We were going for a trifecta this time around: three times during the summer NYC Restaurant week ~ at least we thought so, until we got there and found otherwise. This high-end, “Michelin Star”-ed establishment was being hard to get and NOT playing along with the “week” plan ~ and on the last evening of the summer season. Open-Table didn’t seem to know, so we booked on their website and only found out that we “missed” after being seated: they were no longer offering the special menu. Dang ! In all fairness, the restaurant should have said something when confirming the reservation… Couldn’t they have gone along for just one more dinner ???
So, driving through all kinds of traffic and the highway chaos that is the average work-day evening on the Long Island Expressway, we actually arrived on time (after a close call with a NYC Parking ticket) at this fancy-schmancy spot on 12th Street. Nothing fancy about the spot: just downtown NYC with the mandatory heap of garbage bags on the sidewalk being collected by one noisy and malodorous garbage truck and sweaty crew across the street from said fancy-schmancy dining establishment. The rain held off just long enough for us to get in the door of said “f-sde”, and we were greeted by a well-mannered and well-manicured host and hostess pair hanging around the concierge desk, who checked our reservation and promptly handed us over to someone else to seat us.
Quite a well-planned and large interior: huge, lengthy bar along one side of the space, flanked by a set of two-seaters, and separated from the rest of the tables in the room by a low wall and by a lower level floor for the rest of the space, where most of the tables are arranged. An efficient layout, minimizing wasted and unnecessary circulation spaces. The lighting is muted, through cloth-draped “chandelier-type lamps high above the tables (which begged the question: does anyone ever clean the dust on those drapes…? apparently, yes !) and cloth-covered tables with coordinated crockery and cutlery. All very good and pleasant. And the noise levels are average-high to mid-low (depending on who’s seated nearby: we seemed to have an office bunch that were evidently having a great time extending their office-day ~ hope it wasn’t before going into a night-shift with all that beer !??)
And, now we’re seated and given our menus, only to find out there isn’t any Restaurant Week anymore… BAD!! But our server very cheerfully said she’d been getting a lot of that this evening because Open Table seemed to have messed up, and that their kitchen was completely amenable to changing/splitting and adjusting all of their regular menu items to make it work for any kind of shared or down-sized portions. We did just that, and ended up getting what would probably have been Restaurant Week menu portions and overall costs at the end… which worked out very well. So we decided to grin and bear it and drown our sorrows in two glasses of chilled Albarino wine ($14.00 each) which was a great way to cool down in a hurry.
Food? We shared the Wild Mushroom and Foie Gras Terrine ($27.00) split up as an appetizer that was a bit small for splitting, but exquisitely done, followed by a split Miso Marinated Black Cod ($48.00) for mains. The portions we saw being served at surrounding tables seemed to be fairly large. Indeed, our server had said that the spilt portions would still be fairly substantial, and we can’t complain about that. Restaurant week menu portions tend to be small for the most, due to the nature of the business and the prices they hold to participate in this event, so our meal did fit right in there. We didn’t split the desserts, though, which are apparently made right there. So, it was a Chocolate Cake ($15.00) for her and a Raspberry Ice Cream with mint ($12.00) for me (which took a bit of negotiation and twisting to come through because the server misunderstood my request, though she did make good in the end…) Both were very well done and light on the palette.
Overall, a very good non-restaurant-week Restaurant Week dinner, since we didn’t quite make our trifecta. But then again, maybe we did…. Otherwise, there’s always the chance to try again on the next go-around of this event, I expect. Now that its morphed into an almost “Restaurant Month,” that shouldn’t be hard to achieve sometime in the near future... but at what price?
