Bond Girl

Hmm, looks like I should plan a visit to London soom. All these new places that I haven't been....are the private clubs as obnoxious as the exclusive golf clubs in the US?

simple pasta with heirloom tomatoes and basil, summer strawberries tossed with a bit if sugar baby carrots cooked with fresh butter and a sprinkle of herbs. fresh scallops with a squirt of lemon or lime juice and some sea salt. Pear poached with some star anise and vanilla ice cream

Informal, small initmate places seemed to be the trend du jour these days in the manhattan culinary scene... First Scott Conant opened Bar Tonno and Now Anita Lo of Annisa is opening Rickshaw's Dumpling Bar on West 23rd. The place will open late November. Rickshaw Dumpling Bar 61 West 23rd Street New York, NY 10010 Tel: TBA

I hate to say this, but many people I know who works in restaurants keep pictures of food critics, their various disguises and the name and number of the numerous credit card they might use. But, that aside, I really believe that friends of the house and food critics and journalists sometimes get better treatment (service, food and otherwise) than the average diner. A chef I know once told me that while he may not make anything special for a food critic, he will triple check everything before it went out to the table, and make his cooks re-do every component on the entree until it is perfect.

Owne, congrats on the new baby! Keep ther pictures coming.

Here is the scoop: Restaurant will relocate in January 2005. Old location remains open until then. The chef I talked to tonight can't wait to get into the new kitchen space.

I don't want to be the sole owner. I do want to find other people with similar dreams and visions. The problem is choosing the right person...so far the process is worse than dating in NYC....The constant mantra is I know there is someone out there, I just haven't met that person.

Will email publicist and get the 411.

Did I post something 2 years ago? I need to look for that thread.

As a chinese girl who grew up having tea eggs as treats, I never recall them being beautiful looking, they were always dark, wrinkly and green egg yolky.

I told them when the server took my order. And, they seemed to handle it perfectly fine.

Admin edit: Previous archived discussion regarding Aquavit's former location at 54th Street can be found here. This just in from the publicist: Aquavit will soon move from its current 54th street location to a swankier more upscale Park Ave neighborhood. The new crib designed by Arne Jacobsen is expected to be ultra modern scandinavian functionalism with design items like the Swan chairs and the Egg chairs in the lounges and cafes. Not sure if the menu is changing but the new address is 65 East 55th Street.

okay, the biggest fish piece in that whole tasting couldn't be more than a total of three bites. Four if you take really small bites. And, as I said before, the lobster is all of one claw and just the claw, joints and other parts are not included. So, go ahead and enjoy if you can. If not, they will make subsititutes for you. They did it for me and I don't eat red meat (allergic), and hates poultry in all forms with great passion.

As much as I loved Cru, I do admit that Desserts has a lot of catching up to do.

There is all of 16 tabels at that joint. Come on, the Spice market had 10 times that volume, and just as many people clamouring to get in. Not that I like the place, but at least they bever screwed up my reservations.

Better that then putting people on hold for 30+ minutes. At least with more reservationist, they may be able to get reservation information right. As a side note, they screwed up the date of my reservation.

You need to confirm your reservations by leaving a voice message on this answering machine, and if you cancel prior to 48 hours, even if most of your party showed up (ie. you changed the number of people your party say from 5 pepople to 4 people). You will be charged $100 per missing person. Not sure if this is also true during dinner, but at lunch the other day, we needed to be buzzed in by the receptionist.

Have more than one line going through the restaurant. Have more reservationist working on the calls. Set up alternative numbers for other business issues. An absent minded friend recently left something at the restaurant, and couldn't reach a real living person to retrieve her package. She ended up calling the reservation line, waiting for more than 30 minutes on the phone to reach a reservationist, and then was told that a manager would call her back as this is the only phone line that runs into the restaurant.

