Jarnac

Note: Jarnac closed in June 2009 due to a rent dispute. Its owners now operate Bistro de la Gare. The Jarnac space became Recette.

*

A friend and I went to Jarnac a couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday night. This is a casual French bistro in Greenwich Village, not far from the Meatpacking District.

We both started with the Duck Rillettes ($10.25), which came in thin wrapped pastry dough and packed plenty of flavor punch. We then tried the Cassoulet-Braised Pork Cheeks ($24), with duck confit, pork sausage, great northern beans, tomato & garlic. It’s a heavy meal, which neither of us was able to finish. The dish comes painfully hot, to a point that some of the flavor potential is cooked out of the ingredients. Your server provides an extra plate, along with the advice to spoon the cassoulet in stages onto the plate for cooling. It’s a bit too much of a production, with the danger of a scorching burn if one miscalculates.

Our table was comfortable, service was friendly, and we were pleased to find a reasonably priced wine list. In nice weather, be sure to get one of the window seats (which we had).

Jarnac (328 W. 12th Street at Greenwich Street, West Village)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *
Overall: *

Craft

Note: Click here for a more recent review of Craft.

Craft is one of New York’s iconic restaurants. The name “Craft” was suggested by chef Tom Colicchio’s concept of preparing “expert ingredients, expertly and simply.” Colicchio adds that “simple doesn’t mean simplistic.” It is, in other words, the “craft” of getting the simple things right. Trite, perhaps, but it has been a huge and much-imitated success. Craftbar in Manhattan and Craftsteak in Las Vegas are popular spin-offs, and a new branch of Craftsteak is opening on Tenth Avenue later this spring.

As originally conceived, the name “Craft” also meant that the diner would design the meal, choosing from among a variety of ingredients, sauces, and cooking styles. It was probably the original restaurant where servers would begin with, “Let me explain how our menu works.” Colicchio soon found that diners weren’t interested in quite so much freedom, and Craft’s menu is no longer so complex. However, side dishes and accompaniments are still extra at Craft, as they’ve always been, and the bill can mount in a hurry.

My friend and I had dinner at Craft a couple of weeks ago. We had a wonderful time, although we concluded that the restaurant is, perhaps, a touch overrated. We started with the foie gras terrine ($24) and the roasted quail ($14). Everything at Craft is served family style, and two appetizers are more than enough for two people. We were especially struck by the ample foie gras portion—two hefty discs that resembled slender hockey pucks. It was superb, to be sure, but required a little more of the wonderful toast that came with it. The quail, too, was excellent.

We wondered whether a Côte de Boeuf, at $125, could possibly be worth it. Concluding that we weren’t willing to spend that much to find out, we went with a more modest choice, the braised veal shank ($75), which is a portion for two. As one would expect for a braised meat, it fell off the bone at the touch of a fork, and was perfectly prepared.

We ordered a side of the gnocchi ($10). Our waiter seemed aghast: “Just one side?” We stuck to our guns, and good thing too, because we were plenty full and were unable to finish the gnocchi, which was chewy and over-salted.

The dessert menu is confusing. There are six sorbets and six ice creams listed. Below these, it reads: “Ice Cream & Sorbet Sampler. 6./12.” So, what do you get for $6, and what do you get for $12? When our server heard that we were both interested in the sampler, he advised, “In that case, you can get one of each.” We didn’t ask him to specify what that meant.

Promptly, $24 worth of ice cream and sorbet arrived, and there were full scoops of each flavor. One must assume that this was a greedy waiter who eagerly seized on an opportunity to pad the bill, as no one could sensibly believe that two people could polish off that much ice cream and sorbet. Indeed, a party of four most likely wouldn’t have finished it.

At Craft, wine selections under $50 are few and far between. We settled on a Cadence Coda 2003 at $60, which was terrific. Service was solid, aside from a couple of attempts at bill-padding. The ambiance is upscale, but casual. The tables are both large and well spaced. The final bill for two was $229 before tip.

Craft (43 E. 19th St. between Park Ave South & Broadway, Gramercy/Flatiron)

Food: **
Service: *½
Ambiance: **
Overall: **

Colors

Note: Almost two years after I wrote this review, Colors was soldiering on, largely ignored in the restaurant press, and apparently no great success. A New York Times article suggested that it was struggling to survive. My award of a star was overly generous; the colleagues I dined with later said it was the worst restaurant recommendation I’d ever made.

