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Hello readers!!! I am back after an almost 2 week hiatus. Work has been busy and this month has been craaaaaaaawling by at a snail's pace. Apparently February is the shortest month of the year but it sure as heck doesn't feel like it!!
Now, although I've been busy at work during the week, that doesn't mean I haven't found the time and opportunity to eat! I've mentioned several times already that I LOVE living in Midtown East. Not only is my apartment ultra-close to 3 subway lines, but it's also within walking distance to so many wonderful haute French restaurants. French food is without a doubt one of my top three favorite cuisines (my other two favorites being Japanese and Chinese [and all its variations], since I can't live without rice!) - there simply isn't a better combination than the top quality food and top notch service inherently found at most classy French restaurants. La Grenouille (53rd between Madison and 5th) and Daniel (65th between Park and Madison) are located in our neighborhood, and a recent discovery, Le Cirque (58th between 3rd and Lexington), is a stone's throw away as well!
My fiance and I headed up to Le Cirque last Friday evening for dinner. They had extended the duration of their Restaurant Week menu, so we were lucky enough to be able to experience it. I've tried a few restaurants during Restaurant Week (ie. Butter, Brasserie, Dos Caminos...) and although it's a wonderful concept for us middle-class folk, the food usually doesn't deliver. Choices are minimal and unoriginal and the quality is not so good, to say the least. In my almost 5 years of living in NYC, I can only recall 2 excellent Restaurant Week experiences I've had, and they were at One if by Land, Two if by Sea, and now Le Cirque.
Le Cirque
(58th Street between 3rd and Lexington Avenues)
The only negative thing I have to say about Le Cirque is that upon walking into the lobby, the receptionist directs you to a coat check section before bringing you to your seat. Rather than wait in line to check my coat (which reminds me too much of going to a nightclub), I think it'd be much classier if they had someone at the receptionist counter take our coats for us and check them in on our behalf.
Le Cirque is on the ground floor of a section of the Bloomberg building. The Bloomberg building is a very unique, circular construction, and as such, the restaurant is built in the shape of a semi-circle. The interior feels like a warm and high-class French restaurant, me likey. :) I can't remember what I had for an appetizer (something shrimp-based) but my fiance enjoyed his lamb shank terrine. You can always tell when my fiance is in fine-dining mode when he starts eating reaaaaaally.... slooooooowly... in bite-sized morsels. Usually my eating pace is half as slow as his is (eating family-style with the 3 men of his family is always a harried experience! lol) but when we are eating out at fancy joints, a mysterious sense of calm comes over him and then I'm the one who looks like Miss Piggy. No joke.
My favorite course at Le Cirque was the entree: Berkshire pork belly. I believe this was the second time in my whole life I'd ever had pork belly (the first time being at Casa Mono) and it was PERFECT. Just the right amount of fat crunchiness on top, followed by braised soft texture beneath. I know "pork belly" doesn't exactly sound the most appealing, but I guarantee you will find it has the most delectable combination of softness and crunchiness all in one. Not in the least bit overwhelming. Double credit goes to Le Cirque for offering something as unique as pork belly on their Restaurant Week menu. They could have so easily followed all the other restaurants and had your standard fish and beef prime rib available.
Dessert was also a delight! It was called "milk chocolate milles feuilles" which consisted of soft and delicious milk chocolate sandwiched between two lovely wafers, I think. It was complemented with salted caramel ice cream and was very, VERY good. Sweet, but not rich, which is good for me! Hubby-to-be chose the tiramisu but he definitely preferred mine! So what else is new? :)
M-Stars:
Decor/ambience: 4.5 out of 5 (lovely red and gold undertones made for a warm and classy dining experience... minimalist decor is so overrated these days!)
Food: 4.5 out of 5 (10/10 on the entree and dessert, but their bread rolls could have been better...)
Service: 4 out of 5 (not in the 5 star league of Jean Georges and La Grenouille)
Value: 5 out of 5 (
GREAT quality 3-course meal for only $35!)
"It" factor: 4.5 out of 5
M&M's overall satisfaction: 4.5 out of 5
Bottom-line: We were HUGELY satisfied and very impressed with this meal. Will definitely be back when I'm next in the mood for pork belly!
Artisanal
(32nd Street b/w Park and Madison)
When it comes to eating at restaurants, I'm a hands-on kind of gal. I love yakiniku... sukiyaki... Mongolian BBQ... all of which involve some sort of effort put forth by the eater before the food is cooked, whether it be assembling raw meat and vegetables into a bowl or even cooking one's own food on a grill. It doesn't bother me one bit that I have to essentially pay to prepare part or all of my own meal - as long as the food tastes good, of course! Naturally, I also enjoy a nice night out of fondue, every now and then. My parents brought me to a Swiss restaurant on the night of my high school graduation, where we feasted on cheese, oil, and chocolate fondue all in one sitting, and I've been a fan ever since!
