Perry Street - Not my Favorite Jean Georges but still a Jean Georges

I'd been looking forward to Perry Street for a while. A friend of mine, who happens to be my boss, is a foodie who loves it there and I almost always love places he loves. I didn't love it there. But I also chose poorly.

I did love the decor. It's so pretty and neat and there's so much sunlight. I'm sure it's a great place for dinner 
but with these windows, it would be a shame to miss enjoying the bright and cheerful atmosphere for lunch. Not bad for a workday, if you happen to be downtown (it's all the way on the west side down in meatpacking) but I can also imagine that a leisurely lunch followed by a walk along the Hudson would be a really nice way to spend an afternoon. It's a beautiful space. 

Like I said, I chose poorly. I don't feel like Robert chose all that much better than I did and I was surprised by his selections, given how he'd raved about the place. 


Perry Street's lunch special is year-round and not affiliated with Restaurant Week, which is great. I'm a huge fan of establishments that choose to create accessible options on an ongoing basis. It's a wise business choice and it speaks to the priorities and values of the owners. I also find that restaurants that do have year-long accessible options also have friendlier wait staff who are less likely to betray resentment for their special deal diners, which warrants and extra gold star. A customer is a customer and nobody should be treated as less than, as far as I'm concerned. The staff at Perry Street were all delightful.

Before our appetizers arrived, we were given adorable little cups of cantaloupe soup with little stripes of herbed olive oil. They were a great twist on a canape and a nice, refreshing way to start a summer lunch.

I started with the calamari and it was just too deeply fried for my taste. It was fried to a crisp, literally. Too many pieces were crunchy all the way through without the soft yield of squid that's supposed to exist in the middle. I was disappointed. Calamari in a great place is a treat because it's one of those things that can be poorly done or very expertly done and the difference is huge. I was looking forward to expertly prepared fried calamari and I daresay, this missed the mark. I'm always a little nervous to say things like that because who am I to criticize some of the best chefs in NY? But the work of the best chefs is exclusively for the benefit of their diners so my opinion, as their diner, is what ought to matter most, I think.

The yuzu (East Asian citrus) sesame dipping sauce was more of a foam than a sauce so it was light and fresh tasting and I got that there was supposed to be a great contrast between the heaviness of the fried squid and the lightness of the citrus dipping foam. It was clever in principle but it didn't work for me. The dipping foam was lost on the calamari.

Robert got the arctic char sashimi with lemon and olive oil and that was a better choice. I didn't catch a pic of that dish but it was small and bright and it also tasted bright and fresh. The lemon in his dish was much more pronounced than the yuzu in mine.

Then Robert got a cheeseburger, which surprised me. But he is quite a carnivore and it was the only red meat option on our menu. It looked like a good burger but unless there was something extraordinary about it, which there wasn't, it was just a good burger.

I ordered the yellowfin tuna burger, which came only lightly seared. It was nice. The bun was good and the tuna was tender. Raw yellowfin doesn't have a super strong flavor in and of itself so if you're going to slap it on a bun, there needs to be something that kind of makes it pop. I thought the bonito mayonnaise was going to do that but it didn't, really. Bonito is to Japanese food what sofrito is to Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine. It's the backbone of much of Japanese cooking and it's usually made with dried mackerel flakes. For my taste, it was too mild and almost bland for an already lightly flavored fish on a bun. I would have enjoyed the pop of a little wasabi or something racier. But it was still a nice, light dish. Unfortunately, it was served with house made potato chips, which were also pretty deeply friend and on the oily side. After the calamari, it was way too much. I didn't eat many of the chips. That was my fault. I should have thought about that when I ordered.  

Dessert was good. I mean, I had a molten chocolate cake with ice cream. Any good restaurant that screws that up should hang their collective heads in shame. Perry Street did a nice version of this now classic dessert. It was far from my favorite but it was rich and yummy. The ice cream was actually the best part. It had a very deep vanilla flavor, which was great. Having said that, no chocolate dessert has managed to beat the chocolate souffle I had at Fig and Olive, meatpacking, so far. That was the chocolate dessert by which all others are now measured. This one held up well and was solidly good but not especially noteworthy. 

And that's how I felt about the whole meal. It was good, overall, but not especially noteworthy. There were aspects that actually weren't so good but most things were solid, just not special. At least not special to me. I love Jean Georges and this is still a Jean Georges restaurant but it isn't my favorite of his establishments. So far I really enjoyed Nougatine a lot more than Perry Street and since it also happens to be more conveniently located for me, that's actually pretty good news.

