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The Tasting Menu at Louro
May 1st, 2013 by donuts4dinner

Having first met Chef David Santos at his home supper club, Um Segredo, I felt a sense of pride when he opened his first restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village, Louro. As he sold out his Monday night themed dinners (like the truffle feast) and received a star from the New York Times two months in, I was already telling people that “I knew him way back when”.

The restaurant is a little bit of everything: a rustic floor and seating, nature-inspired lighting, and black and white photos of highbrow book collections. The food is on the fancy side, but the service makes you feel comfortable. I get the feeling that Dave’s tasting menu varies from night to night like the Per-Se-trained chef he is, but here’s the five-course, $65 chef’s tasting from the night my boyfriend and I visited recently:

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
homemade flatbread and Portuguese “butter”

The Portuguese “butter”–actually lard–is basically reason enough to ever visit Louro. Chowhound even wrote an article solely devoted to people’s devotion to it. In the Um Segredo days, it was a gloopy, drippy, melty concoction. Now it’s a homogenized spread that actually stays on your bread. I’m not saying I like it one way or another, but it’s all grown up now and is certainly ready to be jarred and sold commercially. (Hint, hint.) The bread was just as ridiculously fluffy/crunchy as ever.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
seafood fritters, smoked paprika aioli

So much flavor, and not any one standout “this is definitely scallops” flavor but a meld of the whole sea, clean and fresh and bright. They didn’t even need the tangy sauce for me, and I live to cover up natural flavor with sauces.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
piri piri shrimp

Super spicy thanks to the piri piri pepper with the most perfect texture. I have to admit that I’m somewhat squeamish about touching shrimp tails still (and let’s not talk about the heads), but I could eat a lot of these. Like, a lot a lot.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
green asparagus

My extremely observant impression of this: “very fresh for the most part but then sour pickled something”. You’re welcome. The mushrooms were salted and the whole dish was chilled.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
white asparagus, sauce gribiche

I love when a simple dish really wows. Not that sauce gribiche is so simple, but presenting this white asparagus so purely made it seem more important and almost meaty, like a piece of steak. I loved the grainy texture of the sauce against the cool, tender asparagus. It was like eating a really good tartar sauce. With eggs.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
sepia

The cuttlefish is a freaky animal, but it’s a pleasure to eat a singular thing like this with no bones/veins/any of the freaky stuff you find in land creatures. The sepia has a natural light oceany flavor that was compounded with grilling, and then the richer bacony flavor and bitterness of the greens created a contrast.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
uni, crispy pork belly, yuzu, shiso, togarashi pickled cabbage

My boyfriend said he was worried that pork belly was too easy–bacon makes everything better–but we didn’t care once we tasted the fresh brightness of the uni against the richness of the pork. The spicy/sour cabbage cut its fattiness, and with the bright citrus, this dish became one of the lightest pork preparations I’ve had. But with just enough of that uni iron flavor to make things interesting.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
mackerel, pineapple, hearts of palm

Sour and sweet thanks to the pineapple and the onion, which for me, made the dish. Crispy skin and that tender but hearty hearts of palm texture.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
walleye, hominy, onion ring

So meaty and spicy with so many textures, from the crunchy onion ring with its delicate batter to the hominy, which was like eating a mixture of pasta and popcorn.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
spring vegetable pasta

I don’t know why Dave’s pasta is so good. I half-expected this to be a pasta course simply for a pasta course’s sake, but this and the tagliatelle were two of the most memorable dishes of the night. The peas and garbanzos were so super fresh and al dente against the creamy, rich cheese.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
octopus bolognese tagliatelle

Cheesy but not enough to hide the tang of the tomato, with the thinnest pasta and just the right amount of chewy texture from the octopus. I expected this to be on the seafood side of the flavor spectrum, but it was much more land meat than ocean.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
pork belly

Tender, oniony, and homey, like it was from a recipe passed down by your mom. The best part were the nuts that added to the crunch of the crust.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
steak

I loved the bold flavors of this, the intense spice of the peppers and chilis. Tender and rare, with hearty crushed potatoes.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
pain perdu

I don’t really remember what was going on with this bread, because I was too focused on the amaretto cookie, which was suuuuuper buttery. It was perfect with the texture of the ice cream–just a little grainy, like the best homemade ice cream is.

