Tag Archives: ravioli

Butter for Restaurant Week Winter 2013

28 Jan

Even if Executive Chef Alex Guarnaschelli (who just won Next Iron Chef) has nothing to do with Butter at this point in her career (which I am not sure about at all… I’ve heard she doesn’t do much with the restaurant anymore, but it’s hard to tell), you would never know. We have been meaning to go to Butter for years, and just never got around to it. I had heard it was good, but no one raved about it so it never made it high up on my list. But when we were trying to find a few new places to try for Restaurant Week this winter, we decided that in light of Chef Guarnaschelli’s recent win, we would check it out.

It’s right by the Public Theater in the East Village. We were seated downstairs and enjoyed the wood tree trunks and sticks that decorated the room. It had a nice, loungy feel with low couch benches in the bar areas and music playing in the rooms.

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Here was the Restaurant Week menu for dinner on Sunday, January 27th.

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And the regular menu.

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And of course, since it’s butter, here is the butter shot.

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And some more butter porn. (The butter itself was decent, but nothing too special and I could have used with a larger portion to cover off on the bread that was on the table.

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But the pumpernickel and sour dough breads were top notch.

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We decided to start with cocktails, and since they were so good, we continued drinking them throughout the meal (rather than switching to wine, which is our usual MO). I got the Pearadise with pear infused Bacardi rum, fresh pear puree, St. Germain liqueur, muddled limes and mint. It was fantastic. Perfectly sweet without being cloyingly so. Mike got the Mickey Blue Eyes, which was a martini made with Grey Goose Vodka and blue cheese stuffed olives.

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Mike started with the House Made Charcuterie Platter. This came with house-cured bacon, duck breast mortadella, and chicken liver toast with spicy napa cabbage. This was awesome. The mortadella had a great flavor, and the chicken liver was packed with flavor and had these perfect crispy onions on top. But the bacon… ohhh boyyyy the bacon.

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I got the soup of the day, which was a butternut squash soup. I have had butternut squash soup all over the world at this point, and I am a fan simply because I really love butternut squash soup. You don’t need to get fancy with it to be delicious, but that also means that most people serve butternut squash soup that tastes just like everyone else’s version. Sure, some people put in some toasted pumpkin seeds or some basil oil (and I sure do love it when they do) but the soup itself usually just tastes like squash, or squash and apples.

But this… this butternut squash was The Shit. I never knew squash soup could have this much depth of flavor. A bit of brown butter flavor and sweetness (from what I assume was brown sugar but not sure) with a layer of fresh squashy goodness. And the salted popcorn to accompany it was just perfect. I actually asked for more bread so I could lop up every last drop of soup. It was, hands down, the best butternut squash soup I have ever had.

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As we started the entree portion of our meal, the additional side of cider glazed roasted parsnips came out. These had thinly sliced apple chips on top and the cider glaze was superb. It was the perfect compliment to the roasted parsnips and it was great comfort food without being heavy.

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Mike chose the House Made Ricotta Ravioli with roasted oyster mushrooms, chili flakes (which they nicely served on the side so that I could eat it), and pecorino cheese. I thought the sauce and mushrooms went very well with the ricotta in the ravioli, which was fluffy and a tad tart, with great flavor. Though in the end, I never order cheese ravioli because I just find myself hard to impress with any version.

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I ordered the Braised Pork Shoulder with a pretzel crumb crust and buttered rutabega. This was also outstanding. A great pork flavor over a bed of creamy rutabega. The little salty crispness of the pretzel with the cabbage on top was delightful. It was perfectly tender so you could just pull it apart with your fork. Fantastic.

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For dessert, Mike chose the Ginger Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich with vanilla ice cream and spiced pecans. It was very good, with a well flavored ginger cookie and what I think were golden raisins with orange zest. The pecans were spiced with something pepper related that I couldn’t have (but Mike enjoyed) and while the cookie was a bit hard to cut, the dessert was very good.

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My dessert came out and the first thing I noticed was that it was tiny. It’s hard to tell in this shot, but the piece of chocolate cake was about 3 inches tall and wide and less than 1/2 an inch thick. But BOY was this big on flavor.

