Gilt

Gilt is located in the New York Palace Hotel in the former Le Cirque space. You enter the restaurant through the hotel lobby and walk into the main bar area, which has this incredibly cheesy neon lit textured backsplash that made me and my sister feel as if we were at Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun or some AC casino bar. The host leads you to the main dining room through a pair of pocket doors that remain only slightly ajar through service. The dining area is an intimate space of about 15 tables with chestnut wood panel and gilded era type style. Up a few steps on one end of the room is the kitchen, into which diners can peek through another set of partially ajar pocket doors. On the night I went, I only saw absolute calm and precision in the kitchen, which was no surprise given the quality of food with which we were presented.

The service the entire evening was impeccable, but the waiters were a bit more rigid and less inclined to smile and joke then I like. The only thing that detracted a bit from the food was the crowd, which was such a bizarre mix the night we were there that my sister and I couldn’t help but just sit back and observe. The pair that won the gold medal in weirdness was the couple next to us that sat down about 5 minutes after we did, took about 20 pictures of each plate of food, and then proceeded to let each course sit in front of them untouched for 40 minutes or so (they were still on their second course when we were leaving!). But enough about that, it’s time to get back to the food.

Gilt has two Michelin stars and in my opinion it deserves both. Executive Chef Justin Bogle’s menu is American with modern twists and a seasonal undertone. The menus offered are a three course prix fixe, a five course tasting menu, or a grand tasting menu of seven courses. My sister and I opted for the middle ground, five course tasting menu, which for each of us ended up being the perfect amount of food. The price points for the wine by the glass are a bit on the steep side in my opinion, but the nebbiolo I had was delightful despite the $20 price tag per glass.

The bread basket offered five choices that really made me stop and think what I should do. My sister and I had three of the five: butternut squash and herb roll, manchego twist roll, and apple and cheddar bread. All were the perfect carb texture and wonderfully flavorful, but the winner was the apple and cheddar, which was the ideal balance of sweet and salty.

I can’t express enough how beautiful the presentation of each and every course we had was. It began with our amuse bouche which was a square of finely chopped lobster ceviche, which was silky in texture and had a wonderful spice kick to it. My first course was tuna with wasabi avocado mousse. The plate contained three pieces of tuna with different sauces, sudachi (a citrus), black sesame, and shiso. The sesame piece was my favorite with a thin black sesame meringue on it that coupled with the tuna perfectly and was everything in one (sweet, crisp, salty, and earthy). My sister had the autumn salad which was baby root vegetables with carrot vinaigrette. This was okay, but nothing extraordinary. All of the remaining courses were the same for us but they had substituted the salad for the tuna for my sister.

The second course is probably my favorite of the night and it should come as no surprise that it contained a pork product. The dish “bacon and eggs” was just extraordinary with cavier, egg custard, bacon confit with this thin round of crisp brioche and fried cippolini. The bacon confit was basically bacon jam, a salty, sweet condiment that’s heavenly, the egg was airy and light, and the cavier was the salty goodness that it needed to be. All the flavors and textures were perfectly balanced and each bite just tasted better than the one before it. I looked up and saw the sadness on my sister’s face when she was done and I was certain she was seeing the same emotion reflected on my face.

Up next was red snapper with puffed sorghum (sort of like mini popcorn), corn custard, and abalone fish sauce. The sauce on this dish was tad too fishy tasting for me, however, my sister really liked it. Nevertheless the silky, sweet corn custard made the course worth it for me because it was amazing. Our final savory course was dry-aged strip with bone marrow mousse, mushrooms, and beef jus. This was a delicious and absolutely beautiful piece of meat that was very tender. The beef jus was so rich and meaty that I wished there was more of it.

