Another in the slew of current Indian fine dining options in the city.
Some interesting / different bites, and some that are easy hits on these menus. Very accommodating service (eg adding an extra piece to a dish so everyone could have one). The two chicken apps were my favorites of the evening – the kofta and the biryani (stuffed) wings.
Curries were good in a pureed, fine-dining way but not what I prefer. Baar Baar (rip) did the best version of that I have eaten so far.
Monkfish was the smallest portion of a protein I have ever encountered for $38 – maybe a 2.5" triangle. The beef nihari was similarly overpriced at $45 for a 3" disc of shredded meat over sauce. I’d go back for appetizers, but not those mains. I wanted the ghee roast chicken but I was overruled. (I just got back from India, so the portion sizes were even more incredulous than usual, lol.)
They have a $60 restaurant week menu right now which is probably a good way to experience the food.
(ETA: If you want fish curry, go to Chatti. Baazi’s seafood dishes are also excellent.)
Had two small parties attended to by the UWS Parm for one and the Times Square Carmine’s for the other this past week.
Parm has catered parties for us before (larger ones) and their parm dishes (chicken, eggplant) continue to be solid, as well they should. But the hit previously and now is always their garlic broccoli. I add that their sauce was a little (over-)nutmeggy this time.
Carmine’s has huge portions (each $40–$50 entree easily accommodates 4, except the chicken parm this time, a rather impoverished platter), so we just order a bunch and don’t worry about catering orders. The food was slightly salty but the slabs of lasagna and eggplant parm were knockouts. They also have decent stuffed artichokes (a rarity in mid-town parts) – not as good as my sister-in-law’s (the gold standard) or mine (silver) but quite palatable. The crowd at this dinner were people who are regular Park Siders and they approved the food.
Oh, for apps for this dinner I put out two entire Sullivan Street Stecci (rectangular Roman style pizzas/flatbreads) – one their terrific potato (long one of my favorite NYC foods) and the other their cauliflower with its nice bite. Also mixed salamis from Alidoro and Il Buco (when they have their testa on hand – as they did last week – grab it).
Dessert on both nights were gelatos from Il Laboratorio. I had hauled back ten 20-oz containers a few days earlier: vanilla, dark chocolate, banana, cherry, malt, coconut, lychee, pistachio, oatmeal, and yuzu (sorbetto). There were also cookies and pastries brought by our guests from all the different territories. A good time was had by many.
SS bakes so many delights; in my next life I am going to find a place to live within a block of one of their outposts!! It’s so inconvenient for me to get there that I have to buy a lot and freeze much of it…but I still make the trip. A few months ago I discovered their chocolate chocolate-chip cookies. Knock me out great!!
I hope everyone had the Valentine’s Day that they wanted. I am one of those people that likes to go out and celebrate, so I made a reservation at Jeffrey’s Grocery on Waverly Place, but yesterday morning I realized it was weird I hadn’t gotten a confirmation request from Open Table or the restaurant - no emails or texts. Nor was the reservation showing up in my OpenTable account. I started to panic and tried to get in touch with the restaurant (which has no listed phone number) via DM and email - nada. So we just showed up and hoped for the best and lo, they DID have the reservation. So mysterious. Anyway, tl;dr, we had a nice dinner in a very crowded restaurant.
A special of yellowtail crudo, which was cut poorly (rough, sinewy) but tasted good. Fennel and grapefruit worked well with the fish. And very nice “petit lettuces” salad.
Another special, crab pasta. A very generous portion, but it arrived a little cooler than I would have liked, and I found it too buttery (this might be a me problem).
Service was excellent - particularly impressive since the place was cheek by jowl, and the tables were about 6” apart. They were out of the creme brulee I wanted for dessert, so our server comped us a couple of cavas, which was a nice gesture. Not the most romantic dinner we’ve ever had, but everyone seemed to be having a terrific time.
