We went back to Bar Boulud the other night after giving the restaurant a few weeks to settle. Since we had mostly charcuterie items for our last meal, we were excited to hit some of the main course items. I was pleasantly surprised to obtain an 8pm reservation for four on Thursday night through opentable.com. Little did I know how different a reservation and a walk-in would seem to be.
We arrived just before 8pm and one of our party was slightly later. We were told our table was being prepared. After ordering a glass of wine, we checked in at 8:15 and again, our table was being prepared. We were finally seated at around 8:40 after I hovered around the hostess for 10 minutes. I understand that the restaurant is busy and they do get a lot of walk-in's. However, I was getting a vibe that the head hostess (there were 3 hostesses) was very much a "shmoozer". People who knew her seemed to be seated quickly. I guess it's that way everywhere but a 40 minute wait for a reserved table? That's seemed insane. And it did put a damper to the start of our meal.
We shared 2 starters: the Lyon specialty sausage with pistachio and black truffle in brioche and the escargots with garlic and parsley croquettes. Both were hits although I would have liked to have tasted a little more truffle in the sausage. The portions were generous and allowed us to share without feeling like we'd only had a bite.
For our entrees, we had the steak frites, the lamb stew, the roast chicken, and the linguine with cuttlefish and lobster in tomato sauce. I'll say that none of these were particularly good but not particularly bad either. All solid choices with nothing to make them stand out.
Bar Boulud is a great addition to our neighborhood. Just the charcuterie and wines would make us regulars. The prices, while not cheap, are also not out of bounds for the area. However, I don't think I'd want to frequent the place if I have to wait 40 minutes even with a reservation. It's too bad because I'd love to be able to just stop over regularly for some small plates and a glass of wine. Unfortunately, it's become a destination place but I suppose they don't need my business.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Ban foie gras, trans fat, and now........FAT PEOPLE!!
This isn't a restaurant "review" per se but it does have to do with eating out so I felt I needed to post.
For all of you thought the councilmen in New York and Chicago were nuts for banning trans fat and foie gras respectively, Mississippi is looking to take it a step further. They want to pass a bill that would make it illegal to serve obese people. And since 66.7% of Mississippi residents are either overweight or obese, all the restaurants would go out of business. And how do they differentiate between overweight and obese? Will they weigh each person that comes in?
It never ceases to amaze me that we elect these people to public office so that they can waste their time and the public's tax dollars putting together idiotic bills. And it's not just ONE crazy congressman!!!
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/02/bill-would-make.html
For all of you thought the councilmen in New York and Chicago were nuts for banning trans fat and foie gras respectively, Mississippi is looking to take it a step further. They want to pass a bill that would make it illegal to serve obese people. And since 66.7% of Mississippi residents are either overweight or obese, all the restaurants would go out of business. And how do they differentiate between overweight and obese? Will they weigh each person that comes in?
It never ceases to amaze me that we elect these people to public office so that they can waste their time and the public's tax dollars putting together idiotic bills. And it's not just ONE crazy congressman!!!
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/02/bill-would-make.html
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Bar Boulud
Trying to get a walk-in table during the first week of the much anticipated opening of Bar Boulud was a hope and a prayer. Located across from Lincoln Center, it has the upper west side crowd as well as the opera and ballet crowd to draw from even if it ends up not being a destination restaurant.
Even though it's only been open for 2 days, there's been enough buzz where I couldn't get a reservation. In fact, I was told that there were only limited reservations left for the next month. They take reservations up to a month in advance and they do have a couple of tables, a community table, and the tasting bar available for walk-in's. I'm not sure why but it looked like there were 4 hosts which seemed to be way overkill for a reasonably small restaurant. But I'm sure Chef Boulud knows what he's doing. We went in at 9:30pm on Saturday night and there was an hour wait. Since we live a couple of blocks away, we put our names down and went home.
When we returned, we were promptly seated at the tasting table in the back, a round seating area that looked like it would be perfect for wine tasting. I do anticipate wine tasting events being held here in the future. The menu is extensive and can be located on menupages.com. We went with the large degustation tasting of charcuterie and the pork belly appetizer...pretty much the first page of the menu. I'd never had so much pate, terrines, etc in my life but I did find the differences in the textures and flavors quite interesting. I don't think my wife was as fond of that particular part of the menu. I must say that the pork belly was disappointing. I'm all for fat but there was too much of it and I think it could have been fried a bit more. Plus the flavor just wasn't there.
The selection of wines by the glass is still limited as they're stocking the wine cellar. They anticipate a much larger selection in the next couple of weeks. We went with a glass of an American pinot noir and one of a French pinot from Givry. However, the waiter was very adamant that we both ordered the Givry. I was very annoyed about that. He said we both ordered the "pinot" but, of course, this doesn't make sense if there are two on the wine list.
Service in general was a bit erratic. We would sit for long periods of time without anyone checking in. We also had to ask for a cup of hot water 3 times before someone brought it. Perhaps it was just our waiter. Either way, the restaurant has just opened so we'll give the service a chance to get smoother.
For dessert, we shared a chocolate mousse with chocolate hazelnut gelato, nuts, and some crunchy chocolate bits. This was very good and I look forward to trying the other desserts sometime.