The chocolate was rich and decadent, the pomegranate seeds adding a little bit of lightness to it, and a shmear of awesome salted caramel. The entire dish was so fantastic, and so packed with flavor, I didn’t miss those additional bites.

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As the meal ended, I told Mike how I wanted to lick my plate for every single dish I had. (That is one of the highest compliments I can give a place!) The execution was flawless and I didn’t feel like we lost anything by ordering off the Restaurant Week menu. Portions weren’t huge, but I walked away totally satiated.

Overall, this was a standout meal not just for Restaurant Week, but overall. I was truly impressed and look forward to returning again in the near future. I can’t believe it took us that long to go!

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

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Michael White’s Ai Fiori for Valentine’s Day Part Deux

15 May

Michael White is one of those “celebrity” chefs that I have long heard about but never tried.  Enter Ai Fiori, Michael White’s newest restaurant, centered around pasta, that happens to be just a few blocks from the apartment (400 5th Avenue, between 36th and 37th Streets, in the Setai Hotel).  We were looking for another lovely dinner to surround Valentine’s Day to compliment our meal the weekend before at Annisa (since I was away on business on the actual day), and Ai Fiori couldn’t have been more perfect.

We went for an early dinner and found ourselves alone (but not for long) in the tastefully decorated 2nd floor restaurant.

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Even the table settings were quite lovely.  A waiter confused our table with the one next door and accidentally delivered us glasses of champagne.  I wasn’t sure if it was free (for Valentine’s Day) so there was some confusion.  We sent the champagne back to the table that ordered it, but our waiter wound up bringing us a glass each, on the house, for the confusion.  A lovely touch.

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The crusty, soft, warm bread came out with delicious salted butter and well flavored olive oil.

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Our amuse bouche was small shot of a fruity smoothie.  I cannot remember if this was mango or passion fruit, but it was a nice way to start the meal.

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We chose to do the prix fixe of 4 courses (cominciare / pasta or risotto / pesce or carne / dolce) for $89.

Mike chose to start with the Animelle which was crispy sweetbreads, pomme purée, truffle vinaigrette, and pancetta. It was delicious, delicate, and just the right amount of crisp. It was a $5 supplement charge, and well worth it.

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I chose the Mare e Monte (which, sadly, does not currently appear to be on the menu).  This had a $15 supplemental charge… but hey, it was Valentine’s Day!

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This was diver scallops, celery root, black truffles, bone marrow, and thyme.

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It was rich in all the right ways with complex flavors and sprigs of green to spring it up a bit.  It was decadent and fantastic.

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For our pasta/risotto course, Mike chose the risotto with riso acquarello, duck confit, and hen of the woods mushrooms. This was a perfect blend of flavors. Very rich but not at all heavy.

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I went with the Agnolotti, which was braised veal parcels, butternut squash, and black truffle sugo.

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These were just perfect.  Great meaty flavor inside and the pasta was just thin enough to hold it together.  The bay leaf on top was crisped and slightly sweetened, and tasted great when broken up into the pasta and squash puree. Mmmm mmmm.

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For our carne/pesce course, Mike chose the Agnello, which was rack of lamb en crepinette, panisse, romanesco, and parmesan.  This was simply perfect. The lamb was cooked as well as you can cook a lamb and each piece on this dish was simply delicious, especially the sauce on the lamb.

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I chose the Astice, which was butter poached Nova Scotia lobster, root vegetable fondant, and chateau chalon sauce.  I always struggle when deciding to order lobster, as no matter how good it is, I never find it as good as the lobster pounds in Maine (I’m spoiled rotten… I know), but this one was right up there. All the pieces that came with it just added to a fantastic dish.

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Onto dolce!  Mike chose the Tartaletta which was dark chocolate, red grape, caramelized sherry, and walnut gelato.  I loved this dish, and the grape tasted like a fantastic grape jelly.  It all went together perfectly.

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I chose to go with the Buddino di Limone with hazelnut praline, toasted meringue, espresso gelee, and cinnamon gelato. I was impressed by how architecturally it was belt, with a sheet of caramelized sugar balanced on top of the meringue peaks.

