Ditch Plains

After a day at the Guggenheim, Chris, Ariel, Joe, Nita, and I headed to Ditch Plains for a relaxing dinner. Joe flew to New York for the weekend to meet up with his new co-workers (he’s moving from Chicago in July!). I also met his co-worker, Nita, who is super cute and hilarious. Since we were a group of five, we decided to eat family style (ordering a bunch of different items off the menu so we could try everything). I got a general idea of what everyone wanted and then decided to order the following dishes:

Chicken pot pie:

Chicken pot pie with a biscuit on top – lots of juicy chicken meat, vegetables, and a biscuit on top. The biscuit was homemade and added a nice texture to the soupy chicken pot pie, but the chicken/veggie combination didn’t have enough flavor. Ariel said this was his favorite dish of the night (originally, Ariel wanted to order a skirt steak, but he said he’d order the chicken pot pie so we could also get a taste of the homemade biscuit).

Fish tacos:

Nita and Joe were checking out the fish tacos when we were going through the menu, so we ordered it. I don’t think anyone really LOVED the dish; there were too many different flavors and none of them were really distinct, so it was just like eating a pile of mush. The sauce on top didn’t taste very good, either, making this dish a total disaster.

Mussels and fries:

Chris and I wanted to order the mussels and fries (even though no one else wanted them) and the mussels were okay (the white wine sauce needed lemon), but the fries were AMAZING. They were thickly cut and had a great crunch to them – Ditch Plains might have the best fries in NYC!! They kind of reminded me of Les Halles’ fries, but the crunch was more similar to a curly fry than anything else. The mussels, on the other hand, weren’t memorable and I wouldn’t order them again.

Macaroni and cheese:

Nita and I really wanted to try the macaroni and cheese (it ended up being my favorite dish of the night). The layer of crusted cheese was amazingly delicious because it added just the right amount of texture to the noodles. The mac and cheese was Chris’ favorite dish of the night as well.

Lobster roll:

The lobster roll was my second least favorite dish of the night. I basically compare all lobster rolls I’ve ever eaten to Pearl Oyster Bar’s lobster roll; does it have huge chunks of lobster meat? Is there enough mayo? Enough butter on the bun? The lobster roll at Ditch Plains had too many onions, celery, and other weird chunks of vegetables that didn’t match the soft, sweet wonderfulness of the lobster. Thumbs down. The sweet potato fries were okay (they were homemade), but a little too crunchy (maybe I have soft teeth like Michael from The Office).

Ditch Plains was very accommodating for the 6 of us and getting a large table wasn’t difficult for a busy Saturday night (we got there around 7:30 right before the dinner rush). Their menu has a variety of dishes to please every type of palette, but they don’t prepare their plates well enough for a repeat visit from me.