Harry's Steak

I visited Harry’s Steak last week, having dined at the companion Harry’s Café a couple of months ago. I went in with a steak on my mind, but the server talked me into other selections, and they were so good I just have to mention them.

Canadian bacon is common at New York steakhouses, but Harry’s version ($6.50), hickory smoked in-house, is served with the bone, and apple sauce on the side for dipping.  I’ve never seen bacon served that way, but as good as it was, I was only too happy to gnaw the bone clean after polishing off the bacon.

Most steakhouses have a crab cake appetizer, but here too Harry’s made it special. Their version ($15.75) was served in a shallow pool of shrimp bisque—again, a unique touch that shows an extremely thoughtful hand at work in the kitchen.

At another table, I heard a guy telling his companions that Harry’s is now his favorite steakhouse. As he put it, “You can go to Sparks, wait for an hour, and have a mediocre steak; or, you can come here, get seated immediately, and have an excellent one.”

Once again, the restaurant was not full. Both servers that came to my table were rather obviously “up-selling” me, but service was otherwise a happy experience. The steakhouse is in the former wine cellar, but it has been totally redone and is quite comfortable.

Harry’s Steak (97 Pearl Street at Hanover Square, Financial District)

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

Buddakan

Of the two restaurants that Stephen Starr transplanted from Philadelphia last year, Buddakan seems to have been the more successful. Morimoto, on the other hand, didn’t quite live up to Starr’s promise that it would be “far more interesting than any restaurant New York has seen.” It even achieved the rare distinction of a “Don’t bother” rating from Andrea Strong, who hardly ever visits a restaurant she does not like.

Back to Buddakan: A business associate invited me to dinner there the other night — I suggested it, he was paying, which is always a pleasurable combination. The menu on the website seems to be outdated, or maybe it’s the Philadelphia menu, as the New York portion of the site is still “Under Construction.” After almost a year, when are they planning to finish it?

I can tell you we absolutely loved Deviled Tuna Tartare ($10), Crab and Corn Fritters ($14), Crispy Taro Puff Lollipops with pork and ginger ($12), and shrimp dumplings, most of which came from the Dim Sum section of the menu. Peking duck ($44) is the most expensive entrée, and at that price I missed the show of having the bird carved tableside, as the better Chinese restaurants do. The pancakes were smallish, and in the dark room they were almost indistinguishable from the paper doilies that were used to keep them from sticking together. The duck was fine, if a bit oily. A side order of Chinese Sausage Fried Rice topped with a fried egg ($12) didn’t have much sausage in it.

There are a lot of rooms at Buddakan. The one we were in didn’t have the “wow” power of the rooms usually featured in photos, but it was comfortable and not overly crowded. In the style of modern “small-plate” restaurants, dishes are designed for sharing and brought out when ready. Our table couldn’t quite accommodate all that food as the appetizers started to pile up.

Service was a little bit confused. Two sets of wine glasses were deposited and removed, before a third set arrived to stay. My colleague chose the wine. They always show the bottle to you, but this is the first time I recall a dining partner saying, “That’s not what I asked for.” And indeed it wasn’t. We began the evening at the cocktail bar. There was no option to transfer the tab to our table, nor did the hostess offer to carry our drinks.

Buddakan is a fun place, and there are enough hits on the menu that I’d gladly go back. But it is not the polished restaurant its owner would like to imagine.

Buddakan (75 Ninth Avenue between 15th & 16th Streets, Chelsea)

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

Candela

Note: Candela closed in March 2007. Evidently, mediocre food in an industrial loft-like setting was as unappealing to others as it was to us. The space re-opened in October 2007 as Irving Mill.

*

The first clue that we were in for a mediocre meal at Candela was the blurb on the restaurant’s OpenTable profile: “New American Cuisine offered in an industrial loft like setting illuminated by candles.” The second clue came when we arrived and saw the menu, which offers sushi rolls, pasta dishes, and everything in between. Any restaurant attempting to cover such a far-ranging territory is bound to have more misses than hits.

The dark industrial candle-lit setting screams “date place” — and indeed, I would recommend it for that. It doesn’t scream “Sushi place,” but a Sesame Crusted Shrimp roll ($7) turned out to be the meal’s highlight. Crispy Atlantic Halibut with mushrooms, spring onions, and sweet pea puree ($24) was a competent but dull performance. My friend thought the same about Fresh Ricotta Rigatoni ($14).

I was pleased to see an ample selection of wines in the $30–40 range. I’ve forgotten which one we settled on, but in relative terms it was a bargain. I wasn’t gouged on a cocktail ($8), either.

