Hearth

Note: Sommelier Paul Grieco, who is mentioned prominently in this review, is no longer affiliated with Hearth. Late in 2014, he and chef Marco Canora ended their collaboration, with Canora retaining Hearth, and Grieco retaining the Terroir wine bars.

*

My first visit to Hearth was a couple of years ago. My enthusiasm fell short of the rapture on the food boards, and the restaurant wasn’t high on my list for a return visit. The rapturous comments never died down, so last night I thought it was about time I gave Hearth another look. Boy, am I glad I did.

My mom and I decided to order different things and swap plates, so each of us had a taste of two appetizers and two entrees. To start, I ordered the Snapper Crudo ($12). Five small pieces of snapper were topped with lemon, red pepper and rosemary. Amanda Hesser, in her 2004 review for the Times, complained there was “lots of flavor, none from the snapper.” Perhaps they’ve improved the dish, or Hesser doesn’t understand crudo. I thought it offered a well judged mix of contrasting flavors.

Having said that, if you’d like something more tangy, go for the Grilled Sardines ($13). My mom found the sardines slightly fishy, but I really enjoyed their crunchy warm exterior mixed with the accompanying salad of crosnes, black radish, raisins, and pine nuts.

The most expensive entree is the Braised and Roasted Domestic Lamb ($33), with lamb sausage, squash, and chanterelle mushrooms. It also might be one of the best lamb dishes in the city. Three tender medallions of lamb loin come with a strip of braised lamb shank so tender that the bone is nearly liquefied. The sausage is terrific. We also tried the pork belly, a special not on the printed menu ($28). This came with two ample squares of crisp pork belly.

My mom and I debated whether the lamb or the pork belly was better. We each slightly preferred the one we had started with—the lamb in my case, the pork in hers, but we agreed that both dishes were excellent. We hadn’t planned it this way, but it turns out we ordered the same dishes at Blue Hill three weeks ago: pork and lamb. Hearth did a better job at both, and Hearth also had the better appetizers.

Hearth also has a much better wine program than Blue Hill. It might be one of the better wine programs in the city, short of the four-star and a handful of the top three-star restaurants. Co-owner Paul Grieco, a former beverage director at Gramercy Tavern, has a lot to say about his wines, and he’s not shy about it. Many of the wine list’s 33 pages come with their own mini-lecture. One page has five paragraphs about a single $85 bottle. Other pages compare various wines to Tom Cruise, Brittney Spears, Ann Coulter, Wayne Gretzky, and even former U. S. Senator Jesse Helms. I am not sure who really has the time to read all of this during dinner, but when all the talking is over with, Grieco has a great wine list—a tad pricy for this type of restaurant, but lots of fun. We settled on a cabernet franc at $47 (Les Picasses, Olga Raffault, 2002), and I was sorry the bottle wasn’t bottomless.

Service was a little slow. I didn’t put them on a clock, but it seemed we were left with menus in our hands for quite a while before anyone came over to speak to us. (The menu is a single loose sheet of placemat-sized paper; surely they could do better than that.) Only then were we told about the off-menu pork belly special, after we’d already been pondering our choices for quite a while. The server then disappeared for another long interval so that we could ponder the pork belly option. Luckily, we had that long wine list to read. At some point, the server dropped off the amuse bouche, a shooter of delicious hot parsnip soup. But it was another long interval, and we still hadn’t ordered. Anyhow, once orders were taken, the rest of the service proceeded at a decent pace.

The ambiance at Hearth is casual, with wooden tables, exposed brick, and a ceiling painted a peculiar shade of burnt red. There is no actual hearth visible, but the name is appropriate for its suggestion of home comfort, which Hearth provides. It’s the perfect setting for Marco Canora’s excellent cuisine, which I look forward to sampling again soon.

Hearth (403 E. 12th Street at First Avenue, East Village)

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

Jean Georges

Note: Click here for a more recent review.

The dining room at Jean GeorgesOver at eGullet, there’s a long-standing discussion thread that asks: “Has Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jumped the Shark? Or does he still have the magic touch?”

In other words, can a chef manage an empire of sixteen restaurants, and still turn out four-star food at his flagship, the eponymous Jean Georges? To be sure, many of those restaurants don’t generate the excitement they once did. JoJo has left me underwhelmed on each of two visits; I found Perry St uneven (though many swear by it); most people won’t touch Spice Market with a ten-foot pole; