american (new)
- 5, american (new), celebrity chef, french, great for dates, michelin-starred, restaurant reviews, upper east side
Daniel – French/American (New) – Upper East Side
Having left both Bar Boulud and DBGB feeling like I was missing what all the fuss was about, I was hopeful but not convinced about Daniel and the third Michelin star it received this year. To celebrate my boyfriend, Kamran, finishing law school(!), we ordered the 6-course tasting menu with wine pairings. We had hoped to try the 8-course menu, but it’s not available on the weekends due to the increased crowds, and in the end, there were more than enough surprises that we definitely didn’t need the extra courses. amuse bouche: parsnip mousse, green apple, duck prosciutto around crostini The texture of this was as creamy as it looks.…
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The Modern at MoMA – American (New)/French – Midtown West
The Modern inside the Museum of Modern Art always shows up on NYC’s Restaurant Week list and always gets completely booked well before I’m even aware Restaurant Week is upon me. This summer, my boyfriend and I attempted a walk-in and almost got laughed out of the place, so we decided to plan ahead and save it for our anniversary. Here’s the tasting menu, served in the formal dining room: amuse bouche: porcini- and rosemary-dusted popcorn The flavoring on this was too uneven to make much impact, but we liked the idea of it a lot. amuse bouche: deconstructed vichyssoise: russet potato, leek soup sphere Quite an impressive presentation, right?…
- 5, american (new), celebrity chef, east village, great for dates, japanese, michelin-starred, restaurant reviews
Momofuku Ko – Japanese/American (New) – East Village
I maaaaay have said some mean things about Chef David Chang in the past. I may have suggested he’s arrogant and that all of the NYC food critics are stuck up his butt. I may have complained about his anti-photo policy and his online reservation system that requires weeks (months!) of clicking just for the opportunity to spend $700 and not eat until 9:40 p.m. on a Monday night. But I was wrong, and on Saturday, Dr. Boyfriend and I had what was so unequivocally the best meal of our lives that I might have to add an extra doughnut to my rating system just to accommodate it. We’d heard…
- 4.5, american (new), good for groups, great for dates, michelin-starred, restaurant reviews, upper east side
What You’ve Read About The Wright is Wrong – American (New) – Upper East Side
I was secretly concerned about going to The Wright inside the Guggenheim Museum for my birthday this weekend. The menu looked classically delicious, and photos of the decor made it seem like a hip 1970s spaceship (it won the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant Design), but the reviews were a little too so-so, and we’d been totally unimpressed by a similar museum restaurant a few weeks earlier. But, you know, I’m always happy to find out for myself how a restaurant rates. Dr. Boyfriend and I decided to do the chef’s tasting with wine pairings, and right away The Wright scored points with me when our server…
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Restaurant Week Summer 2010: Park Avenue Summer – American (new) – Upper East Side
It’s Restaurant Week Summer 2010 here in NYC, and my boyfriend and I finally made a reservation for a place I’ve been eyeing for a couple of years now. Depending on the season, it’s called Park Avenue Summer, Autumn, Winter, or Spring, and the decor changes entirely with the seasons. Appropriately, all of the dishes we had on the first night of Restaurant Week were incredibly summer-y and some of the best we’ve had in all of our years of Restaurant Week-ing. watermelon amuse-bouche Does this look like a chunk of pineapple or what? 10 points for surprising me, and another 10 for serving me cream cheese and herbs with…
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Seasonal – Austrian/American (new) – Midtown West
When my boyfriend suggested Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar because it was awarded a Michelin star this year, I pictured a lively Austrian pub type place with comforting foods like bratwurst and sauerkraut and girls named Brunhilda serving them. What I got was a sleek formal dining room with an inventive menu that put me in the mind of wd-50 or Degustation. This is one of those unfortunate cases where I had the dinner a couple of months ago and was so overwhelmed by the idea of writing about all of the awesomeness I experienced, so pardon my slim review and (hopefully) enjoy the photos. The tasting menu: octopus amuse bouche…
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Buttermilk Channel – American (New) – Carroll Gardens
I have so many old food photos in my queue that I’m drowning, so please excuse me while I just plop some of these pictures of my meal at Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn with my friend Beth down without much explanation. maple- and bacon-roasted almonds These are still on the menu seven months later, because they’re so crunchy, sweet, and bacony that you kind of just want to keep ordering them and forget about the rest of the meal. See the way the sugar is cracking off of them in some places? COME ON! It’s almost unfair. sweet potato and goat cheese croquettes scallops duck meatloaf, creamy parsnips, onion ring…
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Despite the Stupid Name, I’d Go Back to DBGB for Dessert
The only thing really worth talking about at Daniel Boulud’s DBGB is the mint chocolate sundae. The Yankee Burger didn’t compare to Shake Shack’s, even with the added cheddar and bacon. The winter squash soup wasn’t nearly as good as Métrazur’s. All of my lunch companions were sort of meh about everything they ordered; no one complained, but no one seemed really excited to go back. But that’s because they didn’t try the sundae. It looked like run-of-the-mill chocolate gelato, but it had the taste of mint. Not mint flavor, mind you, but actual fresh mint leaves. I wasn’t totally sold on it with my first few bites, to tell…
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Colicchio & Sons: a Review
I love Tom Colicchio’s food and would travel to the ends of the earth to feast upon it, if necessary, which is lucky, because Colicchio & Sons is basically located there. Is it going to be the sort of place I visit so often that the waiters recognize me? Not a chance, if not for the location, then for the douchebags who eat there. Is it the sort of place I’ll want to visit every time the menu changes? For sure. I know it’s supposed to be insignificant, but I make a lot of judgements about a restaurant based on its bread basket*, and the super-crunchy breadsticks at one of…
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Restaurant Review: Metrazur (Restaurant Week Winter 2010)
Charlie Palmer’s Métrazur was an obvious Restaurant Week choice for my boyfriend and me: we’ve passed by it a million times inside Grand Central, we’re interested in Palmer’s restaurants in general, and I wanted the Sichuan spiced pork tenderloin on the Restaurant Week menu. As far as atmosphere goes, not much beats Métrazur. Located on Grand Central’s East Balcony, it overlooks all of the chaos of commuters rushing to their trains, but the immense space overhead captures all of the noise and leaves the restaurant cozy and quiet. It was definitely unlike any other restaurant’s decor. I made Kamran pose like this, just so you don’t think he often sits…
