Thank you to everyone who’s responded with restaurants they’d like to try! Here’s my updated list of places I have to visit – everything else has been spoken for!
Three Star:
Masa – looks like I’ll be dining alone for this one!
One Star:
Adour
Jewel Bako
Kyo Ya – went last night!
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Even though David and I live together, I feel like we don’t see each other that often anymore because of our busy work schedules. Sure, we see each other in the mornings for breakfast and before we go to sleep at night, but we don’t have our daily lunches, bike rides to/from work, or dinners together anymore since we work at very different companies now. Luckily, we planned a dinner together at Little Giant so we could all catch up.
Laura suggested the restaurant and I think they’ve been before but it was my first time at the LES restaurant and I was pretty excited to try it. We started off with some bread and herb-infused butter:
The butter was at a perfect spreading temperature and we went through it really quickly (the waitress had to bring more bread and butter at least three times). The bread was only okay – not dense enough to have a bite and the crust was way too hard for bread that was so airy).
We started off with the charred octopus:
A good start, but I thought it was a little too charred for my tastes. I prefer the octopus at Dell’Anima a lot more (similar presentation but instead of being served with vegetables, Dell’Anima’s is served on farro beans, I think).
For our main courses, we ordered macaroni and cheese with bacon:
Swine of the week:
Cod:
Buttermilk biscuits:
And an order of spinach on the side:
None of the main courses were really that enjoyable; the macaroni and cheese was too watered down and didn’t have enough bacon (or cheese), the swine of the week was a watered down tomato-based stew that didn’t have any depth, and the cod was the best out of the three, but was a little on the bland side. The spinach was very buttery and good, but it’s pretty difficult to mess up spinach. The buttermilk biscuit was also good, but I’ve definitely had better at Clinton St.
For dessert, we ordered the Thin Mint Sundae warm chocolate fudge cake, mint chip gelato, mint-chocolate sauce, peppermint tuile:
The sundae was really good (how can you mess up dessert?) – it was more like a warm brownie with gelato and chocolate sauce.
I was a little disappointed with our meal at Little Giant and the server was also a little airheaded (when my brother asked her to talk about one of the beers on the menu, she just stared at him with a clueless face until he ordered something else). I’ve heard good things about their brunch and not their dinner, so maybe we went for the wrong meal. Definitely wouldn’t return for dinner but I might give their brunch a chance.
I’m a little behind on my Michelin posts because there are less than two months to go before the end of 2010 and I still have quite a few restaurants on my list! I visted to Corton with a date a couple weeks ago and had a great meal. I was a bit nervous about going to Corton on a date because I usually don’t bring out my camera on the first couple of dates (some people don’t like it) but my date 1. didn’t mind that I brought out my camera and 2. helped me take photos of his dishes! We had a late dinner reservation and decided to try the three course pre-fixe because a couple of friends had explained that even though it’s only three courses, there are lots of components to each dish and you end up being very satisfied with the three courses.
Our server walked us through the menu and after we ordered, two different servers brought along canapes for us – two small lightly fried balls filled with potato and black olive puree:
And a play on bagels and a green tea cake with seaweed paper:
I actually didn’t like any of the canapes and was worried that the samplings were a pre-cursor to our meal, but luckily, the flavors we sampled weren’t anything like what we ate for dinner. I thought everything was a little too oily and flavorless, which is rarely a complaint I have (usually it’s that everything is doused in salt). The presentation was very interesting (throughout the entire meal) but I didn’t like the first taste of Corton.
Servers also came by with bread – cranberry walnut and baguettes:
With seaweed butter and regular butter:
Both of the butters were delicious but the bread was a little disappointing; the cranberry walnut bread was more like toast; sliced into very thin pieces, very crispy, and there was absolutely no dough to sink your teeth into. On the other hand, the baguette was so tough that I thought I might’ve lost a tooth while attempting to break down the roll.
For our amuse bouches, I received the egg custard:
And my date had the foie gras chantilly cream with a cucumber gelee:
The presentation for my egg custard was really beautiful (hand-picked leaves from maple trees) but I thought the egg was too runny. My date actually liked my dish more than I did and I ended up liking his dish a lot more, so we ended up trading. The foie gras with cucumber gelee was such a refreshing yet decadent dish and the portion was so small that I was very excited to try some more for my first course.
For my first course, I ordered the Foie Gras – Flavors of Marcona Almond and Green Mango:
The dish really hit all of the flavors I love: foie gras – check; marcona almonds – check; green mango – check! It also came with a side of almond butter that had just a hint of toasted almond flavor that I really enjoyed and the foie gras was so creamy and delicious that I think it might be my second favorite foie gras in the city (favorite foie gras obviously goes to Per Se). The presentation made it a little difficult to destroy, but I definitely ate all of it with a side of brioche.
For my date’s first course, he ordered (with my approval) Sea – Kusshi Oyster | Pecan, Smoked Quail Toast, Diver Scallop, Sansho Pepper, Chestnut Velouté, Daurade, Wild Spinach, Fresh Yuzu, Spot Prawn, Lardo, Korean Pear:
I have a picture of the entire plating but he’s in it and I don’t want to reveal his face quite yet so I’ll save it for another time. When the servers came out, multiple servers had to bring out all of the plates and figure out how to place them on our seemingly small table. The dishes were all good but nothing really stood out as an amazing dish I’d like to order as a full-sized entree.
