Gabriel Kreuther

I’m always looking for good restaurants in midtown because Ken is always asking for recommendations for good lunch spots to take clients. Gabriel Kreuther opened back in 2015 and I’ve been wanting to go ever since I read the great reviews (the New York Times gave the restaurant three stars and the restaurant also has a Michelin star). I told Ken about the restaurant and he went with some coworkers and couldn’t stop talking about how great the meal was, so we ended up going together the following weekend.

The restaurant is located in Bryant Park and was very busy on the Saturday night we went. We had a late reservation (around 9:45pm) and the restaurant was still completely packed (even the bar area!) The restaurant has a ski lodge feel with their exposed wood beams (similar to the houses in Alsace, France). They also have floral wallpaper, which looked really cool in combination with the wood.

We went with the tasting menu, a four course tasting with three savory items and one dessert. To start, they brought us their freshly baked bread with their homemade chive butter:

Next, an amuse bouche served in a sea urchin bowl:

And another amuse bouche served in a clam shell:

For Ken’s first course, he ordered the sunchoke soup:

One of his coworkers ordered the soup at their business lunch and she said it was so good she could have licked the bowl – a pretty strong recommendation for Ken to order it when we went. The soup was velvety and so flavorful – it included black truffles, mushrooms, and puffed rice for a little texture.

I ordered the Alaskan king crab:

We also ordered the langoustine tartare with Flying fish roe and cauliflower-macadamia purée:

My favorite dish of the first courses was the sunchoke soup – it had an amazing texture and flavor and was so rich and creamy.

For our main courses, I ordered the baked dorade royale:

The dorade had a fennel seed-coriander broth and a green tomato marmalade on top. It was a good choice for me because I was already getting full after our first and second course.

Ken ordered the Niman Ranch pork tenderloin with morcilla crumble, pear, and grain mustard jus:

Along with dinner came some delicious bread and cultured butter:

After our main courses, we were served a palate cleanser – yogurt with puffed grains of rice:

For dessert, the server accidentally put in the wrong order so they brought us out the right order and we ended up having three!

We had the rhubarb, strawberry and buttermilk dessert:

The strawberry in front is white chocolate and has cilantro on top!

We also had the tropical dessert with passion fruit, coconut, dragon fruit and kiwi:

And we also had the Blackberry Chocolate with chocolate mousse, blackberry gelée, and lemon verbena meringue:

All of the desserts were awesome – not too sweet and so many interesting textures.

After all of the desserts, they brought out a cacao pod with more sweets – house made chocolates and pocky-like sticks that were dipped in chocolate and almonds:

After the bill came, they brought yet another dessert – a pop-tart like shortbread with marshmallow and chocolate:

The service, food, and ambiance were all wonderful – I definitely see this restaurant staying on the Michelin list (and potentially going up to two stars in the next few years). We had such a great meal there and Ken has made it his new de facto restaurant for client lunches!