After our main course, our waiter brought us a pre-dessert of yuzu mousse with poached pear. I love a pre-dessert and this only made me love them even more. Our dessert was rocky road, which was squares of chocolate and nuts with marshmallows, and they brought us an extra dessert, ricotta cheesecake with berries. Both desserts were very good, but neither were anything I would crave. Although in fair disclosure, I was a bit obsessed with the marshmallows on the rocky road dessert, as they were coated in graham cracker crumbs in a way that made me want to hold them over the candle on our table. The petit fours were a bit underwhelming, a peanut butter and jelly square, caramel chocolate, fruit gelee, and a mini tart. None of these were standouts for my sister or me.

As a little aside, I’m conflicted with tasting menus that don’t offer options. If you are dining with someone you are both getting all the same thing and I prefer to try the most I can of what a restaurant has to offer. My sister argued that it was nice not to have to share your dishes and perhaps this is a partial motivation for this style. I suppose in retrospect it was rather nice that I didn’t have to share any of my food at Gilt because I was enjoying it so much!

Le Bernardin - Chef "Ripert" the Menu

This was another one that I was really looking forward to and I was so upset that it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The standout of the night was the wine. Every glass was an absolute delight. We started the evening with a cocktail in the lounge before we went to our table. The cocktails were artful and delicious, and the little trio of bar snacks (popcorn, cheese twists, and candied nuts) were downright addictive. Once we sat down for dinner, we had the sommelier pair each of our courses with wine. All of the glasses we each had were amazing and paired with the food expertly. It was certainly one of those cases in which it was the right move to leave it up to the in-house expert.

The overall feel of the restaurant is a bit on the stuffy side. You walk into the bar/lounge area and the dining room is just on the other side of the hostess stand. The dining room is elegant without being overly grand. But there is still a staid feel to it that doesn’t feel all that comfortable.

The menu choice is between a four course menu, a 7 course tasting menu, or a chef’s tasting menu of 8 courses. We had the four course menu, which allows you choose two appetizers from the almost raw and barely cooked sections, one from the lightly cooked, and then a dessert. The amuse bouche the evening we dined at Le Bernardin was a trio: a little dome of tuna tartare with soy, sea urchin with a soy citrus sauce, and a cup of lobster bisque. The lobster bisque was amazingly delicious and just an absolute standout in this trio. All three of us savored every drop of the rich tomato and lobster flavors. The bread basket was a choice of olive rosemary stick, raisin bread, parker house roll, or sourdough roll. These turned out to all be superb choices, with beautiful texture and flavor.

The appetizers continued what had started as a fabulous dinner. For appetizers, my friends both had the yellowfin tuna, which was thin layers of tuna with foie gras atop a toasted baguette with chives and olive oil. The plating of this was a bit strange and sort of lacked the beauty I would expect. The tuna was wonderfully fresh and the flavors simple and delicious but nothing mind altering. I had the Fluke "Sashimi" with avocado topped with jalapeño-lime broth. The clear winner was the fluke, which melted in your mouth, and the sauce was an awesome tart and hot combination. I loved it and was very happy with my choice.

For our next course, two of us opted to have the butter poached lobster tail with spiced celeriac, earl grey-citrus sauce. The lobster was splendid, but the best part was the heavenly citrus tea sauce, of which I was literally spooning up every last drop. Our other friend had the calamari with fermented black bean sauce, which was a really nice combination of flavors but nowhere near the caliber of the lobster. Sadly, the dishes from these two courses all stood out much more as hits than our entrees did.

For the last savory course, things just didn’t go as well as any of us expected. Each of the entrees was only okay. I had the best of the main courses, which was roasted monkfish with brussels sprouts and pata negra emulsion with a cup of mushroom custard to spoon on top. First off, to say it came with brussels sprouts is a mammoth overstatement since there were only two little leaves on the plate. The fish was cooked to perfection and very flavorful but the flavor was a bit cliqued…nothing earthshattering or worthy of a return trip and frankly spooning the mushroom custard on top was strange despite it adding flavor. One of my friends had the lobster with caramelized endive-pear terrine with whiskey peppercorn sauce. The lobster was not as good as the butter poached lobster appetizer and again was just a bit one dimensional in taste. Our third companion had steamed halibut with a beet sauce and horseradish crème fraiche. This just was so bland and the fish texture just felt over-cooked. Truthfully, there was no excuse for this dish even being on the menu.

