As mentioned in my profile, I am currently 24, a Manhattanite (although I originally hail from the eastern hemisphere), and engaged to the man of my dreams. Unlike many young women my age, I LIVE for life experiences... not so much cute things or luxury goods. Give me $200 and I would much rather spend it feasting on frogs' legs sauteed provençale at La Grenouille than on a new Coach bag or jacket from Bluefly. Even now that my darling fiance and I are planning our wedding, we have happily maintained a small guestlist (comprised solely of our nearest-and-dearest) so that we could allocate a significant chunk of our wedding budget to our upcoming honeymoon (hello Maldives!). Why spend money on a larger wedding when we could instead be pampering ourselves alone as a couple in paradise? In short, I love to eat, travel, and experience new things. Most of what I enjoy doing in life is evidenced entirely in my memory... hey, it makes for more closet space!
Secretly, I've wanted to write my own blog for awhile now. I love to write. Ever since I was a kid, I've always been better at expressing myself through writing than speaking. Then a couple of days ago, I was having brunch at Boqueria with my sister and she asked for my recommendation on where she and her friends should go for Restaurant Week. A sister is one thing, but apparently even her roommate (who I do not know personally) always asks my sister to ask me what I think about specific restaurants in NYC! Even among my friends, I've earned the reputation of being somewhat of an informal restaurant guru and fine dining vanguard. I think that's pretty cool and I thought it would be fun to record my dining experiences somewhere, both for my own reflection and enjoyment as well as for others' reading pleasure.
So without further ado... here is my first review!
Brasserie
(53rd Street b/w Lex and Park)
My fiance and I went to Brasserie for Restaurant Week last night. We live in Midtown East, and as such we've walked by Brasserie a million times, always mentioning that we should try it out someday. It was our first time there, and I don't mean to start my blog on a negative note, but it was pretty awful. In absolute terms, it was average. But I thought this was a French restaurant... and from the outside of the building, I assumed the restaurant would be nice and relatively classy. Upon walking into the establishment though, everything was stark white. Seats were made of plastic and my first impression was that it looked like a cafeteria. This is probably a restaurant you'd see on Sex And The City and one that is self-professed as being modern and trendy... to me, it was just plain white.
We ordered off the R-Week menu: I had the split pea soup, ocean striped bass, and chocolate brown butter torte. The mister had salmon carpaccio, a seafood soup medley, and toasted almond cake. I drank a glass of Pinot Noir and he a glass of the darkest beer I've ever seen. (I don't even know the name of it!)
The only noticeable pro for me was that the food came out fast. We were seated right by the kitchen (not in a bad way, there was a wall separating us) and it never took more than 5 minutes for the waiters to switch our courses.
Cons: The food came out really fast... almost too fast (it was pretty obvious they had a million desserts lined up and ready to be served in the kitchen... I suppose it is Restaurant Week, though!), our server was pretty lame (he handed me my plate when he could have very easily walked over and put it down in front of me), and the food was average AT BEST. It was all very underwhelming, to say the least. Average food is admissible in average venues, but not in restaurants that try to be higher-end.
M-Stars (my ratings) are as follows:
Decor/ambience: 2 out of 5
Food: 2.5 out of 5
Service: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5 (we were, after all, paying R-Week prices)
"It" factor: 0 out of 5
M&M's (my fiance's and my) overall satisfaction: 2 out of 5
Bottom-line: We won't be going back! It wasn't terrible, but nothing set it apart from its peers.
No comments:
Post a Comment