Miscellaneous Food: New York 7

Babbo




Hot on the heels of one Batali eatery to another: my sister's friend was able to secure a last-minute reservation at Babbo, the Italian restaurant at the heart of Batali's chain, feted in Zagat as the top Italian restaurant in the City, and (possibly because of that) one of the most difficult places at which to secure a reservation - usually you have to reserve exactly one month before you want to eat. So I was very fortunate indeed to be able to try Babbo on this trip, and kudos to S's resourcefulness in getting us a spot two hours before the meal.




Our reservation was at 6.15pm, and after a frenzied trip on the Subway, I managed to find my way to the restaurant. While the ground floor dining area is somewhat dark, the second floor was suffused with light from a large skylight, and the blinding whiteness of the tablecloths was softened by a large plant fixture in the middle of the room.

A common complaint is that Babbo's service is often "rushed", and it certainly was very prompt: within minutes of our being seated we had a waiter on hand explaining the menu to us and inquiring if we wanted to try Babbo's special cocktails. While not so much rushed as rapid, a more languid service would have been helpful, especially because Babbo's menu is quite extensive; filled with dishes that tantalise every tastebud. Here there are at least ten different types of pasta, and meats to serve every possible ethical inclination, from squab to rabbit to veal, and five minutes is certainly not sufficient to come to an optimal decision.




However, our waiter made up for it by being the consummate salesman; extremely knowledgeable about almost every single dish, he made our choice even more difficult with his evocative language and seductive imagery. The spicy limoncello vinaigrette that accompanied the grilled octopus, he said, provided a wonderful undertone of sweetness that just lifts the entire dish, and the lamb's tongue salad, while not a usual dish, paired delightfully with the chanterelle mushrooms. What I was not pleased with, however, was the fact that though I had requested to retain a copy of the menu, I was told they needed the menus for other tables, but he would bring me back a menu at a later time. Unfortunately, that menu never arrived.




After placing our orders, we were given some complimentary chickpea bruschetta, which, while inventive, simply could not match the freshness of the original. I found the chickpeas somewhat chalky, without enough flavour or complexity to bring the amuse-bouche to life.




Very quickly, however, our orders arrived: we were sharing the grilled octopus; the warm lamb's tongue vinaigrette, which came served with a poached egg; and a plate of Proscuitto San Daniele. The grilled octopus seemed rather charred, and consequently slightly tough, and I was not able to detect the wonderful sweetness of the limoncello. The lamb's tongue was, however, very enjoyable – the tongue was firm, yet supple, meaty and delicious. Paired with strips of confited tomato and the runny poached egg, the whole dish worked very well and hit all the right tastes. No complaints with the third appetiser: hard to go wrong with prosciutto, especially if it's paper-thin San Daniele.




Mains were a steaming plate of black spaghetti with rock shrimp, spicy salami calabrese and green chiles; beef cheek ravioli with crushed squab liver and black truffles; and rabbit with braised leeks, pancetta and carrot vinaigrette.

While the spaghetti was perfectly al dente, I was somewhat puzzled as to the combination of shrimp and spicy calabrese. The heat from the calabrese completely masked any taste of the prawns, and the end result reminded me very much of having pasta with hae bee hiam, the spicy, dried ground prawn paste that is common in Singaporean cuisine. The beef cheek ravioli was redolent with strong flavours from the red wine the beef cheeks had been braised in, enhanced with the rich, slippery unctuousness of the liver, though I was disappointed that the raviolis hadn't been more substantially filled – they looked rather limp and flat, and not much of the beef cheek itself came through. The rabbit was a winner though, with small delicate bones, and lots of soft, plump flesh, sitting atop a bed of beans and pancetta lardons.

As we were due to have dessert elsewhere, we skipped the final course, though other reviews have praised Babbo's dessert offerings.

Perhaps because of the expectations engendered by Babbo's exclusiveness, as well as how good all the dishes looked on paper, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the eventual outcome. Babbo is good, no doubt, but perhaps not spectacular. A pity, given its reputation, and it may be that a wider tasting from among its pastas and main courses will do more justice to a much talked-about establishment.

Babbo
110 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10011
Tel: 212 777 0303

Miscellaneous Food: New York 6

The Spotted Pig

The Spotted Pig is one of the recent additions to the sprawling Mario Batali empire, specialising in pub food and proclaiming itself as New York's first gastropub. Now, coming from the UK, I have grave misgivings about gastropubs in general, and I think the term "gastropub" is about on a par with "fallen soufflé", so I was curious to see what The Spotted Pig had to offer.




