Cafe Boulud

This slightly more casual restaurant in Daniel Boulud’s empire is located on the Upper East Side in the Surrey Hotel.  You enter the restaurant to a relatively square room of all earth tones and no bar area.  There is a separate bar by Boulud, Bar Pleiades, located across the hotel lobby.   Maybe it’s the upper east sider in me, but I thought the space was comfortable and inviting with leather banquettes and large mirrors lining most walls.  But, after one of my friends said she felt like she was in the conference room/event space of a hotel rather than in a Michelin star restaurant, I realized that I couldn’t help but agree.  We decided this was fitting, as it was in fact located in a hotel.  The other thing that can’t go without notice is that the clientele is predominantly an older set…We were probably the youngest people dining there by a generation or so, but despite this, it didn’t feel uncomfortable or stuffy. 

I was very pleased with my experience at Café Boulud and would certainly go back for a fancy meal out.   Having said that, it wasn’t my favorite of the Michelin Stars I’ve been to, as not every dish was a wow.  It’s just that there are certain things beyond food that elevate a restaurant above the rest, and Café Boulud gained serious points by doing some of these things as well as delivering a few wow bites.

The menu is categorized into what Boulud views as his four primary culinary inspirations (classic French, seasonal, Farmer’s market, and world cuisines), with multiple options for each course under each category.  The menu is either a la carte or a 7-course tasting menu.  We decided to order a la carte.  I found 3 courses to be the perfect amount of food, but I have heard from other friends who have dined here that they didn’t feel as if they had enough food.   The wine list at Café Boulud includes a wide array of bottles at a nice range of price points.  We selected a reasonable bottle of Gruner Veltliner, which was very good and paired well with our dishes.

As soon as we ordered, our attentive servers arrived with the amuse bouche, a mini sweet pea risotto ball that had hints of meyer lemon zest throughout.  I loved this salty, crunchy, sweet rice ball, but my friends thought the salt level was a bit overwhelming.  The bread basket arrived with a variety of choices including cranberry walnut, olive, and country.  The breads were above average, but I expected them to be more extraordinary, as I had been thoroughly blown away by the bread basket at Daniel.

The three of us decided upon splitting 2 appetizers, but when the appetizer course arrived, they brought an extra dish.  Obviously, this is one of those classy touches I was speaking of earlier.  The two appetizers we ordered were the Hamachi Crudo with edamame, jicama, and pickled ramp and the artichoke tortellini with shaved parmesan and crispy artichokes in a white wine broth.  The free appetizer that arrived was chilled carrot veloute with a carrot fritter and cilantro foam.   The three of us agreed that the Hamachi was our favorite followed by the artichoke.   The Hamachi was beautifully fresh and the pureed edamame, buttery fish, and crunch of the jicama was a perfect pairing of texture and flavor.  Not to mention that the pickled ramp vinaigrette added the perfect mild zing.  The artichoke tortellini was good, but needed more artichoke flavor to it.  It was definitely missing something.  The carrot veloute was wonderfully silky, but I on principal don’t love cold soup and the overall flavor was a bit too bland.  Although, I suppose the thought is to let the carrots speak for themselves I still believe it needed something.  One of my friends described the veloute perfectly when she said she felt like she was eating baby food.

For my main course I had the Vermont poulet with peas in white wine with this really wonderful herb soufflé-like round and velvety chicken jus.  The chicken was one of the tenderest and moist chicken preparations I’ve had and the jus was the perfect richness.  Really delicious and something I’d order again.

Dawn had a wonderfully spicy baked rice (sort of paella like) with sea scallops, octopus, and mussels.  The rice was baked in a pan, which resulted in a variety of textures throughout the rice that added a lot to the dish.  According to Dawn, all the seafood in the dish was cooked beautifully and the scallop I had was no exception.  Jen had the Halibut, which was very simply prepared and a perfectly cooked piece of fish that would satisfy me in how reliably good it is, but would never wow me.

For dessert, we again only ordered two to split but three arrived, which was even more astonishing because that means they brought us two free dishes.  And then to top it all off, I had decided not to order port with dessert because the only port they offered was $30 a glass and that’s just outrageous.  When the after dinner drinks arrived, the waiter had poured me a glass of another aperitif on him.  The desserts we ordered were the salted caramel with milk chocolate brownie and caramelized milk sorbet and black forest cake with dark chocolate mousse, cherries, and nougat ice cream.  The additional dessert they brought was the strawberry vacherin with meringue and macerated strawberries.  I have to say the desserts were all incredibly good, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be the strawberry one.  As they do at Daniel, they brought warm lemon madelienes in addition to the dessert which were amazing.

I had a great experience at Café Boulud and thought the food was delicious and well conceived.  I can see how it earned a Michelin star with its well prepared food and elevated yet comfortable service. 

Del Posto

Located in the far western reaches of Chelsea, Del Posto is a huge, beautiful restaurant with a nice, long bar area. Susan and I were seated at a table in the corner of the front bar area instead of one of the banquets in the main restaurant, which we both found a bit odd given that there were plenty of empty tables. We tried not to take it too personally.

Diners at Del Posto chose either a 5 course menu for $115 or a 7 course for $145. Given that it was the middle of the summer and every menu item sounded substantial, we selected the 5 course menu which proved to be more than enough food. Susan and I decided red wine would go best with most of the items on the menu, and as such, selected a lovely bottle of Barrolo. I will say that the Del Posto wine list is very intimidating and very expensive with only a handful of options in what I would call a reasonable range (ie under $100 a bottle). In fairness to the sommelie, he guided us to a nice bottle of wine without any snobbery once we told him our tastes and our price point.

The service at Del Posto was definitely top notch. The waiters weren’t the best at interacting with us, but the plates arrived with great fanfare and our glasses were filled without notice. However, I personally prefer a restaurant where the waiters are taught to have a bit more of a personality and be more helpful in dish selection, etc. The other thing I found odd was that there was a lack of consistency in who seemed to be our primary waiter throughout the night. Generally, the food was all good, but there were no absolute wows in the meal and the service did nothing to eclipse this. Frankly, I would question how this earned a Michelin Star other than having a celebrity chef backer.

The amuse bouche was a three part series with a consommé, a fried rice ball, and a chickpea puree between two toast points. The consommé was unremarkable. But, I really liked the rice ball and the chickpea puree sandwich. The bread basket arrived with two spread selections, a whipped lardo with rosemary and regular butter. The bread selections included a wonderful airy foccacia, an olive roll, and a French style roll. All were delightful. Honestly, I wanted to love the lardo, but I found it to be a bit bland. I LOVED the foccacia and had to restrain myself from taking more.

For appetizers we had the Lobster Fra Diavolo with garlic bread panna cotta and the charred octopus with chickpeas and celery that was drizzled with 25 year balsamic vinegar. I preferred the octopus to the lobster dish, but was not amazed by either. In fact, the most delightful part of the dish was the balsamic vinegar that they drizzled a bit too frugally for my liking!

For our pasta course, we ordered the Risotto with the 25 year balsamic and the veal agnolotti with sweet pea, espresso, and Grana Padano cheese. The risotto was a very good, plain preparation that was highlighted perfectly by the balsamic. The veal agnolotti was good but nothing extraordinary. I will forever compare all veal agnolotti dishes to the one that I had at Ai Fiori, which was quite possibly the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life. The agnolotti at Del Posto didn’t even come close. At this point in our meal, we were extremely full and 100% realized that Del Posto is far better suited for a nice meal out in the winter, rather than the summer. The menu itself doesn’t even seem to reflect any change in the season, being composed almost entirely of heavier dishes with no apparent use of seasonal ingredients. I always find a restaurant not adapting to the season to be a bit disappointing.