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC
white asparagus ice cream, strawberry compote, shortbread crumble

The funky, fresh taste of asparagus with the cold and syrupy sweet strawberry chunks and a crumble for texture. This isn’t for the faint of heart with the asparagus flavor so evident and unexpected in ice cream, but Chef Santos seems to love to present a little challenge at the end of the meal (see: foie gras doughnuts).

Louro Tasting Menu, NYC

I won’t rate this since I’m too biased toward Chef Santos’s cooking, but I can tell you that this is the best food I’ve had from him. He’s never been one to shy away from bold flavors, but these dishes were even bolder, even more complex, even more complete than what he was doing at his supper club. Clearly the new kitchen and the hands in it suit his ambitious style, and I plan to be so much of a regular at Louro that they get tired of seeing me.

Louro
142 West 10th Street
New York, NY 10014 (map)

The Lunch Tasting Menu at Gramercy Tavern
Apr 4th, 2013 by donuts4dinner

We’ve long had Gramercy Tavern on our list simply because it’s a part of the Danny Meyer/Union Square Hospitality family of restaurants that includes Shake Shack, The Modern, and formerly Eleven Madison Park. With the Shake Shack burger being my favourite in NYC and Eleven Madison Park my third-favourite restaurant in all of NYC, my expectations for the $58 lunch tasting menu were high and were met both in the food and the service.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
fluke tartare, tangerine, peanut and fried shallot

So citrusy, with a highlight of celery and a little crunch from the kohlrabi and fried onions.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
ruby red shrimp, carrots, quinoa and coconut broth

So tender, with the crispy quinoa for contrast. I eat a lot of quinoa because it acts like a grain without actually being a grain, but its use here as a texture element and broth-thickener was one of the best I’ve seen. Despite the heavy flavor of the coconut broth, this was so well-balanced that everything from the shrimp to the bok choy came through.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
halibut, barley, shiitake mushrooms and parsnip lobster sauce

A hearty fish preparation, with chewy barley and mushroom, that thick halibut steak, salty caviar, and the flavor that made the dish for me, onion. The sauce had just enough lobster flavor but not enough to drown the halibut.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
bull knife

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
roasted duck breast, lentils, hazelnuts and king trumpet mushrooms

Salty and black peppery, with a crispy-skinned duck, slightly al dente lentils, and that meaty, chewy mushroom. The whole dish had a rich, umami flavor where even the celery puree had notes of earthy lentils in it.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
palate cleanser: tangerine panna cotta

Sour notes, with fresh tangerine, creamy panna cotta, and the crunch of pomegranate seeds and meringue. I love overly-tart desserts, but my boyfriend, who does not, loved that this was more balanced than the palate cleansers we’re used to.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
chocolate pecan coconut cake, butter pecan ice cream

We loved the light, moist coconut layer in the center of this dense, rich cake. The toasted coconut marshmallows and salty butter pecan ice cream with caramelized nuts added extra-sweet and savory-salty notes.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
bonus dessert!: peanut butter semifreddo, chocolate macaron and hot fudge

Super-intense peanut butter flavor! The semifreddo was like a mousse in texture but with the temperature of ice cream. We loved the overall saltiness, the crunch of the caramelized peanuts, and the chewy macaron. Regular macaron filling without the hot fudge to dip it in won’t compare after this.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu
mignardises

Coffee chocolate, coconut-cardamom macaron, cinnamon cookie.

Gramercy Tavern Lunch Tasting Menu

Rating One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne-Half Star

We ate this lunch the day after our lunch tasting at Babbo, and I was left wondering after Gramercy Tavern why we aren’t lunch-tasting all of the time. $58 each bought us some really well-composed, really delicious plates of food, and everyone else seemed to be there for business lunch, so the staff doted on us as we talked about celery and butter pecan instead of exit strategies and being proactive. The restaurant has a very relaxed, American feel while looking like a room in a Medieval castle, and the servers’ attitudes match the vibe. With the way Chef Michael Anthony and the kitchen at Gramercy Tavern seem to know just the right little touches to complete a dish–crispy quinoa here, onion there–I’d love to go back for the full tasting at dinnertime.

Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th Street
New York, NY 10003 (map)

The Tasting Menu at Daniel
Mar 22nd, 2013 by donuts4dinner

I called our first visit to Daniel back in 2011 “as close to perfect a meal as Kamran and I have had in NYC”. It was our first time at a restaurant with three Michelin stars and our first time eating one of these over-the-top, wine-paired, France-fueled tasting menus.

Since then, we’ve been to all but one of the three-Michelin-starred places (if anyone wants to put in a good word for Masa, I’m listening) and have basically had so much good food that we’ve started to question whether or not it’s been a mistake to ruin ourselves for mediocre food, so we decided it was time to go back to Daniel and see if our first time still holds up.

This is the six-course tasting for $195 (with an added cheese course for $50), paired with wine for $105:

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
amuse bouche trio

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
amuse: salmon, pumpernickel, mustard

Mostly salmony but with just a hint of that bitter rye flavor.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
amuse: parsnip, onion jam

Creamy/crunchy/chewy textures, with chive oil at the bottom to add to and contrast with the flavor of the onion jam on top.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
amuse: shrimp, cilantro, parsnip confit

The most perfect, most singular bite of shrimp, with citrus flavor and the crunch of the confit parsnip chip below.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
Lauer Riesling “Ayler Kupp Faß 6 ‘Senior’”, Mosel, Germany 2011

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
squab terrine with pickled shiitake, confit grapes, muscat gelée, purple watercress, pistachio oil, young vegetables

Pretty gamey-tasting with a ham-like texture that made this like enjoying a charcuterie plate, sour gelee, and a very fresh, almost vegetal-flavored pistachio oil swipe.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
duck terrine with red wine poached forelle pear, Asian pear, ginger-onion jam, mâche salad

Sweet and creamy, with crisp brioche toast points. This was the gentler counterpart to the funky squab thanks to its sweet onions and crisp pears, which I love the texture of in any dish but especially in very homogenous ones.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
Salomon Undhof, Grüner Veltliner “Hochterrassen”, Kremstal 2011

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
Maine peekytoe crab salad with granny smith apple, pickled cranberries, celery shavings, walnut oil

This was one of my favourite dishes on both visits. Not only is crab just simply delicious, but Daniel knows just the fresh elements to pair with it to make it really sing, for lack of a better metaphor. Subtle and sweet with a vinegary celery sauce to make it bright. I don’t think anything was better for me all night than that first forkful of crab, celery leaves, and crisp apple.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
olive oil poached cod salad, mussel-parsley vinaigrette, pickled hon shimeji mushroom, chorizo, artichoke, smoked sablefish

These tender hunks of fish were served cold and had much stronger flavors than their crab counterpart thanks to a meaty mussel sauce and brunoise of bold chorizo. A combination of fresh and wilted leaves gave it differing textures.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
Florida frog legs fricassée, red wine stewed rye berry, kale, crispy shallot

My first frog! Except for the lollipop, which seemed more familiar due to its breading, I thought this had its own slightly aquatic flavor and didn’t just “taste like chicken”. The texture of the smaller bits reminded me a lot of sweetbreads with the way it was chewy and segmented. I loved the deep stew-like flavors of the this and the texture of the crispy kale.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
fennel ravioli with Scottish langoustines, sautéed cuttlefish, Sicilian green olive, artichoke and saffron cream sauce

Have I mentioned that Daniel really knows what they’re doing with shrimp? The sweet shellfish flavor was so strong in this despite the relatively bold flavors of fennel and olive. It was so buttery and familiar, less exciting than the frog legs but more comforting. I think I’m finally getting used to the taste of olives, too, because when I tasted them in this dish, it was more “that’s what an olive tastes like” than “eww, what is that weird gross flavor?” Grownup!