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This was a perfect dessert with great, original flavors.  Really impressive.

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And then out came the petite fours! They were stunningly beautiful…

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… and very, very tasty.  I especially liked this jelly thing… though I have no idea what it was. 🙂

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I knew we were in for a treat when we finally decided to try a Michael White restaurant, but this was out of this world.  I was so impressed by every bite at Ai Fiori, from start to finish.  It’s also very hard to find food this good, with a well-known chef, on a tasting menu with 4 courses for less than $100 (yes… I know that’s crazy…)  I really loved everything we tried and find it very hard to ignore the fact that this restaurant is so close to home. I just want to go again and again.  I definitely want to go back for breakfast, and also try White’s other restaurants (Marea, Alto, Convivio, Osteria Morini and recently expanding to Bernardsville, NJ and many other locations coming soon).

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

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Summer 2010 NYC Restaurant Week Round-Up

28 Jul

I have a tenuous relationship with Restaurant Week.  I’ve reviewed a few places before, and still believe that Restaurant Week in NYC is a great opportunity to fill seats in a restaurant and allow people to try the food at places they ordinarily wouldn’t want to “risk” at full price.  For me, it’s great.  I do a lot of client entertaining at restaurants, and I’d much prefer to have a preview before I risk my good relationships on a bad meal.  Some restaurants, however, just put the cheapest food they can on the menu and skirt by.  I know Restaurant Week is political in NY, but I wish these restaurants just wouldn’t bother.  I try to read reviews about the best places to eat during RW and then provide my reviews so other’s can learn from my successes and mistakes.

So without further ado, here is my round-up for Restaurant Week for Summer 2010 in NYC.  And good news… they just extended the “week” through Labor Day!  So go and find a place to eat a three-course meal: Lunch for $24 and Dinner for $35.  Tell them NYC Nom Nom sent ya. (And don’t forget to tip on the original food price!)

My first RW stop of this season was lunch at Olives (note to Olives: your website sucks) with the lovely Miss Lori (of Stuff I Ate fame). Olives is the Todd English restaurant in the W Union Square.  (Side online media geek rant… Olives: your website sucks.  Todd English: your heavy breathing website is creepy.  W Union Square: Sorry I just cost you and my old Search team a few cents. /rant)

We started with a basket of way too deliciously moist bread with caramelized onions on top.

Which came with olive goo for dipping in. Mmmmm

The posted menu is here(however, ours was a bit different).  Lori and I both chose the beet salad to start. I have had a good deal of beet salads in recent years, and this was hands down the best one I have ever had.  I would eat this over pizza.  It was absolutely perfectly seasoned, sweet, and the braised pistachios were TO. DIE. FOR.  Wow.  I just want to go back for this salad.  Immediately.

I first chose two other entrees on the menu before I settled on the ravioli.  It was a sad moment, as BOTH entrees had peppers that couldn’t be taken out.  So I settled for the raviolis.

And if you get “stuck” with raviolis, these are pretty damn good ones to get stuck with.  Not the best, but quite delicious and totally satisfying.  The peas were perfectly cooked.

Lori chose the trout (which seems to NOT be on the menu that is posted) which had cherries (damn I love cherries), beans, and bacon.  This is what I REALLY wanted but it had jalapenos.  Damn.  Since I couldn’t even sneak a taste due to my allergy, her full review is here.

And then came the desserts… we decided to each get one of the pana cottas.  The first was a buttermilk custard with wild Maine blueberries and things that we kept commenting tasted just like Kix.  Turns out, that is exactly what they were!  It was pretty good… but nothing to write home about.

The second pana cotta was a bittersweet chocolate with shaved brownie, cocoa puffs, and white chocolate fudge.  What they FAILED to mention was the watermelon sorbet.  It was so damn good that we each contemplated accidentally tripping and falling (mouth first) into our neighbor’s plates as their desserts came out.  This sorbet is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Overall, I was very impressed with Olives.  I’ve had apps and drinks there before and I’ve never been dissapointed.  I hear the regular dinner menu has AMAZING pasta.  Totally worth it.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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Our next restaurant of the season was Ilili.  This came as a recommendation and seemed especially enticing since they offered a free pour of Lebanese wine during the two original weeks of RW (thanks for the tip Wined and Dined!)  

