sickchangeup

It really is tame, the stuffed sourdough listed "cayenne" as an ingredient and I expected my mouth to catch fire. It barely registered, although was delicious. And if something called "vindaloo" doesn't sear your lips and throat, then it shouldn't be called that. Maybe they would honor any requests to make the food really spicy?

Seeing as I doubt the wine is free, and seeing as you run up a wine tab, I see this as an even exchange from them, no reason not to take them up on it. "I'll give you the food, you buy that wine again", and both parties are pleased. No?

I was looking through a few menus around town, trying to catch the early effects of the spring season when I noticed this on the EMP menu: FOUR STORY HILL SUCKLING PIG A Five Course Suckling Pig Tasting Menu ______ 125. Wine Pairings 95. It matches the cost of the 5 course spring tasting menu (new as well).

Stopped in tonight around 7:15, still about 10 seats up for grabs. Place was full by 7:40 and by 8 there was a little line outside. First impressions: - Right now they are BYOB, at least half the people were taking advantage - Each pizza is large, they say 10", definitely at least that big - Slices (they slice your individual pie for you) were rather limp, when held by the crust the slice drooped down vertically - The dough is chewy and elastic - I would call this "good" char. As compared to say "Co." char, where larger spots get vaporized to a thin ribbon of carbon here and there, this is (to my taste) good char, very small spots of char all around adding a nice touch. Could even go a little stronger with the char. - They do a nutella dessert pizza At it's best this pizza could become light, pillowy and smoky, but we didn't quite get there tonight. At it's worst this could become wet and limp pizza, but we didn't quite get there either. Definitely good potential, we expect to go back after a few 1000 more pizzas get churned out.

The Salon Menu is now included in their daily online posted menu: http://www.tkrg.org/upload/ps_menu.pdf For example, March 27th Salon Menu: SALON MENU March 27, 2009 ___________________________________________________________ RUSSET POTATO GNOCCHI Fava Beans and Pea Tendrils with "Cacio e Pepe" 26. TERRINE OF HUDSON VALLEY MOULARD DUCK FOIE GRAS Duck Consommé "en Gelée," Slow Baked Beets, Red Ribbon Sorrel, Meiwa Kumquat Coulis and Sicilian Pistachios with Toasted Brioche 40. ____________________ ANSON MILLS’ WHITE POLENTA "AGNOLOTTI" Violet Artichokes, Garlic Chips and Wilted Dandelion Greens with Green Garlic "Pudding" 28. PAN ROASTED MAINE SEA SCALLOP Tamari Glazed Abalone Mushroom, English Peas and Confit of Turnips with Pea Tendrils 40. ____________________ LIBERTY FARM’S PEKIN DUCK BREAST Vidalia Onion "Vermicelli" and Stinging Nettles with "Sauce Périgourdine" 38. SNAKE RIVER FARM’S "CALOTTE DE BŒUF GRILLÉE" Ragoût of Forest Mushrooms, Confit of La Ratte Fingerling Potatoes, Glazed Black Knight Carrots and Watercress Leaves with "Sauce Bordelaise" 46. ____________________ "THE CHEESE COURSE" Selles-sur-Cher, Fromage de Meaux, La Serena and Tuxford & Tebbutt’s Stilton Caponata, Spiced Marcona Almonds, Granny Smith Apple Marmalade and Black Winter Truffle Honey 24. "SÉLECTION DE SORBETS MAISON" Coconut, Chocolate, Banana and Buttermilk-Thyme 12. "BOMBE AU PAMPLEMOUSSE" Chocolate "Roulade," Manjari Chocolate Mousse and Grapefruit Curd with Pink Grapefruit Ice Cream 14. "MIGNARDISES" SERVICE INCLUDED The Duck Breast, Calottes & Sorbet Selection are not on the regular menu, but the rest are.

Well, the menu changing might render this moot, not sure. But of the stuff I'd eat again, I'd list the spring onion "pakoras" (pakora being your standard dense fritter, the quotes here denoting the light fritter batter applied to each whole spring onion stalk, then fried almost tempura style) which had a really good classic pakora spice to them, although not a generous portion for $7 (could just be my ignorance of the cost of spring onions right now?). The Duck Neck Sausage paired nicely with the Orange Chutney, and $6 is a good price for the 3 slices. The shrimp are served whole, solo, can be eaten shell on, very juicy and are ridiculously overloaded with black pepper. Then of course the breads, which are all great, fresh baked, filling, but also regularly available at Bread Bar downstairs. The "mains" are where the dishes get a little more complex, but it kind of goes with your tastes more than anything. Striped Bass Collars and Chicken Livers are No Reservations territory, Tandoori Chicken Wings are not. I would just pick by protein, nothing was very (hot) spicy and ultimately it's near impossible to glean what a dish is gonna be like from it's menu description anyways. The other nice thing was a $5 dessert option, which I appreciated. Two chocolate ice-cream, cookie dough studded, chocolate shell covered "lollipops" which hit the spot.

