Bistro Benoit

[oakapple]

There's a brief article in TONY in which Chef Schaedelin talks about the changes he's made. I tried one of the new items last night, the choucroute garnie, which was pretty good. My friend gave the cassoulet a "B+".

[BryanZ]

markk has noted that though the tongue dish isn't on the menu, it is still served with the charcuterie plate for two and can be ordered a la carte if one asks for it. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

If it is in fact gone that's a major disappointment. I really loved that dish.

[RossyW]

Strange experience tonight at Benoit. And I should note that I came in really wanting to love this restaurant and totally undaunted by negative reviews.

To start, I called ahead and asked about the Steak Rossini, inspired by the beautiful photos above. The hostess told me that I need not order it ahead - it is always on the menu. This sounded fishy but I took her word for it.

Of course, it is not always on the menu - it is available only on Saturdays, and, I was told, you cannot call ahead to get it made for you on any other day. OK. No Rossini. No sweat. The waiter was appropriately apologetic.

I tried three dishes:

- Leeks Gribiche with Pork Trotter

- Blanquette de Veau (the night's special)

- Cassoulet

Every dish was underseasoned! Badly in some cases. This was strange.

The leeks tasted like they were blanched in unsalted water. The trotter was a bit dry, a bit over-fried, and a bit underseasoned. The solution to all of this, of course, was to aggressively slather everything on the plate with the sauce gribiche, and I suppose the end product was alright, but not what it was supposed to be.

The Blanquette was unsatisfying. I needed to dump salt into the decoritive little pot to make the dish palatable. The chunks of veal, which were otherwise attractive, were flavorless. The broth didn't have nearly enough meaty flavor; it almost tasted like a slightly reduced cream.

The Cassoulet wasn't as bad a miss as the other two - the sausage and duck were nicely seasoned - but the dish didn't come together like I wanted it to. The beans and broth needed more salt, and, like the veal dish, there just wasn't enough meatiness. It tasted like the meats had been merely covered by the beans on the order, with no time to get to know each other.

Defenders of this restaurant say that it is producing an undiluted style of food that many Americans just don't get. Was that it? I don't think so ... unless this style is that of a crappy, unstudied bistrot cuisine. But if it's true, well, then why are there "BB Sliders" on the menu?

[markk]

The "Boeuf Rossini" is Saturday night's 'daily special' on the new menu, which is on their website.

We had it about a week or two ago:

Sadly, there were no fresh black truffles (as there were on Christmas day), and of course it's not the rib steak they used to use for the dish, but rather a piece of filet mignon.

I've had some good experiences at Benoit over time, so I'm taking a 'wait-and-see' attitude and wishing them the best.

[sickchangeup]

Sadly, there were no fresh black truffles (as there were on Christmas day), and of course it's not the rib steak they used to use for the dish, but rather a piece of filet mignon.

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In other words, to my taste, totally horribly different from before :-(

[oakapple]

Defenders of this restaurant say that it is producing an undiluted style of food that many Americans just don't get.  Was that it?  I don't think so ... unless this style is that of a crappy, unstudied bistrot cuisine.

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The supporters of the restaurant have experienced it on its better days, which apparently you did not. I don't have enough data to know how often the "bad days" happen, but I've enjoyed Benoit both times I visited.

[sickchangeup]

It's just maddeningly infuriating seeing a restaurant turn something as beautifully rustic, fatty, flavorful and calibrated to our city's taste as THIS (a true addition to the beef scene in a beef saturated market from the looks of it):

into something as generically vacuous as THIS:

I mean honestly, filet mignon?? Sure, it looks great on a plate, but who is ever gonna order that in NY apart from tourists?

And to compound the issue, I'm willing to bet that while option A cost $100, option B costs over $40.

markk - Am I off the mark here, how did the two dishes compare on taste?

[oakapple]

It's just maddeningly infuriating seeing a restaurant turn something as beautifully rustic, fatty, flavorful and calibrated to our city's taste as THIS...into something as generically vacuous as THIS:... I mean honestly, filet mignon??  Sure, it looks great on a plate, but who is ever gonna order that in NY apart from tourists?

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I don't quite see the point. Last I checked, filet mignon was a legitimate cut of meat. It's on tons of menus, and you don't have to be a tourist to order it. I could understand the objection if it were badly sourced or prepared poorly, but you didn't actually taste it. Rather, you seem to be raising a conceptual issue that I don't get.

As for why they don't serve the ribeye every day, I believe it was a portion for two, so it probably has extremely limited appeal. I would venture to guess that very few Benoit patrons come in with a large ribeye on their minds.

[markk]

It's just maddeningly infuriating seeing a restaurant turn something as beautifully rustic, fatty, flavorful and calibrated to our city's taste as THIS...into something as generically vacuous as THIS:... I mean honestly, filet mignon??  Sure, it looks great on a plate, but who is ever gonna order that in NY apart from tourists?

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I don't quite see the point. Last I checked, filet mignon was a legitimate cut of meat. It's on tons of menus, and you don't have to be a tourist to order it. I could understand the objection if it were badly sourced or prepared poorly, but you didn't actually taste it. Rather, you seem to be raising a conceptual issue that I don't get.

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I actually think the dish is "traditionally" made with a medallion of Filet Mignon (and is known as "Tournedos Rossini") - and this was a substantial one, with a beautiful crust on it. I'd have preferred to have fresh truffle (can't think of when I would not), and I don't know what they did with the rest of the truffle that they gave us on Christmas day, but this was quite tasty anyway. And to be perfectly frank, I think that actual recipes for "Tournedos Rossini" may (may) call for a slice of foie gras pâté - so having a slice of fresh sauteed foie gras is gilding the lily.

My thought is that I wish that they didn't just limit this dish to Saturdays!