For our main courses we had the burnt beef with potato torta and spicy tongue stew and the roast chicken with porcini and beans. The burnt beef was delicious and the most interesting dish we had all night. I really liked the crispy ends and the rich sauce. The chicken was a nicely prepared roast chicken that was good but again not extraordinary.

For dessert, they brought over a little basket of cookies and biscotti which were all average. I’m of the opinion if you’re going to bring free food it should be good! Don’t just bring extras for the sake of giving extras! We ordered the Tartufo with dark chocolate coffee and candied lemon peel the chocolate ricotta tortino. Both of these were very good but we were so full we could barely have more than a bite of each!

Overall, there was nothing wrong with dinner at Del Posto. But in my view, it did not earn the price charged or the Michelin star.

Rouge Tomate

Tucked on 60th street just east of the park, this lovely, large space wowed me at first sight and didn’t stop throughout the whole meal. Rouge Tomate has a sizable bar area with the dining area in the back. There are two distinct sections to the dining room. The front portion has closer tables and seems intended for smaller groups while the rear, which is across glass bridges, has larger tables and booths.

Executive chef, Jeremy Bearman, serves Modern American cuisine using seasonally inspired and locally sourced ingredients with an eye towards capturing the natural flavor of the ingredients. The wine list claims to be designed with a similar goal in mind, and I found that it offered a wide range of nice bottles at good price points. The cocktail and beer list is also quite impressive in a way that makes me want to go back to Rouge Tomate and sit at the bar for a light bite and cocktail. My friend Dawn and I opted to have a wonderful Austrian Gruner Veltliner that went incredibly well with our meal and was just a really nice, crisp white wine at a very nice price.

The menu offers a seasonal tasting menu and an a la carte menu. Dawn and I decided to order a la carte. The a la carte menu is divided a bit differently than a typical menu. There are a series of seasonal toasts, a fish & shellfish section of small appetizer sized seafood dishes, a “for the table” selection of dishes, vegetable plates that are mostly salads, a pasta & grains section, and a seafood, poultry, & meat entrée section. We decided to order something from each section of the menu except the vegetable section and split them all. It turned out to be the perfect plan!

The amuse bouche of the evening was an absolutely divine mini cup of beet soup. It was a truly fabulous little taste of velvety-rich soup. The bread basket offered three choices and appeared with a bowl of olive oil and cauliflower spread. The bread itself was okay and the cauliflower spread was a bit weird in that I didn’t love the flavor of cauliflower in a pureed texture.

We began our meal with a plate of three seasonal toasts: Celery Root Remoulade with cornichon, Quail Egg, & Tarragon; Wild mushroom with ricotta, leek, thyme, and lemon zest; & Spaghetti Squash with crab, apple, and jalapeno. We both found the celery root to be the standout in this group. It tasted like the best egg salad ever and the tarragon really added a nice flavor note. The wild mushroom was also quite nice, but there was a bit too much lemon zest for us. Our least favorite was the spaghetti squash, because the crab flavor overpowered all the other ingredients and just left the toast rather flat (pardon the pun).

These toasts were a very good start to a meal, but the next course had me almost completely forgetting the lovely little toasts. The Hawaiin Walu Crudo with Avocado, Jicama, Radish, and Yuzu was astonishingly delicious. The Walu was melt in your mouth tender and the yuzu sauce with the textures of avocado, radish, and jicama was perfect. This is one of those dishes that make you want to return to a restaurant.

From the “for the table” section of the menu we choose the sautéed Montauk calamari with savoy cabbage, butternut squash, cashews, coconut, and lime. Just when I thought we wouldn’t have a dish better than the Walu Crudo, this dish proved me wrong. Dawn and I agreed that neither of us could remember ever having calamari that was as texturely perfect as this was. The coconut lime sauce was just heaven on the already perfect calamari. Yet another reason to return to Rouge Tomate.

For our entrees, we decided we would do one pasta and one meat dish. This turned out to be ideal. The pasta dish we choose was the cow’s milk ricotta gnuddi with celery root, black truffle, salsify, fines herbs and parmesan. The gnudi were excellent little pillows of dough and the dish as a whole was a really simple feeling, well-executed pasta plate. Our other main dish was the rabbit two ways with rabbit bacon and rabbit fleischnacke (minced rabbit meat wrapped in a fresh noodle) served with toyko turnips, savoy cabbage, maple, and mustard jus. I loved the rabbit bacon on this and the rest of the plate was very good. If the competition the rest of the night hadn’t been so tough, the dish would have been far higher on my list of favorites!

For dessert, we each had an after dinner drink and then we split the Bittersweet Chocolate Sphere with banana, frangipane, and candied almonds. A large cube was brought to our table and then warm chocolate was poured over it and the sphere melted away to reveal the banana and frangipane. This dessert was prettier than it was tasty. I found the almond flavor a bit too strong and felt the dessert was only okay.

Rouge Tomate is definitely worthy of a Michelin Star. The food is incredibly delicious and thoughtful and an evening there feels special. I can’t wait to go back.

Jewel Bako - Not a Jewel I want

Located on the Lower East Side and open since 2001, Jewel Bako (literally “Jewel Box”) is a relatively small space with a u-shaped sushi bar and a separate area with regular tables. The entrance is discrete and unassuming and the space is well designed with light wood walls and wooden slats that curve up to the ceiling. Each and every plate of food presented was equally as beautiful as the space. Unfortunately, the flavor of the food didn’t live up to its looks.

Jewel Bako was one of the Michelin list spots for which I had high expectations. Since I first heard of this place sometime in 2002, I really wanted to go there. As I’m sure you all know, there is nothing more disappointing then looking forward to dining at a restaurant for a long time and then being let down when you finally get a chance to go there. In this case, part of me wonders if Jewel Bako is past its heyday. I’ve heard from people I trust undoubtedly with restaurant opinions that they love this place but haven’t been in a while. Or perhaps Susan is right that no other sushi restaurant will ever compare with Masa. Regardless of the reason, Jewel Bako served just okay food the night I was there. And, in a city that has an ever increasing number of sushi spots both high and low end, a sushi restaurant that earns a coveted spot on the Michelin list should be something extra-special.

Susan and I ordered the chef’s omakase, which I believe is the correct choice at well-respected sushi restaurants because it allows one to relax and not worry about picking a medley of regular dishes as well as sushi and sashimi. The most remarkable part of our meal was what we ordered to drink. When I perused the beer list, I noticed it included a sweet potato fermented beer. We both ordered this beer and found that it was amazing and went incredibly well with every course.

The chef’s omakase at Jewel Bako includes a series of small plates, a sushi course, a sashimi course, a main course, and dessert. In other words, it is more than enough food. Overall, the plate presentations were beautiful, but the flavors were nothing that would inspire me to return there anytime soon.

The amuse bouche the evening we were there was a piece of tuna atop a mini ball of fried rice. This was absolutely fabulous. I loved the texture of the fried rice ball combined with the buttery piece of tuna. It was a very impressive start to the meal and one that I thought promised more than what was ultimately delivered. The next item brought to the table was a wonderful bowl of perfectly cooked and salted edamame.

The first course was a microgreen salad with seared salmon skin. I didn’t love this, as I thought the salmon skin overwhelmed the greens with too fishy a flavor. The next plate was a trio of small bites: monkfish liver with a soy dipping sauce, an oyster, and yellowtail tartare with spicy mayo in a tortilla shell round. None of these were wows. The monkfish liver has a bit too much of a foie gras flavor and texture for me, so I didn’t care for it at all. The oyster was average with nothing special to embellish the flavor and no sense of insane freshness that let it speak for itself. The yellowtail tartare was delicious, but I’m a bit suspect that I loved it mostly for the spicy mayo.

