Wednesday, May 2, 2012

GNO on a work night baby!!!

When I can, I LOVE getting together with my girls.  New and old, don't matter to me!  Of course at any function with me invovled, there MUST be great food and drink! 

I'm a HUGE fan of Chef Tom Colicchio!  His staff is always very warm and unobtrusive, but then you would be too if you knew the wrath of God, aka TC, would come down upon you if you didn't act accordingly working in his restaurant...apparently he's a it scary to his employees....

Onto the food!

We all decided to do the 4 course pre-fixe at $69.00.  Not a bad price at all for a 4 course.


I love how they make you feel like a "VIP" diner in a sense by bringing out the daily chef prepared amuse bouche to try :) 

First amuse bouche was a english pea salad. very clean tasting and crisp

Second amuse bouche was a cold white asparagus soup with a little chip of pickled cucumber.  So refreshing and light with just amount of seasoning to bring out the sweet asparagus flavor

Third amuse bouche was a warm liver pate puff...I was the only one who enjoyed it at our table I think...the rest didn't seem to appreciate the little gamey flavor that came through once you bit down on the little puff...oh well their loss :)

Sadly I only got a pic of the salad and was too busy eating to get the shot of the other 2!!! :(


Oh and we couldn't get enough of the warm buttered dinner rolls!!  We got it sent to our table 3 times!



Here's the Menu:


Four Course Menu (choose one from each course)

SEARED TUNA

YUKON GOLD POTATO & LEEK VINAIGRETTE

OR

FOIE GRAS, RHUBARB & CANDIED WALNUTS


LOUP DE MER

ENGLISH PEAS, MANILA CLAMS & GREEN ALMOND

OR

MEDITERRANEAN PRAWN CHARRED SQUID & BRAISED FRESH PEANUTS


LAMB LOIN

CHICKPEAS & CARAMELIZED YOGURT

OR

ROASTED & BRAISED SUCKLING PIG POLENTA, FAVA BEANS & SHOOTS


CHOCOLATE CAKE DOUGHNUTS HAZELNUT BUTTER, WHITE CHOCOLATE

My choices were:

First Course: FOIE GRAS, RHUBARB & CANDIED WALNUTS
The Foie Gras was shaved onto alternating very fine wafer crisps.  Really light in texture and flavor and the candied walnuts & thick Rhubarb jam went nicely as well...just enough sweet to balance out the dish overall :)



Second Course: MEDITERRANEAN PRAWN CHARRED SQUID & BRAISED FRESH PEANUTS
My least favorite dish sadly...It all sounded really good...come on squid and prawn is a winning combination...but for some reason the pairing was just not right int his dish.  The charred squid flavor overpowered the prawn so it made the dish kinda taste like what you would imagine a dirty gym sock or bad B.O. would taste like...I know weird analogy but it was that bad.  The boiled salted peanuts did nothing for the dish as well...



Third Course: ROASTED & BRAISED SUCKLING PIG POLENTA, FAVA BEANS & SHOOTS
This dish was just alright.  It came with 4 different parts of the pig: belly, mini chops, face, and loin.  You definitely tasted the pork flavor, which I liked but I wished the skin on the pork belly was crispy instead of soft...the polenta lacked seasoning but the again I guess that was done so that the pork flavor would stand out.



Fourth Course: CHOCOLATE CAKE DOUGHNUTS HAZELNUT BUTTER, WHITE CHOCOLATE
Who can say no to doughnuts!  wish the 'nuts were a tad warm..they were a little bit too dense since they were a bit chilled.  The rest of the dish was great :)



They brought out a final round of amuse bouche: little round shortbread cookie (so good!) and little dark chocolate cherry bon bon like things, again very good!



Overall, I would go back...both the Tap Room and the Main Dining room menus are worth a visit :)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

ABC & Graves

A very dear close friend of mine has been told recently that she has Graves disease. What's graves, click HERE. It's been pretty rough on her and so I wanted to do something a little extra special to let her know I'm always here for her no matter what...the best way I know how to do that is with...FOOD :)

Let me tell you, it helps to have connections to get into this spot (thankful that I have that) :)
 
Atmosphere at ABC Kitchen is trendy, minimal with very clean lines.  I liked that the space featured the food and not how many adornments they could put out to make it "pretty"

It was just a party of 2 that night but man we ate like a party of 6, aside from the main dish, becasue my dining partner doesn't eat pork, the restaurant kindly split the other dishes we ordered in 2 when we mentioned we were sharing everything, big brownie point there ;)


First course:
~ Roasted Carrot And Avocado Salad crunchy seeds, sour cream and citrus...I think by far my favorite dish there.  The carrots were seasoned with some cumin/coriander spice and then roasted to OMG melt in your mouth goodness!



~  Roasted Kabocha Squash Toast fresh ricotta and apple cider vinegar...on a rustic piece of sourdough toast again seasoned very well and  the combo of the light ricotta and the semi dense squash paired nicely together



~ Roasted Cauliflower. Onion and walnut crumbs, fried egg ....Again another stellar dish, the Cauliflower was roasted just till fall off the fork tender and worked very well with the warm sunnyside up egg on top






Second Course:
~ Housemade spaghetti with chanterelle and parmesean...this was my least favorite sad to say...the dish was overpoweringly salty! we tried tasting each individual piece of the dish and all tasted fine seperately but combined them into a bite and it was waaay salty!  This was the reason why I didn't give the restaurant 5 stars...when we were served this dish, 2 different waiters came by and asked how it was and both times we mentioned it was way too salty and both times neither of them offered to take it back or anything..boo on you servers!





Third Course:
~ Roast suckling pig w/plum and smoke bacon marmelade and braised turnips...OMG that crackling skin was to die for!  the pork was moist and again melted the minute it was in my mouth.  Turnips have a bad rep but I so love them, especially when they are the small teeny baby versions, sweet and butter!



Overall a great experience and pricing was right as well. We were way too stuffed to even fathom looking at the dessert menu, but next time we'll have to tackle that and review it as well :)