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Before we went to New York, I spent quite a lot of time researching where we could go for one really special (i.e. expensive!) meal. It was a difficult decision, given the huge number of restaurants in New York and the stratospheric prices some of them can reach. I eventually decided on Gramercy Tavern, located downtown on East 20th Street, between the Union Square (home of the Union Square market) and the Flatiron Building. I was keen to try the tasting menu and, to mitigate those prices somewhat, we chose to go for lunch.
We arrived a little early and were greeted by three people at the front door. This could have been intimidating (they had rung earlier to confirm the reservation and advise us of the dress code), but they were all very friendly as we chatted about the change in the weather.
We were shown to our table and offered the menu, which I had already previewed on their website. Choosing the tasting menu made things easy and we were just left to select the wine. I was pleasantly surprised to see wines recommended for only around $25 a bottle and we selected a sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux, which was crisp, cool and dry - perfect for that humid New York weather we'd been discussing. We were also offered a choice from the bread basket, which included the best olive bread I have ever eaten. The bread in NY has been so good, I can't stop eating it even when I know I have five courses coming up!
The first course was Calamari and Carrot Salad, Toasted Pine Nuts and Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette. I must admit, this is not something I would have ordered. I'm not a huge fan of carrot and to be honest, the dish sounded quite boring. It was anything but. The Calamari had the most amazing texture - soft and silky as it slid over your tongue. I have no idea it could have been cooked to have this texture - I'm almost inclined to think it was prepared ceviche-style and just marinated in lemon juice. Brilliant, anyway. The carrot and pine nuts offered crunch and resistance and the dressing was perfectly balanced. This was an appetiser and a half.
It was, however, immediately topped by the next course - Soft Shell Crab with Ruby Crescent Potatoes and Spring Onions. I love soft shell crab. In my opinion, it is absolutely the best way to eat crab - no messing around trying to pull bits of meat out of tiny cavaties. You just get in there and eat the whole thing. This was deep-fried with a crispy coating and served with a mayonnaise potato salad, which cut beautifully through the fattiness of the deep fry but didn't overwhelm the delicacy of the crab. I think I eked this dish out in tiny mouthfuls.
Course number three was Fluke with Sugar Snap Peas, Wild Rice and American Caviar. For me, this was the least interesting course. I didn't know this fish, but we saw it on quite a few menus. It is apparently a flatfish from New Jersey, so very local. The fish had a nice firm texture and a light flavour. It was complemented by the very fresh peas and a lovely, rich jus. The American Caviar was a bit of a non-event.
The final savoury course was Guinea Hen with Heirloom Cauliflower and House Cured Pancetta. On the "interesting" scale, it was somewhere between the Crab and the Fluke courses . . . unfortunately, maybe slightly closer to the Fluke. The Guinea Hen had lovely crispy skin, but was a touch on the dry side, and the Cauliflower and Pancetta, while looking impressive, were a little muted on the tongue. Perhaps to be expected from what is essentially a tarted up dish of chicken breast and cauliflower puree.
Next came an uncredited pre-dessert, a strawberry cheesecake. This was WOW! For such a tiny amount, the strawberry flavour was intensely powerful. The topping was light and fluffy, you barely felt it as your teeth moved through topping into the crunch of the biscuit base. It had the prettiest little sugared violet on top and some lovely strawberries and coulis on the side. Dessert was going to have to be good to top this.
The dessert was the first course where we had a choice, in this case, between fruit and chocolate. Now on the surface, you would think the chocolate would be a slam dunk, but the fruit was rhubarb and I love rhubarb and the chocolate was mousse, which I can generally take or leave. Luckily, we decided to have one each and swap. Unluckily, I started with the chocolate, which meant I had to give it up halfway through.
The chocolate mousse was a dark bitter chocolate log, almost truffle-like in its texture. It was served with a small dollop of salted caramel (really unusual, but good), a wedge of peanut brittle wafer and cream. This was quite incredible - it was like the dessert was teetering on the edge of being savoury and for someone who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, that was quite exciting. The chocolate was rich and bitter, the caramel salty, the cream buttery. Giving this up halfway through was really hard.
