebot
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I went back in April and had a good dinner. We ordered the crispy asparagus and avocado roll with pomegranate and anise teriyaki as an appetizer. This was basically a tempura asparagus and avocado sushi roll. We really enjoyed this, especially the flavor that the frying brought out of the nori. I ordered the black truffle and galangal crusted black cod with wok fried gailon and lotus chips for my main. The cod was perfectly cooked--tender but retaining its integrity. It was topped with a green pesto-like sauce. The cod was served over a bed of gailon and assorted mushrooms. I really enjoyed this dish, my only complaint being that the gailon and mushrooms seemed to have been sitting around for a while because they were lukewarm when they reached the table. My boyfriend ordered the fried tofu with japanese eggplant. I loved the silky-smooth texture of the tofu, but the seaweed salad it was served over was unpleasantly salty. We both loved the eggplant. Between dinner and dessert, we got a plate of unremarkable petites fours. For dessert, we ordered the fried banana with chocolate ginger dipping sauce. The light tempura batter and perfectly ripe bananas made this simple dessert great.
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The Flatiron Lounge is one of my favorite bars in town, especially when some of the mob scene starts to disperse later on in the night. Great drinks, and incredibly friendly servers.
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My boyfriend and I arrived at August at around 9:30 tonight expecting the worst since this restaurant does not accept reservations and was recently positively reviewed in the NYT, yet hoping for the best since it was the first summery holiday weekend and a lot of people presumably went away. Luckily, we were quoted a 20 minute wait, and that was about exactly as long as we waited in a nook across from the bar and oven area before we were seated in the greenhouse-like, glass-ceilinged black room.
August's bread basket deserves special mention--the delicious bread (nice crust, creamy center) was served warm with butter served at a spreadable temperature. It was hard not to fill up on this. My entree was the soft shell crab grenoblaise--2 soft shell crabs served over wilted greens. The crabs were nice, but the croutons/sauce they were topped by was unpleasantly vinegary. The vinegar theme continued with my boyfriend's lamb salad. The lamb was a delicious, obviously high-quality piece of meat served barely seared. Unfortunately, the lamb slices were arranged around some vinegar-soaked bread topped with a mound of vinegar-dressed salad.
I finished my meal with the toffee pudding--not a pudding, but a soft cake served in a pool of toffee syrup. I really loved this dessert.
While I wasn't blown away by some aspects of this meal, I appreciate August's high-quality ingredients and attention to preparation, and I'd like to return to try some other items that might not be as vinegar-based.
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I stopped by the take-out portion of Bouchon Bakery today. There were a lot of options, from some good looking sandwiches and salads to breakfast pastries (muffins, scones, croissants, etc.), fancy French pastries, and various cookies and other treats. Nothing amazing-looking, but all tempting. I ordered a nutter butter and a chocolate bouchon. The nutter butter is two large peanut butter cookies with a peanut butter filling. I really liked this, especially the fact that the cookies were soft. The bouchon tasted like a good brownie, no more, no less.
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I finally made it to Blaue Gans tonight, and I can't wait to go back. My boyfriend and I arrived at about 9 and were seated right away. The dining room was about half full, and a few more people trickled in as we were eating. I really liked the decor--old posters cover the walls, including a Yoko Ono album cover above my boyfriend's head and a male artist model's sketch hovering over me. There are two large mirrors across from each other towards the back of the room. On one mirror is a list of the night's specials and on the other a list of cheeses. The mirrors look nice in the room, but it was very hard to read the menu over the reflections. Most of the seating in the room is on the red banquettes along the walls of the long room. There is also a line of free-standing tables down the middle of the restaurant. Our server Heather added to the pleasant atmospherics. She was incredibly friendly and always seemed to be there when we were ready to order.
We skipped starters and moved straight to main courses. While we waited, we got a few slices of whole grain bread with a pimento-type spread. I ordered the Schweinsbraten, Rotkraut, Serviettenknödel: roasted pork belly with red cabbage and brioche dumplings. This dish was three generous slices of pork belly over a pile of red cabbage and three inch-wide disks of "dumpling." The pork belly was very good, but I thought it was a little dry (my boyfriend agreed but loved it nonetheless). I loved the cabbage, which had a sweet yet tangy taste. And the "brioche dumplings" were nothing like what the name suggested to me but delicious nonetheless. My boyfriend ordered the special, a braised lamb shank served over a few green vegetables and potato. Lamb isn't a meat that I tend to eat or order a lot of, but this was really wonderful--incredibly tender and flavorful, yet not too gamey. I couldn't stop "helping" him finish his dish (and he did the same for me with my pork).