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
Copain, Pinot Noir “Tous Ensemble”, Anderson Valley, California 2010

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
grilled swordfish, pine needle gremolata, gourgane panisse, Brussels sprouts, pioppini mushroom, sauce diable

Our first time at Daniel, we were impressed by the way the kitchen made tuna taste like steak and sole taste like chicken, and this was another instance of their uncanny ability to bring the sea to land. It was just so much like eating a piece of steak, and the fava bean/chickpea cake was such the perfect starch to accompany it with its crispy exterior and dense middle. I loved the buttery Brussels sprout, the fresh garbanzos, and just the slightest heat from the sauce.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
oven baked black sea bass with syrah sauce, crispy yukon gold potato with tellicherry pepper, kale flan, shallot marmalade

Not really a kale flan but more like a crumbly kale cookie, with fresh bitter kale leaves on top. Deliiiiicious little cylinder of creamy potatoes with a crunchy shell. Sticky, dark sauce. The only misstep for me was the lack of crispy skin on the fish; the other elements on the plate were simply much more interesting than the sea bass.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
trio of milk fed veal, roasted tenderloin with king oyster, cheek “blanquette” with parsnip purée, crispy sweetbreads with green peppercorn jus

What’s more luxurious than a plate full of different kinds of baby cow? The tenderloin was tender, but the blanquette must have started cooking before that little veal was even born to have made it so buttery soft. The sweetbreads were very familiar inside, but the coating was this thick, flour-heavy batter I haven’t tasted before. Even the herbs themselves were salty and delicious; a lot of care was clearly put into this dish.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
duo of beef, braised black angus short ribs, wild mushroom fricassée with horseradish, seared wagyu tenderloin, rutabaga-mace purée, glazed chestnuts

I loved that this dish and the veal were just pure hunks of meat, unadulterated but for some sauce. The sticky sweet tender shortrib was such the perfect juxtaposition to the hard-seared wagyu. The chestnuts provided just enough texture contrast to the purées but were still softened and sweet.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
cheese plate

The frommelier (apparently this is a totally real word used to describe the fromage version of the wine sommelier) brought her cheese cart around to our table and named each selection. We knew we wanted the super-stinky Époisses de Bourgogne but otherwise left ourselves in her hands and received a plate with six different kinds ranging from firm to soft and sweet to stinky and goaty to sheepy to cowy. Slices of bread, apricots, cherries, and the sweetest red wine gelee accompanied them, and when we couldn’t begin to finish the plate, everything was wrapped up for us to take home.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
tropical-coconut vacherin, guava gel, mango-vanilla swirl, meringue

I secretly think meringue is too simple and bland when anything else is available, but this dessert really worked for me. The layers of whipped cream and cold meringue were so creamy and sweet, and then the fruits on the side packed a sour punch. I loved the guava gel specifically as someone who’s into tart flavors enough to go around sucking on lemons.

served with Château Pajzos 5 Puttonyos Aszú, Tokaji 2003

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
warm guanaja chocolate coulant, liquid caramel, fleur de sel, milk sorbet

This was the same chocolate cake I had back in 2011. The crunchy exterior gave way to a gooey molten center that oozed out onto the plate. Simple. But perfect.

served with Domaine de Rancy Rivesaltes Ambré, Roussillon 1996

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC
chocolate cake with lime

Last time, we were celebrating my boyfriend finishing law school. This time, we weren’t celebrating anything special, but the kitchen still sent us this extra dessert. We saw a lot of extra desserts going around that night, many with little notes written in chocolate on the plates. It’s little touches like this that make Daniel feel special. The fact that I especially loved this because of the super-sour lime gel didn’t hurt, either.

Rating One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne-Half Star

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

The Michelin Guide calls Daniel “luxury in the traditional style”, and I really think that’s the best description. It’s purely elegant here, not in the modern and simple Per Se way but in the over-the-top and grand Bouley way. The dining room is completely windowless, creating this very protected and intimate feel, and the sunken center means that diners on the perimeter have a view of what everyone else is doing. I’m sure it doesn’t compare to dining in the skybox overlooking the kitchen, but I felt pretty regal at my spot along the wall on a plush banquette lit only by a candle and being served by friendly-yet-professional Frenchies. Pretty close to perfect indeed.

