ABC Kitchen

To end our Saturday of over-indulgence, Ken and I headed to ABC Kitchen for dinner. ABC Kitchen is Jean Georges newest restaurant venture that’s next to ABC Home and Carpet in Union Square. We didn’t have a reservation but luckily got there right as someone was leaving their seats at the bar so decided to eat there instead of waiting for a table in the main room (the menu is the same at the bar). We started off with some drinks – Ken ordered the Manhattan with brandy-soaked cherries and I ordered the spiked lemonade infused with thyme:

We had a lot to order and I was definitely in the mood to eat, so we ordered a lot (more than we should have, probably) and then started eating their bread with olive oil and sea salt:

We started with the peekytoe crab toast with lemon aioli:

The bread that we started with was toasted, topped with lots of peekytoe crab, and a little aioli in the center of each toast piece. This is one of their more popular dishes and Ken really liked it, but I thought it was too simple (I still liked it but thought it could have been a little more flavorful).

Next, we had mushroom pizza with a fresh farm egg:

The mushroom pizza was my favorite dish of the evening; a fresh farm egg was placed in the center of a cornucopia of mushrooms and Parmesan cheese that had the perfect bite to it. After we finished our pizza we were worried that we were going to get full before the other dishes arrived; luckily, we both made room in our stomachs to eat the next dish, the bowtie pasta with veal meatballs:

The meatballs were tender and well seasoned but the pasta was cooked to various degrees of completion; some pieces were really overcooked and mushy and some were perfectly al dente. I also think I might be more picky about my pastas because I had just eaten at Osteria Morini earlier that day.

Our last dish was the Akaushi cheeseburger:

We told the bartender that we were sharing everything so the kitchen split the burger for us and gave both of us large orders of fries. The burger at ABC Kitchen probably wins an award for the most pretentious burger of the year; herbed mayo, arugula, and pickled jalapenos on a sesame seed bun. Ken said it was an okay burger but he definitely would’ve preferred a big mac (BUT this is coming from the guy that wanted to go to McDonalds after Masa). I thought the burger was a bit too salty (and pricey – $21 for a burger is up there with Minetta Tavern’s pricing!) I was undecided on the french fries; they all had different finishes (similar to the pasta); some were really crispy and some were a bit on the soggy side.

We both enjoyed our dinner and would probably return (next time I’m getting two mushroom pizzas!) andI’d definitely save room for dessert (the people next to us had a big bowl of chocolate ice cream or pudding that looked absolutely amazing).