Jesikka

How much is the wait coming into play here? Because at Spotted Pig, Landmarc or Momofuku Ssam, you could definitely be waiting an hour or far more (as Nathan points out). Chinatown Brasserie, Hearth or Blue Hill take reservations. CB has great dim sum. Hearth and Blue hill speak for themselves. If you can stretch the budget a bit, you might consider Strip House. You may well prefer french bistro over Italian, but I don't really think simplicity comes into play in that discussion. I know you corrected your statement about the food being simple, but I just wanted to address it from a menu perspective. To call the pizza and pasta at Otto simplistic is simply absurd. I'm not sure if you took a close look at the menu, but I'd be shocked if your corner pizza shop is selling pizza with lardo or even clams. However, where Otto really shines is with the antipasti and the ingredient quality. It's not my favorite pizza in the city, but as a restaurant the food is a lot more exciting and innovative than Landmarc (which is not to say that it's hugely innovative but it is not readily available elsewhere in NY). There's nothing being served at Landmarc (aside from the blood sausage) that I can't make myself for dinner with basic ingredients. Of course, if you like Pastis as an option then Landmarc is definitely a step up. Momofuku ssam is definitely the most innovative restaurant that's been mentioned in this thread.

I'm going Saturday with a group of 12...report to follow. I'm really looking forward to more of D & A's cooking, especially with the greenmarket produce I've been seeing for spring!

This does not comport with my experience at all. When we visited L'Arpege, Dave H and I were by far the most formally dressed people in the room (I was wearing a cocktail dress and he was wearing a suit). The other patrons, all of whom were European, were dressed quite casually. We had actually been warned ahead of time that many French "regulars" would dress casually, but we made a decision to dress up based on what made us feel the most comfortable. Perhaps lunch is slightly different, but I haven't seen people underdressed in American four stars either. I have always been under the impression that men cannot even enter Jean Georges, Per Se, etc without a jacket- a policy which they reiterate when you reserve. I certainly have never seen someone wearing jeans. I've never been to Les Ambassadeurs, but I'm not sure "they're American" is sufficient explanation for what you saw.

Interesting. I had lunch at Jean Georges on Monday, but the service was a disaster. In the course of my 1.5 hour lunch, a roll got dropped at my feet, the waiter tipped over a glass at the table behind us, another waiter splashed olive oil all over the tablecloth when spooning mushrooms into my soup and all the servers seemed generally befuddled. Our waiter was extremely nice, but it just didn't seem like a four star meal. ← ← Just to clarify, I didn't mean to make it sound like the food wasn't four star. The food was great. The servers were extremely nice, but not extremely competent. I hope they're not jinxed though!

Interesting. I had lunch at Jean Georges on Monday, but the service was a disaster. In the course of my 1.5 hour lunch, a roll got dropped at my feet, the waiter tipped over a glass at the table behind us, another waiter splashed olive oil all over the tablecloth when spooning mushrooms into my soup and all the servers seemed generally befuddled. Our waiter was extremely nice, but it just didn't seem like a four star meal.

Maybe they just cleaned them poorly the one time? ← I had the artichokes last night and found them to be superb. We did not have any issues with pointy-ness. They are definitely a delicious sub for the brussel sprouts. More disappointing was the new rice cakes dish with ramps and clams, which didn't come together all that well for me. I liked some of the elements, but I didn't feel like it was easy to put them together between the broth, the large size of the rice cakes, the shell on the clam, etc. The rice cakes in chili sauce that I had at Noodle Bar a week ago were far superior (they were awesome, in fact). I'm not sure whether the restaurant is more crowded than it was before JB because I was there at 8:30 last night and I usually go closer to 10, but it was definitely quite crowded. There were two huge parties (one doing a bo ssam) and the turnover was much slower than I had experienced in the past. We ended up waiting about an hour and 15 minutes for our table. It's too bad that they won't call you when your table is ready.

Can anyone give a full report on Bravo? I have only seen snippets here and there indicating that it's not great. Are there better things to order?

The restaurant across from the Mercer would be Zoe.