Daniel Tasting Menu, NYC

Daniel
60 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10065 (map)

Colicchio & Sons Tasting Menu
Mar 5th, 2013 by donuts4dinner

Tom Colicchio is special to my boyfriend and me, and not just because we’ve considered basing vacation plans solely on being able to visit the restaurants of “Top Chef” contestants. (Really just Michael Voltaggio’s.) Not only did we spend our last anniversary at Craft, but our first tasting menu there held the title of The Best Meal of My Life for the longest time. My first Craftbar pork belly is the standard by which I’ve judged all others, and we celebrated Valentine’s Day 2010 at Colicchio & Sons shortly after its opening. (My pictures from that were used in an NPR article making fun of food bloggers’s awful pictures. YES!) Since Chef Colicchio has expanded his empire, like, tenfold since then, we decided to go back, this time to try the tasting menu at $135 and $95 for wine pairings.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
cauliflower salad, uni vinaigrette, puffed rice

Loved the sour uni with the char of the puffed rice. A feast of textures and acids in an unexpectedly interesting dish.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
cucumber, tobiko

The beginning of this meal was really fast-paced, so we can’t remember much about this aside from the fact that we really liked it. We think it was a cucumber custard topped with flying fish roe. There may have been some wasabi in there. Trust me.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Brussels sprouts, bacon

Can’t go wrong with sprouts and crazy-crispy pork, especially when the sprouts are shaved this way.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
bread

The buttery, salty, sweet rolls calling to me from across the table.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
parsnip soup, chickpea with black truffle, gougere

Creamy, starchy, sweet soup, a crispy little chickpea cake with the dark flavors of black truffle, and a very cheesy gougere.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Alfred Gratien ‘Classique’ NV Brut Epernay

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
potato bavarois with hackleback caviar & vodka cream

As regulars of Momofuku Ko, we’ve had the tube of potato souffle with caviar amuse bouche more times than I can count, so this was very familiar in a way. Except that it was cold. The fluffy potato and cream were so texturally good with the burst of brine from the caviar and the crunch of the fingerling potato chips, but I sure wished they had been warm.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Barolo ‘Brunate-Cannubi’ Damilano Piedmont 2005

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
barolo spaghetti with coddled egg & guanciale

This take on carbonara was so rich and homey with its barely-cooked egg that spilled all over the plate and its smoky hunks of pig face. We unfortunately didn’t get any flavor of the barolo it was soaked in despite the barolo wine pairing for reference, but I still have no complaints about this dish thanks to its very al dente pasta and that sprinkling of chives and cheese.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Pouilly-Fuissé Nicolas Maillet Burgundy 2010

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
roasted scallop with hearts of palm & blood orange

A really well-composed dish where every forkful revealed more and more interesting components. The blood orange reduction was SO SWEET to complement the natural sweetness of the well-seared scallop but was balanced by the spicy sliver of jalapeno. The salty slices of heart of palm on top added seasoning that the scallop needed, as well. I’d come back for this.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Beaune-Greves 1er cru Tollot-Beaut Burgundy 2006

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
duck breast with wheat berries, farro & huckleberry jus

This was a dish rich in savory flavors and umami. The crisp edges of the oyster mushrooms mirrored the spicy crispy skin of the almost beefy duck. The springy chew of the plump farro and juicy, pliable huckleberries in their jus seemed made for each other.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Syrah ‘Walker Vine Hill’ Donelan Russian River Valley 2009

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
American wagyu with lardons, kabocha squash, salsify & tuscan kale

So tender! And that stiff sear! The kale underneath was made memorable by the salty rock-hard slabs of pork lardon, but the salsify and kabocha were just okay.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Riesling ‘Ürziger Würzgarten’ Spatlese Cristoffel Mosel 2010

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Époisses crème brûlée with huckleberry & pecan-fennel shortbread

This dish was the entire reason we made our Colicchio & Sons reservation. A few years ago, our friend Anthony introduced us to Époisses de Bourgogne cheese, and it quickly became our go-to for stinky creamy washed-rind goodness. This creme brulee did absolutely nothing to mask the pungent flavor of the cheese and instead made this a true cheese course with mostly savory flavors and then just an inkling of sweetness from the layer of caramelized sugar topping and the sticky pecan crumble on the fennel-rich shortbread pieces. This was better than a normal creme brulee, though, because as soon as you took a spoonful of the creme, the huckleberry puree underneath filled the bottom of the vessel.

