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NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2014: General Assembly

1 Sep

We really enjoyed our meal at General Assembly when it was newly opened, so when we were looking for a place to go with my coworkers for lunch during Restaurant Week, this was an easy choice to return.

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One of my coworkers selected the Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho, which was poured tableside.

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She really enjoyed this.

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Another coworker got a house dip: the house-made ricotta with local honey chili oil. Another hit.

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I went with the stone fruit salad. The peaches and prosciutto were a great combination and the greens were perfectly dressed.

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As for entrees, some got the Skuna bay salmon, which they really enjoyed.

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I got the roast chicken with pommery mustard sauce.  I usually don’t love mustard, but this was a great compliment to the chicken, which was nicely crispy yet juicy.

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And of course we all had to split a side of the corn creme brulee.  I absolutely love this dish and find myself dreaming of it for a long time after the meal. It is a must order.

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We had been leisurely with our lunch and suddenly we were short on time to get back to the office for meetings.  So we asked for our desserts to go.  We all got different eclair, including a peanut butter and chocolate, a key lime meringue, and a cherry and pistachio.  All were incredibly enjoyable and made the afternoon at our desks just a little sweeter.

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We really enjoyed our meal and being able to take advantage of it during Restaurant Week made it so we could go on a regular day, rather than saving it for a special occasion.  Everyone left the meal saying how much they enjoyed it and I keep recommending General Assembly to visitors. It is just a solid place to go where the service is always good, the food is always just a little special and out of the ordinary, and it seems to be a very good crowd pleaser.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

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Restaurant Week Winter 2014: Villard Michel Richard

10 Mar

I was invited to a cake tasting at Pomme Palais a few months ago and really enjoyed it and was very impressed by the food (though not entirely by the slightly creepy famous chef, Michel Richard).  Regardless, I had heard that Chef Richard had a great restaurant in Washington, DC, so I was looking forward to coming back to try the other restaurant(s) in the New York Palace Hotel.

But then, the reviews came out… The New York Times gave the restaurant a scathing single star and my favorite food reviewer, Adam Platt of New York Magazine, gave the restaurant a hesitant, non-committal 2 stars.

Though when I saw Villard Michel Richard come up as an option for Restaurant Week Winter 2014, I figured… why not?  The desserts I had sampled were fantastic, so how bad could the food really be? Though I was happy to be able to try it for Restaurant Week prices so there was less risk involved. And hell… maybe it could surprise us!  (Ohhh… how optimistic and naive I was just a few short days ago). The hotel lobby is quite grand.

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And as I looked around the dining room, I had to wonder how much of the fine detail was real, and how much money went into building a hotel like this when The New York Palace was built, not mention the recent (reportedly) $140 million face lift.

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Though mixed with the old, somehow the giant glass cube of wine to the ceiling, with an old chandelier hanging into the center, taking up a good part of the middle of the dining room, didn’t feel entirely out-of-place.

 

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Over the bar is a fascinating hologram mural that flips Chef Richard’s face with Henry Villard (the financier that gave the place its name).  Very, very odd.

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Upon arrival, they insisted on taking our coats because “it’s tight in there” (it wasn’t).  Mike is a curmudgeon about checking his coat, and while I made fun of him for this for a long time, the day came when the place did in fact lose his coat, so I have bitten my tongue ever since and have come to hate the automatic coat check.  To add insult (literally) to injury, the woman asked to take Mike’s “school bag.”  Nice lady… real nice…

The Restaurant Week menu looked appealing, with some different dishes and some options to “buy up” by a bit to try some items that are right off the menu. (I opted for a few of those).

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The bread was served warm, but the butter incredibly cold. So cold that it to tore the bread into pieces as we tried to spread it.  I wished it were better.

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And then after the bread came and the wine (a very affordable Vouvray, our favorite kind of wine, that started a bit tart but grew on us) we waited. And waited. And waited.  The table next to us that was seated a full 20 minutes after we were received, ate, and finished their appetizers before ours made a presence. And then finally they arrived… or did they? Mike ordered the New York Salad with rare tuna and red wine vinaigrette.  And this is what was put in front of him:

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A lovely looking salmon tartar indeed.  I was curious to try the avocado bottom and yucca chips, but alas, it wasn’t what was ordered. So they whisked it quickly away (if it’s already been served and has sat on the table for a few minutes, just leave it… you can’t reuse it… come on).