Since then, there have been multiple closings and re-openings. Most recently, Colors closed in 2012 and re-opened in 2014 after a re-vamp. The original concept of a cooperative, with recipes suggests by the employees’ family backgrounds, has been abandoned. The new chef is Colt Taylor (One if by Land, Two if by Sea), with chef de cuisine Aaron Stein (Manzo, Perla).

*

Colors is a restaurant you want to root for. It’s a cooperative run by former employees of Windows on the World at the World Trade Center. According to the manifesto on the website:

COLORS’ mission is to build a worker-owned cooperative restaurant dedicated to food quality, service excellence and employee welfare.

Chef Raymond Mohan and his kitchen team offer a global menu inspired by the diversity of the staff and their family recipes reinterpreted for New York diners. COLORS is committed to sustainable agriculture, purchasing locally grown foods and sourcing free trade vendors whenever possible. The winelist spotlights small wineries and producers from emerging regions, featuring great values from around the world.

I dined at Colors on Wednesday evening with two colleagues. It is an attractive space, even if the international theme hits you over the head (you can’t look anywhere without seeing a map). There are white tablecloths. The staff, in general, are highly professional and smartly dressed.

The bread service was as good as, or better than, many three-star restaurants I’ve been to. The menu is a mongrel, with dishes composed from many cuisines and styles, and no recognizable theme uniting them. Among the entrees, for example, you’ll find steak, goat curry, and a Japanese bento box. The offerings are said to be “inspired by favorite family recipes” (i.e., of the staff).

To start, I ordered the Colors House Cured Duck Breast ($13). The menu says it’s “Citrus flavored, hardwood smoked, served on raisin bread with porcini jelly.” The porcini jelly tasted more like a horseradish spread. The duck, an ample portion for an appetizer, came stacked on three small slices of bread. It was a little unwieldy to pick up and eat, but the rewards were ample.

One of my colleagues had an oyster appetizer that looked wonderful, while the other had a tuna appetizer that he described as “okay.” He didn’t finish it, so I would guess his response fell well short of rapture.

None of the entrees really caught our fancy, so all three of us wimped out, and ordered the NY Strip (around $33). It came with chimichurri sauce, potato confit, watercress and blue cheese salad—or so the menu said; I couldn’t really detect any blue cheese. The online menu shows a “Grass-Fed Ribeye,” and I don’t know why it’s been replaced. It’s hard to go seriously wrong with a steak, but at such a restaurant the strip is predictably going to fall short of what the better steakhouses have to offer.

The restaurant was nowhere near full. I suspect they are hanging on for dear life. There have been no professional reviews yet, aside from Frank Bruni’s Diner’s Journal preview right after the place opened. I suspect the critics are giving Colors a bit more time to get its act together—a kindness extended to a restaurant one desperately wants to succeed. Rather than deliver a potential death blow with lukewarm reviews, it seems the critics have steered clear, a courtesy they wouldn’t extend to most other restaurants.

Colors offers a pleasant experience in comfortable surroundings, but I won’t rush back.

Colors (417 Lafayette St. between Astor Place & E. 4th St., NoHo)

Food: ★
Service: ★★
Ambiance: ★★
Overall: ★

Cafeteria

Cafeteria is open 24 hours a day. It’s perfectly suited to clubland exiles who need a place to get over their 4am hangovers. A branch in Miami Beach no doubt appeals to the same type of crowd. But for Sunday brunch, which my friend and I tried yesterday, you can do a lot better.

Cafeteria isn’t a cafeteria. It’s a restaurant with sit-down service. Perhaps I should put “service” in quotes, because there wasn’t much of it. The milk to go with our too-strong coffee was served in a sugar bowl. You can imagine the mess when we poured it. Omelets took about 25 minutes to come out of the kitchen. (To that, add the 25 minutes we waited for a table.) Each omelet came with just a single slice of toast. We had to ask for butter.

The omelets were fine: nice and fluffy, with goat cheese and mushrooms (we both ordered the same). But nothing to rush back for.

Cafeteria (119 Seventh Avenue at 17th Street, Chelsea)

Food: Satisfactory
Service: Poor
Ambiance: Fair
Overall: Fair

Telepan

Note: Click here for a more recent review of Telepan.

