Bar Blanc

[Nathan]

Finally got around to eating here last night at the bar.

It's pretty, really pretty. competes with Allen & Delancey, Perry Street, The Modern, Graffiti and Park Avenue ____________ for the most aesthetically appealing restaurant to open in the last several years. In and of itself, that's enough to make it a fabulous date place. crowd was younger (median probably in the early 30's) and mostly neighborhood (on a Wednesday night anyway).

Service was sharp and friendly.

decent enough wine list. nothing of special interest.

amuse was smoked trout on a mini-brioche. there's nothing inherently objectionable about that...just not sure why it's an amuse.

app of sweetbreads with rabbit was almost superb. both the sweetbreads and the rabbit were cooked correctly. the rabbit was pounded flat and served as a bed for the sweetbreads. the textural contrast was terrific (gotta make sure you get both in every bite). alas, it needed salt. plating was nice...a couple of redundant sauces.

lamb shoulder lasagna had a terrific presentation. served as a large molded disc. darn good dish.

will return.

[flinflon28]

What time were you there Nathan? I'm guessing you were a walk in, right?

[Nathan]

What time were you there Nathan?  I'm guessing you were a walk in, right?

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yup. about 8:45. was joined later by an old friend who was in town on business (unfortunately a jack and coke orderer)

[daisy17]

no problem getting seats at the bar?

[Nathan]

no problem getting seats at the bar?

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my friend had to stand for a bit...(he came later)...but I snagged a seat right away as people were leaving. you might have to wait a few moments but certainly not long. the place was full but I think they might have had some walk-in tables too on the later side.

[daisy17]

Had dinner at the bar on Sat night. Boston lettuce/hearts of palm salad and the brussels sprouts side were extremely tasty. The lamb lasagna was delicious and hearty and, frankly, rocked. Cod was good, mellow flavors. Salted caramel ice cream topped the whole thing off nicely.

Really, really good food.

[LPShanet]

It seems pretty rare that I don't find myself getting the exact same impressions of a place as Nathan. However, I ate at Bar Blanc tonight and was quite disappointed. The food was all satisfactory, although not particularly memorable, but the service was atrocious. Considering that I've had food at this level (and at the same or lower prices) at quite a few places in the city, it wasn't enough to make me want to visit again. I just don't have the time to spare.

I should clarify that when we did see our waiter, he was very friendly and solicitous. Nonetheless, it took us over 45 minutes after ordering to get our starters. This followed not getting menus at all for the first 10-15 minutes we were seated, then waiting another ten minutes before being told one of the items we had ordered wasn't available. Despite these long waits, there was no effort to make our next course (main) come out any faster. It was at least 30 minutes after we finished our starters before we finally tracked down our waiter (not an easy task, considering his remarkable invisibility) and asked about our food. He apologized and finally appeared with the mains, which were not at all bad, but certainly didn't make up for the wait. They did, however, slightly top off our glasses of wine as a service gesture.

On to the food. We started with seared scallops and a special of snapper carpaccio. The scallops were decent, although far from the best I've had at similar places. No complaints on them, but I wouldn't be able to tell you much about them a few days from now. The carpaccio was surprisingly fishy, which wasn't helped by the anchovy dressing, but was most notable for being served a bit above room temperature. Warm fish carpaccio is a bit unnerving and probably not the way most chefs would suggest it be done. I'm pretty sure it was an error or a factor of how the fish was stored, rather than an intentional decision.

Our mains were the porcelet and fettucine with rabbit. The porcelet was fairly nice, although again not outstanding, and could have used a little judicious trimming. Still, not bad overall. The rabbit fettucine was actually very nice, and I'd order it again if given the chance.

In the net, I don't have any strong negatives about the food, but at the price levels being charged, and considering the place's Bouley-based pedigree, I'd have expected more. The service was just inexcusable, and it seemed that the worse things were going, the more our waiter tried to avoid us.