One thing it does offer is great difficulty in getting a table. The Spotted Pig takes no reservations, unless you happen to be a special guest (which we were not), so that means to get a table you need to get there very early or be very lucky. We got there at 5.30pm, so we managed to guarantee ourselves a table, though the kitchen had not yet opened for the evening.

The other thing The Spotted Pig does offer is bad service. Apparently diners are not allowed to sit down at tables before service starts, and are expected instead to buy some drinks from the bar and to have them while standing up, which is just silly. There is never enough standing room near the bar, so if you have tables laid out people are bound to want to sit down. As we sat at a table waiting while one of our party went to get drinks, one of the waiters wordlessly pulled the table away from us, to place another stool around it, without so much as an "excuse me". When we went to sit at another table, we were brusquely told that we were not allowed to sit down, despite a party of three sitting at a table right next to us. When we inquired about them, we were told that they were left over from the lunch service. So essentially, if you sat down at lunch, it's all right to remain seated at 5.45pm, but if you've just come in for dinner, you don’t get to sit till told to do so. Bizarre.




The Spotted Pig is not very big and spacious (as is readily apparent from its small tables and stools), so it gets pretty full pretty quickly, and apparently the kitchen is also not large enough to deal with many orders at once, which explains why customers have to be seated in intervals. Still, that's a reason for better crowd management, and, above all, a very good reason for having a reservation system, and certainly no excuse for poor service and bad organisation. Thankfully we weren't there at peak dinner time, when the restaurant has been described, memorably, as a "trough", and apparently requires a sort of Karma Sutra for you to contort yourself into your seat.

When we eventually get to sit down and place our orders, the food surprises me. Although there are things you would expect to see in a pub, marinated olives and roasted almonds, for instance, there are also dishes that would not be out of place in an episode of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations": grilled lamb's heart, anyone?




We shared a special appetiser of fried ricotta, broccoli rabe and proscuitto fritters, served with a tomato sauce and grated parmesan. These were, unfortunately, quite salty, whether due to the proscuitto or otherwise, and while quite a good idea, were consequently somewhat unpalatable.




Mains were an order of faggots, a quasi-sausage made of minced pork offal, wrapped in pig liver and topped with shredded pig's ear; grilled quail with a goat's cheese souffle; and pancetta-wrapped grilled scallops with a sweetcorn dressing. These were accompanied by a side of summer succotash (something I've only ever seen in the US), and shoestring fries.




Although the faggots were too cholesterol-heavy for me, I enjoyed the quail and scallops, which were large, succulent, and very meaty. The fries I found to be again, extremely salty, and could only manage three or four before having to reach for my water glass.




Dessert was a slice of lemon and lime tart with a small quenelle of cream. The tart was exactly that – very tart – and could have done with more sweetness, creaminess or richness to offset the sharp bite of the lime. The shortcrust pastry was pretty boilerplate, making the dessert something of a letdown; which, I suppose, was to be expected, given that pubfood is not exactly known for its dessert offerings.

All in all, The Spotted Pig is quite spot-on in terms of an even more modern reinterpretation of the modern gastropub – more Chez Panisse than the King's Arms, but in the end, it's still a gastropub, with a long wait and substandard service thrown in. Having said that, however, it's clearly still very popular, and it remains one of my hosts' favourite dining spots. Perhaps it's a symptom of New York's faddishness that as long as you've got a gimmick, you're likely to do well enough.

The Spotted Pig
314W 11th Street, at Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10014
Tel: 212 620 0393

Miscellaneous Food: New York 5

Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar




Browsing the list of Restaurant Week participants, I was pleased to find that there was another French bistro located quite near my hotel, and thus made a reservation for lunch at Artisanal Bistro, which, as its full name suggests, specialises in gourmet cheese and relaxed French food.




Exuding an even more classic bistro appearance than Les Halles, the waiters here are dressed in black waistcoats and white aprons, and there's a cheese counter where you can inspect their menagerie of weird and wonderful cheeses – all your bries and manchegos and pecorinos.

Although Artisanal's Restaurant Week menu did not extend to the weekend, they still offer a prix fixe lunch menu that was more or less the same as the Restaurant Week menu, though with some changes to dessert.




