Bohemian

Every once in a while, I’ll find out about a really great restaurant from reading blogs, through word of mouth, or from an email list (like Urbandaddy or Thrillist). I heard about Bohemian through a friend a while back but it totally slipped my mind until I went on a date at the restaurant last weekend. The restaurant is located in Noho behind a Japanese butcher shop and you have to know the unlisted number to make a reservation (I’ve actually been to the butcher shop but did not see the entrance to Bohemian when I stopped by). We rang the doorbell and were greeted by a Japanese woman that let us into the open space – an intimate setting with only enough seating for 24 people; I felt like we were literally in someone’s living room enjoying a meal.

My date had been there a couple times before and knew exactly what to order – since it was my first time at the restaurant, we decided to order the tasting menu. We started off with a really great appetizer of vegetable fondue (the fondue sauce was made with anchovies, butter, and cream cheese). I didn’t take any pictures of our appetizer because 1. it was a first date and 2. I wasn’t sure if he’d be embarrassed, but he said he didn’t mind so I ended up bringing out my camera for the rest of the tasting. The vegetables were presented like a beautiful flower arrangement: tomatoes, radicchio, radishes, carrots, and other beautiful vegetables arranged in a bed of ice. The fondue was mild and very creamy – I didn’t even know there were anchovies in it but it was really quite delicious.

For our first course, we ordered the short rib sashimi (based off our waitresses recommendation):

I’ve never had short rib sashimi and the waitress said they were really special because it’s not available anywhere else (side note: the waitress was probably the cutest waitress ever – she gave us her personal recommendations and told us her favorite dishes for every course). The short ribs were tender and we ate them with a little wasabi and freshly squeezed lime.

Next came Hervé Katz’s assorted smoked meats:

Top to bottom: duck breast, chorizo, and salami – they were all really delicious and had the perfect combination of salt and fat.

Our main course was the pan roasted branzini with vegetables:

I actually haven’t had such amazing fish at a restaurant in quite a while; the brazini had a very crispy skin, the meat was very creamy and tender, and the combination of vegetables was really rustic and delicious. The presentation of the entire fish was also really beautiful and the accompanying vegetables (asparagus, fingerling potatoes, zucchini, squash, a entire roasted garlic, brussel sprouts, and green olives) were all perfectly roasted.

Next, we had the fried chicken and truffled mashed potatoes (this wasn’t on the tasting menu but they didn’t have any uni that night and we substituted this for the croquette that came with uni):

The waitress explained that the fried chicken was really special and tasted like turkey or it was an endangered species and said it was her favorite dish so we decided to order it. The chicken wasn’t anything that special but I liked the crispy skin and the truffled mashed potatoes. It’s interesting because after eating out so much, I usually feel that foods are too salty but nothing was over salted or under salted; it was really quite perfect!

For dessert, we had the sake panna cotta with Okinawa brown sugar sauce:

Oh.My.God this was absolutely amazing; delicate sake flavor, and very subtly sweet. It was a perfect way to end a wonderful night! My date had the hostess give me the restaurant’s business card at the end of the evening so now I can return – I think I might make a reservation for me and my college roommates when they visit in November!

Let’s do Brunch!

On Saturday, David and I walked by Congee Village and saw this:

My article from Page Six Magazine is hanging up in front of Congee Village!

Let’s Eat Together at a Michelin-Starred Restaurant!

If you’ve been following my Michelin Monday posts, you can tell that I’m almost done with all of the 2010 Michelin-starred restaurants! I still need dining partners for the following restaurants – please e-mail me (gracenotesnyc at gmail dot com) if you’d like to eat with me…I promise we’ll have a good time! We can talk about food, fashion, work, your favorite restaurants, basically anything that interests you. Think of it as a first date…but we’ll definitely split the bill and eat lots of good food. David has been with me to quite a few of the restaurants – look how happy he is at The Modern:

Three Star:
Masa (I’d like to save this for my last meal in 2010, but if you’d like to come with me, let me know!)

Two Star:
Gilt
Gordon Ramsay at the London

One Star:
Adour
Cafe Boulud
Convivio*
Insieme
Jewel Bako – I’ve been once but can’t find pictures so I’d like to go again
Kajitsu*
Kyo Ya
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
River Cafe*
Saul
Shalizar*
Soto*
WD-50

Locanda Verde

David and Laura went to a special chicken dinner at Locanda Verde a while back (I was very jealous, trust me) but luckily, I had the opportunity to have brunch at Locanda Verde last weekend with my friend Sarah (we met through my blog and have become gossip buddies after sharing a wonderful meal at Annisa!) We went on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon:

Sarah was waiting for me when I arrived and we immediately got down to business – looking at the menu and deciding what to order! My neighbor (and dining companion at Sushi Azabu) really liked the sheep’s milk ricotta with toast and Sarah and I had eyed it as well, so we started off with that:

The Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast was really delicious (with thyme and pepper) but the burnt orange toast was a little too burnt.

We also ordered the cinnamon sugar doughnut:

I wasn’t a huge fan of the doughnut but Sarah had a very enthusiastic reaction to it so I’m guessing it was a good doughnut.

I ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with blueberries and meyer lemon curd:

The meyer lemon curd was really delicious but the pancakes weren’t that hot and I thought they fell a little flat. Also, I don’t really think they made our food to order because five minutes after we ordered, our food arrived (it made me feel a little rushed because there were so many people waiting at the bar for a table)

Overall, our meal was really good and the restaurant was really lively and bustling so I definitely want to return for dinner (or even a drink at the bar!)

ALTO

My mom and I met up at ALTO after I had a huge lunch at Google and I was afraid that I couldn’t actually eat lunch with my mom, but I powered through the lunch special. We arrived a little late (around 2pm) and we were the last seating before the restaurant closed to prep for dinner. I started off with a lot of bread:

Olive, country, and tomato focaccia:

The lunch special is a two-course tasting similar to Jean Georges. I ordered for both of us since my mom was a little late – I ordered the Carne Albese con Crescione e Parmigiano (creekstone farms beef tartar, watercress puree, parmigiano crisp) for her:

I ordered the Agnolotti del Plin con Tonno di Coniglio (piemontese-style rabbit ravioli, baby carrots, peas, rabbit sausage):

The agnolotti was recommended to us by our server and was actually really quite delicious (although a bit on the salty side); perfect bites of pasta filled with rabbit accompanying bites of meaty mushrooms. My mom’s tartare was also really delicious although the sauces were a little too light.

For our main course, the server recommended us ordering a fish – we ordered the red snapper with fingerling potatoes and a red pepper jus:

And me with my main course:

My mom ordered the wonderfully braised veal cheeks:

Both of the dishes were really tasty; the red snapper was meaty and had the right amount of acidity to go with the fish and the veal cheeks were tender, juicy, and very flavorful. By the end of the meal, I was definitely getting sweaty from consuming so much food (I had just eaten a full lunch of lobster mac and cheese, gelato, cannolis, and sweet potatoes). We weren’t in the mood for dessert but we did get some wonderful chocolate and vanilla biscotti for our dessert:

Me and my mom after lunch in the ALTO courtyard:

I was a little surprised that ALTO is a two-starred restaurant; Marea, its sister restaurant, has a lot better food and only had one star for 2010 (deservedly, they moved up to two stars for 2011). The restaurant’s decor had a 60’s vibe (check out the green chairs):

And the service was a little off (I think they were rushing us a bit because they wanted to get us out of the restaurant so they could go on break). I enjoyed my meal at ALTO but I’d prefer returning to one of the other wonderful restaurants Michael White runs.