I was trying to decide between the strudel and the salzburg nockerl for dessert, but our server told me to order the nockerl, hands down. I followed her advice. The nockerl was served in a large-ish oval-shaped ramikin, with a thin layer of huckleberries on the bottom and then pillows of warm meringue on top. Wow! This was one of the best desserts I've ever had. Lucious clouds of meringue, great berry tang. Just perfect. My boyfriend ordered the hazelnut and chocolate cake. I liked the texture of the hazelnut in this cake, and it was very good, but nowhere near as great as the nockerl.
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A friend and I went to Jarnac last Saturday night. We both started with the Duck Rillettes ($10.25), which came in thin wrapped pastry dough and packed plenty of flavor punch. We then tried the Cassoulet-Braised Pork Cheeks ($24), with duck confit, pork sausage, great northern beans, tomato & garlic. It's a heavy meal, which neither of us was able to finish. It comes painfully hot, to a point that some of the flavor potential is cooked out of the ingredients.
That's funny that you had that experience with the cassoulet. I had the same dish about 2 months ago and also found it bland and uncomfortably hot. I had to blow on my food throughout the meal to get any of it down, and I even burned my hand on the cassoulet pot when I accidentally brushed it trying to get out some of the food.
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Sorry for the confusion. It wasn't fried at all. It looked like a flourless chocolate cake, but it was round and thin (about 1/2 an inch tall). Maybe a hockey puck would be a better analogy.
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I had a pleasant enough dinner experience at Craftbar last night, but none of the food items we ordered is anything I would go rushing back for.
From the little history I know of the place, Craftbar started out as Craft lite, the casual alternative to Craft. Then sometime last year, Craftbar moved and had a menu change, becoming more expensive and trying to be closer to haute cuisine. It was in this incarnation that I went to Craftbar for a business lunch last summer. The food was good, but nothing particularly wowed me. My table of five was one of two tables at Craftbar that day, which may have had something do do with its decision to convert back to a casual restaurant a few months ago.
Craftbar looks the same as on my first visit--very modern but somewhat undone, subway rumbling underneath. Now there are a few more casual touches, like brown paper on the white tableclothes, waiters in T-shirts, and alternative music (Postal Service, Weezer, Beatniks) playing obvioulsy from the speakers. My boyfriend and I were seated in a comfortable banquet in a corner, not pressed up against other diners, and otherwise made comfortable by our attentive server and a more relaxed pace tham most restaurants. Incidentally, the huge space was almost full, so I think the menu change is working.
The opening course menu is divided into snacks, appetizers, soups, bruschetta, and salads. We shared an order of the fried oysters with celery root remoulade, which came four oysters to a plate, each oyster on top of some celery root and topped by a pickled slice of lemon. While the oysters were nice and plump, the mealy, soggy crust on them was not good. I then ordered the orechiette with sausage, cauliflower, and fennel. This was one of the most disappointing pasta dishes I've ordered, not because it was bad (it's pasta, so it's simple enough that it's never inedible), but just because it really wasn't very good. At the end of the mean, all I could really taste was salt! My boyfriend ordered a pappardelle in duck ragu, which had only four or five small pieces of duck thrown on top. He liked his better than I liked mine, but that's about all I can say for it.
We finished with a hot fudge sundae (him) and the chocolate custard tart with pistachio ice cream (me). My tart was not really a tart (no crust) but more like a thin flourless chocolate croquette. At first I didn't like it at all because I thought it was too bitter, but mixed with the pistachio ice cream, I managed to cut some of the bitterness and enjoy it more. My boyfriend's hot fudge sundae had barely any fudge on it, so the ice cream was still freezer hard.
Because the prices at Craftbar are reasonable, the seating is comfortable, and the pace is relaxed, I probably would go back and give the restaurant another try in the future, maybe trying some non-pasta entrees this time around, but my return trip isn't a very high priority.
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I made it on last Friday, and didn't notice any diminution in quality. I had a cheeseburger, shared some cheese fries, and got a cup of the coconut pie custard for dessert.
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I hadn't been to Lupa in about four years before tonight, largely because it is always so busy-- for tonight's 10 pm reservation, I had to make a reservation exactly 30 days ago. All in all, I'm glad I made the effort to make the reservation, and will try to return again sooner rather than later.
