Daniel Manhattan

seal · April 15, 2018, 11:25am

First of all, kudos to Daniel’s staff. Literally everyone, including DB himself, stopped by to wish us all a wonderful celebration. On to the food. I wish I could have taken pics of everything as it all was so beautiful on the plate, but alas, you just get to see my food. I had the four course menu. To start, there were two amuses:

A micro edible “bowl” filled with pea soup. And:

A trio of teeny tastes, all very good, but the best was the center cauliflower puree, that somehow was reminiscent of foie. I wanted a jar of that to take home. The other two are a piece of smoked salmon and a poached shrimp.
For my first course I chose the asparagus:

Perfectly cooked white asparagus that they covered tableside with an aoli that unfortunately I didn’t wait for before taking this pic. This was the second best asparagus I’ve ever eaten.
My next course was the foie:

There were quite a few different elements on the plate (and by this point a few glasses of wine, so my memory is a little foggy) but I do remember a slightly sweet slaw, and I cleaned the plate using some of their excellent garlic and cheese focaccia. So good.
For my main I had the Dover sole with spot prawn:

If there was any fault with this dish it was the portion size. I was left wanting more.
Dessert was an easy choice for me - chocolate!

Afterwards they brought out freshly baked, still warm madelines and some teeny candies. As we left, they gave everyone a cute box with a single cannele in it.
All in all, an epic meal, well worth the cost, and rivaled only by the $8 spicy chicken sandwich I had for lunch at Fuku+.

RGR · April 15, 2018, 3:47pm

Glad to hear that you were so pleased with Daniel. The last time we were there was in 2015. Normally, we go to EMP on the dates of our special occasions, but that year, they were closed for a private event that night, so we celebrated there two evenings before and decided to give Daniel a try on the actual anniversary date, our 47th. Prior to that, we hadn’t been there since 2007 because that dinner was such a service disaster. 4-star service it definitely was not! Then, in 2013, Wells demoted Daniel from four stars to three. Our experience in 2015 made it obvious to us that Boulud took that demotion as a serious wake-up call.

When making the reservation, I made it clear we wanted to be seated in the main area, not on what we referred to as the perimeter “balcony,” where we’d been seated in 2007. When asked if this was a special occasion, I said it was our 47th. Upon arrival, we had to wait a few minutes to be seated but then were, as requested, given a very capacious table in the main area. One of the things we immediately noticed was that a whole bunch of tables had been removed which provided a lot more space between tables. And tables were also more spaced out along the balcony. The service this time was tip-top – friendly and polished with nary a glitch. As for the food, with the exception of my sensational foie gras finished and served tableside, I had to look back at my photo set to remind myself what we had. Fine but not mind-blowing. I much prefer the cuisine at Café Boulud where we are semi-regulars and known to the house. However, I would certainly agree that Daniel has the more special occasion ambiance.

My Blog
My Flickr

winecountrygirl · April 16, 2018, 6:26pm

I’m so glad you enjoyed it and that DB came himself to wish you well!!!

NotJrvedivici · April 16, 2018, 6:39pm

Very nice review, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it as well as a few glasses of wine!! Although multi coursed I think I would have been left wanting a little more based on that entree size.

(not sure what angered you by the end of your post buddy but FUKU too! )

seal · May 5, 2019, 2:14pm

A little more than a year later we were back at Daniel with the whole family last night. Ironically we ended up at the same table we sat at last year too.

The food and the service are still first rate and we all ate more than our share. From the parmesan focaccia and artisan butter to the teeny madolines served after dessert, we all agreed that there were no losers. The only complaints were that each course should have an option for seconds.

Here are pics of the raw scallop with caviar app and the wagyu strip.