Candela (116 E. 16th Street between Park Avenue South & Irving Place, Union Square)

Food: acceptable
Service: acceptable
Ambiance: *
Overall: acceptable for a low-key date place, but I won’t rush back

A Tale of Two Steakhouses

For a more recent review of Craftsteak, click here. 

This week, I head meals at two steakhouses I’ve reviewed before: Wolfgang’s TriBeCa and Craftsteak. Both appear to be midlly struggling restaurants, although for different reasons. Wolfgang’s had lengthy opening delays. I’ve been in there twice now, and while the restaurant certainly doesn’t seem to be failing in any sense, it certainly doesn’t have the heavy crowds that the original Wolfgang’s did. It appears you can walk in just about any time and get a table.

Craftsteak ought to have been a sure bet, with a celebrity chef/owner (Tom Colicchio) who has been successful wherever he went and a brand name (Craft) that has always stood for quality. But the restaurant was pilloried in one review after another for the same highly peculiar reasons: Craftsteak didn’t know how to cook a steak; the menu was over-wrought and wordy. How hard could it be? Manhattan is overflowing with competent steakhouses. Surely steak is the one thing a steakhouse should know how to prepare. But apparently Craftsteak did not. In two separate interviews, Colicchio admitted they had blown it, and he even arranged an amicable split with partner Danny Meyer at Gramercy Tavern so that he could focus on his Craft properties.

At Wolfgang’s this week, I ordered the New York Strip. At $36.50, it is one of the better steak prices in New York City. It came sizzling hot, perfectly charred on the outside, achingly tender on the inside. The steak was sliced in the traditional Peter Luger style. My server not only served the first several slices, but kept returning to my table to serve more. For quality and attention, it could not be beat. Wolfgang’s is a traditional steakhouse, populated mostly by businessmen. It is not for everybody. But in its genre, Wolfgang’s is doing a superb job.

At Craftsteak too, it was no problem to just waltz in and ask for a table. Unlike Wolfgang’s, Craftsteak has the trappings of a high-end restaurant. I actually saw two tables with only women seated. There was a tasty amuse-bouche of a cube of goat cheese on a thin wafer. At the end of my meal, a plate of petits-fours was dropped off. Wolfgang’s has neither. Both restaurants have better-than-average bread service, but Craftsteak’s piping-hot Parker-house rolls in a cast-iron serving dish are some of the best in the city. A side dish of Wagyu confit potatoes was excellent.

Both the dinner and the dessert menu at Craftsteak are reprinted daily. (At Wolfgang’s, it probably won’t be reprinted until the prices go up.) The menu has changed considerably since the last time I saw it. It no longer prints the biography of every slaughtered cow it sells, although there is still a choice between grass-fed and corn-fed beef. The strip steak is now offered at three different ages (28, 42, and 56-day), rather than six. The Wagyu offerings have been simplified too. The old Craftsteak was offering far too many options.

But ultimately, we must judge a place like Crafsteak for its steak. And again last night, Craftsteak stumbled. I decided to splurge for the New York Strip aged 56 days. This is apparently the house’s signature item. At $52, it is the most expensive entrée you can order, except for Wagyu beef and steaks for two (porterhouse or ribeye, $88). I also thought it would be a useful comparison to the strip at Wolfgang’s, which is only $36.50.

Early on, Craftsteak was criticized for not putting a char on the outside of its steaks. The menu still says roasted, so I explicitly asked for a medium-rare temperature with charring on the outside. “Pittsburgh medium rare,” my server responded. I have never heard the term “Pittsburgh” applied to steak, but he assured me that this meant it would be charred. If the steak was charred, you could have fooled me. There was no char on the exterior that I could detect.

Inside, the steak was indeed medium rare, but it was tough and chewy. This is what 56-day aging gets you? Wolfgang’s doesn’t tell you how long their strip steak is aged, but for $15.50 less, the New York Strip at Wolfgang’s runs circles around Craftsteak.

I decided to give dessert a try. A pound cake topped with raspberries and ice cream was wonderful, as indeed was everything about Craftsteak that isn’t a steak. If Tom Colicchio could only figure out how to prepare a steak, he might have a three-star restaurant. But what good is a steakhouse that can’t do steak?

Wolfgang’s TriBeCa (409 Greenwich St. between Beach & Hubert Streets, TriBeCa)

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

Craftsteak (85 Tenth Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, Chelsea)

Food: mediocre steak, everything else very good or excellent
Service: **½
Ambiance: **½
Overall: *

Shabu Shabu 70

A friend of mine has been itching to try shabu shabu ever since she saw it in the film Lost in Translation. I’ve had it several times in my life, including twice in Japan. While I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it, shabu shabu is always fun. There are only a handful of shabu shabu restaurants in New York, and as my friend lives on the Upper East Side, I decided to give Shabu Shabu 70 a try.

