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 cuttlefish with squash, chamomile, orange, and toast oil. It just didn't do anything for me. I couldn't taste the cuttlefish at all which completely defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed my 4.5 hr meal. If I'm looking for strong classic flavors, wd-50 is probably not the place I'd go. However, for interesting combinations, a good mix of texture and flavor, and innovative takes on standards, wd-50 and Tailor are your only real choices in New York.