Here's an incredibly crappy, but just barely legible, picture of tonights menu: Apparently these menu's change every week. The food was good, kind of like Bread Bar food, but prepared upstairs with an even bolder take. This wasn't French, it was unapologetically Indian. We went a little crazy and ordered 9 things, spending a few dollars more between the 2 of us than the regular tabla menu costs for 1. This really puts the wazwan menu (which we tried and wrote about above a couple of months back) from downstairs to shame. The Tabla 10 is a great menu, but probably requires you to have an adventurous palate. Picking through the bones/cartilage of a striped bass collar almost reminded me of eating offal, but.. fish offal. Strong flavor, probably not for everyone, but very interesting in my eyes. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the potato stuffed sourdough naan, it was exceptional. There were a few letdowns, most notably the chicken meatballs. I also understand now that they have separate sections upstairs. The regular, white table cloth main dining room is still 100% there. Off to the left side (when you walk up the stairs) is the elevated section where they host Tabla 10 guests. Table tops are not white cloth, everything is more playful. Chez Cardoz stopped by to chat with a table, Ruth Reichl stopped in with a couple of friends a bit later. Not every table was taken, a few 2 tops went empty by the time we left, although I'm not sure why. For the same money we've eaten far less interesting food, I can honestly say I would like to go back again next week.

meh. Not worth the lunchtime supplement IMO.

I would think the signature stuff is the best to try the first time, stuff like: Egg Caviar Tuna Ribbons Foie Gras Brulee Young Garlic Soup Turbot/Skate with Chateau Chalon Red Snapper with Nuts/Seeds & Sweet & Sour Black Cod with Honshimeji & Lemongrass Parmesan Crusted Chicken Sweetbreads Shortribs I personally prefer all the stuff listed before the meat courses.

No, not a restaurant worker, by "us" I'm referring to myself and my wife. Given how cheap and how nice (and how easy to book) JG is for weekend brunch, we've invited people for lunch there a few times. They always ask how much to eat, what courses to try etc... I personally love the tuna ribbons, and have only skipped it once, but we try to limit our advice to how many courses to try rather than which to try. The reality is that it's probably easier to recommend what to steer away from on a first visit if you are trying to get a feel for the food, because at least 10 dishes are signature type dishes that you can't go wrong with.

Bruni gave them three stars: http://events.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/dinin...ews/25rest.html

I did read through and noticed some of those dishes, skate, scallops, foie etc. They are definitely on my list. I read upthread that portion sizes are pretty generous, what is the optimum number of courses here assuming I am a normal, by egullet standards, eater. 3 plus desert? two plus desert? ← I usually tell any guests dining with us that 2 courses make for a light lunch, 3 for a regular lunch and 4 for a large lunch. Dessert doesn't really factor in the count for me as it's a reduced portion.

Of course they serve lunch at the bar. It is usually from the nougatine menu, however. ← I definitely trust your word over what I thought I gleaned from a 5 second chat with a bartender. edited to add: I called and they confirmed that only Nougatine food is served at the bar.

hmm.. I asked a couple of months ago if they served lunch at the bar and they gave me a very definite yes (might even be upthread, not sure). Having said that, the corner spots for 1 in the main dining room are very comfortable to sit at and enjoy a meal.

I booked Tabla on opentable for Wednesday, going for the Tabla 10 thing. When they called to confirm, I stated that "it's for tabla 10", and they replied that those can't really be booked online, that I had to call in to book for that. They didn't make a big deal of it though, they just "switched" me (not sure what that meant) which was nice of them, so I'm still on for Wednesday. Just thought I'd share that as an FYI. edited to add: Just got an email confirming cancellation of my opentable, so I guess they were referring to that when they said switch :-)

The sign on the door (I live around the corner) says they are closing at 10:00 for a private (i.e. farewell) party. So go quick :-) I stopped in by Batch for a final hurrah, one for the road. Pichet and team were in there still cranking away, I'm guessing there's gonna be a lot of good stuff getting passed around at that party :-)

Ok, so even less has changed. Stop the presses indeed.

You shouldn't worry about that I don't think, Per Se as you experienced it in previous visits is NOT offering an ala carte menu option. Despite what Eater and the rest of them are SHOCKED, AMAZED etc... to "report", Per Se is the same restaurant as it's always been. 9 course tasting menus, with a 5 course tasting option for lunch. The only thing that's changed is that the lounge area OUTSIDE the dining room (which I'm guessing was formerly limited to those with reservations?) now allows people without reservations to stop by, order food and drinks and mingle on the couches. I'm guessing this is close to a non-event as far as the kitchen is concerned, preparing a single extra course here and there off the menu for a restaurant that's staffed to prepare double digit courses for 60+ diners a turn should be trivial. I'm guessing it's the servers and bartenders that are seeing the effect of the changes, especially the latter.