The next course was a gorgeous array of sashimi that included mackerel, shrimp, blue tuna, salmon, and a few other fish. These were all very good pieces of sashimi but nothing that blew me out of the water. This was followed by a platter of sushi of about 8 pieces that included tuna, salmon, shrimp, scallop, toro, shiso leaf sushi, mackerel, and jack fish. Most of these pieces of sushi were delightful, but the toro had a bit of a funky taste to it that neither Sue nor I was happy with at all. Honestly, I found this funkiness rather unforgiveable.

For the main course, there are two choices, salmon with miso or scorpion fish. We had one of each and split them. Both entrees were passable, but not extraordinary. In fact, the miso flavor on the salmon was a bit weak, and the scorpion fish was just a plain piece of well cooked fish. Just rather forgettable dishes.

The dessert at least ended the meal on a very positive note. Green tea ice cream sandwiches with chocolate wafer cookies. A very delicious dessert.

For me, Jewel Bako was okay but certainly not worthy of a Michelin star.

Shalezeh - Star Loss

After I set out to conquer the Michelin List, I was on the fence about what to do when the new 2012 list was released when I was halfway through finishing the mission. After much deliberation, I decided that the best course of action would be to complete all the places on the 2011 list, and when finished with those, go to the new restaurants on the 2012 list. Shalezeh was the only one that was completely removed from the list in 2012. Shalezeh’s removal from the list and the fact that it has always seemed to me to be just a random restaurant in my neighborhood, had me showing up there for dinner with low expectations. Overall, I was content with my experience there…the food was good and the service was fine. However, I totally agree with the removal of Shalezeh from the list, as there was nothing in my experience dining there that would merit a Michelin star.

Shalezeh is a Persian restaurant on the Upper East thats owned by a former captain of Café Boulud. I went to Shalezeh with my sister on a random weeknight. We were seated immediately without any reservations. The service was fine, but there was nothing that made it special or remarkable. The wine and cocktail lists similarly get the job done with nothing above and beyond.

After we ordered, a plate of warm pita with hummus arrived. Such an exciting thing to get for free! Sadly, when I dipped some pita in and took a bite, I was disappointed to find that the pita was stale and the hummus flavorless.

For an appetizer, we had the baba, which is baked eggplant puree with goat cheese, walnut, and onion. There was a lovely mint flavor to this warm eggplant appetizer and I really loved it. It was a really wonderful recovery from the mediocre hummus and pita plate.

I had done a lot of research on what one should order here. Everywhere I read, it said that the thing to have was the koofteh tabrizi. The koofteh is a huge Persian meatball that is stuffed with prunes, potato, and fava beans covered in a curried tomato sauce with peas. This was fabulous. The meat itself wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but the sauce was outrageously good. I wish I had had something more worthy to dip in this sauce. We figured we would also get a chicken kebab to try something standard. We ordered the ground chicken kebab which was served with a choice of rice. This was also good but nothing compared to the meatball.

I will say that the food was served very quickly, in a non-leisurely you are just there to have a fast meal way. Overall, I thought that it was a perfectly fine meal at a good neighborhood spot that since I live near I’d maybe go to again. But again, I think it is right that it lost its Michelin star this year.

Corton

Corton, which has been opened since late 2008, is located in Tribeca and is co-owned by Chef Paul Liebrandt and restauranter Drew Nieporent. Chef Liebrandt is known for preparing classic French cuisine using new, envelope-pushing techniques. He is one of those chefs that fancies himself an artist with presentation being just as important as taste. Last summer, HBO aired a documentary “A Matter of Taste” that chronicles Chef Liebrandt’s career in NYC, his desire for perfection, his artistry, and his insistence on trying to create new and interesting presentations of food.

The restaurant is named after the largest area of Grand Cru in Burgundy. It has a simple décor of white monotone walls with shadowed flowers painted upon them that give an illusion of texture. The simplicity of the décor lends a certain elegance and to me must be an intentional effort to ensure that the true art, the food, can shine without distraction. The kitchen is to the right of the dining room and there is a thin line of windows that provide a limited view of the tops of the chef’s heads working away.

Diners have a choice of either a five course seasonal menu or an eight course chef’s tasting menu. My friend and I opted for the five course menu, which is set except that it offers a choice between duck and beef for the main course. I’m glad we choose this menu. It was the perfect amount of food for both of us and the couple that ordered the 8 course menu next to us said that they saw what we had and it was more food than they had and they were still hungry when finished.

For beverages, we each started with a cocktail and then for dinner we had the sommelier pair wines with each course, which was done with as much artistry as the food. The cocktails were also very good. I had the Colonista which was Dark Rum, Pimms, and Pineapple and my friend had the Spencer which was Vodka, Elderflower liquor and Grapefruit. I truly can’t begin to explain how well each wine paired with our different courses. It was one of those instances in which both the food and wine highlighted the best features of one another.

Our first bites from the kitchen were a trio of one bite items. A house-made cracker stuffed with a mole sauce and placed on a tiny pedestal on the center of our plate. The mole was the perfect heat and totally deserving of the pedestal upon which it was placed. Just in front of our plate were pickled quail eggs and to the left of that in a bowl of uncooked black rice was a potato croquette with a molten center and turmeric crackers. The pickling of the quail egg was mild and the texture of the yolk was akin to a soft-boiled egg. Very good. On the third bite, I loved the turmeric cracker, but I could’ve done without the potato because it oozed a bit too much molten-ness when I bit into it.

The bread basket, which included a choice of potato focaccia, olive, country white, French bread, and thin slices of raisin bread, was accompanied by a seaweed butter and a regular butter. I wasn’t wowed by any of the bread. The next dish, the kitchen amuse bouche, was an egg shell with no top that was filled with sunchoke custard. This was paired with our first wine, a lovely glass of champagne. There was nothing amazing about the custard and it felt a bit one dimensional, but thankfully it was the only true disappointment of the night.

The first course arrived and we got our first glimpse into how multi-layered each course would be. For every course, there were a series of plates that were presented. The first course included a plate with a tiny round of foie gras wrapped in beet paper atop a poblano pepper puree and a tiny piece of pistachio crusted salsify. On our right, our waiter placed a bowl with potato ice cream upon which he ceremoniously poured a chestnut soup with kaffir lime. Now I’m not a huge foie gras fan, but this was amazing. The richness of the foie gras combined with the soup and beet was one of the most interesting and perfectly flavor-layered dishes I’ve ever had. And on top of that, the sommelier had paired it with an Alsatian Reisling. It all just kind of rocked my world.

Our next glass of wine arrived and was an incredibly buttery white that I didn’t love on its own. But then our fish course arrived and the wine was reinvented for me. The fish course was black bass with mussels, black garlic gnocchi, and a black garlic sauce that had a flavor that hinted at worchestire sauce. On the plate to the right of us was gnudi atop a round of kumquat in a bowl of clam broth. The dish was fabulous. I loved the rich clam broth but would’ve preferred it without the kumquat.

The main course was the only one in which we had a choice. Since there were only two options, we decided we’d have one of each and split them evenly. The beef dish was a blackened wagyu beef with black truffle, burnt eggplant, short rib, and beef jus. On a separate plate was a potato filled with a creamy liquid. The potato was eh and the only thing we didn’t finish from all of the courses. The other option was duck with pork belly, salsify, country pate, a duck confit puff, and duck jus. On the side was one of the most amazing things we had the entire night and for lack of a better description was essentially duck chili topped with pumpkin puree. It was out of this world. Exceptional is the only way to truly describe it. Both the beef and duck were extremely good. The wagyu was so tender and full of fatty richness and the burnt eggplant beef jus gave the dish an almost teriyaki sauce hint that made so much sense with the beef but didn’t overwhelm the flavor. The duck plate had so much going for it as well. There were wonderful bits of pork belly that paired nicely with the duck and gave the dish a perfect salt feature. And then the country pate! I was so sad that it was such a small piece on the plate because it was sensational. The one item I wish wasn’t on the duck plate was this smear of meyer lemon that just didn’t go with anything. I quickly removed it from the plate and pretended like it never appeared as part of the dish. These dishes were both paired with fabulous reds that once again highlighted all the right flavors in the dish. Did I mention the duck chili with pumpkin?!