The second dessert was a rhubarb merangue tart with rhubarb sorbet. It was really lovely, but especially following the chocolate, a little too sweet. The reason I like rhubarb is because it is a little tart but with the merangue, coulis, creme anglais and biscuits, this was a little too sugary to be my favourite. When Kyle gave me the last bite of the chocolate mousse, well . . . Now that's love.
Finally, to finish, we had coffees and petit fours. The petit fours were an earl grey tea ganache tart, a tiny rhubarb macaroon and an orange truffle. I'd been eyeing the ganache tart on someone else's table and it didn't disappoint - it was definitely my favourite.
At that was the end of our extravagent and impressive New York meal at Gramercy Tavern. I must admit, some of the food was just okay, but the dishes that were good - the soft shell crab, the strawberry cheesecake, the chocolate mousse - were sublime. I can forgive a couple of forgettable dishes when there are some extraordinary ones as well, but in retrospect, you do have to 'mark' it down a little for two of the five dishes being merely average.
We had such a great time at Gramercy Tavern. The service was nothing short of brilliant the whole time. We always felt comfortable and looked after and even had a little 'relationship' going with our waiter, but not so much that we felt crowded. The room was lovely and just nicely busy. This is a restaurant I would definitely recommend for a special New York experience.
Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Ambience: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th Street
New York, NY 10003
Unlike Toronto, we did go to New York with some ideas of what to eat. Perhaps unusually for my travel eating, this involved largely fast food - burgers, hot dogs, pizza, bagels. I know New York has lots of fancy restaurants (and we did that too), but the things it seemed to be famous for are junk, albeit junk food taken to new levels.
After wandering around downtown, including that financial mecca Wall Street, we decided to have a late lunch at Bobby Van's Grille, which is apparently home to the 5th best burger in New York (according to the New York Times and the Burger of the Month club).
It also has the added coolness factor of being in an old bank vault.
Being right around the corner from Wall Street, the majority of their clientele are likely suits with expense accounts, so it was fortunate that we arrived in our touristy clothes a little later than prime lunchtime. After deliberating whether we were too scabbily dressed to be able to enter, we went in anyway and the staff were very nice (to our faces anyway!). Luckily, as we were there for the burgers, which they talk up, at least we didn't have to pretend to be considering the posh part of the menu.
We were offered a choice of cheese, including American (that lurid yellow stuff), cheddar, swiss, blue and possibly some others, and bacon. Kyle chose the lurid yellow one, while I opted for swiss. Kyle ordered bacon, but either they didn't hear or it was forgotten, but it probably wasn't necessary anyway. We both ordered the burgers cooked medium rare and a couple of their draught beers to accompany them (a Brooklyn Dark Ale and some sort of wheat beer).
The burger was a soft white bun wrapped snuggly around the large ground beef patty, which was at least 5cm thick and weighed 12oz. And I have to admit, the yellow cheese did look the All-American part. The other half of the burger bun was topped with a large piece of lettuce and a thick slice each of tomato and raw onion. The burgers were accompanied by fries, onion rings and a pickle. The plates were enormous. This was a lot of food - when we'd finished, there was probably still a whole meal left!
So how did it taste? The burger patty was well-seasoned and satisfyingly beefy. Unfortunately, mine was cooked medium at best, maybe even bordering on medium well. Kyle's was cooked perfectly medium rare, with the juices soaking beautifully into the bun. The salad on the burger was quite hard to eat and the enormous slice of raw onion was removed immediately. We tried some of the Bobby Van's Steakhouse sauce, but found it quite sweet and lacking in good barbecue sauce spice. The pickle tasted like a cucumber in vinegar, which I know it is, but is that a good thing? The fries were quite good, with plenty of crunch, but the onion rings - revelation! I don't think I have ever had onion rings outside of a bad fast food chain, so therefore only bad onion rings. These were amazing - soft, sweet onion (do they boil them first or something?), lightly and erratically coated in a crunchy batter. The burger was good, the onion rings were amazing.
Overall, I think this was a pretty good burger experience in New York (we also tried to go to the Shake Shack on our last day, but when we arrived there were about 100 people in the queue - literally - and we had a plane to catch), but perhaps the expectations were too high. At any rate, I feel truly burger inspired now and I can't wait to try and make those onion rings!
