Bouley

For our one-year anniversary, Chris made reservations for Bouley (pre-renovations). This was one of the first tasting menus we’ve had and while it was a good dinner; I think we were both a little surprised that Bouley wasn’t on the Michelin NYC list because we both thoroughly enjoyed the food and service.

The famous door:

When you walk in, the wonderful smell of apples greets you:

The apples are all fresh and they emit a warm and very welcoming aroma throughout the restaurant. I love walking into the restaurant and could walk in and out a couple of times just to smell those apples.

At Bouley, servers don’t walk around with baskets of bread, instead, they push around bread carts (I had one of every kind!) – here’s the cinnamon apple roll:

We started out with the amuse bouche – green apple juice with a chilled goat cheese sorbet and clementine oranges:

Tuna tartare with soy sauce cubes:

Seafood combination:

Fish:

Shanghai lobster:

Layers of lobster and mango chunks – the sweet/savory combination was a little much for me, but the flavors were light. It tasted too summery, especially since we went to dinner in January!

Lamb:

More Lobster (with mushrooms):

Very buttery mashed potatoes:

Apple bun with apple gelato and vanilla gelato:

Chocolate cake with three types of ice cream:

Petite fours:

My favorites of the night were the amuse bouche (a very interesting and puckery combination of apple, goat cheese, and acidic clementines, the seafood combination (although the fried nest with shrimp tasted like something you’d get for dim sum), and the chocolate cake. Bouley was a very fun dining experience and I’m glad it finally earned a Michelin star.