We liked this so much that we were taken back to the kitchen to tell pastry chef Stephen Collucci to his face. But even more than the creme brulee, we loved the dessert that was still to come.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
Coteaux du Layon, Moulin-Touchais Loire Valley 1992

(Very nice but not quite sweet enough for the dessert it was paired with.)

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
brown sugar cake, pineapple, macadamia nut & milk chocolate ice cream

I’m usually impressed by the skill behind fancy desserts but don’t usually gape and gasp at them. Not because I don’t love dessert but because I love dessert too much, and no one ever gives me the big sugary gloopy gloppy affair I’m looking for. But this. Dessert. Was. AWESOME. My boyfriend said it reminded him of a Christmas ham with its pineapple and cherry flavors, but the point of the dish was the brown sugar cake, which actually had a sugar center so buttery that it was making the cake translucent from the inside. It was the texture of heavily syrup-soaked pancakes. The sticky cherry sauce, extra-sweet crispy-chewy pineapple shards, and milk chocolate ice cream were just the cherries on top. So to speak.

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
nougat, passion fruit pate de fruits, lavender-lemon biscotti

I gave my boyfriend the bigger pate de fruits, because that’s how love works. Also because he pays for dinner.

Rating One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarBlank Star

Colicchio and Sons NYC Tasting Menu
the wine room

There are two ways of thinking about Colicchio & Sons:

1) It doesn’t have to be as good as it is. It’s owned by Tom Colicchio, so it’s automatically going to be packed. It’s in the Meatpacking District, so it’s automatically going to be packed. It’s dark and romantic and has a separate Tap Room full of cheaper options, so it’s automatically going to be packed. And yet the restaurant never acts like you need it more than it needs you. All of the employees seemed flat-out excited to be there the night we dined, and our server might have been embroiled in a full-on love affair with most of the dishes from the way he described them. Every plate was really good and some were really excellent.

2) It’s price is on par with some of the better tasting menus in town–Momofuku Ko, Atera, Le Bernardin, wd~50, Torrisi–but the level of creativity isn’t quite there. The soundtrack sometimes ventured into 80s glam, and the decor is more cigar bar than sleek. It’s not quite refined, not quite boundary-pushing.

That said, the food at Colicchio & Sons is nothing short of delicious, and the familiarity will actually be a boon to those who love the idea of a tasting menu but don’t want course after course of unpronounceable ingredients. They’ll still have a little uni and puffed rice forced on them, though, and that’s a good thing.

Colicchio & Sons
85 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10011 (map)

The Tasting Menu at Corton
Jan 30th, 2013 by donuts4dinner

My boyfriend and I were looking for a tasting menu for last weekend. We mentioned Corton and then moved past it, figuring that there’s a whole world of NYC restaurants we haven’t been to. For days, we mulled over Gramercy Tavern, Corton, Scarpetta, Corton, Ai Fiori, Corton, Aldea . . . and then we actually read the menu on Corton’s website. SOLD. “Wacked-out modernist cuisine”, my boyfriend calls it. With two much-deserved Michelin stars to boot.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

This is the $155 tasting menu with wine pairings also at $155:

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

This cracker with a micro shiso leaf (that’s Japanese mint, although it has a flavor all its own) came way too fast for me to have my memory-bearings about me. You can’t beat the cuteness of that leaf, though.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
arugula Gorgonzola cake

Soft and slightly bitter, with a kick of blue cheese.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
lemongrass tuile and some fried balls of something

The tuile (or crispy wafer) tasted like Froot Loops, and we seem to think the fried balls were cheesy, but don’t make this your sole reason for making a reservation just in case I’m wrong. They were served alongside a homemade XO sauce (that’s Chinese dried seafood sauce, although I think any non-seafood-lover would like it), and we love XO, but the fried ball was sadly the wrong vessel for the sauce, and I didn’t get the flavor of it at all.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
XO sauce

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
pretzel and candied chestnut brioche

Pretzels in the bread basket make me swoon. So did the candied square of chestnut at the center of this roll.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
sweet cream butter, apricot black olive butter

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
black bean chawanmushi, confit citrus

There was about an eighth of an inch of custard in this pot, but it packed a salty flavor punch with notes of bacon and leafy greens. The confit citrus peel was a deliiiiicious crunchy addition. Black bean and orange–who knew?