I don't know whether she mentioned it in her reviews for the Times, but I don't think it would be unfair to say that Ruth Reichel wrote three books about her sexual preferences (for married men, mostly). Oh and they also talked about food and her mother a lot. I do not recall Bruni ever mentioning his mother.

I think the most amazing part of that article is the following statement from McNally: “People don’t realize that neither Balthazar nor any of my restaurants ever received really good reviews. But they’re all still around and thankfully quite busy,” Mr. McNally said via e-mail. “I certainly don’t engage a P.R. person or anything like that. I simply try to make my restaurants the kinds of places that I’d like to go to. Nothing else. Hopefully, other people feel the same way." He's trying to say that he has no PR?? Is he kidding? As thought his very comments on this topic aren't part of a PR campaign? On that note, can anyone confirm/deny the rumor that Jody Williams is going to be fired?

Howard Dieterle is opening Perilla today with Alicia Nosenzo (from the Harrison). According to dailycandy (not exactly a foolproof source), the food is "American with Asian touches: skate wing with watermelon pickles, Thai basil, and hibiscus broth; roast chicken with tatsoi and Chinese sausage. It’s one of those all-too-rare menus on which everything looks good." Perilla, 9 Jones Street, between Bleecker and West 4th Streets (212-929-6868). http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp?ArticleId=30502&city=1 I'm sure there are better places to get this information, but I'd be interested to hear reports.

I don't think it's a particularly high expectation to assume that when a waiter/manager begins to walk you to your seat that you will actually be seated. There's absolutely no reason that a table with children should be treated any differently than a table without- provided that the parents/children are being considerate of the people around them. I have a small appetite and don't always drink, but I know I'd throw a fit if I were asked to sit on someone's lap because I'm not drinking or ordering a large amount. It's a terrible business policy to make UWSers feel like they can't bring their children to a restaurant at that price point. And LilianNY is correct, 4 years old is WAY too old to sit in a lap comfortably for an entire meal. Takeout, on the other hand, is a wily thing. I remember an article in the NY Times a few months after Chinatown Brasserie opened that was about gourmet kids and one example was kids dining on dim sum takeout from CB. I called and tried to order later that week only to be told that they don't do takeout or delivery (but apparently they do PR and NYTimes name dropping). Even though dim sum would likely travel even worse than greek food, I want to be able to order from CB!Sadly, the delivery/takeout option still hasn't come to fruition. That being said, if they want to discourage children from dining in the restaurant (which I think would be a TERRIBLE idea in that neighborhood), they might want to reconsider their delivery/takeout policy. It's not like I'm not aware that restaurants discriminate (and I appreciate it when I am seated immediately at a place that I give a ton of business to or where I am friendly with the owners/staff), but refusing to seat people with children at a table of the appropriate size is completely unacceptable.

I'll stand by the statement that, for the typical visiting tourist, and a good deal of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, the food in Little Italy is perceived to be better than average. That is why the neighborhood has survived in its current state. ← I'm not convinced that the tourists or B&T individuals who are eating in Little Italy think that the food is any better than (their beloved) Olive Garden. Not to mention all of the really great Italian food that can be found in a lot of different suburbs in this country. I think that tuxedoed waiters with exaggerated accents, serenading violinists/accordian players, wood paneling, etc are the reason that people eat in Little Italy. I don't see it as being any different than Jekyl and Hyde- it simply has an "Italian" theme. Little Italy may once have been an Italian neighborhood, but in recent years it has become more of an "Italian" sideshow. I'm sure there are a lot of non-NYers who don't know that the food is going to be as bad as it is, but I don't think great food is what is allowing the neighborhood to survive.

I hope I'm not offending anyone by suggesting that maybe it's meant for UWS mommies (of the stay at home sort) and kids? It seems like a decent place to sit with your kid and grab breakfast and then go to the park/museums, etc. You can even fit in a quick trip to Williams Sonoma.

Unfortunately I didn't. Disappointing meal at Provence with nice wines. I can't say I'd recommend the food, though. Does anyone know when Landmarc TW will start delivering to midtown offices? I know they deliver downtown. That would certainly make my seamless web choices more appealing...