Food: 8.5/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10Bobby Van's Grille
25 Broad Street
New York
After four lovely days in Toronto, it was time to move on to New York. It was funny being in New York. The whole place is like a movie set or like being in every TV show you ever watched - Seinfeld, Friends, Sex in the City, Ugly Betty, Law and Order, 30 Rock . . . they all happen here and it is like every thing and every person has been staged to be part of the New York set. It was absolutely brilliant!
By the time we arrived and checked into our hotel, we had enough time to make it to the 4.30pm cruise around Manhattan Island. I really enjoyed seeing the whole city from this perspective and the accompanying commentary was really interesting and informative. Somehow, the time disappeared and it was time to choose a dinner destination. We have a bad reputation for being able to walk around for ages trying to decide where to eat. In New York, that city full of more places to eat than you could ever imagine, this could be really dangerous! As it was getting late, we decided to choose a restaurant out of our guide book - The Red Cat in Chelsea.
We arrived at 10pm for dinner on a Monday night. The restaurant was mostly full, but no problem for us to get a table for dinner and we weren't the last to arrive either. I know I've been living in London for two years, but being from Brisbane, I still find this kind of thing exciting. I mean, arriving at a restaurant at 10pm on Monday night? Except for the casino, can you even do that Brisbane???
The Red Cat was a really cool restaurant - dark red walls contrasted beautifully with the crisp white tableclothes and the lanterns used for lights completed the funky image. Our waiter was also pretty funky with those trendy black-framed glasses and goatee. Luckily, he was also enormously helpful. The list of wines by the glass contained pretty much all wines that were new to me, so I asked for a recommendation of a dry white and he suggested the Airen "mas Que Vinos" 2008, Bodegas Ercavio (La Mancha) and offered us a taste before we committed. The wine was cool and crisp - exactly what I was looking for.
To start, I chose the proscuitto and parmesan croquettes with pea sprouts and olive oil aioli. The croquettes were beautifully crispy on the outside with a flavoursome and soft cheesy middle - delicious.
Kyle's appetiser was potato pierogies (a type of dumpling) with snow peas, bacon, shitake mushrooms and white wine butter.
Having tried skate wing recently at The Chancery with only limited success, I was keen to give it another go. This version was served with sauteed greens, hazelnuts and lemon brown butter. Most importantly, it was served off the bone, which was so much more enjoyable and infinitely easier to eat. The fish was soft and delicate and the lemon-butter sauce complemented it perfectly. The hazelnuts provided crunch, but in my opinion, there were too many and they started to overwhelm the fish.
Kyle opted for the calves liver served with swiss chard pie. I found the liver relatively mild tasting and pleasantly soft in texture, nicely offset by the crumbly shortcrust pasty of the vegetable pie. Kyle also just mentioned that a real highlight of this dish was the base of melted tomato it came on.
As we were coming to expect, the meals were really quite large serving sizes (although the excellent piece of sourdough bread I ate probably didn't help!), so we had no room for dessert. It didn't matter really, as this was already a fantastic first NY meal. Did I mention how good the service was? Halfway through our meal, funky waiter's shift finished, but rather than just disappear, he told us he was leaving, introduced us to our new waiter and wished us a pleasant evening. That sort of service helps to limit the pain of leaving that 18% tip!
Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 9.5/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 9/10The Red Cat
227 Tenth Avenue
New York City 10011
As I mentioned previously, I hadn't really planned anything food-wise for our trip to Toronto, but it is quite interesting how quickly you can pick up on 'local' dishes. I had noticed a dish called 'poutine' was on a number of menus and also being sold at the food carts in Toronto, so when I picked up a copy of a free Toronto magazine that included an article on a gastropub that had one of the best examples in town, it seemed like a suitable choice for Friday lunch. Add to that, the gastropub apparently had a great outdoor space, ideal for the now sunny weather, and it was only about 200 numbers away from our location on Yonge Street, it seemed like a good idea.
I've since learnt a couple of things. Firstly, Poutine is actually a Quebecois dish, so not particularly local and Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. Literally. It was in the Guiness Book of Records and stretches an incredible 1896km. So even though we were at about number 800 and our destination was 1068, it still took quite some time to get there.