There were two dessert courses. The first was a passion fruit pudding with tapioca pearls, beet sticks, berry sorbet, and passion fruit marshmallows. A really fabulous dessert that had the ideal balance of passion fruit flavor and felt like a nice, light and refreshing course. The second dessert was an equally impressive apple vol au vent with vanilla bean pastry cream, coffee cream, raisins, and oat crumble bits. I would have to say that this was the dessert I preferred if for no other reason than it had oat crumble on it.

The petit fours included two different flavors of French Macaroons (olive with hazelnut and caramel), four different flavors of chocolate truffles (salted caramel, chocolate, lemon rosemary, and one I couldn’t quite figure), and 4 hand rolled pumpkin truffles. Our waiter told us to save the pumpkin ones for last because they’re his favorite and sure to be ours. The olive and hazelnut macaroons were good but neither flavor of macaroon won my heart. The salted caramel truffle was my favorite of the four. But, the waiter was spot-on with his advice. I could’ve done without all the other items for more of the pumpkin truffles. They were amazing.

Our little send-away cookies were a disappointment the next morning, but after the amazing meal the night before I couldn’t complain.

Corton is certainly worthy of two Michelin stars and definitely a restaurant to return to. A big part of the allure to me is that next time it’ll be a completely different menu that’s created with equal thought, care, and passion.

Masa

There aren’t many people you can tell that you spent $750 per person on one dinner out that would understand. I mean everyone’s first question is was it worth it. For me, there are two ways to answer this question. Without a doubt the most obvious answer is no. It’s virtually impossible for one meal to be worth $750 per person because no one can eat enough comfortably for it to be “worth” that much. But, the answer I save for those that would get it is absolutely it was worth it to me. I loved Masa from the second I walked in the door and I still think of how much I enjoy that night now and I am positive I will for many years. See, dinner at Masa isn’t just dinner. It’s a dinner that includes a show by your own personal chef. There was certainly a bit of awkwardness in the waitress service. It was that service that you always feel the presence of, which is likely attributable to the fact that the night we were there the restaurant was relatively empty. I mean the seemingly huge space only has 26 seats.

The restaurant is located in the Time Warner Center and the entrance is down a hallway through a curtain. The door is a gorgeous gnarled natural plank of tree that doesn’t fully fill the door frame. When you enter, the sushi bar is ahead on the right and there are some tables in small rooms off the main room. But don’t even bother with the tables. If you’re going to shell out the money for Masa, you HAVE to sit at the sushi bar. The sushi bar is a wide piece of hinoki wood from japan that apparently cost $60,000. It’s a gorgeous light brown wood that was chosen because it is highly rot resistant.

The menu is omakase and Chef Masa Takayama aims to serve seasonal ingredients. In addition to the menu offered the night we were there, they offered an additional dish for an extra supplement. We sat at one end of the sushi bar, behind which work three sushi chefs preparing the night’s dishes. The night we were there Chef Masa was preparing in center stage and serving the group next to us.

We ordered a bottle of Masa’s own private label sake, which was so smooth and amazing. It complemented each and every one of our dishes and I will likely compare all future sakes I drink to it. I loved the way they served the sake as well. The sake is decanted into a hand crafted carafe that is presented in a large bowl of ice then and poured into bamboo cups that were all designed by Masa, who is apparently an avid potter. I suppose here is where I say I loved Chef Masa. He came over after our meal and shook both of our hands and said he hoped we enjoyed everything. Just watching him behind the sushi bar was such a joy.

I will never get tired of the warm hand towels that you receive at the start of your meal at a Japanese restaurant. After our hand towels, our first dish arrived. It was a refreshing Japanese crab salad in a light citrus dressing. A really nice welcome to the meal. The next plate was toro tartare with caviar and these delicious toast points that they grilled to order on the small grill behind the left side of the sushi bar. The toro tartare tasted so fresh like it was just this second brought in and prepared and I always love the briny addition of caviar to a plate.

In my research prior to dining at Masa, I had read that many nights Chef Masa serves pufferfish, aka Fugu. Fugu contains poisons in its organs and is deadly if cleaned improperly. The regulations around serving blowfish are very strict, as you can imagine. There is only one source in Japan that US regulators allow restaurants here to use and the factory there has been preparing blowfish for years. Being at Masa, I didn’t feel any hesitation in having it. Since so many people put their lives on the line to consume fugu in other parts of the world, I was expecting it to be the most buttery, melt in your mouth delicious sashimi I’ve ever had. It wasn’t. The texture wasn’t anywhere close to what I anticipated. It was actually far chewier in texture than your average sushi. The first dish of blowfish we had was fugu sashimi salad with a spicy vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was delicious and the fugu grew on me after the second bite. But what sold me on fugu being worth it was the next dish, a fried fugu “wing”. This was perfectly battered and fried and the meat so tender. Susan and I both loved it and decided we wanted these instead of all our future chicken wings.

The fifth course was grilled langoustine with the head on. They kindly had split the shells so the meat was easy to get at. The flavor of the langoustine was wonderful and the meat incredibly tender. This was a great, simple dish.

At this point, one of the waitresses came over and explained that there was a supplemental dish of wagyu beef, seaweed salt, and shaved white truffles for an additional $150. We figured go big or go home, so we ordered just one to split. The chef put the wagyu on a searing hot grill for just a second and then served it with the salt and a hefty hand of freshly shaved white truffles. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The beef was just crazy tender and rich and the white truffles gave it an even meatier flavor.

The next dish was yellowfin tuna sashimi with a hot broth and a dipping sauce. The chef explained that you dip it in the hot broth for just a few seconds to lightly cook it and then in the soy sauce to flavor it. After the tuna was done, the waitresses took the broth away, strained it into a new bowl, and served the remaining broth to us. This was the perfect course to transition into the sushi portion of the meal.

Our waitresses brought another warm cloth and then for our sushi course ginger, soy sauce, a black platter, and a dipping bowl for our fingers. Our own personal sushi chef then began to prepare and serve us individual pieces of sushi. The sushi course lasted about an hour and included Bluefin tuna, white tuna, Japanese butter fish, grilled scallop, two temaki (cones) one of uni and the other toro, two vegetable rolls one of mushroom and the other lotus leaf with ume shiso (plum paste and shiso leaf), an entire roll of shaved white truffle, two eel rolls the better of which was grilled with miso, grilled bluefin collar that was amazing, clam, shrimp, two different squid rolls the better of which was with yuzu, fluke with daikon radish, and mackerel. Besides the uni, because I’m just not an uni fan, every piece of sushi was outrageously delicious. Definitely some of the best sushi either Sue or I have ever had. I love omakase. Having all your sushi just handed to you by your own personal chef is definitely something that plays a part in my version of heaven. We overheard the person next to us asking the chef the amount of time between the fish being caught and it being served. Chef replied about 14 hours. From the freshness in each bite, I’ve no doubt that’s true.

For dessert, they served a persimmon that I certainly could have done without.

Overall, the evening was one of those that just felt special and to me that made it worth it. So much so that I think Sue and I may go again next year!

Saul

Saul is located in Boerum Hill Brooklyn along a quaintly hip, restaurant packed stretch of Smith St. The restaurant has a small bar in the back of the restaurant but it doesn’t have a comfortable “come sit and have a drink” vibe. So since I was a bit early, I had no real choice but to sit at our table right away. I’m a really big proponent of a cozy bar in a restaurant for situations in which you need to kill a bit of time, so I was a bit let down by the lack of one at Saul. However, the restaurant’s vibe in general is warm. You enter into a medium-sized room of tables with the tiny bar at the back. There’s no hostess stand so you aren’t 100% sure where to go. But as I sat at the table and read the menu, I was instantly at ease.