As a side note, the table next to us included a guy who clearly was friendly with one or more of the employees. I spent a large portion of the meal with various people leaning over my shoulder to talk to him. Maybe they should have been in the kitchen preparing our food. It should also be noted that he got his stuff well before we did, despite the fact that he arrived 20-30 minutes later.

I'd guess that Bouley himself, who is a famous taskmaster, would have had the whole lot fired.

[Nathan]

I had an absolutely fabulous meal here on Saturday night. walked in about 10, place was mostly full but they had a table available (bar was full).

new spring menu. seafood heavy. excellent kanpachi app to start. kind of Hearth like...but if anything, the execution was even better. marvelous use of spring vegetables.

but, unusually for New York, the entree was the star of the night. perfectly cooked, moist veal...with sensational sweetbreads, spring peas and mushrooms. just great.

brie/potato side was darn tasty too.

cocktail list sucks....straight from the 90's...or Miami.

service was good.

I don't know why NY foodies are down on this place. Is the decor too South Beach? the lighting too bright? the people too trendy and un-foody? it can't be the food...it's every bit as good as any three star I can think of.

Edited April 7, 2008 by Nathan (log)

[oakapple]

I don't know why NY foodies are down on this place.

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Early on, it got a rep for service with an attitude. It's also on the expensive side, which makes people less forgiving of even mild disappointment on the plate.

I wasn't really sold on the place, though I thought it had potential. Given the talent here, you've got to figure that there will always be some knockouts on the menu.

[Nathan]

that spring menu just rocks.

ok, not everything is perfect. striped bass entree shows the execution level of a high-end kitchen but needs one more flavor...some sort of contrast.

the new version of the sweetbread/rabbit app is really nice.

so is the rabbit fettucine (yes, they're using Thumper in more than one dish).

companions raved about the scallop app..didn't get a chance to try it.

cocktail program sucks. wine is definitely the way to go.

sometimes I think with the heavily flavored places that so many NYC gourmands spend all their time at now...they're losing their sense of subtlety....gotta mix it up once in a while.

[jimk]

that spring menu just rocks.

ok, not everything is perfect.  striped bass entree shows the execution level of a high-end kitchen but needs one more flavor...some sort of contrast.

the new version of the sweetbread/rabbit app is really nice.

so is the rabbit fettucine (yes, they're using Thumper in more than one dish).

companions raved about the scallop app..didn't get a chance to try it.

cocktail program sucks.  wine is definitely the way to go.

sometimes I think with the heavily flavored places that so many NYC gourmands spend all their time at now...they're losing their sense of subtlety....gotta mix it up once in a while.

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How is the service these days? Did they learn from the early days? We went once early on and really liked the food but were put off by the waiter (who was just a little too adamant on helping us choose a wine whether we wanted his help or not) and the table spacing (but that may have been because we were seated next to possibly the worst third date I've ever seen - and I went on some pretty wretched third dates back in the day). I also couldn't understand why they refused to sell me a primi-sized portion of the pasta dish when none of the other starters appealed to me. We ended up sharing an entree size pasta as a starter and they wouldn't even put it on two plates. Just goofy and inflexible in a way that ends up with them making that much less money on us. As others have said here, I suspect Sheridan Square may force them to up their game a bit if they haven't done so already.

[Nathan]

I do like the current menu quite a bit more than the opening one.

never had poor service. eaten at the bar a couple times and once a deuce opened up before the bar....so I can't say I have a good idea of the general level of table service.

[BryanZ]

Ate at this place a few weeks ago. It's fine, but I won't be coming back based on the $80 I spent here. The cooking is solid but not all that imaginative. For some the space it occupies between fine and casual dining might be perfect, but I came away from my meal having eaten generally tasty if not particularly memorable food. I liked the starters the most, rabbit terrine with sweetbreads and a chilled zucchini soup. A fish dish with corn was strangely petrol-y and plastic-y tasting. Corn can sometimes taste like this, but it clashed with the fish.

The amuse bouche and petits fours also seemed like throwaways, again suggesting that this restaurant can't quite decide if it's casual or fine dining in focus.