Upper East Side Residents Swoon Over New Fairway Market

Every single Upper East Side resident closed his eyes at the same time and made one big wish. The result? Fairway Market opened this week on 86th Street between 2nd and 3rd in the building that was formerly home of Barnes and Noble. I checked it out two days after opening day.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I'm a Fairway veteran. I've been buying my groceries at the one on 130th every week for several years and I'm no stranger to the one on 72nd, either. So though I've not been nearly as eager, I have been awaiting the completion of the Fairway Manhattan Trifecta.

I made sure to go after having had a full meal and I made sure to go during business hours when I thought it might be a bit less crowded. I still have post traumatic flashbacks of trying to shop at Trader Joe's when they first opened in Union Square. I spent about two hours exploring this new shop. It's split between two levels and when I entered, a staff member gave me a printed map of the place. A map! Of a grocery store! A nice one, on glossy paper. I laughed and gave the map to the next entering patron. That was a mistake. While the first floor is somewhat straightforward, the lower level is a labyrinth with little nooks and alcoves. I found myself picking up one of the similarly discarded maps, slightly embarrassed, and giving it a quick consult to help make rhyme or reason of the place. That helped a bit but not completely. I still found their selection of sardines split up between three different areas. One set was in the kosher section, one was in the canned fish section with the tuna and one was in specialty foods. A few different items are located in more than one place, which is confusing, but not uncommon for Fairway. And the design of the lower level is generally convoluted, largely due to the little nooks and alcoves and the twists and turns. There's a reason why most grocery stores are organized in parallel rows.

Confusion notwithstanding, I enjoy shopping at Fairway. There's a wider variety of organic produce and it's fresh and generally lower in price than at Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) and there's a nice selection of imported specialty foods so there's always something interesting for me to explore and try. And it might be my mind playing tricks on me but it feels like the Fairway folks tried to offer wider aisles in this store than in their 72nd St sardine can. It was a bit easier to get past people standing and staring in the middle of each aisle, which is certainly a welcomed improvement. Not to mention that it's still shiny and clean. We'll see how long they can make that last.

The first few times one shops at this new Fairway on 86th, it's going to take a while to figure out the layout, find everything and navigate the crowd but I didn't see anyone there who seemed to think it wasn't worth it. Quite the contrary, the Upper East Siders were out in full force and advertising their glee in ways that I would expect, specifically of this community.

I heard one woman sigh and announce, to nobody in particular as she was standing alone, "I love it here. It's so civilized." One poor staff member in a Fairway apron was cornered by a young woman who was waxing poetic about all the reasons she likes Fairway better than Whole Foods. It was while I was examining one of the three sardine displays. I believe I heard the poor guy ask no fewer than three times, "Yes ma'am. Is there anything I can help you with?"

And the Yiddish was flying. I think I heard two different middle aged women say they were "kvelling" and when the second said it to her neighbor, the latter said, "Me too. But we're going to have to sit shiva for Gristede's." to which the first replied, "Who cares, our apartment values just went up by 10 thousand dollars" My people, my people.

Now this store opening didn't boost my property values nor did I feel any more civilized there than I had felt before. I also spotted four different guys who were in fraternities when I was in college, which is a fairly significant detractor for me. I generally prefer Fairway on 130th St at 9am on a Saturday morning, when there's nobody else there but us toddler parents. But they did have everything bagels in whole wheat and for that, if for nothing else, I would go to the Fairway on 86th St, fraternity boys and all.

Cafe Boulud's restaurant week lunch

Daniel Boulud is no joke; we all know that. I haven't yet had the opportunity to dine at Daniel but I've enjoyed db Bistro Moderne so based on that and his incredible reputation, I was really looking forward to making Cafe Boulud my final restaurant week destination.

I went for lunch with my Aunt, Laura, in the middle of an intense NYC heat wave. It was 105 degrees out, crazy even for a heat wave. You'd never know it in the dining room of Cafe Boulud. The staff were professional and attentive and I daresay, mildly perky. There were only two tipoffs: one of the older, wealthy Manhattanites entered with a lacey white parasol (which I'd bet my laptop was purchased in Paris) and one of the other older, wealthy Manhattanites surreptitiously held her icey water glass to her neck. Outside of those two indications, the oppressive heat did not make its way into Cafe Boulud.