*

My friend and I had dinner at Telepan on Saturday evening. The restaurant is named for Bill Telepan, who was formerly the chef at Judson Grill, which has since closed. Telepan has received favorable buzz, including a two-star review from Bruni (and some thought it was a contender for three). Certainly the addition of another serious restaurant near Lincoln Center is a welcome development. But we were underwhelmed.

The menu seems designed to bump up the final bill, with savory courses in three categories (appetizers, “mid-courses” and entrees), instead of the usual two. If you order à la carte, the appetizers are $9.50–$16.00, the mid-courses are $15.50–$26.00, and the entrees are $23.00–$36.00. Desserts are $9.00–12.00, cheese plates $12.50–14.00.

We were naturally enticed to choose the four-course prix fixe at $55, which allowed us to choose one savory course from each heading, plus a dessert. Wine pairings would have been another $32 apiece, which seemed a little dear, so we went for a single bottle at $48. For the record, there’s also a five-course prix fixe at $65, or $105 with wine pairings, which adds a cheese course to the mix.

The website tells you very little, except that Bill Telepan is “so excited about the opening of…my new restaurant.” There’s no menu posted, though fortunately it is on menupages, and I was able to refresh my memory as to the details. However, I cannot tell you the amuses bouches, except that there were three of them, described by an incomprehensible server with halting English. One of them was a gougère, the second a small piece of melba toast that you dipped in something or other, the third a small cup of soup with mystery ingredients.

After that, I had with Marinated Quail with Apple-duck Sausage, while my friend had the Foie Gras Terrine. Both of these were pretty good, if not outstanding. Ordered on their own, these two dishes would have been $13.50 and $19.00 respectively.

For the second course, I had something called “Eggs in a Hole,” which was a single fried egg (not eggs, as the caption implied) on top of a small piece of soggy toast, with an even smaller strip of smoked salmon and herb-caper sauce on the side. Telepan gets an A for Dufresne-like creativity, but what was the point? My friend’s mid-course was even more peculiar: Roasted Cauliflower, with herb oil, crushed heirloom shell beans and winter greens. It was over-cooked. Ordered on their own, the cauliflower dish would have been $15.50, the egg/salmon mix $16.00.

My entree was Seared Duck Breast and Foie Gras Custard, but for the life of me I could taste no foie gras on the plate, and the portion was awfully meager for a main course. My friend ordered the Roasted Sirloin, which came with oxtail glaze, gold nugget potatoes, roasted vegetables and horseradish. Those vegetables were, again, over-cooked. Ordered separately, our main courses would have been $29.50 and $36.00 respectively.

For dessert, we both chose the Banana Cake Sundae, with bananas foster, banana ice cream and sugared walnuts ($9 on its own). It was both unexceptionable and unmemorable.

We found the decor rather dull, and the artwork bordered on tasteless—the kind of ugly stuff you’d buy at a suburban shopping mall. However, tables were amply spaced, and service was in line with what you expect at an upscale restaurant. We sense the possibility that Telepan could be excellent someday. All of the dishes show a considerable amount of thought, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Many of the portions are both too small and too expensive.

Telepan (72 W 69th St between Columbus Ave & Central Park West, Upper West Side)

Food: *½
Service: **
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *½

Return to 5 Ninth

Note: This is a review of 5 Ninth under founding chef Zak Pelaccio. After numerous changes of both chef and format, the restaurant closed in early 2013.

*

My friend and I had dinner at 5 Ninth last Friday evening. The restaurant was running a bit late, and our 9:00pm reservation was honored at more like 9:20.

Some of the silly service quirks remain from my last visit, such as serving bread without bread plates. This seems so elementary that it defies belief they haven’t thought of it. On the other hand, the wine list is to the restaurant’s credit. We had no trouble identifying a very pleasing red for around $27, where one would much more commonly pay something in the 40’s at a restaurant in this price range.

We both started with the Berkshire Pork Belly in a garlic chilli paste. It was four gorgeous hunks of pure fat, which is of course the tastiest part of the animal, so we found it wonderful.

Anything after that was bound to seem bland. My friend had the hangar steak, and I had a baramundi (one of the day’s market specials). The baramundi had a nice crisp exterior, but it was totally unmemorable after the pork belly.

I didn’t note the prices of individual items (and they aren’t shown on the website), but the total for two, with tax and tip, was a very reasonable $127.36.

5 Ninth (5 Ninth Avenue between Gansevoort & Little West 12th Streets, Meatpacking District)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: Satisfactory
Overall: *

Strip House

Strip House is the witty name of a steakhouse in the Village. It faintly suggests a house of ill repute, and it comes dressed for the part with its ruby-red decor. It also suggests a cut of meat, which is Strip House’s real point.