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
black truffle: classic foie gras and black truffle spiral, toasted buckwheat, kombu toffee

I love how the menu calls this a “classic foie gras and black truffle spiral”. I’ve never seen anything remotely resembling it before. The foie torchon (so smooth, so creamy) was surrounded by a gelee layer of black truffle that was unfortunately overpowered by the flavor of the liver, but the dish overall was really nice and really savory. For someone who likes the flavor of mushrooms but thinks they’re kind of weird-looking and weird-feeling, this completely homogenous sauce-like preparation was perfect, and the apple sliver and crisp kombu (kelp) strip added the necessary crunch. A scoop of radish added brightness and sourness. The toasted buckwheat roll on the side was perfectly soft on the inside but provided enough structure to make a great foie vessel.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
spirit of sweet potato: sweet potato gnocchi, pumpkin seeds, warm Serrano ham consomme

The juxtaposition between the rich potato gnocchi and ham consomme and the fresh leaves and tiny romanesco (prettiest vegetable ever, right?) made this a much more complex dish than I expected at first glance. The egg nestled next to the gnocchi broke to spread a single drop of balsamic, making the consomme even richer.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
smoke and winter: flavors of smoke and winter–smoked cod cheek, smoked mackerel, ricotta whey, whole grain mustard and hazelnut, green olive paste

I was excited to try my first cod cheek (foreground), but the sliver of smoked mackerel (background) was actually more flavorful and more tender. This wasn’t the first fish in whey I’ve had recently, and I still love the tenderness and simplicity it lends to a seafood dish. I also liked the crunchy whole-grain mustard and the meringue-like texture of the triangular black . . . thing.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
kalamansi mandarin mochi, Persian lime

This little sweet and sour ball was delivered in a box dotted with ripe calamansi (sour citrus) fruits. I almost didn’t expect it to be sweet, coming so soon in the meal, but it was a whirl of orange-y, lime-y, yuzu-y ice cream wrapped in a mochi skin. I loved the little speck of gold leaf, because I am a glutton for luxury.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
Atlantic turbot, fine mousseline of white pine and black truffle, delicate puree of Winesap apple and pine, bergamot paste, creamy veloute of chestnut and mussel

Wonderfully gelatinous charred turbot belly (foreground right), a curry-like sauce, sweet apple gel, a tender mussel, cabbage stuffed with chopped chestnut and resembling a little brain (background left), a tiny caterpillar-like cylinder of something crunchy like a radish (background right). The “tarte rouge” served on the side was like a side salad with fresh beets and radishes and a cracker instead of croutons. The yuzu cream on the edge of the plate–heaven.

This dish was a huge mishmash of textures and sour and bitter flavors. I’m not sure how composed you can call a dish with so many elements, but I’m not sure I care about composition when everything is so delicious and interesting.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
tart rouge

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
buckwheat soup dumpling with oxtail, truffle, sweet bread

I’ve had a soup dumpling or two hundred in my time in NYC, but this sour-rich-deep-dark one was completely new to me. We debated about whether the oxtail, truffle, and sweetbreads were all necessary since none of those specific flavors came through, but we decided that the dumpling wouldn’t have tasted the same without each one of them, that the overall outcome was more important than the presence of individual ingredients. My boyfriend said it reminded him of a Persian beef stew with Persian lime.

Also: gold leaf.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
calotte de boeuf cooked in black birch, slow-cooked oxtail, turnip and white miso puree

Apparently the calotte de boeuf is the meat that forms that cap of a prime rib. This is either the best part of the cow or the part that butchers throw away, depending on which blog Google directs you to. Apparently this cut is sometimes called deckle but is different than the deckle used in pastrami. I’m confused. But I’m not confused about how totally tasty, totally homey, totally sausage-y this calotte was–completely at odds with the sour black miso and onion served on the side. I loved the tender artichoke slice (foreground right), but the best part of the dish was the little chilled cube of gelatinous tea (background left). Something about how delicious it was just sent me over the edge, and I had to stop eating for a second to keep from crying. WHAT.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
black miso and onion