[RossyW]

Sure, it looks great on a plate, but who is ever gonna order that in NY apart from tourists?

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I don't quite see the point. Last I checked, filet mignon was a legitimate cut of meat ... you seem to be raising a conceptual issue that I don't get.

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I actually think the dish is "traditionally" made with a medallion of Filet Mignon (and is known as "Tournedos Rossini") - and this was a substantial one, with a beautiful crust on it.

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Agreed with the two responses.

OK, filet mignon is an overrated cut of beef and frequently overpriced. I think most foodies agree, and most egulleters will choose the flatiron steak. But that doesn't mean that it's suddenly worthless.

In fact, that would seem to be a nice use of the cut. The usual book on filet mignon is that it is very very tender but not strongly flavored. Yeah? So why don't you take that tender but mild piece of meat and slather it with demi-glace, foie gras and truffles? Sounds like it would be successful in the same way that, say, Beef Wellington is successful (tender but mild meat surrounded by buttery pastry, rich liver and muchroom pastes). That sounds great to me, although given my experience last night I am not sure that I want to pay to confirm it.

[sickchangeup]

Rather, you seem to be raising a conceptual issue that I don't get.

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The conceptual issue goes something like this (and I'm injecting humor cause I don't think this is that serious a discussion, although I wasn't joking when I wrote that I was maddeningly infuriated):

People complain that this place doesn't "get it" when it comes to NY'ers palettes. To some extent, the success and reviews of the place to date bears this theory out. So does the chef change. Mr. Ducasse counters back that NY'ers "don't get" bistros, that we need to be educated by our journalists, and that after we learn about proper French food, we'll like the place.

Well, to my mind, the two dishes above illustrate the core of the debate perfectly. On the one hand we have the french traditional fillet mignon dish, beautifully presented, well cooked, high quality products, a dish that could grace the cover of a food weekly publication in France - and (if you follow my argument) one that NY'ers simply don't give a s**t about. Our meat hierarchy in NY goes something like this:

porterhouse

ribeye

NY strip

hanger

brisket

[...snip...]

lips

balls

fillet

None of NY's glorious steakhouses today would be alive if their main cut was "fillet", and yes I'm aware that half of a proper porterhouse is a fillet - luckily almost everyone short of Porterhouse in Time Warner passes off T-bones as Porterhouses and what we mostly eat is the delicious Strip, with a side of charred fillet covered in beef grease and appropriately aged.

To be more brief about my argument: the traditional fillet mignon dish above is something that I feel I could expect to get as a daily special in about 50 places around town, including such luminaries as Les Halles, Steak Frittes and other giants of the "this is boring french food being turned out by line cooks" genre. There is nothing interesting about it in my view, and having a big D, err.. a big B at the bottom of the plate doesn't change that.

The frustration comes in when this place, a Ducasse establishment!, goes ahead and produces something brilliant like the ribeye with black truffle and foie, a dish that looks and reads as rich and actually adds something to the discourse of this intensely beefy city our ours, a dish whose roots are in some stuffy french dish, but which is now suitably adapted to life in Gotham (a French dish wearing a batman suit if you will), they go ahead and do away with it. Why?!? I was 100% certain I'd be consuming the ribeye dish within 3 months after markk posted a photo and instructions of how to get it. There was no doubt, a trip to Benoit was happening, I just needed the occasion for it. I was excited. Who wasn't after reading markk's original post?

Whereas the dish in the second picture that came later? Why would I bother?

[BryanZ]

I'd throw deckle* in there just because it's trendy.

But, yeah, I agree with the rest of your post. I'd probably order balls before tenderloin at most restaurants. And you throw some lips in a terrine, I'm more than game.

*By which I mean the cap of the ribeye, not the part of the brisket, as the term is also used for. One could argue, that because the deckle is part of the ribeye it's accounted for in your list. If, however, we're listing the strip as separate from the porterhouse, then the deckle can, too, be a standalone cut.

Edited January 30, 2009 by BryanZ (log)

[Timh]

Isn't the point that its a FRENCH BISTRO. You all seem to want a NY style french bistro, to then slather condemnation that its not "authentic". Would you complain in Paris? Who would listen?

[oakapple]

The conceptual issue goes something like this (and I'm injecting humor cause I don't think this is that serious a discussion, although I wasn't joking when I wrote that I was maddeningly infuriated):

People complain that this place doesn't "get it" when it comes to NY'ers palettes.  To some extent, the success and reviews of the place to date bears this theory out.  So does the chef change.  Mr. Ducasse counters back that NY'ers "don't get" bistros, that we need to be educated by our journalists, and that after we learn about proper French food, we'll like the place.

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I am a bit skeptical of claims that there is a common palette that all New Yorkers share. It's a city of 8 million residents, plus those who commute in for work, plus those who visit from longer distances. They are all potential Benoit customers, and Ducasse only needs to attract a teensy percentage of them. If you were opening a steakhouse, you'd be a fool to make the filet your signature dish, but Benoit isn't a steakhouse.

Ducasse's interview was clearly disingenuous. I think there's some truth to the claim that many New Yorkers aren't familiar with classic French cuisine, starting with the journalists who write about it. But the antidote is to serve great food, not to complain about the people eating it. The chef change was clearly an admission that the food when Benoit opened wasn't consistently good enough.

[Sneakeater]

*By which I mean the cap of the ribeye, not the part of the brisket, as therm is also used for.

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Is that also what tri-tip is?

If not, what is tri-tip?

[BryanZ]

I was under the impression that the tri-tip comes from the back half of the cow, in the bottom sirloin section. At least that's what Wikipedia tells me.

[Sneakeater]

Thanks.

I guess I could have looked it up myself. But that's what Young People are for.