The Significant Eater and I took advantage of canceled reservations caused by this winter's latest snowstorm and booked a same day reservation at Faustina, Scott Conant's recently opened restaurant in the Cooper Square Hotel that has replaced the short-lived Table 8. I adored Conant's other restaurant, Scarpetta-- I have been dreaming of its duck and foie gras ravioli ever since my visit-- and had high hopes for Faustina, imagining it to be Scarpetta in trendier clothing. As it turns out, Faustina is nothing like Scarpetta in concept, looks, and from what we were served, quality.
Following the small plates trend, Faustina's menu is a collection of "tapas-style" dishes that are meant for sharing. There are sections for bread and olives, cheese and charcuterie, salads, raw bar selections, hot small plates, pastas and risottos, and side dishes. There are also two pricier large plates, a seared sirloin and a veal "porterhouse." If anything, the menu can be faulted for trying too hard to please the trendsetters who no doubt will descend upon the restaurant the moment the its PR flack pings the press release to Urban Daddy. Take note of all the buzzwords on the menu: there are three "truffled" dishes, a dish with duck egg (which was terrific), oysters in a mojito gelee, the ubiquitous pork belly, and, of course, a fried chicken dish lest anyone forget about Faustina in these fried chicken-obsessed times. Simply put, the menu is a fashionista's wet dream (and all in small plates!). In all fairness, I'm very much a truffle hound, I admire Conant's cooking, and I imagine most of these dishes are very nicely executed, but menu did make me chuckle as I read it.
The dishes that the Significant Eater and I tried were hit or miss. The restaurant is very new and its lack of publicity tells me that it is still working out its kinks before it ramps up its PR. My hope is that it will fix some of its faults because Scott Conant can do much better that what we were served at Faustina. Here is what we ate:
Grilled Ciabatta with Poached Duck Egg and Fonduta: It's hard to screw up a dish like this, but this was an excellent starter to satiate our appetites as we perused the rest of the menu. As I dipped a toast point into the creamy duck egg and cheese, I couldn't help but think of how great a finger food it would be if I was sitting on my couch watching a ballgame.
Black Truffle Risotto with Egg and Sea Urchin: This dish reads so well on paper. Unfortunately, it let me down. The risotto is soupy rather than creamy; it felt as if the kitchen took an ill-fated shortcut so as to not have to stir the risotto continuously. A huge disappointment.
Oxtail with Semolina Dumplings and Bone Marrow: This was the clear winner of the night. The hearty braised oxtail set atop bite-size pillows of semolina was pure comfort to eat during a snowstorm. As if it the rich oxtail was not enough, each dumpling was topped with a dollop of heavenly bone marrow.
Slow Roasted Escolar and Saba: The kitchen may want to rethink their method of slow roasting. The fish might as well have been a wool sweater as it was overcooked to the point of being dry and stringy. The slightly sweet saba (a condiment made of reduced grape must) was nice, but could not redeem the failure of the overcooked fish.
Faustina
25 Cooper Square (at The Cooper Square Hotel)
New York, NY
212.475.3400
Showing posts with label East Village. Show all posts
Showing posts with label East Village. Show all posts
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Quick Bite: DBGB Kitchen & Bar
The Significant Eater and I recently stopped in for lunch at DBGB Kitchen & Bar, Daniel Boulud's much-hyped new restaurant in the once rundown, soon to be ultra-trendy Bowery neighborhood. Walking into the main dining room, most foodie nerds will find it difficult to contain themselves once they spot what is essentially a culinary Hall of Fame lining the walls: copper kitchenwares from nearly every famous chef one can imagine: Jacques Pepin, Ferran Adria, Alice Waters, and Dan Barber, just to name a few of the displays I could view from my seat. My personal favorite was Andrew Carmellini's pasta machine. Needless to say, I was slightly distracted throughout lunch trying to check out all of the superstar chefs who were featured on the walls.
Food-wise, DBGB did not let me down. I ordered the basic "Yankee" burger, a standard hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and a Guss' pickle. The Significant Eater went with the DBGB Dog, a hot dog topped with sauteed onions and relish. I would never rate a restaurant solely based on its burger and hot dog, but since so many people seem to do exactly that in these burger-obsessed days, I can easily say that DBGB will be atop many New Yorkers' list. My burger was nicely charred on the outside but cooked to a juicy medium-rare in the center. I was glad that I ordered the most unadorned burger on the menu because the Yankee burger needed nothing else. The hot dog the Significant Eater ordered was well-executed as well; one bite told me that the mildly spiced sausage was handmade by a topnotch kitchen and not just some run-of-the-mill frank. The fries that came with each of our meals were also well-salted and perfectly crispy. Everything went down well with a Sixpoint IPA. For dessert, we ordered the Kreik Beer-Cherry (pictured), a sundae that had lots of cherry and no discernible beer flavor--most likely a good thing.