My boyfriend and I arrived on time and were promptly seated for our reservations, which was a nice surprise! We decided to split two apps, the eggplant caponata and the octopus with ceci neri. Both were served at a refrigerated temperature. The eggplant caponata was very good; it tasted just like Otto's eggplant caponata. The octopus was different from octopus I had had before--no hint of rubberiness whatsoever. The octopus itself tasted very much like canned sardines, but in a good way.
I ordered the ricotta gnocchi with fennel and sausage as a main. This was delicious. My boyfriend ordered fettucini, which came in a very light cream sauce with a thinly sliced pork meat (I'm forgetting the name). The fettucini was very al dente--it had a great bite.
I finished dinner with the tartufo--a ball of ice cream in a light hazelnut-coated chocolate, served over a chocolate-hazelnut fudge sauce. Not surprising, but very good.
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I took my boyfriend to Strip House for his birthday last night. While some elements were different (re: worse) than I'd thought they'd be, overall I think I made a good choice. First not-so-good element is decor. The lighting is very dim and red, which I think is supposed to look sexy and interesting but seemed to me to be covering up for the out-of-style decor of the place. Strip House needs a face lift. It looks a bit seedy, like a speak-easy that has passed its prime. Even the details were tired--grease-splattered menus and tacky yellow and red (yuck!) napkins bearing tire-flap-girl designs.
The second bad element of the night was the wait for our table. We had a 9:00 reservation, and I'd told the reservationist it was a special occasion (birthday). I didn't realize that Strip House was one of the proliferating breed of restaurants that does reservations on cable repair guy time. When we got in a few minutes before 9, we were told simply that there were a few tables that were almost ready to leave. This didn't seem like a good sign. Twenty minutes later, no update, no apology (which is SUCH a huge pet peeve of mine), I went to the hostess stand and asked what was up. She told me the same thing I'd been told when I got in--that there were a few tables that were almost ready to go. We were finally seated half an hour after our reservation at a center 4-top near the kitchen instead of in the banquettes, where other couples were seated. We were later offered a banquette when one opened up, but the diners looked too cramped, so we stayed put. Luckily, our server was incredibly friendly and great the rest of the night, so we had a good time.
Now to the food. My boyfriend started w/a mixed green salad, which was served in a nice parmesan crisp that looked like a taco salad shell. I passed on starters to save room for the steak. We shared the porterhouse for two, a special that night. The porterhouse was brought to the table on a rolling cart and fileted tableside, with the steak being evenly divided between two plates. We were told that the right side of the plate contained filet and the left side was strip. The rib was placed on a separate plate and put on our table. The filet was delicious--a great crust provided a really nice textural contrast to an almost creamy-smooth center. I wasn't as crazy about the strip, which was much more marbled and took me a while to chew through. I made an effort at the rib, but my knife skills aren't great, so I mostly ended up splattering things on the table. I wish I'd been home so I could've picked up the rib and start gnawing! For sides, we ordered the goose fat potatoes and the truffled spinach. Strip House manages to make spinach as unhealthy as french fries, but it tasted so good! We weren't impressed with the goose fat potatoes, a tennis ball size ball with a golden brown fried crust. The inside was a dry, crumbly mess that was hard to manage. There was also an overwhelming herb taste that didn't work for me.
Finally, we ended with the chocolate cake, which came out w/a birthday candle and a happy birthday message scrawled in chocolate. The cake was delicious and gigantic. I've heard it described as huge before, but I could never have imagined. The thing is about 6-8 inches high and maybe 4-5 inches wide at its widest part. We barely made a dent, but we did take the rest home.
All in all, a great meal, and surprisingly well-priced for the quantity and quality of food we received.
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Based on the recent good reviews, I was more excited about my dinner A Voce tonight than any restaurant I've been to in the recent past. The restaurant didn't quite live up to expectations.
If you've been to the Modern, then the decor at A Voce will seem very familiar. It is very sleek, very modern, and very comfortable (including swivel chairs).
Service at A Voce was great. Our server was always around when we needed him, but he was not at all obtrusive, and never once rushed us.
Our first taste of A Voce came from a delicious bread basket with warmed bread that tasted homemade. In terms of ordered food, my boyfriend and I shared an order of the duck and foie gras meatballs. There were four meatballs lined up on a rectangular plate, each on a small bed of celery root puree and surrounded by a cherry sauce. The meatballs were tender, rich, and very good.
