kurl

I went here for brunch in, uh, July and it was quite good. I don't recall much about the meal other than that I had eggs benedict and my girlfriend had something better than eggs benedict.

I always calculate tip on the post-tax amount. I'll generally tip 15% at diners and places like that which are not fancy and at which the waiters are generally responsible for a relatively large number of tables. At nicer places, I generally tip 20%; if the service is particularly good, I'll often tip more -- 30%ish maybe -- and if it's bad (and that badness can be attributed to the waiters, not to dishes taking too long from the kitchen), I'll tip as low as 15% (again, post-tax). Still, it's relatively rare (a couple of times a year) that I receieve service I feel is truly bad at a decent place.

Until I read this, I kinda agreed with Jason thinking that he was complaining about bagels being cut, like, the short way, to create two half-bagel "C"s out of one bagel "O" -- an annoying practice, but not one deserving of the death penalty. But your post made me think that he was talking about people cutting them the long way (making a top and a bottom) and leaving one of THOSE halves. That's just straight-up unconscionable.

Something perhaps a little interesting about the review: Bruni casually tosses off the fact that he was recognized, as if it's not a big deal. This is in line with a few things I've seen Fat Guy say about the mystique of the unrecognizable NYT reviewer. I'm sure he has more interesting things to say about it than I do.

Bruni restates Le Barnardin's four stars this week: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/dining/reviews/16rest.html

I ate at "davidburke and donatella" tonight and it was a truly fantastic meal. Extremely inventive cuisine, brilliant presentation, fantastic desserts, and a decent value to boot. Definitely one of my more memorable recent meals. A better writeup to follow.

Just to stick up for Nobu -- it's not the best place in the city, but it does have some peaks on the menu much worth scaling.

Haha. The place wasn't that discouraging -- I mean, I just wandered in and decided to stay and order dumplings (whereas there are far more places -- in chinatown and elsewhere -- where I take a look and don't give a thought to actually ordering). If anyone's up for a diet-busting dumpling tasting next week (i.e. the only week I'll be in NY 'til may), let me know.

My one visit there was totally on a lark and I was a bit discouraged by the fact that the clientele was entirely non-Chinese. I found the dumplings to be fine -- though not really excellent. Weirdly, someone seemingly randomly asked me if I was from NYU, leading me to believe that it is a student hangout (?).

He's definitely making it there. I've gotten it only once or twice, asking just for a "cup of gelato" and getting basically an ideally-proportioned (unsurprisingly ideally-proportioned, I should say, given that Alidoro is all about perfectly-proportioned sandwiches) mixture of whatever flavors he felt were good that day, topped with a tiny bit of an almost absurdly rich chocolate that worked really well when eaten in tiny doses in combination with the other flavors. EDIT: Sadwiches is the opposite of what they should be called.

How is this possible! My girlfriend is the same way. The only ice cream she likes is ice cream with chunks in it, like Ben and Jerry's. And she'd be happy with just the chunks. I can't stand gratuitous bits of anything in my ice cream. Don't get me wrong, I like ice cream a lot, I'm just perhaps less snobbish about it, or at least more content with just-okay ice cream than I am with other just-okay food items. I really enjoy the gelato at Alidoro (formerly Melampo), where I am probably three times a week when I'm in New York.

I can confirm that Otto serves some primo stuff. Content with Haagen-Dazs, I'm not really that much of an ice cream fan and cannot contribute anything further to this thread.

I've really enjoyed the tea-smoked duck, the whole fish items, the cured pork (though I understand that there are other places that may do it better), and the non-spicy fresh chicken with mushrooms dish -- something that was very good, despite being very non-GSIish.

That's a demotion, is it not? I recall 11MP being three stars. Incidentally, when's the last time the Times promoted a restaurant? It has been a while. Frank Bruni has written quite a few re-reviews himself, and I'm quite sure that not one has been a promotion. Amanda Hesser didn't promote anybody, either. ← It's a restatement. It looks like the first an only review was Reichl giving it two stars in '97.

It looks like two stars from this link.

I don't have an answer to your question, but my last visit (in January) *definitely* featured peppercorns of a potency I hadn't had in my other 6-7 trips there.