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
tartare de boeuf, delicate gelee of beef shin, green mango, hazelnut cream

Served on the side of the calotte was this tartare with chive and onion flavors and that sweet and fatty gelee underneath. The “bread” was a puffed beef tendon similar to the one we saw at wd~50 a few months ago. It’s like a packing peanut covered in movie popcorn butter. This one wasn’t as buttery as theirs, but I was happy to see it on another dish at all.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
beef tendon

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
Salers raw cow’s milk cheese from the Auvergne region in France, lemon date gelee, sable of Malabar pepper

“These cows graze on shoots”, our server told us, “so it’s a very floral cheese.” What he meant was that this was going to taste like a really stanky barnyard. Luckily, it was diluted by the sweet fig and Malabar (Indian) spice-covered bread sliver that reminded us of gingerbread. The gelee was unfortunately unflavored, but overall, I thought it a well-composed dish.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
tarte a l’orange

This was shown to us whole and then whisked away to the kitchen so that we’d forget about it and enjoy the two bites that would arrive on our next plate.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

The sommelier, if it’s not clear, was excellent.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
tarte a l’orange: blood orange tart, blood orange sorbet, blood orange dentil

This blood orange sorbet tasted like the white Smarties candies. My boyfriend observed this with his extra-attuned palate, and he was entirely correct. The tart was like an old-fashioned cream pie with a pink iridescent top, and the sorbet was almost too sour for how tame the flavor of the pie was, but both were delicious in their own right. They also made our glasses of Sauternes taste herbal. I can’t find any information about what a culinary dentil is that doesn’t involve Chef Paul Liebrandt, but its traditional definition calls it an architectural detail, so maybe the delicate slice of blood orange candy garnishing the sorbet is the architectural detail on this dessert in Chef Liebrandt’s eyes.

Also: gold leaf.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
fig: cremeux of Mast Brothers Moho River Chocolate, black mission fig ice cream, tarragon gelee

There was again no discernible flavor to this gelee, but the creamy dark Brooklyn chocolate with notes of peanut butter made up for that in spades. I loved the texture of the seeds in the fig and the fact that it was cold.

Also: gold leaf.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
mulled wine pate de fruits

Just as bursting with flavor as you want them to be.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
nougat

Is anything more seemingly-boring and yet actually-delicious than nougat? It was so good that I got distracted and have no idea what the pastry was. But I do know that the chocolate on top is Chef Liebrandt’s initials.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Something chocolatey!

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

A tray of French macarons being lowered onto the table.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
banana and gingerbread French macarons

Perfection.

Corton NYC Tasting Menu
assorted chocolates

Included a grapefruit one that we both agreed was straight-up gross, and I say that as someone who simply loves grapefruit. Luckily, I had saved the salty caramel one for last and made up for it.

Rating One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

Corton NYC Tasting Menu

Even as someone who has given Corton a perfect rating both times I’ve visited, I can see why the reviews of it include extreme highs and extreme lows. It has, for instance, only three and a half out of five stars on Yelp but also two out of three Michelin stars on a list that only includes about fifty New York City restaurants. The “problem” with Corton is two-fold:

1) There are a LOT of ingredients on the plate. You can rarely taste all of them, which leads you to question how necessary they are.

2) The portions are extremely small. It’s not a matter of my being a glutton, because I always leave Corton satisfied with plenty of dessert left on the table. The problem is that I want to taste each element on its own and with the other elements on the plate. This just isn’t possible when there’s one bite of smoked mackerel, one petal of artichoke, a piece of turbot belly that isn’t even equal to a single forkful. Once you taste it, it’s gone. I think this could come off as too precious to someone who doesn’t have patience for rarefied food.

Despite these complaints, the overall effect of the dishes at Corton is still, for me, sheer bliss. To me, the preciousness feels special, not stupid. Because there’s so little of everything, every single bite has to be perfect. And I haven’t been anywhere in NYC that’s making this kind of tiny-yet-hugely-thoughtful food. But let me know if you do, because my life is pretty low on five-donut dinners at the moment.

Corton
239 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013 (map)

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