For his main, my boyfriend ordered the lamb tortellini. The serving size was relatively small but balanced by the fact that each piece of pasta was filled with a generous portion of hearty lamb meat. After a full day of eating, I opted for something lighter--the olive-crusted cod. This was served over sliced fingerling potatoes, fava (I think) beans and pureed fava beens. The cod was well-prepared, although not mindblowing. Perhaps if I had opted for a more traditional Italian dish, I would have been more impressed.
The true disappointment of the meal was dessert. I chose for the chocolate amaretti cake with gelato. The cake was just too dry. It's rare that I don't finish a dessert, but this one went largely uneaten, except for the gelato on a bed of golden raisins.
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Funny you should mention the wine service. My boyfriend and I ordered a glass of wine each. The bottle our server brought for my boyfriend only had 2 drops in it (apparently she didn't notice it was incredibly light), so she had to go back to the bar, uncork another bottle, and then come back to fill the glass. Weird.
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I first went to Thor in October soon after the restaurant opened, and I LOVED it. I just went tonight and the good news is that the food remains fabulous. The bad news is that prices have escalated drastically from my first visit and service has deteriorated to the same measure. The punch line: despite the great food, I won't be back.
First, to be fair, the food: my boyfriend and I shared a delicious spatzle and sweetbreads dish. I had the trout for my main. The fish was wonderful, although the "creamed spinach" that it came with was more like a sauce than a side. It was also a bit salty. My boyfriend was also very happy with his lamb (although a little underwhelmed by the accompanying broccoli puree). Only the banana and pineapple mousse dessert was subpar.
So, on to the meat of the review. We had reservations at 9:30. We weren't seated until 10:30. When we were seated, it was without any sort of apology whatsoever for the wait. I was annoyed, needless to say, but I know that Thor is sceney, so I tried to make do. Things got worse when I looked at the menu. Prices have gone up significantly since my first visit, but I had no inkling because the Thor website doesn't list prices and the menupages listing still has the same prices as I had on my first visit. So, for example, the brook trout went from $18 on my first visit (per menupages) to $25 on this visit. My boyfriend's lamb was now $28, up from $23. Even dessert prices were inflated, now $9, instead of $7. Unfortunately, this increase in prices was not met by the level of service, which was perfunctory at very best. We waited almost 20 minutes from the time we sat down (an hour past reservations!) to order. Our waitress was friendly, but obviously overworked and overstressed. She simply didn't have time to do anything but take our orders.
Overall, my visit to Thor made me very sad. I would love to go back for the food, but with prices as high as they currently are, I expect a little bit of a relaxed atmosphere and good service. Instead, Thor is loud, cramped, and fast-paced (after we ordered it was literally 45 minutes later when we paid our check). I regret to say that I won't be back. The food just isn't worth the hassle.
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Going to brunch at Deborah today only me made regret waiting so long to return since my last visit in winter 2005. Before today, I had been to Deborah twice, once for dinner last January, and then for Valentine's Day a few weeks later. Despite my year-plus absence, Deborah and her partner David Oh both recognized me and said it was nice to see me again. Those two certainly know how to make a customer feel welcome! Overall, brunch was wonderful, and I'll definitely be back to Deborah before another year passes.
I ordered the french toast “Sweet Challah Style” with caramelized bananas, toasted walnuts, fresh berries, and maple syrup. This was seriously delicious. The french toast was rich and eggy, the bananas incredibly soft and flavorful, the walnuts had a slightly spicy kick... even the fresh strawberries were great. My boyfriend ordered the homemade buttermilk biscuit sandwiches with sausage and cheese, scrambled eggs, and mesclun salad. The scrambled eggs were perfectly fluffy--I never knew plain scrambled eggs could taste so good. The sandwiches were two small biscuits, each loaded with two large pieces of sausage and cheddar cheese. As my boyfriend said, everything we had tasted wholesome, with fresh ingredients lovingly prepared. I can't recommend this brunch highly enough!
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For higher end eating, Fleur de Sel and Eleven Madison Park offer their 3-course prix-fixe lunch on weekends. I suggest you check opentable.com (where you can make reservations online) to check out which other high-end restaurants are open for weekend mid-day meals.
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I went to Upstairs at Bouley with my boyfriend tonight, expecting a night full of good food and lots of hassle. Fortunately, the night lived up to expectations food-wise but not hassle-wise. My boyfriend and I arrived around 9:00 and were told that there would be a half hour wait. The hostess asked us to wait inside the Bouley Market section, where we could hang our coats with the attendant, grab a glass of wine from a waiter, and, if we were really starving, order something from the market. It was hard to resist buying one of the market's pastries, but I held out. With a glass of wine and the uncrowded atmosphere of the market, the half hour wait passed by pretty effortlessly.