Luckily, when we arrived, the pub was really cool. It wasn't very big, with perhaps seating for 20 inside and around 30 outside, but it was pretty full with a buzzy atmosphere. We snagged a seat in the courtyard, which was lovely and shady in the warm weather. The drinks menu comprised quite a few unusual beers and the Waupoos County cider - hard to go past, really, with a name like that. The cider was light, tart and very refreshing.
Only two days into the holiday and I was already starting to crave fresh food, so ordered the appetiser size spinach and apple salad with cajun chicken. Kyle chose the meatloaf sandwich and we shared a serving of the famous poutine. Poutine is essentially chips with gravy and fresh cheese curds. This example came with homemade kettle-style chips, homemade gravy, fresh cheddar curds and mozzarella cheese.
For an appetiser size, my salad was massive, but unfortunately quite bland. The colour of the cheese in Canada is a really quite disturbing yellow colour and the salad was covered in this. There was also supposed to be a creamy maple dressing, but it didn't really have a lot of flavour. The almonds provided a nice crunch and the pieces of apple were pleasantly crisp, but were cut too small to offer much flavour. Even the cajun chicken was somehow a little bland.
Kyle's meatloaf sandwich, however, was very good. The meatloaf was moist and flavoursome and the toasted French bread was a good vehicle for the meat. The only downside was the accompanying salad, which was served undressed.
And then there was the poutine. I'm not sure about this dish. To me, it looks like a heart attack on a plate! And that disturbing yellow cheese made another appearance. I'm told the best examples are in Quebec, so maybe benefit of the doubt?
Unfortunately, the food we ate at The Rebel House was a little disappointing, which is a shame because the pub was cool, the service was lovely and it was such beautiful warm weather, so I really wanted to love everything. Maybe we just chose badly . . .
Food: 6/10
Drinks: 8.5/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 7/10
The Rebel House
1068 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
MW4 2L4
It can be tricky turning up in a town and finding a decent place to eat without any prior research. As our visit to Toronto was around a wedding and there were other people from Australia there, we weren't quite sure of the plans and so hadn't really organised anything. However, we found ourselves looking for a suitable dinner spot after the day at Niagara Falls. I had amused myself on the drive back reading the tourist descriptions of the local restaurants ( My favourite: "And remember, if it tastes like yo mama's, it's Joe Mamas!") and had decided on a Creole restaurant called N'Awlins. When we got there, however, it was really quite expensive, so we wandered along the 'Entertainment strip' of restaurants and happened across The Red Tomato. It was offering two courses plus a drink for $24, the menu looked good and the restaurant looked cool and fairly busy, so we went in.
The restaurant is downstairs with a second restaurant on the ground floor. The Red Tomato part was very funky, with red booths and dim lighting from the funky lamps and wall lights. Our waitress came over immediately and was bright and cheerful (the service in Toronto was almost always incredibly bubbly, helpful and wonderful). The two course menu was a choice of 5 mains, followed by two desserts and a choice of wine, beer or martini. I opted for the Shiraz from the Niagara region, while Kyle chose the Steam Whistle pilsner.
The choice of mains was impressive, including lobster and seafood linguine. In the end, we negotiated to try the brisket and the veal chop and share. Usually when you do this, though, the meal that lands in front of you is so good, it can be hard to give up, which is what happened here. I ended up with the brisket, slow oven-roasted for six hours until it was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth tender. I haven't had brisket before (but it wouldn't be the last time on this trip!) and this was a revelation. The sauce was a rich, thick smoky barbecue, a little oily around the edges, but the brisket was so moist and tender, I was completely enraptured. And then I had to give it up halfway through. That was hard. I should mention that the brisket was served with a mushroom and spinach risotto, which was okay, but didn't really go with the brisket at all and seemed more like a standalone dish.
While it was hard to give up, at least the veal chop was quite good. We don't really eat much veal in London and haven't had veal chop in a couple of years, so it was at least different. The meat was a little dry but was rubbed with a mix of rosemary, thyme and pepper, which was quite tasty. The accompaniment to the veal was gnocchi with asparagus and red pepper in a brown butter sauce. Again, while good, as John from Masterchef would say, it wasn't really coming together as a dish.