Chef Saul Bolton opened this restaurant in 1999 after training under David Bouley and Eric Ripert. The restaurant offers a 3-course prix fixe $40 option, a tasting menu for $85, and an a la carte menu. We decided to order off the a la carte menu. We kicked off our evening with cocktails, because neither of us could resist the delightful options on the cocktail list at Saul. Both of our cocktails were wonderful winter warmers that used different flavors than your typical cocktails. The amuse bouche of the evening was celery root soup with curried apples. The combination of the rich celery root with the sweetness of the apples and the spice of the curry was a fantastic first bite for our meal.

We split two appetizers, the crudo of Japanese yellowtail with citrus and peppers and the grilled octopus salad. The yellowtail was okay but I wouldn’t order it again. Some bites were a bit too fishy for my taste, because it came with the skin on. The marinade was extremely flavorful and the bites without the skin were much better. But the clear winner of our appetizers was the grilled octopus salad with red onions in a citrus dressing that had a slight hint of sweetness. The char on the octopus balanced perfectly with the tartness of the dressing and bite of the onions. We scooped up every last piece.

My friend ordered the roasted squab with squab confit, roasted Brussels, farro and a sunchoke puree for his main dish. The squab was cooked perfectly and the skin nicely crisped. The flavors were all very, very good but we both agreed that my dish was better. I ordered the pork which was roasted pork and pulled pork with a series of pureed winter vegetables and a rich pork jus. I couldn’t get over how amazing the pulled pork was. The pork loin was very good and the sauce on it was amazing but the pulled pork was out of this world. I mean so amazing that I gave my friend two bites of pork loin but only one bite of the pulled pork.

We decided not to have dessert because none of the desserts really appealed to us. But for baked Alaska fans, the one at Saul is supposedly amazing.

Definitely worth a trip out to Brooklyn!

The Spotted Pig

The Spotted Pig is another one of those trendy type spots that gets a Michelin star partly for the vibe and celebrity draw it has. It is not a spot where you go and expect to be waited on hand and foot or receive any type of frills like an amuse bouche or a pastry on your way out. This is a pub…albeit one with a fabulous menu. One Michelin star equates to very good food in its category, and I would agree that the Spotted Pig lives up to this accolade. But, I do think there are a few dishes on the menu that are a slight disappointment.

The food is one hundred percent comfort food and presented as simple food a bit elevated. Chef April Bloomfield is from England and spent several years working in restaurants there before moving to the US working at Chez Panisse and then sometime thereafter coming to NYC and opening the Spotted Pig.

I’ll start with the disappointing menu items and move to the ones that really earned the star. The burger with Roquefort and shoestring fries is okay but not an amazing burger that I would go out of my way to order again. Despite it being cooked medium it somehow just didn’t feel juicy enough. And I hate shoestring fries. They just make me angry, because I want real fries.

Okay so onto the menu items that I enjoy. I dined at the bar recently and I have to say I love the bar snacks. Deviled Eggs, Devils on Horseback! You can’t really go wrong with either. But then there’s the sheeps milk ricotta gnudi with brown butter and sage. For me, this is the perfect sort of dish to split because it’s far too rich and sinful to have all to oneself. But it’s a must order, because it’s downright delightful. I think gnudi is a bit of a misnomer here, because I find it texturally more like ricotta ravioli than gnudi. But I’m not going to complain. The silky ricotta pasta just melts in your mouth with a heavenly buttery sage flavor.

Now I do a lot of crazy things and ordering the $24 plate of five vegetables ranks up there. It’s just that sometimes these things are worth it. And this plate of vegetables is so worth it! The serving size leaves a lot to be desired, but the flavor of these veggies is just outrageous. I couldn’t get enough of them and was basically fighting my friend for the last few bites.

I’ve never had dessert at the Spotted Pig, but I would like to try the banofee pie. I guess I just have to go back and while I’m there I might as well have some gnudi and veggies!

The Modern

The scene at the modern was far more bustling than I anticipated. I guess it was just one of those things that I assume…a restaurant at a museum will be quiet and, well, museum-like. So the fact that I couldn’t hear a pin drop, was a welcome surprise. In fact, I really liked the vibe. The entrance is through a long white hallway that opens into the bar area that has a number of tables and was quite packed the night my friend and I were there. The dining room is just past the bar and has floor to ceiling windows that have a lovely view out onto the museum’s courtyard and 54th street. The service was impeccable and the level of bonus bites was impressively overwhelming; however, the food itself was sadly too inconsistent for me to give the restaurant a rave review. But, I would like to go back and sit in the bar area for a light dinner sometime.

Just after we were seated, we were brought a series of three bites from the kitchen: Brussels sprouts with roasted squash (very good), smoked trout rillette (also very good), and popcorn that I can’t remember what it was flavored with (I think they said lemon verbena but I didn’t taste the lemon). A short while after we finished these our waiter presented us each with a test tube of chestnut soup that had some sort of red puree down the bottom. The soup was so delicious and rich…just an absolutely winning experiment! The bread basket offered the typical choice of olive, French, or whole grain rolls and both goats milk and cows milk butters are placed on the table. The bread selection was typical but in that warm and delicious way that’s so reliable you adore it.

Silly me thought these were it for the amuse bouche, but then our waiters brought what they referred to as the amuse bouche, a beef carpaccio in a cockles sauce. The beef was so tender and wonderful and the sauce was extraordinary. The broth had a slight sea flavor and there were little crunchy bits on top. We both got every last drop of sauce from the bowl with our bread. For my first course, I had Alaskan king crab salad cannelloni with Sea Urchin Coulis. I love crab but couldn’t taste it at all because the sea urchin was FAR too overpowering. It was quite a shame because the crab looked amazing. My friend had the oven-roasted trumpet royale mushrooms with Mussels, Toasted Almonds, Jamón Iberico and Harissa Vinaigrette which was also very disappointing in that it was very bland. With all those ingredients I couldn’t understand how that was possible.

For the second course, I had the tempranillo risotto with Crispy Duck Breast, Radicchio and oregano. The risotto was delicious and served with this really flavorful foam that I want to say was parmesan. BUT I didn’t see or taste any duck and nothing was crispy which I found a bit confusing. My friend had the sturgeon and sauerkraut tart with American Caviar Mousseline and Applewood Smoke. This came over with a huge lid on it and when our waiter lifted the lid the aroma of applewood was gorgeous. I loved the applewood smoke flavor, but it was just a tad too strong leaving us unable to taste any sauerkraut or caviar. A sad, sad waste. I did like the texture and everything but I think they need to slightly cut the smoke.

The entrees were the crowning glory of the night. My friend had chorizo-crusted cod with White Coco Bean Purée and Harissa Oil. This was really good – the fish was cooked perfectly and was so tender and the coco bean puree and white beans served along with it were very good. Mine was better though! I had the roasted heritage pork tenderloin with Sauerkraut, Pumpkin and Parsnip Purée and Soy-Caramel Jus. I don’t even know where to start here. The pork tenderloin was insane and it was so tender I didn’t even need to use my knife to cut it. The pumpkin and parsnip purees were both incredibly flavorful but it was the soy caramel jus that won my heart. It was sweet and salty and absolutely amazing.

My friend won the best dessert hands down with the lemon napoleon with Exotic Fruit Brunoise and Fromage Blanc Sorbet. This was awesome. The napoleon layers were super crisp and the lemon cream was tart and just delicious. I had the fig tart and there was not one thing that either of us liked about it.

