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.