Both of these meals were huge (that was the other thing about Canada - every meal was enormous), so when our berry shortcakes arrived, I really didn't think I'd be able to eat any. Unfortunately for me, it was delicious - light, fluffy sponge cake sandwiched with light whipped cream and topped with a blend of tart raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrents. I don't even like cake particularly, but this was an ideal light, fruity dessert that cut through the richness of the meaty main courses.
For a complete punt, I was hugely impressed with The Red Tomato. They offered a good fixed menu in a super-touristy area but backed it up with really lovely food. While there were some odd matches in the main courses, the individual components were consistently good and the service and atmosphere spot-on.
Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10The Red Tomato
321 King Street West
Toronto ON M5V 1JF
The Ginger Pig was recommended to us by some local Brighton-ians (?) at dinner the previous night. They were pretty confident about it, so despite having a rather large full english breakfast at the lovely B & B we stayed at, we decided to go there for lunch before heading back to London.
The Ginger Pig is at the other end of Brighton from the Brighton Pier and is just past the lovely coloured huts, well a bit further past than you might think. We walked back and forth and back and forth, thinking we must have missed the street. So if you're going, keep going, it's further than you think.
I started with a glass of local Sussex English sparkling wine called Bloomsbury, which was excellent, reminiscent of champagne with a yeasty taste and plenty of bubbles. It wasn't cheap (6.50) a glass, but it was very good and it was great to see an English sparkling wine by the glass on the menu. Kyle had a Sussex Best ale, which he also enjoyed.
The Ginger Pig is classic gastro-pub. It is all very wooden and natural looking (although amazingly the chairs match, which is unusual for gastropubs) and has a pretty cool rotating door. There is a specific restaurant section, but as we got there so early, we had sat on the pub side. They were happy for us to stay there for lunch though, and as soon as we said we wanted to order, brought menus, bread (really good sourdough) and olive oil and set the table for lunch.
The menu was daily and seasonal and there was also quite a few specials on the blackboard in the restaurant (a bit of a pain when seated in the pub section).
We started with a chicken liver pate with pear chutney and toasted sourdough to share. The pate was rich and creamy and a lovely colour pink in the middle. The pear chutney cut through the richness perfectly, being sweet with just a hint of mustard at the back of the throat. It was a pretty significant serving of pate, but could have done with more toast and chutney. I love chicken liver pate anyway, but this was delicious.
We were still so full from breakfast, that we decided to order starters as mains as well. I chose the crayfish risotto, which was also quite a reasonable size portion. The risotto was so creamy, it was almost as if they had added cream or creme fraiche to it! The crayfish taste was subtle but very tasty. I really enjoyed this. Kyle chose from the specials board what was described as a salad of suckling pork, fennel, apple and black pudding. I think this description really undersold this dish as it was not really a salad. It was, however, a brilliant combination of ingredients - meltingly tender pork, crumbly, well-seasoned black pudding with an uncredited piece of roasted fig and the 'salad' part of fennel and apple. Really good and it looked beautiful on the plate. I also couldn't resist trying some of the dripping chips, which were excellent - thick, super-crispy coating and fluffy on the inside.
Despite being insanely full already, I had already spotted the rhubarb and custard tart on the dessert menu. I have already explained my fascination with rhubarb so I couldn't really pass this by. As it turns out, the rhubarb was a barely noticeable thin layer underneath the heavenly light custard filling. The pastry was a little soggy, but that just made it easier to leave behind. The filling was worth it.
We didn't actually see a full wine list, but just ordered a glass of Argentian Malbec-Shiraz from the blackboard. I would also rave about the service, which was friendly and efficient. Nothing was too much trouble and they had no problem with us ordering starters as mains.
All in all, this was a brilliant restaurant. For the quality of the food, it was very well-priced. We may have only had starters, but it was quite a lot of food in the end and cost less than 30 pounds including a decent tip (there was no service charge). Highly, highly recommended. So even though the previous night's dinner was pretty average, it was worth it to have had a recommendation to The Ginger Pig.
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 9.5/10
Wine - 8.5/10
Ambience - 8/10
Overall - 9.5/10
The Ginger Pig
3 Hove Street
Hove (Brighton)
East Sussex BN3 2TR
We weren't very organised on the Sunday night in Brighton and the first two places we tried to go to for dinner were booked out. We ended up at the Gallery Restaurant, which looked pretty cool. It was a converted townhouse, so had lots of little nooks where the tables were scattered around.
