NYC Restaurant Reviews | donuts4dinner.com » 2011 » February
My boyfriend and I ended up at Tocqueville for the first time almost by accident, but serendipitously, it turned out to be one of our most memorable dining experiences, and we were excited to return for their three-course, $39 lunch prix-fixe with wine pairings. I clearly wasn’t as excited about actually blogging the experience, since I’m just now getting around to it after five months, but that doesn’t reflect at all how I felt about the meal.
I think Tocqueville is one of (if not the) most overlooked and underappreciated restaurants in NYC, yet I have a hard time recommending it because of its atmosphere. It’s not for everyone. It’s not for first dates, guys with permanently-implanted Bluetooth headsets, party girls from the Meatpacking District, nor basically anyone who talks louder than the ticking of a watch. Some diners have called it stuffy, but I think of it as serene. It’s a very beautiful space with ultra-high ceilings, towering draperies, muted colors, and plush seating, but it’s very, very quiet. It’s wonderful for romantic dates, though, and the food is perfection.
amuse bouche
creamless sunchoke soup? maybe?
skate wing brandade
roasted monkfish
confit of lamb ravioli, flageolet beans, toasted crumbs
This dish is the only reason I’m posting this sad excuse for a review at all. Five months later, I probably talk about this dish once a week, and I definitely think of it almost daily. It’s almost ugly as far as fine dining presentation goes, right? You can’t even see the ravioli, and there’s just this big pile of cheese covering everything.
But underneath all that was one big pasta pocket with the most tender, non-gamey meat. The rich sauce was dotted with these crunchy breadcrumbs, and the texture combination is what I can’t get out of my head. It was so easily one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten that I’m actually saddened by the fact that it’s off the menu now, never to be tasted again.
pistachio soup
chocolate and peanut butter ganache, concord grape sorbet
photo via Tocqueville
I’ll never understand why Tocqueville doesn’t get the praise it deserves. The outstanding food, the opulent decor, and the personal service from staff that actually seems to care that you’re there make it one of the best restaurants in NYC. Their $24 lunch prix fixe has to be the biggest steal this side of the $15 Soba Totto lunch combo that feeds four, and the half-pours of their wine pairings mean you can enjoy a little afternoon refreshment without stumbling home and forgetting how you got there, a la lunch at Momofuku Ko. Tocqueville will continue to be my go-to special date spot, much-deserved Michelin star or no.
New York, NY 10003 (map)
Crêpes du Nord – French/Scandinavian – Financial District
It only makes sense that the ladies behind Goodies First and donuts4dinner would team up for a crepes luncheon, right? And we even had the good sense not to skip straight to dessert.
Crêpes du Nord opened about a year ago just a few minutes from my office in the Financial District, but that whole Stone Street restaurant conglomerate sort of scares me with its frat house feel. The street is closed to traffic and filled with umbrella-shaded picnic tables, which would be lovely if they weren’t constantly crowded with light blue dress shirts and uncomfortable heels. But that’s New York, I guess.
I had a gift certificate, which made the decision to go quite a bit easier, and it turns out you can enter the restaurant through the William Street side, which is considerably more relaxed. The restaurant can only hold about 20 people, so I recommend getting there well before or after the lunch rush. And if you get a table near the front, you can watch your crepe being skillfully made.
Prosciutto di Parma, ricotta, arugula, black pepper, lemon
Krista described her openface prosciutto crepe filled with ricotta as a nice sandwich alternative that “certainly” beats the offerings at Subway, which I’m not sure is much of a compliment, but she did say she liked the buckwheaty heftiness of the crepe.
Country Herb Chicken, ricotta, ratatouille
The reviews I read all suggested the Country Herb Chicken crepe, and while I felt pretty pedestrian ordering fowl when there was herring, shrimp, and short rib on the menu, I just had to hope the reviewers weren’t all Statue of Liberty visitors with Ohio palates. I couldn’t have expected more from the crepe, though; side by side with tender summer squash in an herbed tomato sauce, the chunks of chicken were juicy yet firm to complement the creaminess of the cheese.
Dulce De Leche, caramel, fresh banana, whipped cream
Again, this was probably the boringest of the dessert crepes, but it really hit my soft spot for caramel. The whipped cream could’ve been thicker for me, but once you’ve had the Peter Luger schlag, all other whipped cream is a fail.