Just when I thought we were nearing the end, the chocolate cart arrived! Three levels of chocolate, cookies, and candy from which to choose. We had our waiter do a mixture, and found that sadly the chocolates were unimpressive. After this, they brought over a little tiny ice cream cone of maple ice cream that we LOVED. I would rather just that and no chocolate cart. Our parting gift was a trio of mini caramel cakes, which made a nice little breakfast appetizer the next morning.

So overall, I would go and eat in the bar, but I don’t think I would go back and eat in the dining room again. There was something about the place and vibe though that I really liked. I just wish they had every course be as good as the main courses.

Bouley

The night I dined at Bouley the entryway was filled with shelves and shelves of macintosh apples, which put off an aroma reminiscent of a spa. What a comforting and welcoming entrance! The small lounge before the main dining room looks more like a fancy living room in a Newport mansion, with funny old-style french lounge chairs, than the entryway to one of New York’s finest restaurants. I was early so I ordered a glass of $20 pinot noir. A definite strike against them was that it took almost a minute for each dollar that glass cost to finally bring it to me, which was all the more absurd because I was the only person in the lounge and there were about 10 servers walking around aimlessly. Gladly, this proved to be the only service hiccup in the entire evening.

The dining room is beautiful and definitely evokes the intended feeling of being in an opulent estate in the French countryside. The room has two separate areas. The front area is bright with vaulted ceilings and tables spaced generously away from one another. The back dining area is much more intimate with dark wood and a library type vibe. The bathrooms are downstairs, and my friend rightfully insisted that a visit to them is absolutely necessary. You walk down these grand marble stairs past the wine cellar and through a hallway of light colored marble and arched doorways. The vibe downstairs was enough to make me want to move in.

The menu choice is either a la carte or a tasting menu of six courses, which has a bit of a high price point at $175 per person. We went a la carte and, as I was still full the next morning, I believe that we made the right choice. The amuse bouche was a pumpkin soup with roasted chestnuts and a rice paper packet with pine nuts in it. This was exactly the warming and comforting introduction I needed on the windy, rainy day we went. They brought two amuse rolls, one was rosemary and the other had some sort of fruit in it (I think apple). Both were awesome with a crunchy crust and soft interior.

Then I was sent into an absolutely overwhelmed state. They proceeded to roll a bread cage over to our table for what would be the first of many visits. Yes, I said bread cage. It was this cart with about 8 different types of bread to choose from. The bread cart driver sliced your selection tableside and just grabbed another from his cage when a loaf ran out. My friend Jen and I both had a slice of garlic bread and a slice of fig bread to start. On the second visit, my friend couldn’t resist trying the pistachio hazelnut bread and I am glad she couldn’t because it proved to be my favorite of the breads we had. All the breads the entire evening were absolutely outrageous good. In many ways, it seems with all the fanfare surrounding the bread cart the restaurant wants the bread to be the standout item of the evening. The remainder of the food was very good, but when someone mentions Bouley my first thought will always be the bread.

For an appetizer I had shrimp, sea scallops, dungeness crab, and calamari in a herbal broth and Jen had tuna with turnip and radish in a yuzu-miso dressing. All of the seafood on my dish was perfectly cooked. There were two shrimp, one was simply grilled and the other was fried. The scallop was pan-fried to be crispy and it looked like they had been partially pushed through a large grater with the top was split into many cubes. The calamari was stuffed and just awesome. All of this was served atop a bed of crab with a green herb broth. The dish and the broth were extremely tasty. My friend Jen's was also really good, but a bit generic. I love yuzu and miso, but there was nothing in the dish that made it extraordinary.

For my main, I had the Chicken with Carrot Ravioli, hen of the woods mushrooms, and Pain d’épice dressing. Jen had the roasted duck with white truffle honey, chanterelles, asparagus, and porcini puree. Hands down Jen’s dish won. That’s not to say my chicken wasn’t extraordinary. It was certainly the most tender piece of chicken ever, so much so that I was cutting it with my fork. And the ravioli, which is what really made me order the dish in the first place was amazing. The idea of a sweet carrot puree in pasta is just pure genius. And the pain d’epice sauce, which is a gingerbread spice type mixture, was really wonderful but I would have liked more. I know after that description you’re wondering how Jen’s dish could have been better. Well, Jen's had this white truffle honey sauce that was outstanding and without a doubt one of the best sauces I’ve had in a while. And the duck itself was insanely tender and delicious.

For a pre-dessert they brought melon soup with ricotta sorbet which really wasn’t for me. There are a few things that shouldn’t be made into a liquid and I think melon is one of them. I also was not at all a fan of the ricotta sorbet, as it just wasn’t as sweet as I’d like a frozen dessert to be. For dessert, we had the chocolate frivolous. This was a smorgasbord of all things chocolate…a chocolate brulee, a hazelnut Dacquoise, a noutgatine, a warm chocolate lava cake, a rich chocolate ice cream, and another ice cream that had what tasted like prunes in it. When it arrived, my first thought was it was too much on one plate. But I liked every component and couldn’t possibly pick one to remove!

After our dessert, our server brought a silver tower of petit fours. The petit fours included carrot spice macaroons, rich butter cookies covered in white and dark chocolate, coconut lemon wafer cookies, a truffle, and sesame sandwich cookies. I’m not sure if I was so full that I just couldn’t enjoy these or whether they were only average, but there was nothing that stood out from the tower that I wanted to have again. Maybe it was all that bread!

Eleven Madison Park

In the realm of making a night feel special, Eleven Madison knocks it right out of the park (albeit a park much larger than its little namesake). Everything is at a calm, relaxed pace that once you sit down at your table, you feel as if it’s yours for the rest of the night. The food is inventive and interesting new presentations of classic dishes. All four of the courses we had were extremely good and the majority of them made lasting impressions. The food definitely would stand out on its own but with the level of service the experience was raised to a whole new level.

The Executive Chef is Daniel Humm, and his concept is a grid menu that lists only the primary ingredient of every choice. For each of the four courses, you have four choices so the menu looks like a little square grid of words. After you order, the waiter asks if there is anything that you aren’t fond of so that they can tailor your dishes around your likes/dislikes. You can also opt for a larger chef tasting menu, but honestly there was plenty of food in the four course menu that more is unnecessary. We also did the wine pairing, which was definitely one of the best values of wine pairings I’ve ever had. We had two drinks prior to the first course, and then we had a glass with each course including dessert. All of the pairings were spot-on and each wine was immensely interesting and thoughtful.

Not only were there two drinks before our first course, but there were three rounds of small appetite teasers from the kitchen. The first were airy gougeres, mushroom tea with lemon verbena and toasted truffle brioche. The gourgeres were wonderful, but we both were not fond of the brioche toasts and the topping that had a dry, unpleasant texture. The next round of bites was scallop ceviche with blood orange presented in a scallop shell and raw tuna with pepper and basil powder. Both of these were awesome. The third round of little bites was a yogurt pop with fried fennel seeds and madras curry powder coated in goat’s milk butter and then a little piece of fried fish with aioli. The presentation on all of these was gorgeous and playful, right down to with the pops sticking out of a vase with tall grass.

After these three bites, the bread arrived with a choice of cow’s or goat’s milk butter. The bread was extraordinary with no other way to describe it other than to say it was a warm and buttery bread/croissant hybrid.

And then our meal began. I believe we had been there for over an hour at this point! My first course was fluke. The fluke preparation that evening was fluke carpaccio with dried apples, celery, and chives. I adored the thin slices of melt in your mouth fluke with the apple flavor. My friend’s first course was the Langoustine with green apple and celeriac. This was extremely tender and the flavors were outstanding. We both agreed though that the fluke was the better dish.
For my second course I chose the endive with truffle, egg yolk, and pear. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful this insanely tender endive was. I find it incredibly impressive when a chef can make vegetables taste this amazing. My friend chose the Loup de Mer, which was okay but a bit on the disappointing side as none of the flavors really tasted like they came together.

