Jump to content

skiter53

participating member
  • Posts

    42
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by skiter53

  1. Cafe des Musees and Brezh in the Marais are both in the price range.  The first has a prix fixe around 20-25 euros.  The second makes the best galettes (buckwheat crepes) I have tasted. 

    Tried the first in July and thought it good value.  Tried the second last night. 

    Both get packed so reservations are a must.

    You need a reservation for Breizh, to eat crepes?

    YES, definitely. I called on Saturday afternoon and he had to squeeze us in that night and turned away tables while we were there. It's tiny and good.

    Good to know. I was just hoping to stroll in whenever I happened to be in the Marais. Is it usually that busy, even during lunch or week days dinner?

  2. Cafe des Musees and Brezh in the Marais are both in the price range.  The first has a prix fixe around 20-25 euros.  The second makes the best galettes (buckwheat crepes) I have tasted. 

    Tried the first in July and thought it good value.  Tried the second last night. 

    Both get packed so reservations are a must.

    You need a reservation for Breizh, to eat crepes?

  3. Gripe: The NYC Restaurant Week website has Le Cirque's RW menu posted (click here).  The menu clearly states January 21-February 1.  It does not except the weekends (some restaurants, like Aquavit Cafe, offer RW prices during that weekend, the 26th 27th).

    I made a reservation on opentable.com for that Saturday (26th).  I called the restaurant to confirm that their RW menu was correct and that the RW menu would be offered on the weekend.  The woman told me:

    1. The RW menu is not available on the weekend, and

    2. The restaurant does not accept reservations online. 

    I told her that the restaurant apparently DOES accept reservations online because I had just made one - unless it was not the same Le Cirque.  She then corrected herself by stating that what she meant was that the restaurant does not accept reservations for Restaurant Week, which is also inaccurate, as I see tables available all throughout that week. Then, she (mis?)corrected herself again by stating that opentables should give a warning that blocks Restaurant Week reservations....  um, how would opentable know whether or not you intend on taking advantage of RW?  There was no notice given on opentable, nor on the Le Cirque website.

    Edited to enable the link.

    So how was your RW meal? Not really sure if you ended up having one or not.

  4. GOOD ENTREE ALERT

    1.  Tuna Wrapped In Bacon On Chickpea Puree With Olives  While tuna steaks often taste meaty, this tasted fishy -- in a good way.  The bacon, sliced very thin, doesn't contribute its own flavor so much as it somehow serves to punch up the flavor of the tuna.  Very successful.

    2.  Braised Short Ribs Infused With Chorizo  Here, the chorizo definitely contributes a flavor element.  With each mouthful, you taste the beef, but you also taste the spicy sausage flavor.  So something new under the sun:  a short rib preparation that's not like all the others.

    ***************************************

    Based on my recent meal here, I think I can finally understand something that had previously puzzled me:  why Vadouvan disliked this place so much.  I think the level of execution in the kitchen doesn't match Chef Urena's conceptions.  The food all tastes very good, but you can see that it isn't produced in as fine and clean a manner as at a real top-level place.  Some fried items are the slightest bit soggy, for example.  (I have neither the vocabulary nor the training to explain anything further, but I think most people who've eaten here, if they think about it, will see what I mean.)

    Given how much I like what the kitchen is producing, I view this as acceptable in the context of a developing young chef operating under obvious constraints.  OTOH, prices here aren't rock bottom, and I can see how this would bother someone with more training and experience than I have, who is more hung up on sheer technical cooking.  Speaking for myself, I enjoy the food here very much, and am always happy to return.

    Sneakeater, I agree completely with your post.

    I dined there about a week and a half ago and while I thoroughly enjoyed the food and my meal, I felt that something was off. Reading your post, I now understand what it is.

    That said, I still like the place and would definitely stop by if in the neighborhood.

  5. I have a reservation upcoming for Annisa in early Nov. Looking at their website, I'm just curious if anyone can tell me if the menu/prices are accurate?

    It annoys me to no end when dishes, menus, and prices aren't as expected upon arrival...

  6. Anyone been to this place lately?  I am thinking of taking the Mrs. there for the anniversary.

    Not worth it, IMO. For the money, you could do Nobu

    Nobu is more expensive and a lot harder to get into.

    Certainly its harder to get into, but you can easily spend the same amount at EN

    And what amount is that? The last time I went to EN, it came out to be about 50 per person, including drinks and tax and tip.

  7. Thanks again for the kind comments!

    Nothing really happened, it just wasn't a good fit for me. I'm expecting next year to be an exciting one (for NYC in general and hopefully for myself in particular). The exec chef at Chanto is going to implementing a new dessert menu of his design, and I hope he and the restaurant have great sucess.

    Keep us updated Sethro! I definitely enjoyed your work.

  8. It's certainly a gimmick, and one with very limited value. If I want a table for 4 at 8, or a table for 2 at 8:30, the information provided isn't relevant. While it's possible that a phone call can yield a couple of data points that OpenTable can't (e.g, if the restaurant has held back some tables from OT, or if the restaurant isn't on OT at all), OpenTable yields several hundred data points that the phone call method can't -- plus the OpenTable search is built around actual needs (table for 3 at 9) rather than the table for 2 at 8. Not to mention, once the information is out there on Grub Street, how long will it remain viable? With OpenTable, if the reservation is there you can click on it and make it. The point being, if you spent 30 seconds on OpenTable you'd derive a whole heck of a lot more value than you'd derive from this Grub Street feature.

    Maybe that analysis was overkill, but I have too much respect for Josh to accept that he'll be satisfied with this kind of gimmickry. If he's really interested in providing a useful last-minute-reservations feature, he should do something that adds value. With the power of New York Magazine behind the venture, let them approach restaurants and ask for exclusives on a few tables each week -- then post the availability, either with a code word or, even better, partner with OpenTable to make the process seamless end-to-end.

    About that two for eight gimmick they have going, I was just thinking the same thing. Opentable would be so much easier.

    Besides that, I'm liking it. It's varied and interesting enough for me to check up on it a few times a day.

  9. Venue closed about 2 months ago. 

    Unfortunatley, the general population of Hoboken is not culinarily adventurous enough to support that type of high-end cuisine.  Most NYers (hence "the horror, the horror") have a hard time leaving NYC for a meal and the NJ crowd that comes to Hoboken, is not the type of crowd that goes for that type of cuisine.  While Hoboken has some very good restaurants (in varying ethnicities, it's not ready to support something as ambitious as Venue was).

    As to the earlier comment on Country, I would agree that while an outstanding meal, probably not the type of meal that the OP is looking for. 

    The descriptions I've read of the new menus at 11 MP seem to be on the more creative side than the previous incarnation (I haven't been there in several years) and probably worth taking into consideration.

    What a pity, I just spent the last 30 minutes reading through the venue thread and looking forward to going soon. Is the chef opening a new place anytime soon?

  10. While searching for something completely different, I just discovered an invaluable entry in the Slow Food Travel web site that eGullet members shoud read:

    Dean Gold's recommendations.

    The author knows his wines, especially, and runs a very nice restaurant that models itself on the kinds of places he admires in Venice.

    Thanks for the very helpful link. Although the list was last updated in august 2004, I'll be sure to give some of these places a try.

  11. Tang’s Pavilion 山王

    65 W55 Street

    New York, Tokyo

    My one visit to Tang's Pavilion was excellent. My impression was that it was striving to serve higher-end authentic Chinese (Cantonese?) food.

    I would say it's one of the best Chinese restaurant visits I've had in NYC (comparable to an average restaurant in Hong Kong).

×
×
  • Create New...