My problem with the place based on one visit is the uneveness of the food. There were some brilliant moments, and some real bummers. The pasta, for instance, was a really low point. I also hate the way the restaurant is run. The whole elitist feeling of it. There is one number to call, and if you are lucky enough to get through, you were made to wait forever, with mid-seventies lite muzak on the background. Then you were given a list of rules and regulations that you must adhere to....All this for the priviledge to sit in a 70's looking dining room with art works that may have been trendy 20 years ago, and be served by a parade of servers, whose mannerism borders on theatrical ridiculousness. The last time this happened to me, I was in grade school. As a adult (albeit an immature one) I rather eat at some place like Cru where I get to talk to a real living person when I make a reservation, a real living person when I confirm the reservation, wear whatever I feel like wearing to dinner, and have great consistent food all the way through.

Robyn, The menu might have changed. I have a copy at home if you want I can fax it to you tomorrow, or ask Suzanne Fass.

I had the tasting menu not sure how many courses it was but those are the dishes that I can remember....I think it was seven courses, ther was also a cauliflower panna cotta with a dab of Iranian caviar that was a wonderful play of contrast and texture but that was may be two bites worth of food.

I think the operative word is "properly". Artichoke hearts ar eone of my favorite things in this world. It has a slightly firm bite with awonderful taste that is a bit sweet but not cloyingly so. A soup made with puree artichoke hearts are heaven but it should preserve the artichoke flavor. Artichoke hearts should not be subsititutes for cardboard, because then it would make all the work of artichoke preparation somewhat pointless.

A good part of my meal was extraordinary at Per Se, but a good part of it was underwhelming as well. Rather than boring everyone with details of my extensive lunch there, here are some of the highlight: The Foie Gras mousse with huckle berry preserve was rich, airy and absolutely beautiful with a delicate buttery wafer. The potatoes with spinach, chanterelle mushrooms and potatoes were interesting with ecellent herbacious potatotes, though I fail to understand the significance of adding sweet sour flavors to the chanterelle and cooking it beyond its flavor recognition (which neither add or improve the flavor of Chanterelle mushrooms). There was a copia that was distinctly sweet with caramelized glaze that was very pleasing. The lobster mitt braised in butter with truffles and baby onions, carrots and potatoes were to die for, and I wished there were more of it ( it was all of one claw cut into three pieces served on a huge dish). The artichoke heart with more baby vegetables (onions and carrots) were disappointing at best. Why over cooked the artichoke so it's mushy, dull and flavorless? Artichokes should taste like....artichokes. There was a sprinkle of carrot dusts on the plate, which i think must be for visual purposes because it's sure the hell wasn't doing a thing for the dish. Then there was a winter squash thing cut out to look like Gnocchis with some hand made pasta dressed with maple syrup. The winte squash was nice and tasty but those pasta reminded me of rubber bands and tasted like it too. The first dessert consisted of a grapefruit sorbet with coconuts sauce, an Indian curry cake that came sitting on a large impressive dish sitting on a bed of peppercorns. When they serve the whole concoction, a server pours hot water on the peppercorns so that you get the smell of the heated peppers rising up from your dessert plate. The shape of the dish (like a gigantic modernistic bird with uplifted wings) makes me feel like I was getting a facial and the curry cake just didn't work, though the grapefruit sorbet was a breath of fresh air. But, the chocolate dessert that followed with chocolate cake, chocolate sorbet, chocolate mousse on a bed of chocolate sauce was the most sinfully luscious creation. And, I usually stay away from chocolate desserts! The service was great, if not a bit formal, which it's old fashioned to a point that can make you feel a bit silly. The decor, though, has the mid seventies feel of a business class lounge, though the view was fantastic. Hey, but who can complain about that, it is in one of the greatest malls in NYC.

may be I've been spoiled by the city, but I am used to decent take out food and ice cream that arrived in separate freezer bags, which may eb a bit soft when coming across town but not completely melted.

Just ordered take outs from this joint. It's the most God awful food ever. Or, at least the Tamarind shrimp was....floating in a bed of grease with the shrimp so overcooked that it resembled rubber. The broccolis weree so badly done that you can taste the chlorophyll of the brown vegetables. Topping in it off is the cold clumpy jasmine rice....the whole dish tasted of re-used oil. Biggest isult to injury-melted coconut ice cream. FG, whatever made you like this place sure ain't what I ordered tonight. edit: the portions were so small I was still hungry after ward, then again with food so badly cooked it's a good thing that the portions were small.