The third course for my friend was sous vide guinea fowl with salsify puree and jus. This was another wow dish. The fowl was so tender and paired sensationally well with the fabulous salsify puree. I love salsify and think it is one of the most under-used vegetables out there. My third course was pork with roasted plum, onion soubise, and amoretti crumbs. The pork was incredibly tender, the onion soubise was buttery fabulousness, and the almond flavored crumbs added such a nice sweet, nutty layer of flavor.

After our final savory course, our waiter rolled over a little cart and proceeded to mix up a homemade orange egg cream for us. He explained that the restaurant likes to take old fashioned New York hometown favs and bring them back. Well, if they keep serving these, there is no doubt in my mind that the egg cream will make a rapid comeback.

For the dessert course, my friend had the Pistachio that was a Pistachio cheesecake with pistachio sponge cakes, grape sorbet, and pistachio crumble. I had the Chocolate which was Hazelnut mousse coated in guandija chocolate atop a bed of caramel crumble served with espresso ice cream and sponge. The pistachio won the dessert war hands down. I thought the chocolate dessert was good, but there was something missing from it for me. On the other hand, the pistachio had everything and I couldn’t get enough of the grape sorbet.

Then the absolute best part of the evening arrived. My friend and I were invited back to the kitchen for a tour. The kitchen was immaculate and exuded an absolute state of calm and efficiency. We were brought to a station where we could watch everything while someone made a cocktail using liquid nitrogen for us. I can’t remember 100% what it consisted of but there were diced apples, some frozen apple brandy, and some sort of foam made into a ball in the liquid nitrogen. It was awesome. They also let us flip through a copy of their brand new cookbook, which is just as beautiful as everything else that night and now on my Christmas wish list.

When they brought us back to our table they left a bottle of cognac for us to sip as much of as we wanted at our leisure. The petit fours that night were a fruit gelee with chocolate, a raspberry linzer tart, pistachio and rose macaroon, and a lemon shortbread tart. The standouts of these were the raspberry tart and the lemon shortbread tart which were both awesome. As we paid our bill, they presented us with envelopes that had the menu and the full explanation and paired wine for the dishes we ordered and also left me with a jar of granola and explained that they give one to every woman that dines with them. I finished my jar the other day and its one of many reasons I want to go back to Eleven Madison.

Find a reason to go

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.

I'm Sho Sure Sho Shaun Hergatt is Worthy of Two Stars

Sho Shaun Hergatt is located just down the street from the NY Stock Exchange in the Setai Hotel. You take an elevator from the lobby up to the second floor and when you exit you have this awkward walk down to the hostess stand as you both stare at one another until you’re at the right distance to say something. The space is beautifully designed with a bar at the entry and tables to the left. The night we went it was practically empty and every bite we had made me more and more confused as to how this could possibly be the case. Chef Shaun Hergatt’s style is Asian inspired French cuisine with a focus on local ingredients and interesting techniques. In this venture, Chef Hergatt managed to present some of the most interesting and spot on flavor combinations I have had in a while. So much so that my sister and I left our dinner here saying that it deserved two stars on the 2012 list that had yet to be released at the time we ate there. So when the new list was released a few weeks later, neither of us was surprised that it had been upgraded to two.

The night we went was the debut night of the new five course tasting menu. The chef came out after our third course to ask us about portion size and whether we thought it was too much, too little, or just perfect and whether we were enjoying the food. It’s nice when you have that special touch of a restaurant caring what people think about their food. The service at Sho was very good and seamless.

The amuse bouche was two parts. The first was a pea puree with this fabulous coconut foam on top. The fresh pea flavor just popped with the coconut and tasted like spring. The second part was these fried potato balls rolled in black truffle and stuffed with a tiny bit of foie gras. These balls were amazing, which shocked me because I’m typically not a huge fan of foie gras.

The bread was this extremely nice rustic country bread that they made in-house. It has that crisp, crunchy crust and soft airy interior that rustic breads should. This came with a choice between plain butter and a sage butter. I wanted to love the sage butter, but it was not as flavorful or stunning as it looked and sounded.

Karen’s first course was a beet roulade with a horseradish “marshmallow” that was really more the consistency of a crème fraiche and had this wonderful tangy/spicy horseradish bite. The beet roulade was a puree covered in a dehydrated beet and served with baby roasted beets. I love beets and this was such a new and refreshing twist on beet preparation. My first course was the salt pressed ocean trout with pear. This was a very nice presentation of raw fish with very nice flavors. Definitely something I would order again.

For her second course, Karen had the celeriac espuma with crispy potato, black truffle powder, and truffle cream. I had the coxcomb, which was veal tongue ribbons, chicken skin, and mushrooms. Both dishes arrived with the garnishes in a bowl and then waiters ceremoniously spooned a foam atop each. The celeriac was very good but it was very rich. The mushrooms on the coxcomb plate were unremarkable. But the veal tongue ribbons were so tender, deliciously salty, and rich that I was totally blown away and didn’t even pay any attention to anything else.
For the third course, Karen had the nova scotia lobster with garlic chives and a chili coconut sauce. The lobster was cooked earth-shatteringly perfect, but the component that really won on the plate was the coconut chili sauce. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it was the best coconut curry sauce I’ve ever had, managing to find the ideal balance between heat and sweet. I had the sous vide amadai with baby clams and turnips. The amadai was a beautiful piece of white fish that was simply prepared and wonderful. But, there was no question that Karen’s dish won this round.

For the fourth course, Karen had the beef cheek wrapped in ham with leeks. I couldn’t believe how meaty, rich, and fabulous this was. It tasted like the most perfectly braised piece of meat ever. My fourth course was cracked soba risotto with an egg yolk, parmesan, and these delightful crumbs sprinkled over it. The egg yolk oozed all over the perfect risotto. I can’t remember ever having such delicious risotto.

For the firth course, Karen had the caramelia custard with dark chocolate and buttermilk sorbet. This was extremely good but it couldn’t come close to my strawberry dessert with fresh strawberries and strawberry meringue. My dessert was no where near big enough but the flavor was so amazing I couldn’t complain. The meringues dissolve on your tongue with a slight snap when you bite into them and the strawberries were perfectly sweet.

After our meal, they brought carrot cake French macaroons with a cream cheese center and warm donuts covered in cardamom sugar. These absolutely sealed Karen’s and my vote for this restaurant to have 2 Michelin stars. The carrot cake macaroon was spicy, tangy, and just AMAZING. The cardamom donuts, which tasted like fall, were extremely good.

I’m sure you couldn’t fail to notice that there were a lot of “bests” in this meal. It was truly amazing and well worth a trip. I think I’ll try to go for the three course prix fixe lunch sometime. I was happy to see that in the 2012 guide Sho Shaun received 2 Michelin stars. There is no doubt in my mind that it completely deserves these.

Weird Wallse

Wallse is Viennese cuisine by Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner located in the far western reaches of the West Village. The space has a definite European feel to it and is bright and bustling. There was something about the evening that made me want to start off the night with one of the delicious sounding cocktails. Most likely it’s my inability to resist Pimms that did it. The Charlie Chaplin with Gin, Vermouth, Pimms and bitters was a fabulous little cocktail that I would definitely order again.

The bread was unremarkable, which as a cardo addict is a huge disappointment for me. Luckily, the appetizer we ordered, Pan seared scallops with bacon and Mache sauce, was ridiculously good. The sauce is a green sauce made from Mache lettuce and it has this almost nutty flavor to it, sort of like a more interesting and richer spinach. The scallops were melt in your mouth tender and the perfect example of exactly how a scallop should be cooked. The only complaint I have was that there wasn’t quite enough bacon but I suppose there will never be enough bacon in the world for me!

