The NoMad

On Erika’s last week here, we tried to go to some great restaurants in New York so she could experience them before she left for the west coast. She went to a bunch with other friends and we ended up going to Neta and The NoMad together (which is quite an accomplishment considering she always had free food at Google!) The meal at The NoMad originally started out at the bar, which had a huge crowd from people working in the area:

We started out with a few bites and some drinks – the first was the radishes dipped in butter:

And the beef tartare with fresh slices of toasted brioche:

We also ordered the zucchini flatbread, which was plated on a piece of wood that had a specially cut-out knife holder:

All three were great – the radishes were dipped in a creamy and slightly salted butter (how did they do that?) and it was presented with another pile of fresh sea salt to add to the radishes. The steak tartare was good but a little warm for uncooked steak. The zucchini bread was really delicious and had a nice bite to it. After we finished our drinks and the three appetizers, we moved to our table, where we ordered more food!

First, a shared course of crab pasta:

Next, the piece-de-resistance, the truffled-foie gras chicken:

It’s presented to you table-side and then taken back to the kitchen and cut/split for two people. This is what we were served:

At first I thought it was some kind of joke – how does a chicken only come out with two small breasts? Oh wait, here’s the dark meat mixed with mushrooms:

….I don’t know what happened to the rest of it. It was really good – don’t get me wrong – but where did the rest of the chicken go? Has anyone else gone to The NoMad and had the same experience? The chicken is prepared whole and before they roast it, they separate the skin from the meat and stuff it with truffles and foie gras. The foie gras/truffle makes it so rich (and honestly, I probably could not have eaten more chicken if they gave it to me because it was so rich) – but I’m not sure how they get away with charging $80 for chicken breast!

For dessert, we had both the milk and honey:

And the chocolate dessert:

They made a special preparation of the cake because Erika wanted both but we didn’t want to order both (and the waiter was nice enough to ask the kitchen to make it since it was one of Erika’s last nights in the city). The meal at The NoMad was delicious – everything we ordered from start to finish was prepared well – but it was slightly pricey for a Monday night meal!