My co-workers were concerned my lunch date wouldn’t be able to keep up with me in the gluttony department, but it turns out I couldn’t finish either of my dishes. For $5 to $12 each, the crepes were just as filling as any generic sandwich but with twice the taste and skill required. Plus, the subtle but sleek decor makes it a great place for a lunch date.
New York, NY 10004 (map)
24 Years of Hating Seafood
Sushi Yasuda is considered by many to be the best sushi in New York City–indeed, much of their website is devoted to the formal customs and proper ways of eating it–and my boyfriend has been eyeing their omakase for years now.
The problem is that the omakase–which literally means “it’s up to you”–is a tasting menu of the chef’s choice, and while I’m down for anything an American or European restaurant might serve as part of their tasting, there’s some concern with Asian restaurants that I may get a whole squid or a live baby octopus.
And it’s not that I don’t want to be able to eat everything the chef offers, because obviously he’s not going to put anything in front of me that’s not intended to be mindblowing, but having spent the first 24 years of my life fish-free, I still have a little bit of a mindblock that keeps me from really enjoying the slimiest of seafoods.
Still, I’ve had a lot of advances in the eating of seameats thanks to seriously delicious dishes like the Chilean sea bass at Tao, the lobster at Seasonal Restaurant and Weinbar, and the scallops, shrimp, and lobster at The Wright. So it’s kind of funny to look back at our one and only trip to Yasuda in 2008 and see these pictures:
Here’s Kamran shoveling in uni (sea urchin gonads!) like he hasn’t eaten in weeks. Meanwhile, I ordered things like . . . cucumber rolls.
Despite still being scared of live baby octopi, I think I’m ready for another round at Yasuda! I just have to remind myself not to look at all of the freaky stuff on Law & Food‘s review before I go.
New York, NY 10017 (map)
Woot!
It’s like today’s Woot shirt was made especially for me!
Thanks to my best friend, Tracey, for pointing it out. Now go buy it so we can match!
La Silhouette – French/American (New) – Hell’s Kitchen
After reading a short blurb about La Silhouette and its owner, Sally Chironis’s, connection to Le Bernadin in the New York magazine food blog, Grub Street, I checked out the menu and found that I wanted to try every single thing on it. Well, except for maybe the Mixed Baby Lettuce salad, but the inclusion of a snail risotto made up for that. So my boyfriend and I booked a reservation for last Saturday, a mere two weeks after their opening.
Their liquor license wasn’t in place yet, so we brought a bottle each of Eins Zwei Dry 2008 and Chateau Padouen Sauternes 2006 with us, which were immediately put on ice beside our table. Our server joked that everything on the menu was the house specialty at that point, and when we expressed interest in the chef’s tasting menu, he recited its typical dishes. The dishes, to be honest, weren’t any of the ones I really thought sounded exciting–like the scallops, the snail risotto, and the monkfish–but I was nonetheless impressed with everything we were served.
bagel chips
So thin and crispy we marveled at them. Was there possibly a knife that could cut bread so wispy? Or did the kitchen have a bagel mold that they filled only the tiniest bit?
goat cheese spread with herbs
Spread this on the bagel chips, and the chef calls it “France Meets New York”. We called it onion and chive potato chips. My boyfriend thought it was a little gimmicky, but I think being able to take two entirely different foods and make them taste like a really familiar one is a neat little feat.
Hudson Valley foie gras torchon, quince and pear chutney, melba toast
You feel kind of wimpy ordering a foie gras torchon, because this particular preparation takes away all of the down and dirty imperfections of the hunk of fattened liver. Unlike with other preparations (like the grilled slab at The Modern or the roasted version at Colicchio & Sons), a torchon is all one homogenized texture, like eating sausage instead of a fatty steak. I can see how a true foie gras champion would love the authenticity of a straight up unprocessed chunk, but I really love the added creaminess of a torchon and take comfort in knowing I’m not going to run into a stray vein.
