Tag Archives: liver

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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Prune for Dinner

2 May

Mike and I have been to Prune before, but only for (a marvelous) brunch. Prune was so marvelous, in fact, that it ranked in at number 10 of the Top 10 Noms of 2012. We vowed to come back for dinner, and nearly a year later, we finally did.

I thought they didn’t accept reservations, but as it turns out, that applies to brunch only. So we walked in around 6pm on a Saturday and they were pretty full, but the hostess said it would be about 30 minutes as long as we didn’t mind eating at the bar and she took my cell phone number. 20 minutes later, she called and to the bar we went.

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We started with Duck Liver Garbure with Toasted Chestnut. She told us it came with brussels sprout leaves and in a duck broth. It was served with a spoon.  There was no mistaking this liver for an organ. Liver, for some reason, is usually disguised. Either made into pate or in a darkened mass that is remiss of it’s organy folds. Not this one. And it tasted as organy as it looked. Though for us, that is a good thing. Though we had a very tough time not comparing it to the amazing liver we had just a few weeks ago at Local 188 in Portland, ME.

But I just loved the chestnuts in here. Chestnuts are one of my favorite foods and here they were used perfectly. They added a really nice flavor to it and paired well with the liver taste.

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For entrees we split the lamb chop and the crispy duck.

The lamb was a Grilled Lamb Blade Chop with Turkish Piyaz. I had no idea what piyaz was, but it was served with parsley and onions.  I looked up piyaz and it appears to be a bean salad… which I didn’t see. But that didn’t make it any less awesome. The lamb was super lamby without being too overpowering and the parsley and onion were a nice compliment to the lamb.

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The crispy duck was something we had seen with other diners and when it looks THIS crispy, how can you not order it?

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This was just pure, unadulterated ducky goodness. That crispy skin was very good. (There are few things in this world I like more, or crave more, than the extra crispy skin of various fowl).

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For a side, we ordered the sweet potatoes with brown butter sauce with brown sugar vinaigrette. It was served as baked sweet potato pieces (baked up perfectly so they were soft without being mushy) and they put crisped potato skins on top of a lovely mound of (not too sweet) brown butter. This was actually our favorite dish of the night.  An incredibly side… and next to such incredibly entrees, it is impressive that it was THAT impressive to us!

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By the end of the meal, I had duck and lamb on every corner of my face and hands. Because it seemed just wrong to leave a single piece of meat on these bones. I unabashedly picked each and every one up and sucked every morsel off I could get. No shame.

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For dessert, Mike went with the espresso gelato “affogato” in cold maple syrup.  A quick google search tells me that “affogato” translates to “drowned” in Italian. And that this was.  The maple syrup was a great foil of sweetness for the rich espresso gelato.

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I chose the Breton Butter Cake which our waitress/bartender (who kept us well fed, lubricated, and entertained throughout the night) informed us was the chef’s special famous dessert. Well okay then! It is served with moscato (though I opted for the full 2 oz. pour) and is a flakey, gooey, delicious butter cake sprinkled with powdered sugar. How a butter cake can taste that good and not be the slightest bit greasy, I do not know, but it was incredibly tasty and went incredibly well with the moscato.  I can see why it’s so famous.

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There is not much more to say. This was simply an incredibly meal. I just love this restaurant.  I am sure I am slightly swayed by my love for the owner’s (Gabrielle Hamilton) book, Blood, Bones, and Butter, which is one of the best food books I’ve ever read. But Mike has never read it and he has the same fondness I do. We both left there saying that we had enjoyed our meal very, very much.  There is just an absolute love for food at Prune which comes out without flash or opulence, but is just plain delicious. Hard to beat.

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

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Portland, ME: Local 188

9 Apr

We have really enjoyed the food scene in Portland, Maine, and I feel incredibly lucky that we have been able to spend 4 separate visits in Maine this past year (all these wedding trips have been awesome!)

When inquiring about any “must eats” we haven’t tried yet, Local 188 came up from a few different foodie friends.  They specialize in local ingredients, so their menu is printed anew each day.

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The space has a great feel to it. Very high ceilings, big windows, and room between tables.

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And I enjoyed the pretty sprigs of pussy willows on the tables.

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We started with some cocktails, and I very much enjoyed my Bergeron Sidecar with house infused fig & vanilla bean bourbon, cointreau, fresh lemon juice.

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The bread came out warm and it was like a mix between challah and a great crispy roll. A bit of salt and good olive oil on it. Very nice.

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We began with “the livers” which came in a shallot cream. This was rich and decadent. We asked for more bread to be able to soak up the awesome shallot cream, which had a faintly liver taste (in the best way).

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Next we tried the salad with winter squash and bourbon candied pecans, pickled onion, roasted apple, and blue cheese dressing. This tasted great but was a bit lacking in the squash department.

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And then we split the dry-aged rib eye filet, which came with smoked oyster mushrooms, russet potato hash, red-eye gravy, and maple and black garlic creme anglaise.

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The meat was cooked to perfect, and all the accoutrements were fantastic, but the smoked oyster mushrooms were other worldly. They had an intense smoky flavor, the richness of mushrooms, and were the perfect texture. The meal was very good, but these mushrooms were unbelievable. I love mushrooms and this beat them all.  If this isn’t on the menu regularly, they should make a dish entirely based around it. It is just that good. Thinking back on this taste at this moment leaves me with a feeling of great longing. If you don’t see this on the menu, ask for it. I’m telling you. It’s that good.

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Since we split everything, we still had some room for dessert.

So Mike chose the honey ricotta cheesecake, which came with a beautiful sugar decoration and had great flavor. The ricotta really made it light and the crust was really flavorful.

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I got the flourless chocolate torte with semi-sweet chocolate ganache. This was rich but not overwhelming. The caramel around it paired very nicely and I enjoyed every bite.

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Overall, we really enjoyed our meal at Local 188 and we were very happy that we were so strongly recommended to try it. All the food was very tasty and, by our NYC standards, very affordable for the quality and artisanship that went into it. You can tell the people that run this restaurant really care about the food they put out.

And those smoked mushrooms.

Glory be those smoked mushrooms.

The mushrooms alone got this review categorized in the Best of the Best list.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

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