Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar

At my company meeting last week, we had to introduce ourselves to the team and tell everyone our favorite restaurant in New York. We went around the room and everyone listed their favorite restaurant (I had never heard a lot of them so there are definitely a lot of new places to try!) One of my friends, Loreen, said Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar was her favorite restaurant, which was funny because I had just made reservations to dine there later that night. I asked Loreen what she liked about the restaurant and she said that she loved everything on the menu, it was a great place to take parents, and the prices were all really reasonable. After the endorsement from my coworker, I was really excited to visit the restaurant:

Ariel and I met up around 8 for dinner and had been exchanging emails earlier in the afternoon about what we were going to order. Originally, we were going to try the tasting menu, but neither of us had enough time to enjoy the menu since we had work early in the morning. We started off with some bread:

And instead of using regular butter, they have a cream cheese-like spread (two different flavors):

The chef sent over an amuse bouche after we placed our order:

The baby octopus was a little on the sweet side for both of us, but since we were both starving, it was definitely appreciated.

For our appetizer, we shared the schweinebauch – pork belly with cauliflower, chanterelle, English peas, and honey vinegar:

We both loved the presentation and the English pea foam added a very light texture to the very delicious pork belly. The honey vinegar was also a tanginess to the pork belly that we both really enjoyed.

European dinners last a lot longer than American dinners and we ended up waiting quite a bit before our main course came out. We were both starving since we hadn’t eaten since lunchtime and I think the servers could tell we were starving because they sent us another appetizer – pochiertes el – soft poached egg, lobster, maitake, and pumpernickel:

We were originally going to order this dish but decided against it because we figured one appetizer between the two of us was enough before our main courses arrived. Since we were both still very hungry after our initial appetizer, we were extremely grateful when the server arrived with the dish. The soft poached egg and lobster together have a very soft texture but the toasted pumpernickel adds a crunchy texture that makes the dish really special.

For our main course, Ariel ordered the wiener schnitzel – veal cutlet, potato, cucumber, and lignonberry:

I absolutely love veal and the wiener schnitzel from Seasonal was very delicious; crisply and lightly breaded with a sweet and savory combination from the cucumber salad, potato salad, and lignonberry.

For my main course, I ordered the tafelspitz – flat iron, oxtail consomme, apple-horseradish, spinach, and rosti:

And the apple-horseradish, spinach, and rosti:

The meat and consomme were both good, but definitely nothing I’d order at a restaurant. The special part of the dish was definitely the sauces (all made in-house) – a combination of the apple-horseradish and oxtail was a winning combination.

We passed on dessert since it was very late and we had work in the morning, but we were given a couple mignardises with the check:

For a Michelin-starred restaurant, Seasonal is definitely one of the best values on the one-star list. The wiener schnitzel was absolutely amazing, especially with their cucumber pasta-like salad (which adds a lightness and freshness to the fried veal). We were really happy with our meal at Seasonal and I’d definitely return, especially for a date; their wine bar is stocked with great wines and a knowledgeable sommelier that will definitely steer you in the right direction.