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And within moments the correct appetizer was placed.

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Mike said it was incredibly boring (and that’s kind of sad, seeing as though there was potential for a very tasty salad from the nicoise take-off).

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I paid the $5 supplement to try the shitake mushroom feuillette. And I’m glad I did.  It was actually quite tasty, with a super flaky, delicate pastry (note… pastry) with mushrooms and a lovely, rich sauce.   I was hoping things were turning around…

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They weren’t. We waited a solid 30 more minutes for our entrees. We had now been sitting for over an hour and half and had only had our apps.  The same table next to us was finished with their meal and the table beside them, which sat an HOUR after us, were munching on their entrees when we looked beside us to see a plate of sad brussels sprouts just sitting out. And they sat out for a while longer until (I think) the servers caught us leering at them so they were removed. And then served a few minutes later with our entrees.

Now the lighting in here was bad for pictures, but this is exactly how grey and mushy they looked. It was like someone opened a bag of frozen brussels sprouts and tossed them in olive oil until they got brown (but no where near crispy) and served them roughly 30 minutes after they were done cooking. They were hardly warm. They were awful. When the waiter came back to ask how our meal was, we actually told him that they were horrible and he took them away.  We never send food back unless it’s really, really wrong.  So this was a pretty sad state of affairs.

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Entrees were served and Mike got the roasted chicken breast with mushroom crust and butternut squash puree.  Usually, we don’t make a habit of ordering a chicken breast out at a restaurant, but the mushroom crust and butternut squash sounded good so we went for it. It was cooked reasonably well since it was still moist but it was somehow incredibly boring. It didn’t have any real chicken flavor and the mushroom “crust” was more like mushroom mush that was pasted onto the outside of the boring boob.  The butternut squash was tasty but runny and a bit over sweet.  The entire dish had zero texture and was very one-note. If it had been made with the skin on and slightly crisped, or served with a sunchoke chip or SOMETHING. ANYTHING.  Instead, it was just like boring brown food.

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My short ribs were only slightly better.  They were cooked perfectly, and really, if you cook short ribs fork tender how bad could they be? But the rest was just… meh.  The sauce added nothing to it and the potatoes were, again, quite watery.

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I was hopeful that desserts would be as good as what I had at Pomme Palais, and they certainly were not, but they were absolutely the highlight of the meal (not that hard to do though, I suppose).  The creme brulee was light and airy on the bottom with a thin brulee top and a nice vanilla bean taste.  The fruit syrups around the end were a nice touch that were beautiful and tasty, and allowed you to add as much or as little was you wanted to each bite.

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I paid the upcharge to get the “candy bar” which was actually quite divine.  It was chocolate and hazelnut with an almond and pistacchio crisp in a lovely sauce with chocolate chips (or nibs?) The flavors and textures were excellent and reminded me of what I loved at the patisserie.

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And I really loved the beauty of the crisp.

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When we got the check, I was very surprised to see that gratuity was automatically added (at 15%). When we got the final bill, it said that they do that automatically and add 20% automatically for parties of 5 or more.  I kind of understand the reasoning, even if I don’t agree with it, of adding it for big parties, but to add it to all parties and have different amounts I found quite odd.  Also, I am a chronic over-tipper, even when service is lackluster, I usually wind up tipping 15% after taxes for mediocre service. So if anything, they lost money on me (though I know I’m the odd ball).

Our very odd meal with pretty lousy service trickled out as we left, when we passed by a few managers who didn’t say goodnight and then stood by the coat closet as many people who worked there passed right by us.  Finally a manager took the ticket of the people who were lined up BEHIND us to get their coats.  When he came out and looked at us, he apologized and said he thought we were already helped. (Way to ask… dude).  Then there were a FLURRY of people suddenly around us trying to be helpful by trying to grab coats to put them onto our shoulders (there were now about 8 people all getting coats that the same time) but it turned into an awkward dance of me having to tell three different people that I was capable of putting my own jacket onto my own shoulders… thank you very much. Odd. That’s really my best summary for the night. Odd.

