Bouchon Bakery

To prepare for our Thomas Keller experience at The French Laundry (in a MONTH!), Chris and I went to Keller’s affordable bistro in Manhattan: Bouchon. Located in the Time Warner Center just below Per Se, Bouchon is a small cafe/restaurant that serves bistro goodies. The wait on a Saturday afternoon was about 20 minutes; not bad at all since there are so many stores to distract you while you’re waiting. We were promptly seated and given a bread basket while we contemplated what we wanted to order (we had a general idea of what we wanted, but had to narrow down the choices!).

Our bread basket with butter:

Each piece of bread was connected to the next so you could just break off a perfect-sized piece for yourself. The bread was extremely good, but would’ve been great if it had been hot (it’s asking a lot, I know). Also, the butter was really creamy and was the perfect spreading temperature (I love it when you can stick your knife in the butter and get exactly the amount you want without it being too hard or soft).

Chris and I decided to order a grilled cheese and tomato soup as well as a wagyu beef brisket sandwich (and dessert, of course). I started with the grilled cheese and tomato soup:

Grilled cheesy goodness:

The grilled cheese had two types of cheese (fontina and gruyere) sandwiched between two slices of brioche. The tomato soup tasted like fresh tomato puree and was very simple yet delicious. I read a couple of reviews before going to Bouchon and people usually complained that the food wasn’t hot (the kitchen is pretty small and it’s close to the bakery on the side of the restaurant), but my tomato soup was extremely hot – so hot that I burned my tongue!

Chris ordered the Wagyu Beef Brisket sandwich with side salad:

Initially, we wanted to order the lobster macaroni and cheese (since we both LOVE macaroni and cheese), but they only make a certain amount everyday and they were out by the time we got there. The wagyu beef brisket sandwich was okay, but not something I’d order again. The meat was a little dry, in my opinion. The side salad was overdressed and the dressing actually tasted a little bit like olive juice.

I was really interested in trying their desserts (there are so many to choose from!) and Chris and I decided to go with the Nutter Butter with vanilla ice cream:

Thomas Keller’s take on the nutter butter was soft, chewy, and and the filling inside was a lot better than what Nutter Butter offers. The cookie isn’t that sweet (even though it’s a ton of sugar and butter – I know because I recreated the recipe over the weekend), but the vanilla ice cream balanced the cookie out. It was amazing!

After our lunch at Bouchon, we walked over to the bakery to see what we could for take out:

They have TKO’s (Thomas Keller Oreos), sticky buns, and lots of macaroons. I didn’t order anything, but I’ll be back in a couple weeks for their macaroni and cheese!

What to order: Tartine Of Tuna Nicoise On Pain De Campagna, Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese, Vegetable Jardiniere On Toasted Multigrain, and the Nutter butter cookie for dessert.