Last updated on August 28, 2015
The 3 weeks NYRW event is coming to an end. While I am hating myself for packing on pounds, it is time to evaluate if I have a successful restaurant week. Here is how I evaluate:
1. Was it worth the price?
2. Would I go back if not for special price?
3. Would I go back even for special price?
I went to 5 places during restaurant week. Other than Park Ave Winter I posted earlier, the others were Costata in Soho, Brasserie Cognac in theater district, Brasserie 8 ½ near Central Park and the Water Club by the river. Out of those 4, I would only may be go back to Costata.
went there for an early lunch, and have the whole dinning room all to myself. Décor and style reassemble that of Ai fori. Beef carpaccio was good, the crema di funghi was not necessary, and it is all hiding down at the bottom, but it was good. Sirloin flap has been sitting for a while and had lost it’s juice. The fries were not crispy anymore, and both have a bit too much salt, but at least, the flavor was there.
First, I have to apologies to my dinning partner since I was almost an hour late to our lunch. And I also want to applaud the staff of Brasserie Cognac for their patience and understanding. However, great service does not make up for sub-par food. We had Escargots for appetizer, and it was blend and rubbery, and tasteless. It was as if they were boiled first, then plated on the dish and throw back in the oven. All those garlic and bread crumbs did nothing for the escargots. Although that did made for good bread dip. We had duck and codfish for main courses. Duck was salty, and just salty. The skin of Codfish was crispy, but needed seasoning, and the sauce did little to help. Desserts was either a floating island of cookie plate, so we had both. The Floating Island was very petty, and airy although I know it was only sugar and egg white. And I couldn’t tell if the sweet sweet broth it is swimming in was melted ice-cream or some sugar syrup. And the cookie plate… I think the word I am looking for was … … pathetic.
Water Club is a romantic place with a fantastic view. It is an old school yacht- club. Oak wood bar with a piano and a fire place. While it is nice to see that it was not totally destroyed by Irene, all those flags hanging from the roof ruin the mood a bit. If I recalled correctly, there wasn’t any flag a few years back. We started with Maple Glazed Shrimp. It was good Big shrimps and rather sweet. But I have no idea what is the polenta in the middle. It was not corn bread but it was harder than potato. I had the braised lamb for entrees, while the rest of the table have scallops. I know, I know, what was I thinking having lamb at a seafood restaurant. I just didn’t want the stir fried brown rice that came with the scallops. And oh my, I knew I made the wrong choice the moment the lamb sat down. It looked dry. It is braised lamb, how could it be dry? But it was! The problem was they had plated it, sauce included, and put it back in the warm drawer before serving it. How do I know? Well, I don’t know for sure. But from the indication of the sauce already dried up on the plate, and the plate is hot, I’d say it is a petty good guess. I might be right, but i’m sad about being right. It is braised lamb! It is already cooked, just have to plate it before sending it out, and for whatever reason, they plated it before hand and put it in the warm drawer?? WOW. Seriously?! The scallops look dry, but my fellow dinners didn’t complained. But they did said that the stir fried brown rice was hard. May be the water club should just stick with lobster. Last time I had lobster there, it was good, but that was long time ago.
where should I begin with Brasserie 8 ½… Well, staffs are attentive, and perhaps a little too attentive. Tried to take away our plate before we finished, twice. And I guess the staffs are the one thing that is holding this place together. Everything we had were… pitiful. The duck confit on the kale salad was blend, and almost can be call duck jerky. And the croutons were soggy. Grilled Spanish octopus? I couldn’t tell if they were grilled. They could have been boiled, frozen, or from a can. Just rubbery. Call me ignorant. But I thought Sauce Verte is supposed to be green?! And yet I have this orange, tomatoy sauce. And that tasted like from a can. I was utterly disappointed. I had duck breast for main course. And I asked for medium rare. And medium rare it was not. Dried, tasteless, it is. And the chestnut flan… was it some joke or plank? It looks like a upside-down mini cupcake, but tasted like 3 days old hard mushy thing. I do not dare to have a second bite. The braised beef short ribs that my friends had were swimming in this weird polenta and tasteless red sauce. And desserts did not get any better. The Meyer lemon tart with crème fraiche was an embarrassment. Crème fraiche did not hold up. One of them just totally collapsed and became a pile of mud. What kind of presentation is it? And how could it be presented to the dining room? And the macaron did not impress either. The only thing I couldn’t tell was how long it has been in the fridge.
I don’t meant to be mean. And I didn’t want to rip them apart, but restaurant week or not, some of the quality of food that was served really does not worth the already discounted price. The way I see it, the whole purpose of restaurant weeks, is for to get people in the restaurants, to take a sample of what they can do, and hopefully these people would come back for more. Unfortunately, if 1 out of 5 restaurant is really buying into this concept and the others were just serving up sloppy pre-cooked food, then this restaurant week is a failure, at least for me. (March, 2015)
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