Within the half hour predicted, we were seated. We got an unfortunate seat--one of the four middle two-tops in the restaurant. These tables are not separated one from the other, so we were often knocking elbows with our neighbors. Fortunately, once everyone got to know each other's boundaries, they were very respectful, so this was only a minor inconvenience.
We began with a basket of Bouley's famous bread, including a tomato bread, a pistachio and hazelnut loaf, and an onion bread, all delicious. As an appetizer, I ordered a wild mushroom salad, cooked mushrooms over wilted micro greens topped (almost drenched) with a truffle oil dressing and a few slivers of parmesan cheese. This generously portioned and rich appetizer gave a whole new meaning to salads to me. My boyfriend ordered the calamari salad. The calamari were deliciously cooked on the restaurant's plancha--toothsome but not at all chewy. The salad also included some pieces of avocado, tomato, bibb lettuce, and various other greens. He was very happy.
I wanted to order the halibut as my main, but the restaurant had run out, so I opted for the day boat scallops instead. My only regret of the evening was that the scallops also came with wild mushrooms, which I, a HUGE mushroom lover, had already had my fill of in the appetizer. In any event, I was still very happy with my choice. These were not the best scallops I've ever had, but they were very good and original. They had been somewhat flattened and textured (by a butcher's mallet?) and flavored with ginger and coconut milk, which gave them an interesting taste. The scallops were served with slightly shrivelled peas, in addition to the wonderful mushrooms. My boyfriend ordered the sirloin, which he and I really enjoyed. The sirloin was topped with raisins, currants, and pepper, and served with green beans and potatoes. The sauce was infused with cognac.
Although the portions at Upstairs are generous, I couldn't do without dessert. I had heard underwhelming reviews of the desserts, but I was happy with mine, a strawberry jam, chestnut, and cream concoction from the market downstairs. I got two mini-scoops of rose water ice cream with my pastry.
Overally, I highly recommend a visit to Upstairs. The food was top-notch, and the prices (under $130 for 3 glasses of wine, 2 apps, 2 entrees, 1 dessert, 1 coffee, and tax and tap) were not. I will be back, next time perhaps for the sushi bar selections.
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Glad to hear Thor is still going strong. I haven't been since October or so but definitely need to make a return trip soon.
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Agree that Peasant is still great. Went about a month ago and stand out dishes were goat lasagna, gnocchi, and bread pudding. I also sympathize w/Banquo's full feeling. With just those three dishes plus a very small app (mozarella wrapped in prosciutto), the two of us were beyond stuffed by the end of the meal. We just couldn't stop eating!
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Try Maroons on 16th Street between 7th and 8th. I haven't had their Red Velvet cake, but I have had their southern brunch (friend chicken, waffles, grits), and everything was excellent.
Billy's Bakery is a favorite of mine, but I haven't tried their Red Velvet.
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I also enjoyed the paneterria--great pastries and panini. I was less impressed by Falai proper, except for desserts.
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The Orchard is the new restaurant from John LaFemina, who brought us two of my favorite restaurants in New York, Apizz and Peasant. While the latter two are Italian, The Orchard is more New American with a few Italian tastes thrown in (the pizza-like flatbreads and a few pasta courses, for example).
The decor is very reminiscent of Apizz, but without the rustic tinge. The walls are light brown, w/long mirrors and accent lighting. The chairs and benches are light wood and upholstered in a chocolate brown micro-fiber.
The food: this was my weekly dinner out with my boyfriend. The two of us shared the chanterelle flatbread. The flatbread was like an oblong thin-crust pizza. A nice, crispy dough w/a rich sauce topped off with a generous portion of chopped chanterelle mushrooms.
For my entree, I had the langoustine risotto (at our server's suggestion). Nice smoky langoustine served in its shell over a creamy risotto filled with red and yellow peppers and chunks of braised octopus. My boyfriend had the pork w/candied apples and yams. The pork was nicely herbed and full of flavor; his only complaint was that the meat could have been more tender. The apples and yams were delicious.
For dessert, I had the dulce de leche ice cream cake w/caramelized banana and my boyfriend had the flourless chocolate cake. Both were great.
Tisserie
in New York: Dining
Posted
Just stopped in today. Had a really good turkey and swiss sandwich on a croissant and sampled a mini blueberry tart. They were giving away mini chocolate tarts to people who came in, but somehow I didn't get a sample. Definitely a promising new space.