Bad start - our table hadn't been cleared from the previous guests and we had to ask for it to be done (and then give the waiter some hints on how to use the spray and wipe!).
I decided on the scallops to start and Kyle went with wild mushrooms and stilton on brioche. The scallops were tiny and bland, the other dish was cheese on toast.
And quite frankly, from that point, we pretty much gave up. Kyle ordered a seafood pasta for main and I had duck fillet with avocado salsa. All pretty boring and blah, blah, blah . . .
The only thing that redeemed the night, was that we ended up chatting with the other couple in our little nook (well, commiserating over the boring, disappointing food really) and they recommended a place for our lunch the next day. Lunch at The Ginger Pig will form the basis of a separate post . . .
Food - 5/10
Service - 6/10
Wine - 7/10
Ambience - 6/10
Overall - 6/10
The Gallery Restaurant
28 East Street Brighton BN11HL
I had read a lovely review of La Zucca on A Spoonful of Sugar and decided this was a good restaurant to include in the eating frenzy our Venice weekend had become. I took particular note of the difficulties she described in finding the place and asked the concierge at our hotel for directions. He confidently marked the place on the map, giving us a nice little nod of approval at our choice of restaurant (always makes you feel good!).
We rode the Vaporetto to San Stae, even though it would probably have been quicker to walk, and it was a fabulous trip. The sun was finally starting to come out and the views from the boat were fabulous.
We arrived at the Campo S. Giacomo dell' Orio at around 7.20pm, with some time to spare before our 7.30pm reservation. We were conscious not to be late as we'd tried to book for 8pm but had only been able to get the earlier time slot, so assumed they were quite busy. We located the street the concierge had marked out and decided to stroll around the square for a while soaking up some atmosphere until it was time to go to the restaurant. At which point we realised the street was a completely empty dead end with no sign of anything. It was now about 7.28pm and we had no address and no clue. We wandered around for a while and finally went into a shop to ask directions. They spoke no English but the Italian hand gestures came into their own and eventually, by some miracle, we located the restaurant on the opposite side of the square and around the corner. In the end, we did no better than the review I'd read. Still, we were only about 10 minutes late - luckily, as the restaurant had a sign on the door advising they were fully booked for the evening.
La Zucca was originally a vegetarian restaurant but had a good selection of meat-based dishes as well. The menu was the only one we came across that was only in Italian and we struggled through, ordering the Buffalo Mozzarello with tomatoes and olives for me and the chicken liver pate for Kyle.
The pate was an enormous serving and came with a pile of too-crunchy toasted ciabatta bread and some lovely little curls of unsalted butter. The pate was really rich, but Kyle persevered and managed to polish it all off. My mozzarella was stunning - a firm to the bite texture, but creamy and with real flavour. Quite often, mozzarella can taste of nothing. The tomatoes and olives were also good, but the cheese was the star of the show.
Kyle picked the best pasta off the menu - Tagliatelle with sausage and mushroom, so I decided to go for Osso Bucco, only realising when it arrived that I had ordered veal again (oops). The pasta was nice enough, but was a little dry as there wasn't really any sauce. My Osso Bucco was a tender piece of meat, slow-cooked until you could just pull it apart served with a chunky carrot and onion sauce and some rice. It was really tasty, but something I could probably do at home reasonably easily (although perhaps not with veal).
We ordered a one-litre carafe of the house red, which wasn't bad, and was a bargain 10 euros.
I had been very excited by the sound of the desserts on the Spoonful of Sugar review, so was very disappointed to see no chocolate desserts at all on the menu. I know it was a long time ago, but I'll admit, my hopes were high. I decided to settle for the Zabayon Semi-freddo with Caramel, while Kyle opted for Panna Cotta with strawberries. Both desserts looked nice enough but were quite simple and plain, nothing to get all that excited about.
La Zucca was clearly very popular - they filled the restaurant across two sittings on a Monday night (although it isn't huge), but I would have to say I found it a little wanting. Everything was nice enough, but except for the mozzarella, nothing was amazing.
