NYC Restaurant Reviews | donuts4dinner.com » 2010 » December
If you can get past the fact that it’s owned by Michael Jordan and is called Michael Jordan’s The Steak House N.Y.C. (what?), this place is actually a decent steakhouse with atmosphere that beats the usual Harvard-crimson carpeting and gold-lacquered everything. My boyfriend and I talked casually about visiting The Steak House every time we spotted it overlooking Grand Central Terminal, but it took seeing Chef Michael Vignola on an episode of The Food Network’s “Chopped” to make us seriously consider a reservation. On the show, the chef was super-creative–quite the opposite of what we expect from someone just cooking steaks and lobster all day–and we were excited to see what sort of avant garde creations he was pushing out with Michael Jordan’s blessing. But alas, The Steak House’s menu mirrors every other one we’ve seen.
Never overestimate the power of assorted breads when it comes to getting an extra donut in your rating from me.
lobster salad
I’m just starting to get into lobster after years of hating seafood, and this was just the right dish for a newcomer. It was lightly-dressed enough that the ocean flavor came through but included enough other ingredients that I was sufficiently distracted from the idea of eating, as my boyfriend says, the insect of the sea. The cabbage helped keep it fresh, while the spicy mayo on the side gave it a kick. Also: potato chips. Yeah.
crab cake
Obviously this dish totally cheated by dressing itself with roasted corn. I didn’t particularly care for more cabbage slaw, but I suppose they don’t expect you and your date to be gluttons who order multiple apps on top of their filet mignons. I did particularly care for the lemony sauce the crab was swimming in, and the filler factor was slim to none in the cake.
filet mignon, macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach
The mac & cheese is listed as Michael’s Macaroni & Cheese on the menu, which only furthered our belief that he would pop out of the kitchen at any moment in his tall chef’s hat, giving us a friendly “bork bork bork!” a la the Muppets’ Swedish Chef. But no. Both of the sides were oversalted to my boyfriend’s taste, but I’m a freaky saltfiend who likes to make the waterboy come over every two minutes to refill me, so they tasted great to me. The mac & cheese was definitely the better of the two, though, almost certainly because it’s Michael’s.
As for the steak–it was well-seasoned and cooked to my liking. It wasn’t Peter Luger quality, but it wasn’t Outback, either. (Sorry, Outback.) The problem is that the prices are more Peter Luger (and actually even higher than that) and less Outback, which means I was expecting the same quality.
I love the view over Grand Central location so much that I’d forgive the lesser quality if it wasn’t for the higher price. I’d recommend The Steak House for impressing out-of-towners, clients, or anyone who hasn’t been to the city’s top-notch steakhouses like Peter Luger and Keens (which itself isn’t nearly as good at Luger, as you’ll see in my review). Come for the classy black-and-white action stills of Jordan hung on the walls and the menus that feel like the skin of a basketball, but don’t come expecting the best-quality steak.
New York, NY 10017 (map)
Babbo – Italian – West Village
It’s hard to get into Mario Batali’s Babbo. They don’t do online reservations, and week after week when I called, they would tell me they were full. At one point, my boyfriend and I said, “Screw Batali! We don’t want his relatively cheap ($75) tasting menu with also-cheap ($50) wine pairings if it means being jerked around like this!” But once we finally did get in, we realized why the place is always full and why our persistence was totally worth it.
We sat in the upstairs portion, which has a lovely skylight that made me excited to take photos. The problem was that as the sun set, so did the quality of my photos, so please excuse the varying lightness.
The Traditional Tasting Menu with wine pairings:
amuse: chickpea bruschetta, black olive paste
duck bresaola, sweet pea sformato
“Vespa Bianco”, Bastianich 2007
This was my first sformato, a kind of molded creamy custard. It’s a texture I definitely associate with dessert, so the sweetness of the peas pleased me.
pappardelle, morels, thyme “Baceabianca”, Tenuta Grillo 2004
This is the dish I still dream about. It’s hard to even describe what makes homemade pasta so incredibly different and better than boxed pasta–maybe it’s the texture? Fresh pasta is much grittier and more tender. I’ve grown to love fresh pappardelle in particular because it has no rigid shape and can be cut however I please. For me, this is the pasta by which all other pastas are measured.