In case you’re not familiar with it, shabu shabu (Japanese for “swish swish”) is food that you cook yourself at the table in lightly spiced boiling water. Some restaurants offer a variety of meat, seafood, and vegetable platters, but Shabu Shabu 70 offers just beef or chicken ($20.50 pp, minimum of two); we chose the beef. You start with a platter of very thinly-sliced beef and another of vegetables (noodles, onions, carrots, mushrooms, greens, and tofu). The meat is so thin that each slice cooks in a matter of 15 to 20 seconds. The vegetables take a little longer.

When you decide that a piece is done, you fish it out of the boiling water with your chopsticks, dip it in one of the two sauces provided, and slurp it into your mouth (it tends to get a little messy). I don’t usually like to work for food I’m paying someone else to prepare, but I make an exception for shabu shabu, which never fails as a social activity, and is also quite tasty. As my friend pointed out, the ingredients are all very lean, so it’s a healthy meal too. By the time you’re done, the water takes on the taste of all the food, so the grand finale is to drink it as a soup.

In Japan, I’ve been to restaurants that do only shabu shabu, where the cooking apparatus is built right into the table. At Shabu Shabu 70, despite the name, they serve a wide variety of Japanese food, so the cooking apparatus is carried over to your table. We started with a couple of excellent sushi rolls ($4.50–7.50).

Service was friendly and helpful. The server could tell that we don’t do this every day, and came over several times to check up on us. I was also pleased that my bar tab was transferred over to the table, something far too many restaurants refused to do.

The décor is fairly plain, but for $20.50 apiece we got an enormous amount of food. Indeed, one reviewer suggested that four people could share a portion for two. With appetizers and dessert, that just might be the case. The lack of a seafood shabu shabu option was a bit perplexing, but the one option offered was plenty enjoyable.

Shabu Shabu 70 (314 E. 70th St. between First & Second Avenues, Upper East Side)

Food: *
Service: *½
Ambiance: okay, but undistinguished
Overall: *

The Orchard

Note: The Orchard closed in June 2011. The owners will “regroup and decide what to do with the space.”

*

Frank Bruni has taken a lot of heat for his procession of two-star neighborhood restaurants, but I have to admit that his review of The Orchard caught my eye. After a succession of high-end meals, my friend and I were in the mood for something a bit more casual, so last weekend we decided to check out The Orchard.

The Lower East Side has become a dining and bar-hopping destination. Five or ten years ago, the idea of any respectable nightlife in the neighborhood seemed absurd. Now, the local community board has decided that perhaps it was too much of a good thing, and new establishments have been struggling to get liquor licenses approved. With carousers hanging out on the local sidewalks, you can see why they are concerned.

There was no reason for The Orchard, a refined restaurant by LES standards, to be caught up in this political battle, but it was. At the time of the Bruni review, it didn’t yet have a liquor license. As of last weekend it still didn’t, although Florence Fabricant has reported in the Times that The Orchard will start serving drinks in September, nine months after it opened.

The night we visited, most diners seemed to be well aware that Orchard was BYOB, and the restaurant was doing a brisk business in spite of it. If anything, it was a bit of fun to pick up a bottle of chianti for $35 that the restaurant would have sold for twice that much. The restaurant, of course, is losing losing the income that comes from a liquor menu, but all that will change in September.

The food is Italian-inspired, but as Bruni noted, it nods at other cuisines as well. The menu is in three parts. Flatbreads ($11–13) are like rectangular pizzas with crisp, paper-thin dough. The toppings, however, are distinctly un-pizza-like. A steak tartare flatbread is seasoned with creamy dijon potatoes, wild arugula, and shaved parmesan. Another was topped with humas and Middle Eastern spices. Each one comes pre-sliced into six rectangular pieces, and is perfect for sharing.

Since we had two of the flatbreads, we skipped the appetizers ($11–18) and went straight to the main courses ($21–32). There’s a variety of fish and meat dishes, but it so happened we both chose pasta: the smoked salmon ravioli ($24) for me, the cavatelli with crispy panceta, diced avocado, and fresh herbs in a tomato-cream sauce ($27) for my friend. Both were fresh, creative, and flavorful. A home-made bread service with creamy-soft butter was also memorable.

The décor is delightful for the neighborhood, with blonde woods and subtle recessed lighting sconces. Rows of bottled water are displayed on the shelves, which presumably will be replaced with wine as soon as they are able.