Nice article, including a video of chef cooking his Parmesan Crusted Chicken dish: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123750192328089367.html

"A credit card is required for holding this reservation because it is for the Easter holiday. Credit cards are not normally requested on OpenTable.com. Eleven Madison Park reserves the right to charge a $98 Per Person fee for any reservation not cancelled prior to 48 hours of the reservation date." $98 pesos it looks like, but nothing on the EMP website.

I did the tasting menu, largely due to the wine promotion (you get 50% off 1 bottle per tasting menu ordered - we drank 2 bottles!). I did supplement the eggs benedict into the tasting, cause I really wanted to try it. They just added 2x the price of the dish to the cost of the tasting menu and that was that - we each got the full dish. At the end of it all, I'm not certain I wouldn't have rather ordered the signature dishes a la carte. I got to try a lot, but didn't really agree with all of it. Then again, there was a dish (Truffled Carbonara) on the tasting menu that rocked, so it's close either way. Since both menus are currently online, I'd let your reaction to each menu (and the savings on wine if applicable) dictate which way to go. And I agree, there is absolutely nothing to be worried about with regards to intimidation. The restaurant is smack dab in the lower east side, a very relaxed neighborhood, the restaurant is literally casual, there is nothing uptight about the place at all.

Likely as a result of this post, I actually went and sat down in the USQ dining room for the first time in over a year, me and my wife on a Saturday evening. I've eaten about 5 times at the bar in the interim, and always enjoyed it for the comfort of it all. Food wasn't ever "fantastic", but was always well executed, always hit the spot, and yet perhaps a tiny bit beside the point. Burger here, steak there - all good. The bar is something I can see being on my mandatory list of stops if I ever leave the city, just to stop and soak in "New York'ness". My reaction to the more formal dining was nothing special, some new highlights, some new lowlights. Our waiter referred to us exclusively as "friend" or "friends", I felt like a Quaker half way through dinner. Kind of uncomfortable, maybe that's just me. I'm for people genuinely being themselves when serving, it's usually the best form of service, but being called nothing but "friend" by a complete stranger seems disingenuous to me. Perhaps not for everyone. The real depressing change is the bread basket. This was a downer, it's a total recession basket now. Again, it's been probably a year at very least, but I recall this bountiful basket with a sesame seeded roll of some sort, ciabatta, flat bread galore, italian sliced bread - it was, no joke, my favorite basket in the city. Now? It's basically what you get at the bar (sliced & toasted loaf bread and olives) plus a small section of flat bread. Our waiter said it changed almost a year ago (so hard to tie it to a recession related change). To his credit, noticing my bread driven stupor, he put in for another order of it, so we got bread for 4. We ordered the USQ Calamari, whose breading scraped off whenever I tried to dip it into the somewhat cold sauce, and the new chicken tortelloni in brodo, which frankly was USQ at it's finest. Homey, comforting, tasty, market driven - fantastic. It's part of their campaign to give back, every Hospitality Group restaurant featuring a take on "chicken soup" in their own style, with $2 going to City Harvest for every order sold. Great idea, even better soup. Entrees were the lasagna, a meticulously assembled tower of thin layers (would definitely recommend the appetizer size) and a scallop dish with bacon "farroto" (faro risotto), which was fine. Dessert was crepes which were good. The bill was nice, a fair price for the food. Perhaps derailed by our "friend" and bread service, nothing about the place seemed different or special. Calamari should be perfect in their sleep and wasn't. But we did get hints here and there of the highlights. Perhaps if we were recognizable, toted a kid around and got the best the place has to offer, then yeah I can see it being better.

Got a new camera and we decided to play around with it at Ippudo: Shishito Peppers: Shiromaru Ramen: Akamaru Ramen:

Those are some really great photos Mike. I'd always wondered what they meant by "lobster mitts", and damn those look good. How was your "bacon and eggs"? I feel like they do a lot of different takes on that dish under the same label (I think the offal tasting had a dish labeled that way too), but I've never had it. The tagliatelle with black truffle was probably the best thing I had ever tested, until I tried the slow scrambled hen egg with black truffle, give me shivers it was so good. I love that they use Elie Blue humidors to preserve and/or present their truffles, nice touch of class.

It looks like they just opened up the "lounge" to some sort of more casual dining this week. Normally when you walk in, it's pretty empty in the lounge corridor until you enter the dining room, but seemingly no longer. Now there are people lining up on the couches along the wall, sipping drinks or eating dishes. Apparently you can order the same or similar dishes as are on the menu that night, but without needing to go the full monty - just order one and a drink if you like and eat it in the lounge. I didn't get to see the menu, so no clue on price point. Also not sure if jackets for men still applies, but guessing so.