duck tortelli with “sugo finto” (“fake sauce”, or meat sauce without the meat) Ruché di Castagnole, Cascina ‘Tavijn 2007
grilled hanger steak, royal trumpet mushrooms, cipolline agrodolce
Aglianico del Vulture, Basilisco 2002
Coach Farms’ (NY) finest goat cheese, fennel honey
Franciacorta Brut, Cavalleri NV
This was the point in the meal where my boyfriend started feeling overwhelmed by the tasting menu. Between the many glasses of wine and the richness of the dishes, I thought he was going to wimp out on me. I don’t really understand the idea of finding food too intense, though; I just can’t be sympathetic. And I like anything-flavored honey.
fico in mosto: carmelized fig, mascarpone, orange peel “Sommo”, Colli di Serrapetrona Passito 2006
chocolate “al diavolo”
Malvasia delle Lipari Passito, Hauner 2007
peach and raspberry budino, honey butter, honey vanilla gelato
Brachetto d’Acqui “Le Donne dei Boschi” Ca’ dei Mandorli 2009
fruit tart that strangely wasn’t on the menu
almond biscotti, chocolate baci, almond meringue cookies
I understand that people love Italian food–and I theoretically do, too–but I’ve been disappointed time and time again by boring, bland Italian food in this city. And if you were to ask me my top five restaurants in the city overall, I’m not sure I’d actually put Babbo in that list, but for what it is and the kind of food they do, I think they’re doing it better than anyone in their category.
New York, NY 10011 (map)
Souffles Don’t Entirely Suck, It Turns Out
I really, really love chocolate–from the worst mostly-sugar milk chocolate to the bitterest cacao nib–and that’s why I think I don’t care for chocolate cake. Why would I eat chocolate-flavored flour when I could be having a creamy chocolate tart, chocolate ice cream, or even chocolate pudding?
That’s why, since I started fine-dining with my wonderful boyfriend four years ago, I’ve avoided the ubiquitous chocolate soufflé and, in fact, soufflés in general. Little did I know, though, that I was denying myself a real pleasure by not forcing restaurants’ kitchen staff to display their technical prowess for me.
My first great soufflé was at The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges. In an otherwise just-okay meal, this Grand Marnier concoction really stood out with its crusty shell and creamy interior. I’m not saying I have any manners, but I really don’t usually dip my fingers into a serving dish to clean out every last crumb like I did here.
The next one I had–the one that really convinced me–was the green tea soufflé at TriBeCafe. It’s a great place in general with a $23, four-course prix-fixe menu full of only-delicious Japanese-inspired comfort foods, but that soufflé was really something special. It was earthy without being grassy and fluffy without leaving that why-did-I-just-eat-a-plate-of-air? feeling you get from things like angel food cake.
I guess maybe I’m just a sucker for things that are crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside, like French macarons, Oreos, and you. So even though I don’t see myself ordering the chocolate soufflé any time soon, apparently other flavors suit me just fine.
Aquavit – Scandinavian – Midtown East
Two days after Marcus Samuelsson won the second season of “Top Chef: Masters”, my dining companions and I settled in at the bistro of his restaurant Aquavit and prepared to be wowed. Instead, we were merely contented.
matjes herring (mild salt herring), roasted yellow beets, scallions, sour cream
herring sampler, boiled potatoes, Vasterbotten cheese
cherry and wild boar salad
sage-roasted Penobscot (Maine?) chicken breast, broccoli rabe, Swiss chard, snap peas, spring onion crème
Undersalted! Bland! Only slightly saved by the delicious sauce!
smörgåsbord!
cold-poached salmon, red quinoa, wax beans, chervil hollandaise
Nik and Kamran
Jack and Anthony (they’re single and like good food, ladies!)
chocolate pot de crème
cardamom pound cake
sorbet sampler
This was the best of the desserts, as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t think that’s a good sign.
no clue, but it looks yummy, huh?
I’m concerned this may be one of those cases–like Jean-Georges’ restaurants The Mark or Nougatine–where you just don’t get the same experience when the chefs are using less-expensive ingredients in their bistro/bar room/spinoff-restaurant-for-poor-people. For a New York Times 3-star chef to serve a $35 prix-fixe probably means some shortcuts were taken. Or maybe it’s just that this kind of food–a simple chicken breast, some salmon with butter sauce, a slice of herring–is inherently kind of bland to me. My boyfriend, for instance, thinks fondly of his smörgåsbord, because he loves lots of different flavors on a plate and was pleased to actually like the herring, which he was apprehensive about. I just couldn’t get over the fact that the vegetables on my plate were completely unsalted; even at $35, I expect basic technical skills to be mastered.
New York, NY 10022 (map)