All in all, I was very impressed by my quick bite at DBGB. I will definitely return to try the its more ambitious offerings, which I fully expect to be just as good as my lunch samplings. Even if they aren't, I will surely continue to stop in for a burger and a beer.
Food-wise, DBGB did not let me down. I ordered the basic "Yankee" burger, a standard hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and a Guss' pickle. The Significant Eater went with the DBGB Dog, a hot dog topped with sauteed onions and relish. I would never rate a restaurant solely based on its burger and hot dog, but since so many people seem to do exactly that in these burger-obsessed days, I can easily say that DBGB will be atop many New Yorkers' list. My burger was nicely charred on the outside but cooked to a juicy medium-rare in the center. I was glad that I ordered the most unadorned burger on the menu because the Yankee burger needed nothing else. The hot dog the Significant Eater ordered was well-executed as well; one bite told me that the mildly spiced sausage was handmade by a topnotch kitchen and not just some run-of-the-mill frank. The fries that came with each of our meals were also well-salted and perfectly crispy. Everything went down well with a Sixpoint IPA. For dessert, we ordered the Kreik Beer-Cherry (pictured), a sundae that had lots of cherry and no discernible beer flavor--most likely a good thing.All in all, I was very impressed by my quick bite at DBGB. I will definitely return to try the its more ambitious offerings, which I fully expect to be just as good as my lunch samplings. Even if they aren't, I will surely continue to stop in for a burger and a beer.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Review: Momofuku Ssäm Bar
Fresh off the 12-days of cooking that was my Greenmarket Challenge, I decided to take a night off from cooking and have dinner with my significant eater at Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the only one of the four Momofuku establishments I had yet to try. The great meal that followed extended my enthusiasm for all things Momofuku.
As a starter we ordered the steamed pork buns, a standby at all David Chang restaurants. Like the pork buns at Noodle Bar and Milk Bar, the buns at Ssäm Bar are a celebration in pork fat: melt-in-your-mouth pork belly with thinly sliced cucumbers and hoisin sauce in a soft steamed bun. It may have just been a night in which I was craving pork buns, but the rendition as Ssäm Bar tasted better than any Momofuku pork buns I have had before, with the pork being particularly buttery.
From the "local/seasonal" section of the menu, we ordered snap peas which, along with eggs and mint, were tossed in XO sauce, a traditional Chinese sauce consisting of dried shrimp and scallops in spicy oil. The snap peas showed why David Chang deserves much of the overwhelming praise he receives; the sweet peas alongside the salty XO sauce created an excellent and unique combination of flavors, with the mint brightening the dish just enough.
Due to the Southerner in me, I have a difficult time passing up a fried chicken dish on a menu and my visit to Ssäm Bar was no exception. I ordered the fried chicken dish, assured that Chang would take fried chicken to a new level; the menu was certainly convincing, even in the teasing way of dishes are described at all Momofuku restaurants: "bell & evan's fried chicken-- ramps porcinis, egg." At least to me, neither of those ingredients can do any wrong. Unfortunately, the fried chicken was the one letdown of the night. While delicious, I was hoping my $24 would get more than two large cubes of crispy dark meat, a few morels, and a very rich egg yolk. Of course, despite my slight disappointment, my significant eater and I all but licked the plate dry. If anything, this dish served as reminder that David Chang is not quite the culinary god that some make him out to be; you expect a fried chicken dish from him to be transcendent, but this one was merely very good.
While perusing the dessert menu, the hostess told us we had to try the ice cream pie, which had recently been added to the menu. We took her advice and ordered the pie, which consisted of the Momofuku-trademark cereal milk ice cream in a salty and sweet cornmeal crust. The pie was served with a compote of tri-star strawberries. The hostess was right on with the ice cream pie; it was excellent, with each element being equally delicious on its own as it was with the other two elements. Some may balk at the texture of the re-frozen soft serve ice cream, which made the ice cream slightly icy and not as creamy as one may expect an ice cream pie to be; my significant eater and I had no complaints.
Like the other Momofuku establishments, Ssäm Bar turns a blind eye to the established rules of fine dining. The room is extremely loud. The service is rushed, although friendly enough. For the most part, the only utensils offered are in a canister of chop sticks in the center of each table. Despite these deficiencies, there is a reason why the restaurant is packed with diners night after night; the food is excellent. If anything, Ssäm Bar's lack of fine dining pretense-- although it does carry a high degree of the annoying hipster pretense -- is refreshing. Most of all, the food at Ssäm Bar makes the deficiencies worth putting up with.