We were presented with canapes: small, lightly fried balls made with zucchini and mozzarella. They were like mozzarella sticks if mozzarella sticks were lightly and delicately fried with the thinnest possible crust and were not the least bit greasy or oily and inside had the perfect balance of melted mozzarella cheese and light zucchini without getting soggy from the zucchini either. You know, those mozzarella sticks. The kind you've never had in your life because they don't exist. Yup, those. You know you're in for a good meal when you're sad that the canape is only the size of a canape.

As an appetizer, I ordered Pate de Campagne with brandy soaked cherries, whole grain mustard, radishes, cornichons and baby mache because I love pate so much that I couldn't imagine eating at Cafe Boulud and not having the pate. I also had the pate at db Bistro Moderne and thoroughly enjoyed it so I had a pretty good idea of what my appetizer would be before I ever arrived.

And I love pate so much that when it was served, I dove right in. So I have no pictures of the appetizers because I was so excited to eat pate. (I hang my head in shame.)

It was gooooood. Fatty and lovely and rich. It was goooood. 

My Aunt had the Red Bell Pepper Gazpacho with poached maine shrimp, mango and basil, which I also have no picture for, due to my pate enthusiasm. It was a nice spin on gazpacho. The red pepper flavor was bold and rich but the mango and basil brightened it up and between that and it being a chilled soup, it was refreshing.

My Aunt ordered Fusilli Pasta with eggplant, cherry tomatoes, ricotta cheese and baked red onion for her entree. I don't think I would have chosen a pasta dish at Cafe Boulud but I also expected that anything we ordered would be tasty and worth eating and this dish was both of those things. The ricotta was very light and just slightly more solid than a sauce; just solid enough to hold its form. There was just enough flavor to cover the pasta; there was no real sauce. It was a light summer dish. There was a chicken option that neither of us chose and I wonder if we would have if it hadn't been 105 degrees out. Though it wasn't spectacular, this was a nice lunch for such a hot day.

For my entree, I ordered the Harissa Marinated Flounder with petit pois, pearl cous cous and yogurt dressing. I saw no petit pois on my plate, do you? Still, it was an excellent dish. I take that back. It was an excellent piece of fish with a delicious yogurt dressing. The flounder, which is one of my favorite fish to begin with, had a very nice sear on it and a deep harissa flavor that didn't overpower it at all (flounder can generally stand up to a bold flavor.) And I didn't miss the petit pois (small green peas), though I think they would have brought that little last bit to complete the plate both aesthetically by adding some nice, bright color and with their hint of sweetness. I think the little peas would have taken it from an excellent piece of fish to a fantastic dish. Maybe I did miss them, after all. But you won't hear me complain about it.

As our entree plates were being cleared, the server placed on our table a folded napkin containing five petit madeleines that were still warm. YUMMM!! First, I'm a huge fan of pre-dessert desserts or post-dessert desserts. Two servings of dessert, in general, seems to me like a very good idea. I'm also a fan of tiny warm vanilla and/or almond tea cakes, in general. It's possible these bad boys were financiers but they had the characteristic shell shape of madeleines and I have a tough time distinguishing sometimes. They were yummy, no matter what you call them. 

My Aunt had the Raspberry Vanilla Dome for dessert, which was vanilla Bavaroise (vanilla Bavarian cream), Raspberry Gelee (jelly - how is it that EVERYTHING sounds fancier in French?) and crème fraiche (kind of like sour cream) sorbet. My Aunt is a raspberry fanatic. When raspberry anything is on the menu, she orders it. And she's finicky, as eaters go. She has very particular taste. I tried this dessert and my eyes widened. She said that of all the raspberry desserts she's ever ordered (which could be in the hundreds of thousands) this one was the best she's ever tasted. I get it.

My dessert was the Caramel Gateaux with
Hazelnut Biscuit, Frangelico Glaze and Toasted Hazelnut Ice Cream. It was really really delicious. Caramel and hazelnuts are both big hits for me separately so together, they're doubly good. I'm accustomed to seeing hazelnuts paired with chocolate, a classic combo in Italian desserts. I've never personally eaten hazelnut with caramel before but like I said, doubly good. And it's hard to imagine how toasted hazelnut ice cream could be bad. It wasn't. It was anything but bad.