Even though we got a free taste of wine, I saw a cocktail on the menu that I couldn’t resist.  It had tequila, mulberry syrup, and lime.  It was quite enjoyable.  And obvious QUITE strong… the pictures for the rest of the Ilili post are terribly out of focus.  Apologies in advance.

Their Restaurant Week menu is here.  (They also offer a Dinner special for $39 every Sunday – Wednesday that is similar to the RW menu was. It doesn’t appear that they are officially participating in the extended Restaurant Week, but this was a steal even for an extra $4!)

We went to Ilili with our friends Josh and Lillian, and what is so much fun about Ilili’s menu is that there is just SO much to choose from so we each chose 2 small plates, 1 entree, and 1 dessert and then sampled around the table.  I love friends who share their food!

First up was the green beans with date molasses garlic whip, sesame seeds, and pickled pearl onions.  Delish!

Then there was the insanely creamy hummus…

…That came with well inflated pita.

We also got artichokes (which aren’t on the current, year-long menu).  I hear they were good, but they were spicy so I had to do without.  Poo.

We tried the Mekanek, which was lamb sausage sauteed with olive oil with lemon and pine nuts.  Tasty.

And the steak tartar that came shaped like a meatball.  I prefer my tartar less reminiscent of raw meat I cook with… but at least it tasted good! (And yes… I stuck to the far side of the plate below)

I ordered the lamb meatballs with onions and pine nuts in a tomato sauce.  These were so good and lamb-y! MMmmmm

Our last “app”/small plate was the lamb ribs with burned strawberry, scallions a la plancha, cuin, and aleppo broth.  I REALY wanted to try this (burned strawberry just sounded interesting) but, turns out, the aleppo broth took me out of contention.  Lillian said it was good though!

Josh chose the braised rabbit with eggplant, romano beans, and roasted heirloom tomatoes.  (Right Josh? Man I hope that’s right…)  He liked it whatever it was!

Mike chose the Chicken Shish Taouk which was marinated in lemon and garlic on a spiced pita.  He enjoyed thoroughly.

Lillian chose the striped bass with a ragout of clams and herbs, kouzbara toast, and lemon espuma.  It was deliciously tender and juicy.

In my humble opinion, my entree was the best.  It was the lamb and plum stew with crispy vermicelli.  It helps that lamb and plums are 2 of my favorite foods.  The meat just fell apart on my fork and the tastes were effortlessly elaborate.  I loved it.  Love love loved it.

The desserts were plentiful.  First up was the Ilili Candy Bar that came with chocolate kataifi crunch, chocolate ganache, pistachio and fig caramel and finished with warm chocolate sauce (table side).  I’m not sure why it was called a candy bar, but it was delicious and decadent.

Josh chose the homemade Lebanese ice cream.  I’m not sure what kind it was… but he enjoyed it from what I could tell.

Lillian got the Ashta which is traditional Lebanese clotted cream with orange blossom simple syrup.  This was tasty, but not as rich as I like my desserts. (I’m a glutton for chocolate).

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with Ilili.  Not only was there a lot of food and a lot to choose from for a typical Restaurant Week menu, but they do a similar special all year long AND the food was spectacular.  Not a bad dish on the table.  I will do work lunches and dinners here.  It was that good.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

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After reading some reviews, Mike and I chose to do a RW dinner at Park Avenue Summer (which also doesn’t appear to be on the extended RW list).  They change the menu and decor for each season.

Our bread basket was concerning, as while the biscuits looked delicious, they also looked like they could have potential inclusion of peppers (and as we all know, jalapeno peppers ARE in fact peppers).

Luckily, they read my mind and included a descriptive card about the breads! (and the Summer Corn Roll was tasty).