Last night was my first time experiencing the fondue at Artisanal. I'd been craving fondue for awhile now and my fiance and I finally made it down there to give it a try. It's a large, crowded establishment and is decorated like your prototype French bistro. Very cute, but everyone is packed like sardines! Before last night, I'd been to Artisanal two times prior, and both were for brunch. The brunch is really scrumptious, by the way! I've had the almond croissant French toast (the portion is rather small for NYC standards) and the soft scrambled eggs with smoked bacon and crisp potato (amazing!!).
Similar to brunch, dinner portions are small and almost laughably so. My fiance is a big guy (practically 6'5) and nothing irks him more when I select a dining venue with small yet pricey portions! Oops. To start, we had marinated olives (which I avoided due to my distaste for them) and "grilled cheese bites." The grilled cheese bites were $7.50 and the plate came with four 1 inch by 1 inch squares consisting of grilled cheese and bacon in between two slices of bread. No offense, but for a somewhat casual restaurant like Artisanal, I thought they'd at least throw in a full sandwich for that price... not the equivalent of 20% of a sandwich! Either way, the grilled cheese bites were yummy.
One of the things I liked most about Artisanal was that they offer wine by the taste, not just by the glass or bottle. A taste is a smaller version of a glass (maybe around half the amount of a regular glass of wine) and is also half the price. I ordered a taste of Malbec and it was like the portion was made just for me!! I like having wine every now and then but a full glass tends to be a bit too much for me in terms of taste and yes, I suppose some might say that I am a bit of a lightweight! Usually I am struggling even after my fiance has signed the bill to finish the last half of my regular glass. This time, though, I managed to finish my entire taste before the bill even came. :) Voila!
Now onto the fondue... we ordered the Artisanal blend cheese fondue. It comes with little bite-sized cubes of bread. We also ordered beef tips, apples, and fingerling potatoes to eat with the fondue. It was YUMMY. The blend was excellent - the melted consistency was just perfect (gooey but still solid enough to cling onto whatever was dipped into it) and the taste was flavorful but also not too overpowering or stinky. Ideal for fondue beginners or those who simply prefer a milder cheese. I highly recommend it! The beef tips are a MUST. They were so tender and cooked medium, and they just easily faded into the depths of my mouth as I popped them in. Again, portions of the beef tips, apples, and potatoes appeared to be pretty small initially... but they were enough to fill us up. I think this was due to the additional cheese we ate and to the fact that our stomachs had time to get full as we dipped our food into the cheese bite by bite. The cheese fondue was an A! Now if only Artisanal offered oil fondue...
For dessert, I really wanted to try the chocolate fondue since I figured this must be their staple dessert. It wasn't cheap ($24.50), but it was still delicious. Hey, chocolate is chocolate! Was it better tasting than other chocolate fondues out there (such as at Max Brenner)? Not exactly. Again, the portion was pretty small for the price, but we probably couldn't have eaten anymore at that point! The chocolate fondue came with fruits to dip (bananas, strawberries, and apricots) and a sampling of cookies, marshmallows and madeleines. Also, it was a dark chocolate fondue... they don't offer any choices of milk or white chocolate on the menu, unfortunately.
Overall, we enjoyed ourselves very much at Artisanal. It's a fun place to go with friends (the noise level was pretty high, and not helped much by the fact that everyone was squished so close to each other) and also a great quality place to satisfy your fondue or cheese craving!
M-Stars:
Decor/ambience: 3.5 out of 5 (they've got the French bistro look down pat)
Food: 4 out of 5 (again, the Artisanal cheese fondue was lovely... while the chocolate fondue was like any other)
Service: 3 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5 (small portions but good quality... and besides, how many other fondue restaurants are there in Manhattan to choose from?)
"It" factor: 4 out of 5 (Artisanal has the fondue market share in this city!)
M&M's overall satisfaction: 3.5 out of 5
Bottom-line: We will definitely head back to Artisanal for our next fondue outing, although it probably won't be for another several months (it's not often I crave cheese). I know they also offer cheese and wine flights, which may be a fun activity down the line!
This is my very first post on my very new blog! I am thrilled that I finally got the chance to sit down, sign up for a blog, and write. I used to have a couple of blogs back in high school (seven years ago... eek!), but ever since college and kicking off the beginning of my working years, finding the time to sit down and write has taken a backburner. Until now, that is. :) Since it's been all of seven years, I am experiencing a bit of writer's block typing this introduction... so let's cut right to the chase.
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 provenรงale 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.
