Tag Archives: desserts

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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Cake Tasting at Pomme Palais

4 Jan

A few weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Holiday Cake tasting at Pomme Palais, a new French gourmet cafe from Chef Michel Richard.  Pomme Palais is in The Palace Hotel at 30 East 51st Street (between Madison and Park Avenues).

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The patisserie itself is brightly lit and spotlights the big, modern cases of various yummy treats.

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The have some packaged goodies ready to go along with the individual items in the case.  (We actually went back and grabbed some candy bars when we were in the area a few days later)

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I was only able to attend for a bit, but we were treated to some amazing pastries in the time I was there.

The patisserie was described as “whimsical” in the overview and that is a great way to explain it.

The Macaron Cake was an “almond vanilla sponge cake layered with chocolate mousse, coated with dark chocolate, and decorated with macarons for playful color and texture”

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It was a beautiful and playful cake and was quite delicious.

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Though it didn’t sing the way some of the others did.

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The Opera Cake was “layered cake of coffee, chocolate, and almond flavors.”DSCF2828

I was a big fan of this one. I am not a huge cake fan, so I liked that this was layers of different textures without much traditional cake cake.

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We also tried the Charlotte Cake “with fruit, apricot, raspberry, passion yogurt mousse and lady fingers.  This cake can have a mousse filling with any fruit the customer prefers.”  This was good but not on the top of my list.

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The Orange Creme Brulee Cheesecake was something special.  It was described as “a creative twist on the classic cheesecake and flan.”  True to description, this was a perfect balance of cheesecake’s creamy denseness (but not too dense) with a flan like top.  And the orange added a nice flavor essence.

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The Lemon Eggceptional Cake was a beauty.  It was described as “layers of sponge cake, lemon curd, French meringue, topped with white chocolate lemon eggceptionals.”

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This was very nice and a light and fluffy cake, though lemon isn’t my favorite.

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My second favorite cake of the day was the Tart au Pomme which was “puff pastry with thin slices of apple, pastry cream, topped with sugar.”

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The apples on this just popped with flavor. A perfect texture and the perfect balance of tartness and sweet.

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But my number one favorite of the tasting was the Chocolate Fleur d’Automne: “Chocolate flower on top of cake with almond meringue and chocolate mousse.”

 

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What can I say? I’m a chocolate girl!  This was an exceptional balance of textures and richness with sweetness and a hint of crisp from the hard thin chocolate on top.  I absolutely loved this cake and even though my tummy was quite full by this time, I ate every last bite of this one.

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Though, alas, I couldn’t finish the rest.  I felt awful wasting so much great dessert.

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I had to leave just before the cut into the most adorable of the treats: Michel’s Snowman: “White meringue Snowman wrapped up with a sugar scarf and marzipan-chocolate hat… he carries a rosemary stalk ‘tree’ and includes raspberry sauce.”

You prepare this by rimming the plate with whipped cream and filling the hollow base of the snowman with ice cream.  Sounds like my kind of dessert! I absolutely love hard meringue. I was bummed I didn’t get a chance to try this one, and when we went back a few days later to get some candy, they were all sold out. I’ll just have to go back!

But seriously… how adorable is this guy?

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Near the end of the tasting, a very jovial Chef Michel Richard came out to say hello.  He is quintessentially French, and while almost a little too friendly with the ladies, he was very happy to ham it up for the camera.  He was incredibly happy and seemed genuinely excited to be sharing his creations with us.

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We were sent home with a lovely box of candy.

 

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And each bite was better than the last.  I am very picky about my candies, and these were exceptional.

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I have been to many patisseries in NYC (and around the world), baking is my first love, and I am a dessert person to the extreme.  I wasn’t expecting to like this place as much as I did, and the desserts were really fantastic and original.  The only other place I’ve had desserts as noteworthy is at Dominique Ansel. (Though Chef Ansel will always have my heart)

I would never have known to stop by Pomme Palais had I not been invited to try these cakes, so this was one perk in which I was more than happy to participate.  I was very thankful for the opportunity and can’t wait to go back (and try that snowman)!

Cakes range from $20 (for the snowman) to $42 (for most of the full cakes).  Quite expensive, but worth it to impress at a party. And the individual pastries are probably reasonably priced for a nice snack near Rockefeller Center or before a Radio City performance. (They also have some non-dessert foods that looked quite good). And the candy bars we got a few days later… awesome.

Highly recommend a stop!

 

Note: While I was privileged enough to do this tasting for free, all opinions expressed are my own.

Smush: “The NY Deli of Desserts”

29 Oct DSCF2042

Just across the street from Bryant Park, there seems to be a collection of dessert shops opening up.  A chocolate store opened up a few months ago, and then a few signs popped up for various dessert places, including what looks like it will be a patisserie and, of course, Smush.  Smush bills itself as “The NY Deli of Desserts” and is decked out in neon signs and fun art.

They have signature sandwiches to choose from.

Or you can make your own by choosing a cookie, spread, toppings, and ice cream.

They have a display of their cookies to choose from.

We showed up right at closing time, and while they were all but closed, they offered to stay open to make our Smushes. They only had 2 flavors left: pumpkin and french toast.  I signed right up for the pumpkin while Mike went for the french toast.

They even make their own ice cream here, which was individually wrapped and ready to be smushed.

Our Smush man made our sandwiches.

I went with nutella, pretzels, and vanilla ice cream on my smush.

Mike went with bananas and vanilla ice cream on his french toast cookie.

And the verdict?

SOOOOO good!

The cookies were perfectly done, soft enough to be enjoyable yet hard enough to be a perfect conduit for everything in between.  The ice cream was equally perfect for immediate eating.  And the pretzels I added to mine were a great salty crunch.  I love being able to choose all the ingredients and flavors to suit my mood. And the fact that it tasted great and was the perfect texture all the way through left me recommending Smush to just about everyone in the area.

And when I picked up the paper underneath after finishing my Smush, I noticed a little smart touch. A wet nap at the very bottom.

Overall, Smush was much better than expectation and we really enjoyed it.  A perfect snack for after dinner, before or after a Broadway show, or basically anytime you have a hankering for something sweet in midtown.

I would really like one right now, actually!

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10