The owners, Glazier Group, run a chain of restaurants, including two other Strip Houses (New Jersey, Houston) and two other steakhouses in New York (Monkey Bar & Michael Jordan’s). Monkey Bar is an enjoyable place, attractively priced for a steakhouse. I’ve never been to Michael Jordan’s (inside Grand Central Terminal), but several reviews have suggested that it’s surprisingly good for a restaurant named for a celebrity and located in a train station.

Strip House is the group’s flagship. I paid a visit last night on the advice of blogger Augieland, who pronounced their bone-in ribeye ($42) his “favorite steak in Manhattan.” I’d been there once before and ordered the NY Strip, which was okay without being memorable. But Augieland is right about the ribeye. It’s a wonderful hunk of meat, with high fat content and a crisp char on the outside. I tried the identical cut of beef at Bobby Van’s the other night, and while it wasn’t bad, it lacked the perfection of Strip House’s version.

Best steak in New York? It’s hard to say, when there are so many of them. But I don’t recall offhand having tasted a ribeye better than this one. (Wolfgang’s came close, but I think this one was superior.) It was preceded by an amuse bouche of warm potato soup with parsley oil in a shot glass. The restaurant was packed on a Thursday evening, but I had no trouble getting served at the bar, where service was friendly and efficient.

While I was eating, a couple next to me saw what I had ordered, and raved about the Strip House ribeye. The gentleman told me that the March 2006 issue of GQ named Strip House one of the five best steakhouses in America. (I couldn’t find an online version of the full article, so I can’t say which four other steakhouses were so honored.) Visit the Glazier Group homepage, and you’ll see they’re crowing about it. The company has announced plans to open Strip Houses in several other cities. Lucky for them.

Strip House (13 E. 12th St between 5th Ave & University Place, Greenwich Village)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: *
Overall: **

Ouest

Note: Ouest closed in June 2015 after an impressive 14-year run. Tom Valenti, the chef–owner, cited a forthcoming rent increase. Beyond that, the neighborhood had changed considerably. Ouest, at the time it opened, was considered one of the first restaurants on the Upper West Side with a serious, credentialed chef, at a time when the area was known for unremarkable neighborhood joints.

*

A friend and I had a pre-concert dinner at Ouest last Saturday night. I had been there twice before—another occasion before an event at Lincoln Center (loved it), and two New Year’s Eves ago (underwhelmed).

This visit was more like the first time I went. I started with the Salmon Gravlax with Chickpea Pancake Caviar & Mustard Oil ($14). This was an excellent hunk of smoked salmon with just a dash of caviar, but then, how many $14 dishes have any caviar at all? It was terrific. My friend had an off-menu potato gnocchi dish, which she liked.

We both had the Braised Beef Short Ribs with Israeli Cous Cous, Spring Onion & Shiitake ($32). This was one of the larger short rib portions I’ve seen, and also one of the cleverest. After braising, the short ribs were apparently put on the grill for finishing, as they had obvious ‘lines’ where the meat had been charred. The dish offered the best of both worlds: braising first (for tenderness), grilling afterwards (for flavor). Forget about the short ribs at Café Gray. This dish is the ticket.

Ouest doesn’t try to be formal, but the service was solid, and the food a lot more enjoyable than many restaurants at its price point. I’ll be back…just as long as it’s not New Year’s Eve.

Ouest (2315 Broadway between 83 & 84th Streets, Upper West Side)

Food: ★½
Service: ★½
Ambiance: ★½
Overall: ★½

Tabla

Note: Tabla closed at the end of 2010.

I’ve never ordered a tasting menu that didn’t have at least one dud—even at Per Se. That changed on Saturday evening, when my friend and I ordered the five-course tasting at Tabla. This was a culinary exercise in near-perfection, from beginning to end.

Tabla is a bit difficult to characterize. Downstairs, there is a “bread bar” that serves conventional Indian food. The main restaurant borrows ideas from many cuisines, with only the slightest hint of Indian spices. (The Michelin Guide was thoroughly stumped; they branded the cuisine “Contemporary,” the same pigeon-hole as Alain Ducasse.)

Tabla offers three dinner options: a prix fixe at $64 (you choose one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert from a fairly long list of choices); a five-course winter tasting menu at $79 (optional wine pairing, $38); or, an eight-course market tasting menu at $92 (optional wine pairing, $48).

