Our 2nd stop for NYC Summer 2011 Restaurant Week was Black Duck. Their Restaurant Week selection was anything from their soup and salad section (which included gazpacho, a Bibb lettuce salad, and an arugula salad), pan roasted chicken, fish of the day (which was pistachio crusted fluke, or spring penne pasta for entrée, and dessert was listed as summer strawberry cake.
Mike chose the Bibb Lettuce salad that came with citrus pieces. The dressing on it was very citrusy and fresh. Nice summer salad.
I went with the arugula salad which came with dried figs, onions, roasted pistachios, and shaved pecorino in a champagne-dijon vinaigrette. I was concerned about the “dijon” part since I’m not a mustard fan, but the entire thing was delicious.
While not on the Restaurant Week menu, we chose to get the sliders app. It said it came with mustard, and Mike was kind enough to ask if it was on the side. We were assured it was… but when it came… no mustard to be found. Weird. But the sliders were grilled and well salted, and tasted like they came right off a backyard grill (which isn’t necessarily what I want at a restaurant, but it was still good).
Mike’s main course was the spring penne pasta that came with spring peas, yellow cherry tomatoes, regiano, and basil pesto. I LOVED the peas and the basil pesto. I wouldn’t say the pasta was anything special, but everything on it was really good.
I chose the pistachio crusted New England Fluke over baby bok choy and mushrooms with ponzu. This was VERY tasty, though I’m not sure if I really recognized the pistachio coating as pistachio. It added a nice crisp, but I was hoping it would be a bit more pisachio-y.
My camera battery had actually died just before this meal started, so all these pictures were taken with my iPhone. It was fine at first, but as it got darker, I had to start using the flash and most pictures just weren’t as nice as with the real camera. One thing the iPhone can capture, however, that my camera cannot is cool candle lighting. It made my wine look pretty awesome.
For dessert, the waitress came out and started listing off a whole bunch of options. I was surprised since the only one listed was the strawberry cake. I asked her if they were included in the RW menu, and she said not usually but they would make an exception. Also, she noted that the strawberry cake was actually a strawberry cheesecake. Mike’s middle name could be cheesecake, so he went in that direction. It was a bit strange though… it was more like a biscuit cake with a small layer of cheese (marscapone maybe) in between two layers and topped with strawberries. It was just okay.
I decided to order the “chocolate caramel mousse.” I was a bit surprised when a slice came out (I was expecting just mousse) and I’m still not sure where the caramel was (there wasn’t even any drizzled on top. Hmmmmm) It was good but quite rich and kind of disappointing when I really wanted some caramel.
Overall, our meal was very good and we really enjoyed everything. I wouldn’t say I LOVED it, but I would certainly go back. There were some awesome sounding dishes on the entrée list that I would definitely want to try!
Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10