Bar Boulud is a welcome addition to the Lincon Center neighborhood. We do need to go back and check out the other parts of the menu. I hear there are also two private dining rooms downstairs for parties and they will be opening for lunch at the end of the month. Think they'll have wi-fi? :)
Even though it's only been open for 2 days, there's been enough buzz where I couldn't get a reservation. In fact, I was told that there were only limited reservations left for the next month. They take reservations up to a month in advance and they do have a couple of tables, a community table, and the tasting bar available for walk-in's. I'm not sure why but it looked like there were 4 hosts which seemed to be way overkill for a reasonably small restaurant. But I'm sure Chef Boulud knows what he's doing. We went in at 9:30pm on Saturday night and there was an hour wait. Since we live a couple of blocks away, we put our names down and went home.
When we returned, we were promptly seated at the tasting table in the back, a round seating area that looked like it would be perfect for wine tasting. I do anticipate wine tasting events being held here in the future. The menu is extensive and can be located on menupages.com. We went with the large degustation tasting of charcuterie and the pork belly appetizer...pretty much the first page of the menu. I'd never had so much pate, terrines, etc in my life but I did find the differences in the textures and flavors quite interesting. I don't think my wife was as fond of that particular part of the menu. I must say that the pork belly was disappointing. I'm all for fat but there was too much of it and I think it could have been fried a bit more. Plus the flavor just wasn't there.
The selection of wines by the glass is still limited as they're stocking the wine cellar. They anticipate a much larger selection in the next couple of weeks. We went with a glass of an American pinot noir and one of a French pinot from Givry. However, the waiter was very adamant that we both ordered the Givry. I was very annoyed about that. He said we both ordered the "pinot" but, of course, this doesn't make sense if there are two on the wine list.
Service in general was a bit erratic. We would sit for long periods of time without anyone checking in. We also had to ask for a cup of hot water 3 times before someone brought it. Perhaps it was just our waiter. Either way, the restaurant has just opened so we'll give the service a chance to get smoother.
For dessert, we shared a chocolate mousse with chocolate hazelnut gelato, nuts, and some crunchy chocolate bits. This was very good and I look forward to trying the other desserts sometime.
Bar Boulud is a welcome addition to the Lincon Center neighborhood. We do need to go back and check out the other parts of the menu. I hear there are also two private dining rooms downstairs for parties and they will be opening for lunch at the end of the month. Think they'll have wi-fi? :)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
wd-50
Is innovation in cooking a good thing or are we seeing too much innovation just for innovation's sake? There are many advocates and detractors to restaurants like wd-50; some love the concept and thoroughly enjoy the experience while others cannot understand the flavors combinations nor the foam, soil and gelatins that are clearly non-traditional. Going to a place like wd-50 is like dinner theater to me: good food while being entertained by the cleverness of the preparation and the potentially odd mix of flavors. I'm in!
I had dinner with a couple that was in town from Chicago for the holidays. Agreeing that we were definitely getting the tasting menu, we prepared ourselves for the 4+ hour dinner. I had been to wd-50 three time previously and enjoyed myself each time. I'll try to give you a general gist of the evening but since it was several weeks ago (yeah, i'm about as lazy as you can get), my memory is not too clear.
Let me just hit the highlights. The pizza pebbles with pepperoni and shitake mushrooms was really good. Basically, it was balls of some sort of tomato puree, some other balls of pepperoni and shitake flakes. Not necessarily the best flavor-wise since it did taste a bit like frozen pizza but it was still very whimsical and fun.
Another dish I liked was interestingly enough called Knot Foie. I suppose it's not foie the way you normally see it but is a tourchon tube of foie tied in a knot. It was sprinkled with fleur de sel, nuts, and some gelatinous balls of fruit. I wasn't all that crazy about the nuts but the fruit and foie gras were great.
Chef Dufresne also does a take on eggs benedict. This was discs of egg yolk, a thin strip of bacon and a breaded ball of hollandaise sauce. This was probably my favorite dish of the night.
The only real miss of the night for me was the
I had dinner with a couple that was in town from Chicago for the holidays. Agreeing that we were definitely getting the tasting menu, we prepared ourselves for the 4+ hour dinner. I had been to wd-50 three time previously and enjoyed myself each time. I'll try to give you a general gist of the evening but since it was several weeks ago (yeah, i'm about as lazy as you can get), my memory is not too clear.
Let me just hit the highlights. The pizza pebbles with pepperoni and shitake mushrooms was really good. Basically, it was balls of some sort of tomato puree, some other balls of pepperoni and shitake flakes. Not necessarily the best flavor-wise since it did taste a bit like frozen pizza but it was still very whimsical and fun.
Another dish I liked was interestingly enough called Knot Foie. I suppose it's not foie the way you normally see it but is a tourchon tube of foie tied in a knot. It was sprinkled with fleur de sel, nuts, and some gelatinous balls of fruit. I wasn't all that crazy about the nuts but the fruit and foie gras were great.
Chef Dufresne also does a take on eggs benedict. This was discs of egg yolk, a thin strip of bacon and a breaded ball of hollandaise sauce. This was probably my favorite dish of the night.
The only real miss of the night for me was the
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)