Gotham Bar and Grill: 25th Anniversary Dinner

Gotham Bar and Grill has been around for a full 25 years (quite an accomplishment for a business, especially a restaurant in NYC). Alfred Portale, the chef at Gotham, decided to celebrate by bringing back some of their more popular menu items at the 80’s prices. I went with my friend Arthur for a Sunday night dinner after yoga; we decided to order a few items from the 25th anniversary menu and a few items from the regular menu. We started off with some bread:

The rosemary bread was by far the best bread option, but it wasn’t amazing or very memorable (there were four to choose from).

Our first choice was from the regular menu; the organic chicken and foie gras terrine with a summer bean salad, peach preserves and toasted brioche:

The foie definitely didn’t taste like anything from per se or The French Laundry (and they didn’t refresh the bread, either!) I didn’t like the crunchiness of the terrine; foie gras is supposed to be smooth and decadent, not crunchy and unappetizing! There were too many different tastes and textures in the foie gras to make it enjoyable.

Ravioli:

Probably the best dish of the night (although not memorable because I don’t even remember the filling).

Tuna tartare:

There tuna was a little gummy and the salad on the side was couscous with mandarin orange bits (ugh, you know how I feel about combining fruit with savories…NOT A FAN).

Fish:

The white fish was mild and paired with a very acidic red wine reduction; the fish was too plain to eat without the sauce, but the sauce was so acidic that I winced every time I took a bite.

Lobster pasta (a dish from the 1980 menu):

The pasta was cooked really well, but the sauce was too briny and there weren’t enough chunks of lobster.

Cheesecake:

Arthur ordered the cheesecake and I didn’t really eat any, but he said it was light and liked that the sauce was on the side.

Petit fours:

We did halfsies on the petit fours and none of them were very good (especially not the macarons).

I liked Gotham during Restaurant Week (see my post here) but there seemed to be something off with each of our dishes (and we ordered quite a few). Overall, the dinner ended up costing around $50 per person (I wonder if that’s how much people were spending in the 80’s!) The service was very attentive, but the food wasn’t memorable and the prices were high enough that I wouldn’t return.