We clocked in at over 2.5 hours when all was said and done. Anything that we had that was more like pastry (the desserts and the mushroom appetizer) were quite good. Everything else was really quite bland or downright awful (brussels sprouts) and the bad service just added to it.  I really didn’t want to prove those reviewers right, especially after I had such a great experience with the baked goods, but it was just as bad, if not worse, than they said.  It was like no one told the servers how to do their jobs so they all just fumbled around, doing their best, with no oder.  And no one told the cooks that the dishes had to be made to taste good, not just sound good.

Overall, it wasn’t even worth the Restaurant Week prices.

Avoid.

Total Nom Points: 4 out of 10

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Restaurant Week Winter 2014: City Hall

8 Mar

For Restaurant Week Winter 2014, we made 3 reservations: City Hall on Duane Street near West Broadway, Butter Midtown on 45th St near 6th Ave, and Villard Michel Richard at Madison and 51st St.

Unfortunately, upon showing up at Butter Midtown, we found out that they do not participate in Restaurant Week on Sundays, which was disappointing since our last Butter Restaurant Week experience at the downtown restaurant (which is apparently closed now?) was so great.  (And it became even more disappointing after we actually ate there… more on that in a review coming soon).

So our first Restaurant Week experience wound up being at City Hall in TriBeCa with some old friends and new friends.

The dining room is set up nicely so there are a lot of tables but it still feels somehow private.  The building and space is quite beautiful with a very Old New York feeling. They even have a lot of old pictures of New York backlit around the top of the walls.

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We were given some some (pickled?) veggies (carrots, pickles, green tomatoes) upon seating.

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And they quickly took our orders, which most of us took from the Restaurant Week menu.

I went with the lamb chops with a mint chimichurri over kale. This was absolutely delicious, with great lamb flavor and a nice fresh mint and herb sauce.  Not much needed to make lamb taste great, but this was prepared very well. I was especially impressed that they were serving it for Restaurant Week.

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Someone also got the scallops, which they said were tasty but the portion was SUPER small with one miniature scallop on the plate and one reasonably sized one.

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Another friend got the salmon appetizer, which was a nice portion over a risotto that had squash in it. It was very nice.

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Another person in our party ordered off the regular menu and she got the local field greens salad, which they seemed to enjoy.

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Mike didn’t get the Restaurant Week menu either, but the chef didn’t want him to go without anything so they served him a very, very small amount of French Onion soup.  It was about 1/4 inch in a small bowl with a crouton in it. While I appreciated the gesture a lot, it was a bit.. odd.  Very little soup and no cheese.  They would have been better serving it in a very small shot glass or something of the sort, because it just seemed funny when it was barely a bite in a cup.

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We got a side of brussels sprouts off the menu that the entire table split when the entrees came out. They were caramelized and very, very tasty.

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Two of our friends go the fish, but I cannot recall exactly what it was (and sadly, them menu is no longer posted), but it certainly didn’t photograph well. Luckily, I think it tasted better than it photographed and they both ate it all up.

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I got the beef bourguignon over wide egg noodles.  The meat was fork tender and I enjoyed the dish, but I do with the sauce had a bit more punch to the flavor.

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The regular menu offered Calves Liver “Milk-Fed” with sauteed onions.  I certainly was tempted to try this myself, and then I forgot to ask for a bite when it came (damn) but she gobbled it up and seemed to enjoy it.

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Mike’s regular menu choice was  the burger. It was a big burger and Mike chose blue cheese, which he said was a bit overpowering.  It wasn’t anything too special but it was a decent burger.

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For dessert, I got the chocolate with raspberry.  I remember enjoying it but it wasn’t overly memorable or special. Just a nice end to a nice dinner.

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A few other desserts that were all tasty but nothing to write home about:

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Overall, City Hall was a very good place to have dinner and the Restaurant Week menu was very good.  I don’t know if I feel the need to run right back, but I would absolutely recommend it if someone is looking for a place to eat in TriBeCa.

Overall Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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