For the entrees, my friend had the boiled kavalierspitz (beef shoulder) with root vegetables and apple horseradish and I had the weiner schnitzel with potato-cucumber salad and lingonberries. My friend’s entrée was okay but nothing special. The beef was nice and tender but the flavor had something missing and the horseradish sauce needed somthing as well. The weiner schnitzel was very good and I really liked the potato cucumber salad. The breading was perfect. Funny enough, these dishes were the same orders that my sister and I had placed when we ate at Seasonal Weinbar & Kitchen. So I couldn't help but compare the execution of the dishes between these two places. Hands down, Seasonal won on both.

The post dinner petit fours were probably among my least favorite I’ve ever had. The flavors of both were just not the sort of sweet I like to end my meal.

I’m not so sure that Wallse is worthy of a Michelin star. The service the night we went was very bizarre. Our waitress was incredibly awkward and each time she came to our table it was weird. Also, the food was good but it didn’t have anything that made it extraordinary or worth a return trip. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would maybe go again. But I would not find the need to travel out of my way to go back. I do have to say though that the mache sauce on the scallops was the most memorable part of the meal.

Hopefully this will be the last restaurant on the Michelin list that falls short of my expectations of what a Michelin restaurant should be.

Marc Forgione - Menu as Fiction

Sometimes the descriptions of dishes on menus are more beautiful than the execution in a sort of menu as fiction or embellishment of the truth way. Unfortunately, Marc Forgione is one of those places. I read the menu before I went and fell for the story only to be let down when I went and found out what the true story is. Of all the spots on the Michelin list, this is one that I was whole-heartedly looking forward to and had such high expectations for. So maybe the fact that I didn’t adore it is partly my fault because I had anticipated it becoming one of my favorite restaurants in the city. Here’s the thing…I didn’t hate it and saw enough promise that I would be willing to go back and give it another shot. I’m not going to run and do it immediately, but I do think at some point I may try again. There wasn’t anything we had that wasn’t good, but there wasn’t anything we had that was transcendental and the menu makes the food sound as if it will be.

The space is very cool with cedar wood and brick walls with hanging candles lighting the rather dim dining room. It’s sort of oddly barnyard or cottage cozy in a way. The restaurant has a very fun cocktail list and a great wine list. We picked a nice white wine.

One half of the two piece amuse bouche of the evening was possibly the best bite of the night. The fresh tomato gazpacho was tomato pepper heaven in a way that made me sad it was only one bite. The other half was a stone fruit crumble that tasted rather like a yogurt granola parfait in an unremarkable you feel like you’re eating healthy food way.

The bread rolls arrived and they looked awesome. Warm rolls with herb butter and tops brushed with butter and sprinkled with kosher salt. These were very good but not quite soft and delicious enough to be the best warm dinner rolls I’ve ever had.

We ordered two appetizers to start a Crab, Watermelon, and jalapeno salad and an Eggplant Parmesan with burrata, eggplant, crispy fried bits, and tomato. All the flavorings of the crab salad complemented one another very nicely, but there was something missing from the dish that my friend and I couldn’t pinpoint. The Eggplant parmesan was disappointing. It was decomposed eggplant parmesan with cubes of eggplant that were rather boring and delicious bites of tomato and fun little crunchy fried pieces on the plate and “burrata” that was really mozzarella. And if you know me, you know that telling me I’m going to get burrata but then serving me mozzarella is a big no-no.

I ordered the Buddhist Duck Breast with LeBak Farms Corn Emulsion, Bacon, and Smoked Sea Salt and my friend had the Halibut with Lobster emulsion. The duck was perfectly cooked with a nice crispy skin and the dish overall had very nice components to it. But it felt as if it was sort of any easy throw together weeknight meal that I could’ve easily made at home. The Halibut was also perfectly cooked and the lobster sauce was very good, but it was almost exactly the same as a sauce that we learned to make in our second semester of culinary school. So again, it seemed a bit elementary. There’s nothing wrong with elementary food, but the menu reads at a higher level than the delivered food.

We ordered one dessert to split, the Banana Cream Pie Sundae with Salted Caramel. This was very delicious and a nice little way to finish the evening.

Like I said, the meal was good, but I expected amazing.

A Voce Columbus

I love good Italian food. But, there seem to be a high number of “okay” Italian places and very few amazing ones. In other words, an Italian restaurant really has to wow me to receive anything close to a rave review. Frankly, there are far too many Italian restaurants around to be okay with dining at a mediocre one. In my pre-dining research on A Voce, I heard very mixed reviews about various people’s experience dining there. Some people told me that they had a fabulous dish there, while others said they were underwhelmed. Nevertheless, I went in with an open mind and hopes that I would find a “wow”-worthy Italian restaurant.

A Voce Columbus is in the Time Warner Center, which lays claim to three restaurants with Michelin stars. The restaurant overlooks Central Park and as such most tables offer beautiful park views. The kitchen has windows that are a bit higher than eye level when you’re seated, but on your way to your seat these windows offer nice views into the pristine kitchen. Honestly, I have no idea how any of the chefs get anything done as they also have windows overlooking the park.

The space is very sleek and the weeknight we were there it was populated with a large number of couples with their teenage kids and a few tables of businessmen that matched the sleek design. We were seated by the big window in a booth overlooking the park. The view alone makes a trip to the restaurant worthwhile (did I say that already? Sorry, but we went there on a gorgeous summer evening just as the sun was setting and it was an “I love New York” type view).

The housemade cocktails were quite interesting sounding so my friend opted for one of those, while I went with a delightful glass of Nebbiolo. After we placed our order, a plate of focaccia with ricotta with mint, olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper arrived. The focaccia had a gorgeous texture and the ricotta and mint was lovely smeared on top of it.

We had two appetizers, Cassoncini and Pancetta. The Cassoncini are listed on the menu as swiss chard and crescenza cheese filled fried dough, prosciutto de parma. I thought the prosciutto would be in the pockets and warm but it was actually cold and layered on top. I would have preferred that the prosciutto be inside the pockets because the way they were made the overall flavor of the dish was overwhelmed by the swiss chard. Basically, these were just a disappointment in a way that fried dough pockets should never be. The pancetta was a long strip of pork belly with figs, balsamic vinegar, and pistachios. This was okay but also a bit underwhelming. The pork flavor was mild and it just didn’t have the salty smoke flavor of pork belly that I adore nor did it have the texture that I prefer in pork belly.

For her entrée, my friend decided on the special ravioli with goat cheese and pistachios. I had the trofie with clams, ramps, lemon, and taggiasca olives. Both of these were good pasta dishes but neither of them knocked my socks off. The ravioli had a mild goat cheese flavor and was in a nice butter sauce. The texture was very good, and the dish won best entrée of the table. The trofie looked like little devils and the clams in them were cooked perfectly, but there weren’t enough clams or ramps and the lemon flavor was far too mild. It tasted more of butter than anything else. In other words, I agreed with my friends that had only okay experiences with A Voce. This experience made me wonder whether the other A Voce would disappoint me equally or whether it is superior to this location. I’m willing to give it a chance and have hopes it will win a “wow”.

My friend had a number of raviolis left, so she decided to take them to go. The waiter cleared our plates away and then instead of returning with the doggie bag, he returned with a coat check ticket and told her she could pick up her leftovers at the coat check on the way out. This was definitely one of the classiest ways to handle doggie bags that I’ve ever seen. I kind of loved it…maybe even more then the food I had that night.

For dessert, it’s difficult to resist doughnuts with bittersweet chocolate dipping sauce so we didn’t even try. These were pretty good, but sadly not the best doughnuts I’ve ever had. The bittersweet chocolate was awesome though.

All in all, I think A Voce has scene/atmosphere going for it. Sadly, the food just doesn’t live up to the view.