We were mightily pleased with The Orchard, and obviously so are a lot of other people. Our server unceremoniously dropped off the check before we asked for it (though we were about ready to leave anyway). Other service issues need to be resolved, too. As of now, the restaurant has coffee, but not espresso or capuccino, an extremely odd omission for an Italian restaurant of this calibre.

On the whole, though, The Orchard is doing a superb job at its price point. I would happily go back.

The Orchard (162 Orchard St. between Rivington & Stanton Streets, Lower East Side)

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

Café Boulud

Note: This is a review under Chef Bertrand Chemel, who has since left the restaurant. Click here for a review under his replacement, Gavin Kaysen.

*

A friend has just celebrated her 45th birthday. For the occasion, I decided to take her to Café Boulud, the three-star sibling of Daniel Boulud’s four-star flagship, Daniel. I’ve heard great things about Café Boulud over the years, but Andrew Carmellini, the chef de cuisine to whom it owes its reputation, jumped ship recently to open A Voce, leaving the kitchen in the hands of Bertrand Chemel.

We weren’t blown away. One can never go too far wrong with seared foie gras ($26), but there was nothing distinguished about the preparation. Peking Duck ($36) was likewise competent, and an ample portion, but wasn’t special. My friend had a similar reaction to sweetbreads ($19) and hangar steak ($34). Her cheese course ($21) was one of the comparative bargains.

One server offered a special dessert, but moments later another server told us it was unavailable. The strawberry grati ($13) was just fine, although quickly forgotten.

On the plus side, I was impressed to see that the wine list had a full page of white wine selections under $60, and another full page with reds under $60. I’ve been to plenty of restaurants less ambitious than Café Boulud where the choices under $60 were few and far between.

With so much more to choose from on the menu, I hesitate to say that Café Boulud is coasting, but both of us found the cooking uninspired, given the price point.

Café Boulud (20 E. 76th St. between Fifth & Madison Avenues, Upper East Side)

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

Crispo

Crispo is an easily overlooked trattoria on 14th Street, on the border between Chelsea and the West Village. The chef, Frank Crispo, worked at La Côte Basque, among other places. There is an attractive outdoor dining space, a handsome bar, and plenty of indoor seating. The restaurant has received its fair share of good press since it opened in 2002, although the Times has never formally reviewed it.

For a restaurant of its kind, prices are quite reasonable. Appetizers, salads and antipasti are $6.50–15.00, pastas are $17.50–19.00, mains are $17.50–25.00. I ordered the pork shank “fra diavolo,” a most impressive production. It was an enormous hunk of flesh, braised to a point of tenderness where the knife was almost unnecessary.

I was there with three friends, and frankly we were so engrossed in conversation that I forgot to ask how everyone liked their food. But if the rest of the menu is as good as the pork shank “fra diavolo,” Crispo is doing very well indeed.

Crispo (240 West 14th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, Chelsea)

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

Benihana

A friend of mine gets a peculiar Benihana craving about once a year or so — “peculiar,”  because she can’t stand the “Benihana smell,” which so thoroughly impregnates her clothes that even laundering doesn’t entirely remove it. But she enjoys the theater of hibachi cooks preparing dinner before your eyes, even though the act is entirely predictable.

So at her suggestion we visited Benihana earlier this week. To an extent, the theatricality of it is still fun, even though we all know what’s coming. Our chef did all of the usual tricks, like making a volcano out of a sliced onion, performing acrobatic catches with shrimp tails hurled in the air, and spinning his knives as if he were a samauri.

The food wasn’t particularly impressive. Perhaps the best item was fried rice prepared tableside. Grilled shrimp were also enjoyable, but steak was rather dry and flavorless. A salad tasted like it was mass-produced, and left sitting in the fridge for a while. A frazzled server took a while to deliver our drink orders, and throughout the meal we had the slight sensation of being rushed. At Benihana, all parties are seated at tables of eight. If a couple of people are left lingering, the whole table is unavailable, so they want you out of there on a pre-programmed schedule. It was not particularly busy on a Monday night, but the requirement of seating people in batches of eight must be a constant constraint for them.

For the amount of food, prices are reasonable, with most entrées in the $20–30 range, which includes soup, salad and dessert. A gin and tonic, which came with a liberal amount of gin, was only $5.50. As my friend noted, Benihana is surely the place to come and get plastered, as most Manhattan restaurants nowadays charge over $10 for a mixed drink (and $15 is certainly not unheard of). If you double-up on the G&T’s, perhaps you’ll overlook the fact that the food is just mediocre. The faux-Japanese décor gets you in the mood. While you’re waiting to be seated, see how many celebrities you can identify in the photos posted in the vestibule.

