Cookshop

[Daniel]

Went here for dinner tonight and had an "OK" meal.. Everything was pretty average..I think a lot had to do with the broken oven they have.. As I walked by, I noticed this beautiful wood burning oven, I was surprised to see it not working.. I asked about it and learned it has been broken for the last three weeks.. I asked what they usually cooked in it and they said flat breads, chicken, duck and steaks..

Bad pic of a beautiful non working oven..

The bread people were talking about was good.. But I couldnt get over what they served with it.. It tasted like a can of french onion dip.. I later found out it was creme fraiche onion dip... It would have been better if they used a Liptons Packet... The bread was of such quality, they almost ruined it..

I started with a shrimp app, while the girl had a spinach salad..

The shrimp had a nice little crust.. They were fried and were ok.. It was upsetting to get three little shrimp.. I thought the quality was nothing special, they were way too small.. The dish had an Indian feel, but was very average... They were the size that you would get with a Supermarket shrimp cocktail platter...

The girls Spinach Salad was ok. The spinach was of great quality.. But it was drowned in the dressing.. Too many nuts, too much of a yogurty tasting blue cheese.. It was average..

I said in my Del Posto review I never had a duck breast I didnt like.. This was pushing it.. I ordered it medium rare/rare.. It came out almost well done.. I hated the roasted cranberry topping and thought the beans just sucked.. They cooked the beans in this sub-par BBQ Sauce.. It tasted of Ketchup and Brown Sugar.. But in a bad way.. The duck breast was prepared so poorly.. I later found out it was grilled.. Before there wood burning oven went out, they would cook it in it..

I have never seen a duck breast that looked this bad.. Looks like a dry piece of pork..

Rabbit cooked on the rotisserie.. The rabbit was split in half and cooked while rotating around a fire.. It was a bit too scrawny.. The skin had a real peppery coating, but the animal was way too skinny.. The grits were ok, the fava's were ok.. The sides were way too strong, trying to make up for the rabbit.. It was ok..

Dessert.. We ordered two things.. One was awesome..

Coconut Ice cream with chocolate covered almonds, chocolate coconut cookies and a caramel sauce.. It was sooo goood..

Three kinds of ice cream Chocolate, Strawberry, and vanilla with chocolate nuts.... Seved with a biscotti...

Nothing was amazing.. Nothing was bad..

The bottom line is, that oven needs to be fixed. The service was slow, the place was loud.. The guy who sells you the wine was really positive..

Edited July 16, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[H. du Bois]

I dined here last night without either having read this thread or having heard much about it, so it was a blank slate situation for me, which perhaps isn't a bad way to approach a restaurant.

I was rather incoherent in my ordering, in the sense that I usually try to choose appetizers, drinks and entrees that would match well with each other. Instead, I just randomly went with whatever struck my fancy at a given moment. Rather schizoid, but the upshot was that I ended up enjoying all my choices.

I had a sour cherry caipirinha, which worked for me. An order of the fried spiced hominy was shared amongst the table. I liked it, and didn't run out of steam with it, as GAF did above. We didn't finish it, though. Perhaps it's the fresh-out-of-the-hot-oil circumstance that makes the dish work. Didn't care for the creme fraiche/shallot spread for the bread - I couldn't put my finger on the flavor combination within, but it didn't appeal to me.

I don't know if their oven was still out of order, as I ordered from the grill and the rotisserie. My favorite part of the meal was my appetizer - grilled calamari with fingerling potato salad and olives. It was so nicely grilled that I wished I'd ordered a grilled entree instead of what I did. It was also a generous enough portion that I wished I'd ordered another appetizer instead of an entree.

I had the Hudson valley rabbit with polenta and fava beans, as Daniel did. The rabbit was more rare than I'd have liked, but the fava beans & polenta were terrific - I liked the crisp edge of the beans contrasting with the softness of the polenta. My portion was again huge - I swear they gave me twice as much rabbit as what was pictured in Daniel's entry.

No room for dessert.

All in all, a very pleasant dinner. It didn't knock my socks off, but then again, I wasn't expecting it to.

Edited July 31, 2006 by H. du Bois (log)

[Daniel]

H. du Bois,

I am glad you liked dinner.. I think there were just a few things off with my dinner.. The one glaring thing was a gorgeous oven which was responsible for cooking many of the dishes sitting there cold.. I will go certainly go back in a few months.

[H. du Bois]

I'll go again. Want to taste more of what comes from their grill.

[ewindels]

Cookshop is, far and away, my favorite NYC restaurant currently. There is a warmth and invitingness, coupled with consistently superb cooking, that reminds me of the early (and sadly departed) days of Landmarc, but with a slightly more inventive menu and more polished execution. That coupled with the superb wine list makes it the tops. I could rant on for pages about the incredible dishes I've had there, but rather than wasting your time reading about it, get your tuchus down there. Now!

[Daniel]

ewindels,

Have you gone in the last month.. Have you noticed a decline since the oven stopped working.. Is it working again?

[H. du Bois]

Cookshop is, far and away, my favorite NYC restaurant currently.  There is a warmth and invitingness, coupled with consistently superb cooking, that reminds me of the early (and sadly departed) days of Landmarc, but with a slightly more inventive menu and more polished execution.  That coupled with the superb wine list makes it the tops.  I could rant on for pages about the incredible dishes I've had there, but rather than wasting your time reading about it, get your tuchus down there.  Now!

Interesting.

Now see, that's what expectations will do for you - if I'd read this before I'd gone, I'd have been disappointed.

I wasn't, but I credit that to going with no preconceptions whatsoever.

Edited July 31, 2006 by H. du Bois (log)

[Sneakeater]

[Moved to Landmarc thread, where it belongs]

Edited July 31, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[ewindels]

ewindels,

Have you gone in the last month.. Have you noticed a decline since the oven stopped working.. Is it working again?

←

Daniel, was there just last Monday, July 24, and also a few weeks before that. Is the oven out? You could have fooled me -- everything was wonderful. Which I suppose means it's back in swing.

[chefboy24]

actually went last night

great time!!

packed at 9 pm. really nice hostesses. nice table. gorgeous restaurant, flowers, candles, windows, location....

very agressive but sweet but high strung sommelier.

he was trying to push a gravner tocai friulano/ribolla gialla, aged in clay crazy wine from northeast italy.....definitely did not figure out what i liked. went with a really great grand cru gewurtztraminer from mann, for $78. beautiful.

started with a maytag blue cheese salad of mixed greens....and some green bean and yellow wax beans, slightly carmelized, with some sauteed shrimp.

really great stuff

entree we shared the roasted black bass. totally head on, tail on, all the bones inside. delish. moist tender fabulous.

they offered us free dessert wines because i did some bizness-name-dropping. had a really great 1927 solera pedro ximinez sherry, cant' remember the producer.

good efficient genuine service, really nice cheery people.

totally would go back again and again.

[H. du Bois]

The black bass was what I wished I'd ordered instead of the rabbit.

Edited August 1, 2006 by H. du Bois (log)