I enjoyed this meal a lot. It wasn't my absolute favorite. It didn't stand out in a special, creative way the way Aquavit or Del Posto or Le Bernardin did.  But it was solidly and truly delicious. Every course (of my meal) was well conceived and expertly executed and the flavors were rich and sometimes delicate, like good French cooking ought to be.

Incidentally, while we were dining, there was a woman adjacent to us dining alone (or at least seated alone). She was enjoying a very leisurely, very elaborate meal of several courses with what looked like champagne. One of two waiters stood by her side at all times as she ate, chatting with her when she wanted to talk and waiting on her every whim. We wondered who she was; we didn't recognize her. Perhaps a food critic. Perhaps a relative of Daniel Boulud's. Perhaps she was someone famous. I have no idea. But she appeared, not surprisingly, to really be enjoying her meal. And at the next table, so were we. And I think that's the basic beauty of restaurant week and why it's one of my all-time favorite NYC traditions. I look forward to winter restaurant week already.

Restaurant Week at Morimoto - the place to be but maybe not for me

Morimoto is an experience, to say the least. It's something of a spectacle. It's situated in a part of the meatpacking district that is home to more fantastic restaurants in a 5 block square radius than most whole towns and it is located directly across the street from my recently discovered house of gastronomical worship, Del Posto. So in that area, there's stiff competition and Morimoto, as we know, is a fierce competitor. So his restaurant, not unlike the persona we've come to know from television, kind of says, "bring it!"

The facade of the restaurant is draped in dramatic red cloth with Japanese writing on it. You enter through automatically sliding glass doors into one of NYC's hippest, trendiest atmospheres. It's gorgeous and there is absolutely nothing traditional or classic about the place. It screams trendy at the top of its lungs. From the art installation of a wall to the a-bit-louder-than-background music, to the late 20/early 30-somethings sitting next to us (who were very obviously on one of their first few dates) both dressed completely in black on a 100 degree day. Trendy with a capital HIP. 

I dined with my friend, Carmelo, and he remarked, "I can appreciate a more modern design but I don't like when the decor is so minimalist that you have a hard time finding the handle to the bathroom door." It's a good summary. They do what they do very well at Morimoto and I think what they do just isn't for me. Not now, anyway.

And I'm not sure they should participate in restaurant week. Or at least if you are really into having the Morimoto "experience", I don't think restaurant week quite accomplishes that, whereas I feel like I have gotten that at other places, even during restaurant week and even during lunch.

The restaurant week options were scant. There was a choice of three bento boxes: black cod, wagyu beef and I forgot the third (sorry!) but I think it was either a vegetarian or a sushi option. I chose the black cod and Carmelo chose the wagyu beef. All three of the boxes came with miso soup, some tempura, mixed greens, some sushi and a tropical fruit panna cotta for dessert.   

  I didn't take a picture of Carmelo's bento box because it looked exactly like mine, except with a very small bowl with two pieces of beef in the lower right hand corner instead of my very small bowl of black cod.

Everything was delicious. Small but delicious. I take that back. Upon reflection, really only the black cod was small. And the dessert. But they were the two things that were most interesting and most delicious so their small-ness felt big.

The miso soup was excellent. The tofu was soft and for those who are used to seaweed in your miso, you won't find any in this bowl. The flavor was distinctly miso though, as opposed to salt with a hint of miso, which is very nice and one of the many things that reminds you that you're sampling from experts.

My tempura was a little soggier than I expected. The green onion (I believe) tempura had a lovely flavor. I had another piece that was white in the middle and had the texture of a root vegetable but was mild in flavor. That's being generous, actually. It didn't taste like anything enough for me to identify that piece. The tempura did come in an interesting (good interesting) dipping sauce that had a chalky (in a good way) texture. I would guess that it was a miso based dipping sauce. And that was nice.

The sushi was fresh and good. The pieces were the usual suspects for a bento box: one piece of tuna, one salmon, one yellowtail and three pieces of a spicy tuna roll. All good. Not much else to say about that.

There's also not much to say about a bowl of mixed greens. Actually, I could probably write quite a bit about a bowl of mixed greens but that would be for another time and another purpose. Lightly and nicely dressed  fresh mixed greens.