The coarse salt on top added a nice little crunch, and the sweetness of the quince really took away the slight bitter edge organ meat has. (However, it did also take away from the sweetness of our wine and made for a bad pairing.) The melba wasn’t the usual thin, brick-like kind you find in plastic packaging but was thick, soft, and flaky.
crudo of daurade, celery root puree, hearts of palm, grapefruit kumquat dressing
I’ve had dorade before and just assumed the menu had a misspelling, but our server informed us that dorade is the the farmed version of the fish, while daurade is wild-caught. Either way, I truly had heart palpitations at my first bite of this dish. The sliver of heart of palm was fresh and crunchy and exactly the opposite of the kind you find canned on grocery store shelves. The section of grapefruit gave it a wonderful citrus bite. The mustard seed added spice. The white cream was this wonderful celery root (think celery, which I love, but with the flavor multiplied by ten) spread, and the whole thing was swimming in a puddle of lemongrass.
Chef David Malbequi came out to talk to us at one point, and when I complimented this dish, he said he was trying to learn to be more restrained with it so as to not drown the flavor of the daurade. As someone who doesn’t need a lot of fishiness in my fish dishes, I wouldn’t have changed anything about this, but Kamran wanted to taste even more of the daurade.
slow baked halibut, caramelized cauliflower puree, sunchokes, grapes, warm caper vinaigrette
This was one of those dishes where the sum of the parts was much, much greater than the parts themselves. I saw this and thought, “Hey, know the only way to make halibut even more boring? ADD CAULIFLOWER.” But the cauliflower puree was heeeeeavenly and added a saltiness to the halibut it would’ve lacked otherwise. The grapes added a nice crunch on top of the firm texture of the fish, and caramelizing cauliflower, it turns out, makes it much less boring. This still wasn’t the kind of dish that makes me want to eat a whole school of fish.
classic veal cheek blanquette (a preparation where the butter and meat aren’t browned), Meyer lemon spaetzle, black trumpet
Maybe I should take back the heeeeeavenly I used in my description of the cauliflower puree, because if you imagine the most comforting dish you can think of, it doesn’t begin to touch this one. More tender than any steak, the rounds of veal practically fell apart just by my looking at them. The spaetzle, a soft little doughball of a noodle, was right at home with its hint of fresh lemon to contrast the deeper, developed flavors of the white cream sauce.
Kamran thought it needed more salt, but I was convinced he had just gotten used to the richness of the dish too fast. It’s like the way the first bite of a good ice cream makes you want to slap someone, but by the end of the scoop, it might as well be McDonald’s soft-serve; the first bite of veal made his tastebuds so delirious that they forgot how to function.
chocolate soufflé for two, hazelnut chocolate sauce, espresso ice cream
I had seen a photo of this soufflé on the La Silhouette website and was convinced it was just a normal-sized soufflé that they’d slapped for two onto to justify the $18 price tag. But it turns out the ramekin was as big as a cantaloupe and brimming with inches and inches of fluffy not-quite-cake/not-quite-pudding. Our server poured chocolate sauce on top of the mound, which soaked all the way down through the center and made the insides warm and gooey while leaving the outside edges slightly crunchy. The bitterness of the espresso ice cream was a welcome sharp contrast.
La Silhouette cheesecake, pineapple mango salad, coconut milk glacé
This was the only miss of the night, though I’m almost sad to call it that, because I think a lot of skill went into making it. The cheesecake was hands down the lightest I’ve ever had. It was cloud-like, as if pastry chef Vivian Wu had baked some whipped cream. Perhaps on its own it would’ve seemed like a substantial dessert, but next to the souffle, it was like a side dish. The best part of it was actually the sweet fruit salad, which complemented the wonderfully fresh coconut ice cream.
meringues, marshmallow, crisp rice
My boyfriend and I were at odds about this rating. He thought the service was exceptionally slow (it took us more than three and a half hours to finish the meal), and he thought the design of the restaurant made it seem claustrophobic. I can’t blame a kitchen for not being uber-efficient in its first two weeks of service, though, and while it’s true that we were seated in a tiny room with only a handful of tables, the main dining area was beautiful. So putting those two things aside, I can’t in good faith give La Silhouette any fewer than 4.5 donuts based on the inventiveness, deliciousness, and technical skill behind its dishes. Although I’d like to see some slight changes to the halibut and cheesecake courses, I’d much rather eat here than at any of the restaurants I’ve rated 4 donuts.
New York, NY 10019 (map)