For dessert, one friend had the panna cotta with caramelized fig puree and pear quince syrup, which was only okay. My other friend had the salted peanut caramel with milk chocolate and malted milk crunch, which was better but not amazing. I had the winning dessert, banana praline pate feuilletee with caramelized banana and hazelnut praline cream. This was a perfect example of how banana and praline should be combined and lifted my spirits after our disappointing entrees.

The petit fours before we left were a passion fruit macaroon, a caramel chocolate and a little butter cake. The butter cake was really moist and buttery but the other two petit fours were only okay.

Overall, the meal felt a little bit old school, and I suppose that’s exactly what a lot of people go to Le Bernardin and hope to find. The flavors just all felt a little bit been there done that and as if the chef hasn’t thought about updating the flavors or trying to make them better. All three of us agreed that we’d go back for the wine before we returned for the food.

Oceana

From the outside of Oceana and its name, I wouldn’t guess that it was a Michelin star restaurant. Rather, I’d think it a businessman or tourist trap that would put out clichéd and perhaps a bit overpriced seafood. So, I was pleasantly surprised when on my visit the other night it did neither.

I was on my way to a show and knew Oceana was down the block. So, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to stop in and cross a Michelin star that I wasn’t expecting much from off the list. I was happy to find that I should’ve expected much more. There is no doubt that I want like to return and sit down in the dining room for a full meal rather than just grabbing a quick bite at the bar like I did on this trip.

The space is bright and gorgeous with two levels of bar, one when you walk in and one to the right and down a few steps. This second bar is just in front of the dining room. Both bars are clean, white marble with dark wood and great places to have a drink, some appetizers, or a full meal. The open kitchen is in the back of the restaurant and visible from the bars and the dining room.

Oceana has a good wine and beer list, including Kelso a brewery I’m fond of. The chef of Oceana is Ben Pollinger, and, as would be expected, the menu focuses on seafood. As I said, my friend and I opted to have a quick meal at the bar before our show. I was very happy to find that despite the fact that we were dining at the bar they still brought us amuse bouches, bread, and petit fours. The amuse bouche was chestnut mushroom broth with lobster. It was a really nice earthy broth with a slight hint of seafood and a small little crunch of chestnut. The bread was two mini baguettes and one roll served cold with butter and salt.

For an appetizer, we had oysters Rockefeller that were extremely good. I liked these because they had a nice crunchy, buttery topping that did not overwhelm the flavor of the extremely fresh oysters which is too often the case with this dish.

For one of our main courses we had the Taro wrapped Pompano with baby bok choy, long beans, peanuts and coconut cilantro curry. This was so delicious. The fish was nice and flaky and the taro made a really nice crust on it. The sauce was also remarkably tasty and I was dipping my bread in it every opportunity I had. The other main course we had was the shrimp and grits. The shrimp were exceptionally good. I especially enjoyed the sauce on the shrimp and paid a fair amount of attention to the grit cake as well. My one complaint is that the shrimp had its head on and I would prefer if it hadn’t, because I just don’t like my food looking back at me.

I had the opportunity to walk past the kitchen on my way to the ladies room. I was happy to get a closer look into the open kitchen, which was immaculate and huge.

At the end of our meal, they brought over two mini pops for each of us, one was a chocolate pop and the other was a sweet potato pop with chocolate. These were awesome and a nice sendoff as we ran out the door to our show.

Frankly, as we left I realized that I wanted to rewind and have a proper meal that was less rushed in the dining room. The food at Oceana was incredibly flavorful and definitely worthy of a return trip.