The black cod was a treat. It's sweet and delicate with a slightly thick, slightly syrupy sauce, garnished with scallions and there was far too little of it on my plate. Or maybe it just felt that way because it was so good. I ate it in four bites so you decide. If I ever go back to Morimoto, it would be difficult for me to order something new instead of a whole plate of that black cod. That was most certainly the highlight of the meal. The star of the show, so to speak. Carmelo said the wagyu beef was too salty but I didn't taste it so I can't personally attest to that. The cod was wonderful, no matter how small.

Also unfortunately small, was our tropical fruit panna cotta for dessert. It was delicious. And tiny. I deliberately took the picture with the spoon beside it to give you an idea of how mini this little dessert was. Perfect texture, lovely, powerful flavor, fun detail in the little white chocolate straw garnish, and it's gone before you know it. So sad.

I've never left a restaurant of this caliber feeling like I could use a bit more food. Typically after one of these lunches, I'm pretty satisfied and wind up wanting nothing more than a nice salad for dinner. Though the miso soup and the cod and the panna cotta were all very tasty, I ate quite a bit more than salad for dinner after having lunch at Morimoto.

Dovetail Soars Every Time

There are some things in life that you can just count on, you know? Some semblance of consistency helps to orient me and make me feel safe. For example, I can count on my partner to miss a pop culture reference. I can count on pretty shoes to hurt my feet. I can count on my 19 month old daughter to knock over anything with liquid in it and I can count on Dovetail for an excellent meal.

This Upper West Side restaurant delivers every time. There is no shortage of spots that claim to put charming spins on American cuisine with farm-fresh foods but Dovetail actually accomplishes what it sets out to do.

I enjoyed today's restaurant week lunch at Dovetail with my colleague, Leslie. I had been to Dovetail before and she had it on her list to try. The menu was different from what they had online so Leslie needed to re-decide what she wanted. I hadn't bothered to look online before going so that wasn't an issue for me (and she didn't mind at all) but if you are a preparer and like to check online menus, be warned that you might get your heart set on something that won't actually be an option.

Lunch was an inside-the-park home run. I don't know much about baseball, frankly. I asked a bunch of guys in my office about what the right words are to describe a home run that wasn't quite out of the park but still scored. I believe none of them really knew and one looked the term up online so if I'm offending a baseball aficionado, my apologies. But what I mean to say is exactly that. Not quite out of the park but definitely a big, fat score, nonetheless. I dig Dovetail and I'll continue going back.

First they brought out a lovely little plate with two tiny snap pea and watermelon radish salads and two individual corn breads. The little salads were dressed with lemon and when we tasted them I said the word "fresh" and Leslie said the word "beautiful" so you can decide for yourself how you feel about word association games.

The corn bread was moist and had a nice, full flavor. I despise weak cornbread. This was a real man's (or woman's) cornbread. I ate about 1/2 of my cornbread before my appetizer came, which turned out to be a really good thing because for my appetizer, I chose the soft boiled egg served with bacon, sweet corn, beans and a little bit of spinach. This was an uncharacteristic choice for me. I don't normally choose an egg as an appetizer but I decided to go light on the entree so I was up for going a little heavier on the appetizer and I am so glad I did. 

When it came out, Leslie and I had a whole conversation about how there's something basically decadent about the yolk of a soft boiled egg. This dish came in a cross between a sauce and a broth that, largely because of the bacon, was already packed with flavor. Then I cut into that egg and the yolk spilled out and the result, to quote Leslie, was, "unctuous and delicious." I'm really happy that I chose something I ordinarily would not have picked because this dish really worked for me. Not long ago a friend and I lunched at David Burke Townhouse and they also had an egg dish on their list of appetizers. My friend ordered it and what was delivered was basically scrambled eggs with vegetables. It was beyond underwhelming. In contrast, Dovetail did right by this egg. If I was a chicken... I won't go there. But YUM! And as I mentioned before, I had saved half of my cornbread, which went perfectly with this appetizer. If you plan on having this appetizer, save your cornbread. Leslie said it looked like the breakfast of the gods. If I had that appetizer and that cornbread for breakfast, my day would be off to a pretty phenomenal start.

Leslie ordered the turnip ceviche with quinoa, habenero pepper and apricots as her appetizer and it was a wildly interesting combination of flavors. It had a really nice slightly spicy and sweet thing happening with just a hint of earthy from the turnip and the quinoa and some bright freshness from the tomatoes and snap peas. I'm not the biggest turnip fan to begin with but it's very much in season right now and I would have happily eaten that whole appetizer myself. It's remarkable to me when restaurants take an ingredient I haven't traditionally loved and turn it into something that really works for me. It's masterful.

