Aquavit: restaurant week lunch

I’ve just returned from my restaurant week lunch at Aquavit and if they allowed me to, I would set up a cot in the back corner and move in to their restaurant. I actually said this to our server, who smiled a genuine smile and let out what I think was a small but well placed giggle. (Having a server who is sincerely pleasant, with a sense of humor is a lovely thing, especially at a higher end restaurant and especially during restaurant week. She even encouraged us to come again during restaurant week. Gold star for kindness and hospitality!!)

Not all restaurants treat their restaurant week patrons as well as they treat their a la carte patrons (check out “Restaurant Week Totally Bites” in the NYPost from July 13th for more complaints about that) but some, like Aquavit, really and truly do. Try them out at remarkably reduced prices while you still can!

I went with a friend, Udi. Udi is a sharer friend, which is my very favorite type of friend to dine with (though I’m flexible). I ordered the Matjes Herring Tartar appetizer, the Long Island Duck Confit entree and the Macerated Stone Fruits with vanilla panna cotta and long pepper ice cream for dessert. YUM!

The herring tartar was a bit of a risk for me because, having grown up in an Eastern European family, I think of herring as the pickled stuff you get in a jar that I have never liked in my life. But I thought that in this gorgeous fish-centric mecca of Scandinavian cuisine, maybe I’ll like herring. And I LOVED the herring! If you go, you should try the herring! It came in a lovely, sort of creamy round and it just melted in my mouth. It was surrounded by these beautiful bursts of colorful condiments and accoutrements: tiny pickled beets, a dollop of sour cream, some dill, some tiny pearl onions, etc. and a crispbread. Fantastic. And fun, too!

My friend ordered the Cedar Smoked Ham with pickled vegetables and truffled mustard and when it was served he looked at me and said, “This looks like an art installation.” It was really a beautiful presentation and it tasted just as good as it looked.

The duck confit was nothing short of masterful. It was a perfectly sized lunch portion (if not slightly on the generous side) of duck leg and thigh served over a sweet corn barley that was the perfect combination of creamy and sweet and contrasted so nicely with the fresh crunch of the snow pea apple relish. And it’s hard to imagine anything with a cherry jus being bad. I’m full and satisfied and my mouth is still watering just thinking about it.

My friend ordered the Blackened Perch and when he tasted both he said that he couldn’t figure out the right way to say that both dishes were spectacular in very different ways. I think that says it just fine.

I tend to be a sucker for panna cotta to begin with but this one was a home run and any restaurant that serves panna cotta and ice cream in the same dessert is all right in my book. The macerated stone fruit was more of a garnish than anything else, though there was a fruit sauce on the side that set off the panna cotta and the ice cream nicely and the chocolate muesli sprinkled around the edge gave it the little bit of crunch that was needed to round off the textures.

Udi ordered the local strawberries with almond meringue and vanilla ice cream for dessert and what sounded rather plain on the menu was anything but when it arrived at our table. It was basically one of the tastiest deconstructed strawberry shortcakes I’ve ever had. There were little chunks of rich, buttery pound cake drizzled with a light but potent strawberry sauce, topped with two cute little almond meringues, fresh strawberries (and blackberries and blueberries) and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center. Don’t be fooled by the understated description on the menu. You should eat this!

It can be especially fun to try a special restaurant that isn’t French, Italian, Asian or Contemporary American. If you love good food (like I do), you tend to sample lots of fine fare from those four. You don’t see too many Scandinavian restaurants so Aquavit is excellent and also on the novel side in that way. But if you want to branch out and try some Scandinavian cuisine, I say do it right.

Marcus Samuelsson, I like you a whole lot.