 

We started with a chef’s treat of watermelon pieces on a stick.  Good… but if you are just going to serve watermelon on a stick, it had better be VERY good watermelon.  It wasn’t.  Just okay.  I’m hard to impress with watermelon though.

The restaurant was VERY dark (even leading an old lady to block the stairs as we went to our seats to allow her “eyes to adjust”) so the pictures are not great.  Sorry!

Here was the menu.

Mike started a dish that isn’t on the posted menu (my memory isn’t good enough for this!)  I have no recollection of this… hmmm…

I got the salmon tartar and this was REALLY good.  Impressive citrus flavor that perfectly balanced the fish.

Mike got the Dr. Pepper Baby Back Ribs for his entree with fresh peach slaw.  He made the right choice.

I went with the roasted chicken with peaches.  It was just… ehh.  The skin wasn’t crispy enough, there was too much sugar in the peach sauce and not enough peaches, and the chicken was a bit dry.  Very disappointing.

We also ordered off the regular menu (in addition to a bottle of wine) and got the fried artichokes.  I was SO disappointed with these.  The breading was so heavy and fried so much that you couldn’t even taste the artichokes.  They tasted like fast food.  Weird and disappointing. 

For dessert, Mike chose two curious flavors of ice cream: sweet corn and carmelized honey.  They were both stupendous but I LOVED the corn. Wow! Like licking cold popcorn flavored deliciousness. 

I went with the Chilled Banana Parfait with Chocolate Crumbs & Banana Butterscotch Puree.  Honestly, I hoped it was something like my insanely delicious Faux Banana Ice Cream, but it was lackluster until I hit the butterscotch, which made it better, but still not GREAT.  Bummer.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed by Park Avenue Summer.  I don’t know if it was the RW menu or if the food was just not what I expected.  Bummer.

Total Nom Points: 6 out of 10

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Our last scheduled stop for Restaurant Week was dinner at Perry Street (a Jean Georges restaurant I had heard good things about.  They also seem to not be participating in the RW extension… damn.  But they do have a summer special for lunch ($26) and dinner ($38).

The day before, Mike and I checked out the RW Dinner Menu and were disappointed to see that they only had 2 apps and 2 entrees to choose from (and both entrees included scary words like “spicy” and “ratatouille”).  I called to confirm and asked if they could move us to lunch, which had a MUCH bigger menu (though even with so much selection, I had trouble finding pepperless items).

I really liked the ambiance of the restaurant. 

Even the bar just looked comfortable.

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We started with an amuse bouche of cold watermelon soup.  It was tasty but a little too vinegary for me (it burned the throat).

Mikes app was the goat cheese and peach salad.  These were the best peaches I have had all season.  Hands down.  I want to know where they source them from.  This is how peaches are meant to be.  Mike enjoyed the crystallized wasabi (and wasabi nuts) but I steered clear (not a fan… reminds me too much of the scary pepper in taste).

I went with the arctic char sashimi with lemon, olive oil, and crispy skin.  It was good, but really was no comparison to the salmon tartar from the week before at Park Avenue Summer.

Mike chose the grilled yellowfin tuna burger. It came with bonito mayonnaise, shiso, and yuzu pickles.  I think it was tasty, but it was a bit hard to get past the fact that this was ground up tuna rather than a tuna steak.

I had the spinach and goat cheese omelet with crunchy potatoes. 

It was good but nothing too special.

For dessert, Mike got the “berry soup.”  It was good, but felt like a cheap alternative to a real dessert.

I went with the chocolate lava cake. 

It was disappointing… especially because the center was pretty well done.  The chocolate was SO bittersweet that even the ice cream (which was tasty) couldn’t quite make up for it.  It was also a bit dry.  It would have been well suited for a berry sauce of some kind.

Overall, I was underwhelmed by Perry Street.  For a name like Jean Georges, I expected more, especially for Restaurant Week.  I don’t know how their regular menu is, but this was just… ehhh.  Another bummer. 

Total Nom Points: 6 out of 10

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Restaurant Week Summer 2010 was an overall success since we had TWO great meals. 

Summary: Skip Perry Street and Park Avenue Summer, Hit up Olives and especially Ilili.

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