My entree was hake served in stewed tomatoes with haricots verts (fancy green beans) and shaved zucchini and two pieces of the sourest pickled eggplant I've ever tasted. I loved the tiny sour pickled eggplant slices and I'm certain that's not a hit with everyone. It was, however, a hit with me. The fish was cooked perfectly. There was a gorgeous pan sear on top that gave it some nice texture while the rest of it was flaky and mild and melted in my mouth. I still don't know what those little yellow dollops were but they were yummy. Leslie and I were both so impressed with how pretty the dish was. They take their presentation very seriously and each plate had an artistic flair that paled only in comparison to its taste. Though I had struggled a little bit with my choice of entree, I was very pleased with what I had selected.

Leslie chose the lamb in puff pastry for her entree (which is the other entree I thought I might want) and that dish kicked some major butt, too. It came with pickled cucumbers, which were much less sour than my pickled eggplant, and a Greek yogurt and dill sauce and harissa (tomato based). I feel like if you screw up lamb in puff pastry, you should pack it up and go home. Still, this was one of the least screwed up dishes I've tasted in a long time. The lamb was rich and the pastry was buttery. The yogurt sauce and harissa were fantastic accompaniments and the pickled cucumbers gave you that perfect break of freshness from the otherwise rich, rich, richness of this dish. I would not recommend eating this just before doing something very physical. This entree is to be savored leisurely on a day when you can kind of bask in the glow of it for a while. I, unfortunately, can't hold my liquor these days so drinking with lunch doesn't work for me but I really think if you order the lamb in puff pastry at Dovetail, you should have a glass of wine alongside. It's the right thing to do.

Dessert was what took this meal from an out of the park home run to an inside the park home run, for me. The desserts were very good, certainly tons better than what I had yesterday at The Russian Tea Room. They were freshly made and well made. They just didn't blow me away. I did enjoy them but I did not finish.

My dessert was a chocolate coconut roulade served with coconut ice cream, marshmallow, and some chocolate, coconut crunchy garnish. The coconut ice cream was excellent. The roulade didn't excite me.

Leslie had the raspberry vanilla bavarian. I liked her dessert better than mine and would recommend it over mine but when she didn't seem to be finishing it, I didn't feel compelled to take the rest and polish it off. And she would have welcomed it if I had felt so called. Please don't get me wrong; these were both more than respectable desserts and I have absolutely no criticism of either of them. They just didn't set off bells and whistles for my personal set of taste buds. But they were still expertly created and artfully presented, like everything at Dovetail.


I hold a special place in my heart for places like Dovetail. Places that have a sense of integrity. When they espouse sustainability and whole foods as topping their list of values, they back it up by highlighting truly seasonal, whole foods, like turnips and by doing a Monday night vegetarian menu. I think of Dovetail and David Burke Townhouse as two establishments attempting to do similar things except Dovetail does it well.

The Russian Tea Room (restaurant week lunch) - It's all about nostalgia

When you put on a poodle skirt and go to a 50’s themed “sock hop” you harbor neither the illusion that you are actually traveling to the 1950’s nor the expectation that a gimmicky party is going to be the best gathering of your life. We’ve all donned poodle skirts or flapper dresses at some point in life and if you haven’t yet, you will.

The Russian Tea Room is the poodle skirt of fine dining.

The Russian Tea Room (RTR) is a Manhattan institution. No self respecting Manhattanite ought to end their New York days having never been there. It’s one of those things you have to do if only to check it off your NYC bucket list. And, if it disappoints you, it’s merely because you were foolish enough to have high expectations. One dines at the Russian Tea Room more to pay respect to its history than to eat the food. If the over 80 year legacy this establishment boasts doesn’t impress you then don’t go. Though tasty enough, I understand the food has failed to stand on its own since Warner LeRoy destroyed the place back in 1996.
Stepping into an over-the-top, deep red and gold sea of chandeliers and busily printed carpet, you can instantly imagine how the plush booths attracted an elite crowd for decades. It gets noisy, quickly. I watched a couple celebrate an anniversary with candles in their desserts and there were a few children at different tables making plenty of noise. I rarely see noisy children and candles in desserts at similarly priced restaurants. Some people would turn up their noses at these things and I understand why but I found it endearing and appreciate how this relic of a restaurant has settled into not taking itself too seriously.