My starter was a basket of gougères, small airy cheese puffs that are an excellent party food for lots of people to share (though considering the effort required to bake them, perhaps they would be best confined to dinner parties). These were delightful; fluffy little balls of choux pastry that had a salty, cheesy tang, and the whole lot was quickly consumed.




I thought I would have a light lunch, since I was going to be having an early dinner with some family friends. Unfortunately, however, the chicken "tonnato" was surprisingly heavy, given the creamy, egg-based tuna mayonnaise that draped the chicken slices. Not a dish you would expect to find in a French bistro, this riff on a classic Italian dish was very similar to a Caesar salad with chicken, no cheese, more fish and arugula instead of romaine. The tangy capers, sour olives, salty anchovies and tuna made this a very rich dressing indeed, and the chicken was pretty much tasteless by comparison. Probably not one of my favourite Italian dishes, but no real complaints as far as execution was concerned (though of course, given that this dish requires pretty minimal cooking, you'd have to be doing really badly to go wrong).




Dessert was a crème brulee flavoured with orange zest, served with cinnamon wafers. I was quite curious as to why the cinnamon wafers were there, and what purpose they served, but I assume the thin, crunchy slightly spicy wafers were meant to contrast the rich custard. Although I usually dislike flavoured crème brulees, I thought the orange zest worked quite well here, with some of citric acidity cutting through the richness of the custard and the heavy mayonnaise of the last course. Oddly, despite it not being a very large portion, I did find it a struggle to get through, and knew I would be in trouble if dinner was going to be a huge affair.

Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar
2 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212 725 8585

Miscellaneous Food: New York 4

Having been fortunate enough to be sent on an all-expense paid trip to New York for a week, I was even more fortunate to arrive in the middle of Restaurant Week 2008, a wonderful biannual event where some of the top restaurants in New York serve a prix fixe menu at steeply discounted prices. With an opportunity like that, clearly I would have to spend the week eating quite well, and so within minutes of checking into my hotel, I was online looking for suitable places to have some very good food.

Brasserie Les Halles




Best known as the home base of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and the kitchen which produced the recipes contained in his Les Halles Cookbook, Les Halles is the popular midtown eatery famous for serving traditional French brasserie food like coq au vin, and particularly, its steaks.




There is this strange hang-up about dining alone, which I've never understood. It's unbelievably easy to get a reservation when you're a party of one, so getting a table at Les Halles only two hours in advance was no problem. When I arrived, the restaurant was already pretty crowded, and I was glad I had made a reservation. Les Halles has got the brasserie persona down pat; with the exception of their waiters, who are dressed in rather shabby dark blue polo shirts and jeans. The restaurant itself is pretty capacious; with a de rigour bar area for those who enjoy some stiff drinks with their dinner. Art deco lighting and long, leather-backed benches complete the look.

Les Halles bustles with frenetic energy – not only is the kitchen extremely efficient in churning out dishes, the restaurant itself is also open seven days a week, from 7am to midnight, which is always a good thing if you feel like some late-night or earl-morning steak, but must take its toll on the staff, I imagine.

I have found, however, that I am not very fond of the bread that is served in New York restaurants. They seem to be invariably variations on hard, crusty sourdough or pain de campagne, containing more crust than crumb, which I am not a fan of, as I have tender gums and dislike having them impaled by sharp brittle shards before a meal.




Served in a fetching earthenware crock, the soup is topped with a round of bread and gratineed with cheese, very classic in appearance. There is something very comforting as your spoon breaks the surface, the stringy cheese clinging to it, as you ladle up a mouthful of scalding hot soup, onions, soggy bread, and melting cheese. The problem I had with the soup, however, was not its composition or temperature, but its texture and taste. I thought the soup lacked body, and was surprisingly watery. While it was rich and hearty, it lacked the distinctive unctuousness and umami that typically characterises onion soup that's been made with a powerful, concentrated stock. Also, the soup tailed off with a strange sweetness that was much stronger than I would have expected from onions. While not unpleasant, it was surprising in what I had thought would have been a much more robust and earthy starter.




No complaints as far as the main course was concerned, however. Onglet steak, medium, served with a shallot sauce and fries. Onglet is a great cut of meat, as it's full of flavour on its own, and Les Halles clearly produces good steak. Expertly cooked, my steak was bursting with that meaty richness you get with a steak that's been in good hands. The shallot sauce was an intense affair, served in a small ramekin that, despite its size, packed a punch. The flavour of the red wine base shone through, tempered and rounded off with the beef stock to give it depth and richness. The shallots lent the sauce a mild oniony taste, as well as a sweetness that complemented the steak and fries. While the fries were a bit skinny, it was a generous helping, and I was not able to finish them all.