That being said, we ate extraordinarily well in Venice. It definitely doesn't deserve its reputation for bad food, although you might have to look a little harder for it. Ironically, for all my research, the best meals were the ones we hadn't planned - at Casin dei Nobili and Da Acighueta. Typical!
La Zucca
Before we went to New York, I spent quite a lot of time researching where we could go for one really special (i.e. expensive!) meal. It was a difficult decision, given the huge number of restaurants in New York and the stratospheric prices some of them can reach. I eventually decided on Gramercy Tavern, located downtown on East 20th Street, between the Union Square (home of the Union Square market) and the Flatiron Building. I was keen to try the tasting menu and, to mitigate those prices somewhat, we chose to go for lunch.
We were shown to our table and offered the menu, which I had already previewed on their website. Choosing the tasting menu made things easy and we were just left to select the wine. I was pleasantly surprised to see wines recommended for only around $25 a bottle and we selected a sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux, which was crisp, cool and dry - perfect for that humid New York weather we'd been discussing. We were also offered a choice from the bread basket, which included the best olive bread I have ever eaten. The bread in NY has been so good, I can't stop eating it even when I know I have five courses coming up!
The first course was Calamari and Carrot Salad, Toasted Pine Nuts and Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette. I must admit, this is not something I would have ordered. I'm not a huge fan of carrot and to be honest, the dish sounded quite boring. It was anything but. The Calamari had the most amazing texture - soft and silky as it slid over your tongue. I have no idea it could have been cooked to have this texture - I'm almost inclined to think it was prepared ceviche-style and just marinated in lemon juice. Brilliant, anyway. The carrot and pine nuts offered crunch and resistance and the dressing was perfectly balanced. This was an appetiser and a half.
It was, however, immediately topped by the next course - Soft Shell Crab with Ruby Crescent Potatoes and Spring Onions. I love soft shell crab. In my opinion, it is absolutely the best way to eat crab - no messing around trying to pull bits of meat out of tiny cavaties. You just get in there and eat the whole thing. This was deep-fried with a crispy coating and served with a mayonnaise potato salad, which cut beautifully through the fattiness of the deep fry but didn't overwhelm the delicacy of the crab. I think I eked this dish out in tiny mouthfuls.
Course number three was Fluke with Sugar Snap Peas, Wild Rice and American Caviar. For me, this was the least interesting course. I didn't know this fish, but we saw it on quite a few menus. It is apparently a flatfish from New Jersey, so very local. The fish had a nice firm texture and a light flavour. It was complemented by the very fresh peas and a lovely, rich jus. The American Caviar was a bit of a non-event.
The final savoury course was Guinea Hen with Heirloom Cauliflower and House Cured Pancetta. On the "interesting" scale, it was somewhere between the Crab and the Fluke courses . . . unfortunately, maybe slightly closer to the Fluke. The Guinea Hen had lovely crispy skin, but was a touch on the dry side, and the Cauliflower and Pancetta, while looking impressive, were a little muted on the tongue. Perhaps to be expected from what is essentially a tarted up dish of chicken breast and cauliflower puree.
Next came an uncredited pre-dessert, a strawberry cheesecake. This was WOW! For such a tiny amount, the strawberry flavour was intensely powerful. The topping was light and fluffy, you barely felt it as your teeth moved through topping into the crunch of the biscuit base. It had the prettiest little sugared violet on top and some lovely strawberries and coulis on the side. Dessert was going to have to be good to top this.
The chocolate mousse was a dark bitter chocolate log, almost truffle-like in its texture. It was served with a small dollop of salted caramel (really unusual, but good), a wedge of peanut brittle wafer and cream. This was quite incredible - it was like the dessert was teetering on the edge of being savoury and for someone who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, that was quite exciting. The chocolate was rich and bitter, the caramel salty, the cream buttery. Giving this up halfway through was really hard.
The second dessert was a rhubarb merangue tart with rhubarb sorbet. It was really lovely, but especially following the chocolate, a little too sweet. The reason I like rhubarb is because it is a little tart but with the merangue, coulis, creme anglais and biscuits, this was a little too sugary to be my favourite. When Kyle gave me the last bite of the chocolate mousse, well . . . Now that's love.
Food: 9/10
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