OK, the food. I lunched with another dear sharer by the name of Jasmine. I ordered: borscht (of course!), hanger steak au poivre with celery root puree and brussels sprouts, and cheesecake. She ordered a goat cheese and mushroom blinchik, Chicken a la Czar, and the chocolate pyramid. The food was fine. Some of it was even good but if you expect it to blow you out of the water, you will be disappointed.

The borscht was, of course, one aspect that didn’t disappoint. It was packed with flavor. It’s admittedly counter intuitive to have a bowl of hot soup on a 90+ degree, humid NYC afternoon but it’s the Russian Tea Room! There’s air conditioning! Have the borscht!

Jasmine’s blinchik (a Russian crepe) was filled with goat cheese and mushrooms. It’s tough to make a goat cheese and mushroom filled crepe into a bad thing. There was a ligonberry sauce on the side, which was a nice, sweet touch.


I normally wouldn’t order a hanger steak au poivre at a Russian restaurant but here’s the thing with sharing: while it means you get to try double the number of dishes, it also means you need to order by consensus. I probably would have ordered the almond crusted striped bass with orange ginger buerre blanc and saffron jasmine rice plov (pilaf) but my partner in crime isn’t a fish fan and “settling” for a hanger steak au poivre with celery root puree and brussels sprouts doesn’t suck at all. And it absolutely did not suck. It was a nice dish. Having said that, it’s worth noting that whenever I order steak in a restaurant and they ask how I’d like it cooked, I ask them what medium and medium rare means in their establishment. I like my steak pink on the inside but not at all raw. Some places call that medium rare and others call that medium. So I ask. The waitress, who was not my favorite aspect of our multi-person wait staff (all the other members were delightful), told me that at the RTR, medium is pink of the inside. She was incorrect. My hanger steak was cooked more than is my preference. That said, it was still a very tasty dish. But if you like your meat pink on the inside, at the RTR don’t listen to the waitress; you want it medium rare. I could have sent it back but it was perfectly enjoyable and I didn’t have enough time to be sending things back. I do actually have a job to which I ought to return after lunch on most days.

Jasmine’s chicken a la czar was fine but it didn’t impress me. I had a chicken dish for lunch at Telepan last week that knocked my socks off. I don’t normally order chicken at restaurants but this Telepan chicken dish rocked my world and had me rethinking my approach to menus. The RTR’s chicken a la czar reminded me of why I shunned the bird to begin with. It was a chicken breast served atop mashed potatoes with mushrooms, roasted peppers and a cream sauce. The breast itself was overcooked (picking up on a theme?) so the cream sauce felt like an overcompensation. I adore both roasted peppers and mushrooms in general but this dish just didn’t come together. Edible, for sure, but if you want a good chicken dish, go to Telepan.



Dessert. Let me just say that on the menu the cheesecake is described as being covered in chocolate curls and fresh berries. When it came out, it was an individual round cheesecake with 2 white chocolate shavings and one small blackberry on top. The berry sauce swirl underneath was actually stuck to the plate, giving one the distinct impression that this little dessert had been sitting around pre-plated in a fridge for a while. The actual cheesecake was not bad at all but between the way the description on the menu is embellished and the evidence of non-freshness, it’s tough to muster up enthusiasm.

The chocolate pyramid was equally average and struck me as equally non-fresh. There’s a gelatinous raspberry filling inside what is otherwise a genuinely decent tasting mouse-like chocolate dessert but the whole thing seems like something they brought in on a truck that morning and kept cool in bulk.

This was the first time I’ve dined at a relatively expensive establishment and did not feel compelled to finish dessert. Jasmine and I finished half of each dessert between the two of us and then stopped. Yesterday at Aquavit, my superego screamed inside me that I absolutely may not lick my empty dessert plate no matter how badly I wanted to. Today at the Russian Tea Room, my id said “meh, it’s ok but not worth the calories.
Sidebar: Jasmine and I each had coffee with our dessert and Jazz was surprised when she saw the $8 charge on our bill. It’s worth remembering that restaurant week is a price reduction, usually a pretty drastic price reduction. Any departure from the restaurant week menu (even a cup of coffee) is going to be a departure from that price reduction. So if you’re enjoying fine dining on a budget (like I do), deviate from prix fixe options at your own risk.

Having said all that, I have no regrets. I had lunch at the Russian Tea Room. Check.

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.