For my main course, I ordered the Guinea Hen:
And my date ordered the Tasting of Elysian Fields Farm Lamb – Loin, Neck, Sweetbread, Ricotta Crème, Huckleberry:
I liked the guinea hen and thought it was seasoned and cooked quite well; the leg meat was crusted with pistachio that gave each bite a crunchy texture and slightly toasted flavor, the sauce was rich and buttery, and the guinea hen was tender and flavorful. I also enjoyed the Elysian Fields lamb and really liked the herb-crusting that topped the lamb and I think my date enjoyed the dish, epecially the sweetbreads that were breaded in a course cornmeal.
For a palate cleanser, a server brought by some mango sorbet with yogurt:
And then we moved onto dessert – I ordered the “Gold Bar” – Pedro Ximénez, Smoked Caramel Ice Cream:
And my date ordered the Sesame – Yuzu | Buttermilk Granita, Concord Grape, Black Sesame:
I tasted both of the desserts but preferred the palate cleanser to the gold bar and the sesame because they were both tooth-achingly sweet. I ate the majority of the gold bar but thought the sesame dessert had very strange flavors (possibly because I associate sesame with Asian desserts that don’t include concord grapes).
I was really stuffed by the end of the meal and decided to take the mignardises home (financiers, macarons, and chocolates), which I thought were the best desserts they had. The dark chocolates were filled with caramel, the macarons were crispy, airy, and delicious, and the financiers had the perfect amount of moistness.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal but thought that the service was a bit off at times (when I walked in, there was no one to greet me – not even the bartender – I thought I actually entered through a back entrance since there was no indication that my entrance was the front entryway) and the servers rushed us a little towards the end of the meal by repeatedly coming by and asking if we were finished with our course. The food, however, was really inventive in terms of flavor profiles, presentation, and taste and I can definitely see why they deserve two Michelin stars.
Still need dining partners for the following restaurants:
Three Star:
Masa
Two Star:
Gordon Ramsay at the London
One Star:
Adour
Cafe Boulud
Jewel Bako – I’ve been once but can’t find pictures so I’d like to go again
Kyo Ya
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
River Cafe*
Saul
Shalizar*
Soto*
Only 60 more days until the end of 2010 and I still have quite a few restaurants to visit on the list of Michelin-starred restaurants! Luckily, I only have 15 restaurants left…well, 15 restaurants that I don’t have reservations for yet. ACK! I need to start going to restaurants more often than twice a week (three this week: Sushi of Gari, Kajitsu, and Picholine!)
I haven’t visited Brooklyn that many times this year but made a special exception to visit Dressler for another Michelin-starred dinner. Cliff was visiting from San Francisco (to celebrate his new job and to work on a Youtube project!) and we met up for dinner with our other friend, Erika. Dressler is located in Williamsburg (almost across the street from Peter Luger’s):
The restaurant shares the same owner as DuMont and DuMont Burger and chef helped create the menu at all of the restaurants. We were excited to have dinner and decided to order a bit of everything to share. We started with a little bread:
For an appetizer, we ordered the pan roasted diver scallops with cauliflower, chanterelle mushrooms, and a veal reduction:
The scallops were delicious but the accompanying sauces and mushrooms were too salty and overshadowed the sweet taste of the scallops. I had a chance to recreate the dish with the chef and it turned out a lot better (less salty and the flavors tasted a lot cleaner, but when we visited, I wasn’t a fan of the dish).
For our entrees, we ordered the bacon wrapped heritage pork with anjou pear, spaetzle, and red cabbage:
The pork was my favorite entree of the evening; the combination of the subtly sweet pear and red cabbage with the savory pork and spaetzle was a very hearty bite and a perfect fall dish.
We also ordered the organic king salmon with cauliflower, parsnip, baby brussel sprouts, butternut squash, and apple cider:
The salmon was Cliff’s favorite dish and was a little undercooked for me (although if my mom had gone with us, she probably would’ve loved the way it was cooked). I liked the crispy skin of the salmon and the edges that were cooked medium rare, but I though the center of the salmon was a little too raw.
Our final entree was the Hudson Valley chicken with with escarole, housemade dumplings, hen of the woods mushrooms, bacon lardons, and pearl onions:
This dish was entirely too salty (even the escarole was too salty!) but I brought some home after dinner and my brother thought it was really good. I think it was too salty because we were eating a lot of salty things that evening and eating another salty entree was just adding fuel to the fire.
For a side, we ordered the St. Louis style ribs with a bourbon glaze:
The meat fell off the bone and had a very sweet glaze (maybe a little too sweet) but I liked the ribs enough to eat more than my fair share 🙂
For dessert, I wasn’t really in the mood to order anything but obliged to help Erika eat whatever she ordered. We ended up getting the honey bamboo panna cotta with almonds, bee pollen, and raspberries:
The panna cotta was hands down the best thing we’d eaten at Dressler; subtly sweet, custardy, and very creamy with a combination of crunchy toasted almonds and semi-tart raspberries. It was very delightful (when I returned the next week, Chef Polo informed me that they took it off the menu for the winter!)
And the three of us after dinner:
I enjoyed dinner at Dressler and I thought the service was really great, but it felt more like a good neighborhood restaurant, not a Michelin-starred restaurant. Their drinks are also great (I had a pear margarita that wasn’t too sweet and had fresh pear puree) but I think the service and quality of food are more aligned with Bib Gourmand than a Michelin-star.