As we left Ssäm Bar, my significant eater and I made a pit stop next door at Momofuku Milk Bar and purchased a slice of "crack pie" to eat at home. We didn't need another pie out of hunger-- the portions at Ssäm Bar are more than adequate-- we just weren't quite ready to end our Momofuku night. Fortunately for us, the buttery slice of crack extended our Momofuku high a little bit longer.
Momofuku Ssäm Bar
207 2nd Ave. (at 13th St.)
New York, NY 10003
As a starter we ordered the steamed pork buns, a standby at all David Chang restaurants. Like the pork buns at Noodle Bar and Milk Bar, the buns at Ssäm Bar are a celebration in pork fat: melt-in-your-mouth pork belly with thinly sliced cucumbers and hoisin sauce in a soft steamed bun. It may have just been a night in which I was craving pork buns, but the rendition as Ssäm Bar tasted better than any Momofuku pork buns I have had before, with the pork being particularly buttery.
From the "local/seasonal" section of the menu, we ordered snap peas which, along with eggs and mint, were tossed in XO sauce, a traditional Chinese sauce consisting of dried shrimp and scallops in spicy oil. The snap peas showed why David Chang deserves much of the overwhelming praise he receives; the sweet peas alongside the salty XO sauce created an excellent and unique combination of flavors, with the mint brightening the dish just enough.
Due to the Southerner in me, I have a difficult time passing up a fried chicken dish on a menu and my visit to Ssäm Bar was no exception. I ordered the fried chicken dish, assured that Chang would take fried chicken to a new level; the menu was certainly convincing, even in the teasing way of dishes are described at all Momofuku restaurants: "bell & evan's fried chicken-- ramps porcinis, egg." At least to me, neither of those ingredients can do any wrong. Unfortunately, the fried chicken was the one letdown of the night. While delicious, I was hoping my $24 would get more than two large cubes of crispy dark meat, a few morels, and a very rich egg yolk. Of course, despite my slight disappointment, my significant eater and I all but licked the plate dry. If anything, this dish served as reminder that David Chang is not quite the culinary god that some make him out to be; you expect a fried chicken dish from him to be transcendent, but this one was merely very good.
While perusing the dessert menu, the hostess told us we had to try the ice cream pie, which had recently been added to the menu. We took her advice and ordered the pie, which consisted of the Momofuku-trademark cereal milk ice cream in a salty and sweet cornmeal crust. The pie was served with a compote of tri-star strawberries. The hostess was right on with the ice cream pie; it was excellent, with each element being equally delicious on its own as it was with the other two elements. Some may balk at the texture of the re-frozen soft serve ice cream, which made the ice cream slightly icy and not as creamy as one may expect an ice cream pie to be; my significant eater and I had no complaints.
Like the other Momofuku establishments, Ssäm Bar turns a blind eye to the established rules of fine dining. The room is extremely loud. The service is rushed, although friendly enough. For the most part, the only utensils offered are in a canister of chop sticks in the center of each table. Despite these deficiencies, there is a reason why the restaurant is packed with diners night after night; the food is excellent. If anything, Ssäm Bar's lack of fine dining pretense-- although it does carry a high degree of the annoying hipster pretense -- is refreshing. Most of all, the food at Ssäm Bar makes the deficiencies worth putting up with.
As we left Ssäm Bar, my significant eater and I made a pit stop next door at Momofuku Milk Bar and purchased a slice of "crack pie" to eat at home. We didn't need another pie out of hunger-- the portions at Ssäm Bar are more than adequate-- we just weren't quite ready to end our Momofuku night. Fortunately for us, the buttery slice of crack extended our Momofuku high a little bit longer.
Momofuku Ssäm Bar
207 2nd Ave. (at 13th St.)
New York, NY 10003
Monday, March 30, 2009
Momofuku Milk Bar
I usually don't fall for hype. Spotted Pig? Eh. Corner Bistro? Utterly overrated. However, I have joined the masses in being completely won over by all things Momofuku. My latest obsession is Momofuku Milk Bar. I have been several times so far, sampling many of the sweets on the abovc menu as well as the great, if overly expensive, Momofuku pork buns. All of the desserts I have tried have a nice combination of salty and sweet. Some may find them to be overly salty, but I find them perfect. Not to be missed are the corn cookie, cornflake marshmallow chocolate chunk cookie, and best of all, the compost cookie, a wonderful mix of pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch chips, and, chocolate chunks. Try it before you knock it! The cereal milk soft serve is nice as well, and I was pleased to find that the flavor of my cereal milk panna cotta was dead on. I can't wait to try the breads, pies, and cakes, on subsequent visits.
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