We chose the five-course winter tasting menu with the wine pairings, which included the following:

Sweet Maine Shrimp & Fluke Cru
Lime, Cider & Toasted Spices
Champagne Brut Reserve, Biillecart Salmon (Mareuil-Sur-Ay, France) NV

Rice Flaked Turbot
Baby Spinach, Applewood Smoked Bacon and Jaggery-Tamarind Glaze
Sémillon, The Willows Vinyard (Barossa Valey, Australia) 2002

Slow Roasted Nova Scotia Lobster
Yellowfoot chanterelles, Water Chestnuts & Walnuts
Viura, Cune, Blanco Seco Monopole (Rioja, Spain) 2002

Challan Duck Two Ways
Braised Endive, Horseradish, Orange Curry
Chiraz, 3-Rings (Barossa Valley, Australia) 2004

Apple Tarte Tatin
Greenmarket Quince Membrillo, Mutsu Apple Fritter
Gewürtztraminer, Kent Rasmussen Late Harvest (Sonoma County, CA) 2003

Petits Fours, Coffee and Tabla’s Teas

(The above is from Tabla’s website, which appears to be up-to-date. I cannot swear that we had those exact wines, but I believe we did.)

The first course (Sweet Maine Shrimp & Fluke Cru) was a daring winter choice, as it was served cold. However, it worked in the context of the overall meal. The Rice Flaked Turbot was one of the top fish courses I’ve had anywhere. The duck was tender and hearty. If I had to deduct a half-point, it would be for the lobster, which was ever so slightly tough.

I was particularly impressed by the wine pairing. The wines were all a bit off the beaten path, but went perfectly with the food. And we had five glasses of well contrasted wines for $38. It has got to be one of the better deals around.

The layout at Tabla is a bit unusual. The fine dining restaurant is upstairs, but it is partly open to the floor below, and some of the sound from the bar drifts into the dining space. There is an attempt at elegance, and the tables are generously spaced, but I found it a bit chilly—and not only metaphorically; I regretted not bringing a sweater.

There is no flaw in the service, however, which is polished and efficient. Overall, this was one of the finest meals I have had in New York over the past year.

Tabla (11 Madison Avenue at 25th Street, Flatiron District)

Food: ***½
Service: ***
Ambiance: **
Overall: ***

’Cesca

Note: This is a review of ’Cesca under Tom Valenti, who shortly thereafter severed his ties to the restaurant to focus on his other Upper West Side property, Ouest. Frank Bruni paid a visit to ’Cesca in October 2007 under the new chef, Kevin Garcia, and liked what he saw.

*

My friend and I had dinner at ’Cesca a couple of Fridays ago. I was sporting a 101-degree fever and wasn’t in the mood for fine dining, but we had an opera to catch, so there we were.

’Cesca was a hit pretty much immediately after it opened in late 2003. Along with its sister restaurant Ouest, ’Cesca marked the arrival of fine dining in a neighborhood that had had precious little to choose from. Poor William Grimes, in his two-star review for the Times, complained that he could only get 5:30pm reservations. That’s still true, by the way. Our reservation was at 5:30 for an 8:00 opera—earlier than I would normally choose, but nothing later was available.

The decor is warm, comfortable, and welcoming. There seem to be enough soft surfaces to catch the sound, and prevent ’Cesca from becoming an echo chamber—like so many other contemporary restaurants. In the middle of the night, I wouldn’t mind tearing down some of the velvet curtains and transporting them to BLT Fish.

I had the cauliflower soup (a daily special) and a wonderful duck ravioli. It’s not the restaurant’s fault that I didn’t finish them, but I just wasn’t up to it that day. My friend had a tomato and mozarella salad, followed by a huge veal chop (also a daily special), which she pronounced a huge improvement over one she had recently at Cookshop.

We had only one complaint. My friend ordered a side dish of mashed potatoes, only to find that her entree already came with potatoes. She said, “There are enough potatoes here to feed the whole Upper West Side.” (That side dish was a huge helping, which even two people might have trouble finishing.) A server really should tell you that the entree you’ve ordered already comes with a generous helping of vegetables.

I really was out-of-it for this meal, but we’ll definitely return—if we can get a reservation, that is.

’Cesca (164 W. 75th St, east of Amsterdam Ave, Upper West Side)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: **
Overall: **