I had dinner at Moto on Tuesday with my sister. We did the 10 course tasting menu. Overall, we really enjoyed our meal. The courses were varied and inventive. We got to try some of Cantu's signature dishes. My sister (who is traumatized by our kosher upbringing) volunteered to eat pork for the first time after tasting the first several dishes. However, I found several of the desserts to be almost unpalatably sweet. I couldn't eat more than a few bites of the vanilla yogurt and graham cracker with apple balls. I loved the cotton candy paper (it actually wasn't too sweet), but I also found the white chocolate gusher that came with it to be overly sweet. The carmel popcorn ice cream sandwiches were also too sweet for me, and the nachos (which I loved the idea of) were borderline. All of these desserts were served with a sweet moscato d'asti. Has anyone else found the desserts to be REALLY sweet? While I appreciated the ideas being expressed, I felt a bit annoyed that I could only eat one or two bites of the last 4 our 10 courses. I'm curious to hear if other people have similar comments. Is this an unusual reaction?

Not only does this happen to me, but I am completely incapable of finishing a tasting menu to begin with. My attempts to pace myself backfired at Per Se, where they assumed I didn't like the lobster course and brought out an additional pasta course! That being said, I think the tasting menu is definitely the way to go at Daniel- it is the best way to see what the restaurant is capable of doing and they're capable of quite a lot. The service is generally much better. See if you can reserve the tented table in the corner on the upper level- very romantic and private.

That sounds delicious. I finally decided on Braised Lamb Shanks with Coriander, Fennel and Star Anise (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/234136). The rest of my menu is: matzoh ball soup; cranberry, orange and spiced walnut salad; horseradish mashed potatoes; and shredded brussel sprouts with balsamic and shallots. For dessert I'm thinking strawberry rhubarb compote with homemade ginger ice cream, flourless chocolate torte with pistachio liquor (something new I just picked up called Dumanti) and one more. Ideas?

Unlike me, you clearly did not put "vegetarians must receive special permission" in your invite.

I had a really delicious new asparagus with slow cooked egg dish at Ssam Bar last night. There was some sort of sauce under the asparagus. Does anyone know what it is?

I'm trying to figure out my Passover menu for Tuesday night, when I'm having about 12 people in my little NY apartment. Because oven/stove space is tight, I don't like to do individually cooked proteins, but I don't want to do brisket either. There's a recipe from a 2003 Gourmet for Spice Braised Lamb with Carrots and Spinach (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/107979). While I'm excited about the idea of this recipe, the comments are not great. Does anyone have a similar braised lamb recipe that they love? Does anyone have a great brisket alternative that they've made? Has anyone tried the recipe from Gourmet?

I understand the idea that a restaurant might do some things better than others, but EU has a pretty limited menu for there to be potential for "ordering wrong." FWIW, I also had a pretty forgettable meal there recently where I shared the escarole and treviso salad (an unremarkable blue cheese and apple salad), the poached halibut with endive, hen of the woods and pistachios (good flavors but a very small piece of fish that would have left most people starving) and baked rigatoni with milk-braised berkshire pork, cavalo nero and lemon (awful flavors and went totally unfinished). Despite terrible weather and a mostly empty restaurant, we were edged in against another table. Our wines were not as described. I desperately want this restaurant to be better than it has been on my two trips. It's a nice interior and an area that I eat in regularly. It's really close to Death & Company. I loved Nawab's food at Craftbar. I'm sure I'll give it another try, but I wish they were letting Nawab design the menu himself, because the entire concept seems inexplicable to me. Is it supposed to be quintessential dishes of different countries in the European Union? Pan European food? Things that could not be termed Asian? They seem to use local ingredients for everything, and advertise them as such.

Calvin Trillin writes hilariously about how one of his daughters would refuse to enter a Chinese restaurant without a bagel, "just in case."