I have no idea how traditional it is, but I really enjoyed the Fromage Blanc at ChikaLicious.

I've been there three times -- the menu seemed pretty inconsistent to me; some stuff was totally decent (some of the antipasti and a lasagna-type pasta I had once), and some was much more forgetable/regretable (a pizza, for one). It's definitely convenient; not only is it close to Lincoln Center, but they can get you in and out pretty quickly.

I kinda agree with Blondie that this place shouldn't just be written off... I work (during summers) on Wall St., and the lunch choices there pretty much suck. Your options are 90-minute gourmet lunches in great places that only IB people have time to patronize, fast food (that's ANYTHING but fast -- McDonald's took me 15 minutes the one time I went there and Quizno's is at least a 20-minute commitment), or -- what everyone who cares about food seems to choose -- carts, which once you've found your 4 or 5 favorites, offer decent quality, great tasting food in about 5 minutes. If this place can get their whole operation to take 15 minutes or so -- and if they really are significantly better than Quizno's -- I think there will be a market for the food-conscious employee who hasn't found any permanent store that's as quick and good as what he can get from a cart.

I've never been to Bayard's but I'm going on a (very rare) expense-account lunch as part of my internship tomorrow. Am totally excited. Any particular recommendations?

I went to -- and loved -- Kelly's Roast Beef. The title sandwich was really good, but the lobster roll was spectacular and totally worth the trip.

I know it's sacrilege, but I prefer the club bread to the unspectacular rye at Katz's, particularly with brisket and turkey.

Back to Mini-Bar... Anyway, I went there on Saturday at 6 and had a blast. I've never been to Trio, The Fat Duck, or Spain, so I can't say much about innovation other than that they served something (passionfruit marshmellow petit fours) that was literally straight out of the El Bulli cookbook. Anyway, the service was casual and good, the timing was totally enviable, any many of the dishes were fantastic. Highlights included: The snacks: caramelized pork rinds with Vermont maple syrup, crispy rice with nori, passion fruit cocktail, mojito spritz. All were fantastic, and all were the kind of thing I would eat every day if I could. Pinapple & salmon ravioli with avocado & crispy quinoa: Probably the most traditionally-good dish of the night, and the first of many, many, fish-fruit pairings. Jicama Wraps: with tuna & sesame, with apples & cabrales: Other than the jicama wrap, a simple dish with great ingedients that worked brilliantly with each other. Watermelon with balsamic & olive oil: Brilliant. Who would have guessed? Cottom candy foie gras: One of the few items that was as tasty as it was fun. Baby peach with yogurt: Extremely high-quality ingredients (great balsamic, a great Japanese baby peach, and amazingly tangy Greek yogurt) coming together to create something very tasty. Conch fritter: A fried ball of liquid that was a totall flavor-blast of New England and probably the best single taste in a night that had a ton of them. "Corn on the cob:" Basically corn four ways, all of which were amazing nad particularly good at highlighting perhaps non-obvious elements of the flavor of corn. Hot & cold foie gras soup: Hot foie gras soup with a cold corn foam on top. Very good. Lobster americaine: The pipette shish-kebab is a gimmicky-looking innovation that's very worth holding on to. Fresh sardines in a crust: Fresh sardines prepared well are always magical -- Mini-Bar's not-too-avant-garde rendition was no exception. Meat & potatoes: A dish of very well-prepared rare kobe beef and potato foam where the potato foam was the highlight of the dish. It's that good -- it should be served everywhere. Also the dish with the (notorious?) truffled kleenex. Pina Colada: I'm not much of a drinker, but after this, I kinda wished that I was. I can't believe they only charge $65 for this -- a 1:2 chef-to-diner ratio, decent chunks of foie gras, a generous amount of osteria caviar and salmon roe, and a dining experience that's totally unique (if the food isn't). I had a meal that was more memorable, if not quite as good, as my one at Jean-Georges for literally less than half of the price.

No +1 for me -- I'm pretty sure my +1 finds this completely ridiculous. And that date should work fine -- great, even; my internship ends the day before (so if I die of heart failure as a result, I won't be missed at work).

Also possibly interested -- though before the end of August would be the only time that works.