Les Halles's desserts are nothing surprising; the usual bistro classics like crème brulee and profiteroles are on offer, as are slightly posher options such as crepes suzette and a warm banana and chocolate tart. I was feeling quite full by this time, and decided to pass on dessert, though my curiosity was somewhat piqued by the "fallen" chocolate soufflé, which seemed like a contradiction in terms to me, or perhaps it was just a strategy for disguising any soufflé that failed to rise.

Brasserie Les Halles
411 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212 679 4111

Review: Otto Ristorante

Despite the bloggers best attempts..ok, and maybe my slightly less than enthusiastic attempt, Le Papillon has closed down. In it's place, is a sexy new restaurant called Otto.

It is helmed by executive chef Giacomo Gallina (whom some may know from his time at Bice, Goodwood Park), who came over from Dolce & Gabbana's Milan restaurant and the maitre'd is his daughter.

The place has had an overhaul, it's gone from light and refreshingly watermelony grey, to dark and sensual shapes. The staff has also undergone a revolution, when I walked in, I noticed the same guy who'd been at Bonta before.

My parents had raved about their dinner there, which had consisted of a fantastic shoulder of lamb and grilled fish fresh from the chef's home visit to Italy. My mother even went so far as to say that she never really enjoyed western fish as much as asian preparations but this was so very good.


So it was with high hopes that we returned there to eat. There was just one small catch, at their initial dinner, the host had left it to the chef to prepare the meal, omakase, as it were. So, we decided to do the same. Can you guess what happened?

Well, I had looked at the menu prices in the main dining room before stepping into the private room that they accorded us. The prices for the quadrotti ($28++), premium cod fish ($40++), signature ossobuco ($44++) were somewhat on the high side, but it didn't look that bad (for example, many Club Street restaurants have those prices and higher, too) nor that dinner should run over say, $100 a head without wine. The lighting was a bit dim (no better in the private room and that's why I'm afraid the pictures don't look very good) and they had shut off the larger private function rooms which are still being done up.


Our dinner, however, came up to a staggering figure. (Suffice to say it was way more than any wedding dinner price) For not very much food either, since we halted the meal in the third course and the plates were fairly small. The water bill, was also fairly eyebrow-raising. I'm not sure, now that I know how much it cost, that I would go back again, especially because I found the food, not bad by any means, but prone to the oilyness and heaviness of Italian food that I'm not such a fan of.

The first course, was an amuse bouche, a salmon cream wrapped in a smoked salmon fillet. It was good and refreshing, thought over quite quickly.

The second was a plate of appetizers, there was a thick sashimi of tuna, a piece of foie gras with a large brandied cherry and breaded something or other. The breaded thing really did taste of something-or-other but the tuna was thick and good and the foie grase was decent. Though can I just say that the Italians should leave the foie gras and the creme brulee to the French, who just have a different standard.


The main course was two grilled Italian fish, they looked like turbot and they were crispy and well done. However, when finally distributed on our plates, it'd become a little too cold and heavy for my liking. I think this had more to do with the service than the cooking though.


Only my godbrother had room for another main, which was meant to be a roast shoulder of lamb, but when it came out, what he got was a plated breast of duck. This was a bit chewy but had a wonderful, deep orange taste.


The last dish which we all had was a chocolate tart. This was very well executed, a moulded chocolate round that bled warm chocolate and white chocolate when cut. It was a good riff on the popular valronha molton chocolate cake and well combined with a coulis of liquid orange peel fluff which sharply off-set the dense richness of the cake.

Everyone had a good time and the food definitely was beyond good standard. The chef has a flair which perhaps might be better served by the regular menu choices, which I will stick to the next time I come here! To give the place the benefit of doubt, I don't think my experience, having allowed the chef a free hand, is that reflective of its true standards, it's probably just that, after having been saddled with such a clearly-knife-sharpened bill, it rather leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth! Or perhaps I just have bad karma with this location....

Otto Ristorante
28 Maxwell Road
#01-02 Red Dot Traffic Building

Tel: 6227 6819
Mon-Fri: 12pm-2.3pm, 7pm-10.30pm
Sat: 7pm-10.30pm
(Closed on Sun)