Benihana (47 W 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, West Midtown)

Food: Comme-ci, comme-ça
Service: Ah, so-so
Ambiance: Almost like Japan
Overall: Okay

Del Posto

In last week’s New York Post, Steve Cuozzo surveyed the scene on Tenth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets, where three restaurants have opened to great fanfare in the last year — Del Posto, Morimoto, and Craftsteak — but all have had their troubles.

Craftsteak has been pummeled by the critics, after the peculiar decision to roast steaks instead of grilling or broiling them, as most diners prefer. Cuozzo reported that Craftsteak is “awaiting delivery of a broiler.” How anyone could open a steakhouse without a broiler utterly eludes me, especially when the owner is a savvy restauranteur like Tom Colliccio. About Morimoto I don’t have much to say, but it too has been mostly lambasted by the critics.

Reviews of Del Posto have been mixed. Frank Bruni awarded three stars — not the four that Mario Batali and his partners were hoping for, but better than it could have been. New York, as I recall, awarded only two, and that was on a five-star scale. Del Posto isn’t exactly hurting for business, but Cuozzo reported that a lower-priced Sunday menu has been quietly introduced. My friend and I had no trouble scoring a 6:15 p.m. table just a couple of days in advance.

Prices at Del Posto are all over the map. Some of the more ridiculously expensive items are now gone. The whole veal shank for $240 is no longer on offer, but risottos are $50–60 for two, which is ridiculous. All of the other pastas and main courses are far more reasonable. A special Sunday-only four-course menu is $49, while the chef’s tasting menu is $120 for ten courses.

Although it was the lure of Sunday bargains that brought us there, we chose the tasting menu. We were most impressed to find that a wine pairing was available for just $30. Many restaurants in Del Posto’s class would charge double that. To be sure, we got five small pours of relatively recent vintage, but the wines all worked well with the food, and at the price it was a bargain.

After an amuse-bouche of fried zucchini, our menu was as follows:

SALUMI MISTI with Erbazzone and Figs
Grilled SUMMER VEGETABLES with Ricotta di Buffala
Tocai Friulano, Bastianich 2004 Friuli

The house-cured salumi were one of the highlights of the meal, extremely fresh and tangy.

INSALATA di MARE with Prosciutto
PERCH with Truffled Green Bean Salad
Falanghina, Feudi di San Gregorio 2004 Campania

I found the seafood salad dull and rubbery, but the Perch was perfectly prepared.

GARGANELLI VERDI al Ragu Bolognese
RISOTTO with Funghi Misti
Morellino di Scansano “I Perazzi,” La Mozza 2004 Toscana

The pasta was just fine, although as my friend remarked, it was nothing she couldn’t have prepared at home. While eating the mushroom risotto, I couldn’t help but think, “This is what they charge $50 for.” It was a competent risotto, but fifty dollars? Give me a break.

Grilled RIB-EYE “Tagliata”
6-year PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO
Vespa Rosso, Bastianich 2002 Friuli

I’ve had bad luck with beef on tasting menus, which often seems a pale imitation of what the better steakhouses serve. But Del Posto’s rib-eye was first-class: wonderfully tender, and with a crisp char on the outside. The cheese course was again a bit of a dud. It’s wonderful to know that the parmigiano has been aged six years, but I found it overly sharp to the taste, and the accompaniments weren’t much help.

MELON SORBETTO
CROSTATA di Cioccolato
Moscato d’Asti “Sourgal,” Elio Perrone 2005 Piemonte

I enjoyed the melon sorbet. I must admit I’ve forgotten what the final course was like, but at this point I was so full that I felt they’d have to wheel me out of there. A generous plate of petits-fours went untouched.

The room at Del Posto is gorgeous. The tables are amply spaced. Service was friendly, but there were some glitches. After I used my fork to eat the amuse bouche, a server replaced it at my side, instead of bringing a clean one. It’s a minor point, but no four-star restaurant would do that. Later on, there was a speck of dust floating in my wine (they replaced it without complaint). Another table ordered the grilled whole fish. We watched the staff struggle to fillet it for what looked like 20 minutes. By now, Del Posto ought to have the staff who know how to fillet in their sleep.

For a couple of courses, the server’s description was mumbled to the point of being incomprehensible. Luckily we had a postcard-sized cheat sheet to look at (and which I brought home with me). Still, I had no idea that what looked like apricot slices that came with the parmigiano was in fact horseradish.

We enjoyed our meal at Del Posto — make no mistake about that. But both service and consistency have a ways to go if the restaurant aspires to four stars.

Del Posto (85 Tenth Avenue at 16th Street, Chelsea)

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