Bryan, I agree with nearly everything you said. To be clear, I don't necessarily prefer the avant garde food eat to be easy, but I think that a restaurant that is introducing new techniques and flavors might be more accessible to NY diners if it were easy. I love eating at WD 50 and R4D (although I don't go to either nearly enough). I also like traveling to Flushing for brunch. Restaurants in NY do not fail or succeed because of people like me. I think that NY needs a restaurant like Tailor before a restaurant at Alinea's price point could survive. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why that would be, but I'm not really sure. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's that Alinea would cost twice as much in NY. I too want Achatz and Kahn simultaneously in NY. I'd love to have high end avant garde for special occasions and low end avant garde as my neighborhood restaurant (and I'm hoping Tailor will be that- although it's a stretch from Greenwich Village). I do know that having both would save plane fare! The only point you make that I disagree with is that "everyone seems to love ssam bar, regardless of their culinary convictions." A lot of people are very receptive to Ssam bar. I try to eat there several times a week. However, I suspect that I am generally eating next to people with similar culinary convictions. When they don't share my culinary convictions, they're probably not ordering the offal or even the chawanmushi. However, I wouldn't bring my pretend-they-keep-kosher parents there or a vegetarian. David Chang definitely has a culinary philosophy that a good portion of diners wouldn't agree with- no reservations, dark room, I-don't-even-know-what-to-say-about-the-music music, pork in absolutely everything and a mix of dishes that make it difficult to categorize. That being said, I think you almost make a great point, which is that what Ssam Bar does well is introduce almost familiar and newish flavors in a way that less adventurous eaters find easy and familiar. Hamachi with edamame, horseradish and pea leaves is just sashimi/crudo. Rice cakes with pork sausage, collard greens and kimchi are pasta bolognese. Bread and butter, well... In essence, Ssam bar is doing exactly what Alinea does- presenting familiar dishes in a new and thought provoking way that is simultaneously safe and delicious. How could you be afraid of snails after the chawanmushi? I think that Tailor will likely do the same, and if it does, I believe that it will be successful with NY diners- with or without Frank Bruni's approval.

It might just be because I count myself among them, but I think Sam has a lot of fans who won't really care what Frank Bruni has to say about Tailor. Other than Bruni's dislike for them, I think the recent avant garde failures have had other problems in common- namely location and price point (and, in the case of Varietal, perhaps vision). Venue wasn't going to last in Hoboken; that area simply cannot support that type of restaurant. Unfortunately I never got to try it, so I can't say much more. Well, except that I love avant garde cooking and I didn't manage to make it to a restaurant half an hour away, which probably says something. Gilt was certainly judged harshly and unfairly by Bruni, but it also was in midtown and at a pretty expensive price point. Although he made FAR too big a deal of it and it was later corrected for, the wines were extremely expensive. In my mind, Gilt's biggest problem with price point was that they were serving a 12 course tasting menu presented as three courses. I only made it to Varietal once, but I found Kahn's desserts to be quite interesting, as were the wines. I didn't try the savory food because it didn't seem to fit into the avant garde category and hadn't been recommended. If the food had been on the level of Kahn's desserts (none of which thrilled me nearly as much as every single one of Sam's desserts that I had at WD-50), I think (hope?) that Varietal would be a lot more crowded. Nothing about Varietal felt cohesive. The big difference between the avant garde cooking I've had in NY and elsewhere is that much of the NY food has not been easy or familiar. Less of it has had a sense of humor. My tour at Alinea, which I consider the best meal of my life, was rarely challenging. A liquid ham sandwich that I had at Les Magnolias outside of Paris was shockingly familiar, yet delightful. Kahn's desserts, with 20 flavors on a plate and certain WD-50 dishes designed more to push limits and force new perspectives than to taste great, are challenging. It seems clear to me that Bruni, in a food sense, does not particularly appreciate a challenge. Tailor has a lot going for it. It's in the right location and it will be at the right price point. It has a built in source of fans from New York Magazine and WD-50, which we should not forget is in NY, avant garde and thriving- Bruni or no Bruni. It's not the kind of restaurant that would get immediate Times coverage, nor is it the kind of place that won't be crowded until it does. Although I haven't had Sam's savory food (although I'm not sure exactly how it would be different than his desserts), I find his desserts to be incredibly witty, easy and delicious. He is constantly able to find a balance between savory and sweet that is widely appealing. I am assuming that Tailor will immediately become one of my favorite places to hang out. Bruni managed to pull it out for Ssam Bar, though I would have thought the food would be far beyond his comprehension or desire. Maybe Tailor will get similar treatment, if any?