Telepan

A few weeks ago, Ken and I had a double date with Anna and her husband, Carlos. To continue on the Michelin 2015 list of restaurants, we decided to go to Telepan, a farm-to-table restaurant on the upper west side near their apartment. The restaurant was very packed for a Friday evening (and also very loud). We were seated in the back area next to two larger parties (one of the tables ordered the last of the lobster pasta right before we got there, too!)

We started off with the whole wheat bread:

And then shared two orders of their house smoke brook trout with celery root blinis and green apple onion sour cream:

Anna was a little hesitant to try the dish because she doesn’t like smoked fish but the three of us (Carlos, Ken and I) liked it a lot when paired with the sour cream. The fish was tender and had a slight smokey flavor and the sour cream added a nice tanginess to the dish.

We also ordered the seasonal vegetables with roasted and marinated fermented slaw, grains, and grape gelee:

As well as the roasted cauliflower with herb oil, crushed shell beans and flan:

Both dishes had a great natural sweetness to them and the vegetables that were fermented were actually quite delicious with the grape gelee.

For Anna’s main course, she went with the Atlantic cod served with sunchokes, spinach and mushrooms:

While my first choice was the lobster bolognese, the waiter notified us that the table next to us got the last order and I had to settle for the wild striped bass red snapper:

I ordered the dish because it was served with linguine and clams, three words that make me very happy.

Ken and Carlos both ordered the heritage pork with lentils, cabbage and fingerling potatoes served in multiple ways:

The dish had pork belly, pork sausage (made in-house), and pork loin. A lot of pork, but all of it was quite dry (and the pork sausage was a little on the tough side).

For dessert, I read rave reviews about their pastry chef, Larissa Raphael, so we had to order a few things. We shared the peanut butter and chocolate gianduja with peanut brittle ice cream and grape gelee:

And the pecan Madeline’s dusted with powdered sugar:

Both desserts were rich, sweet, and delicious. I preferred the Madeline’s and thought they were just the right amount of sweetness and had a wonderful texture to them, but also enjoyed the peanut butter and jelly dessert.

We all enjoyed our meal at Telepan and I love that the owner, Bill Telepan uses local and fresh ingredients. I thought the appetizers and the desserts were both very good but the main courses all left a little to be desired. Definitely worthy of their Michelin star.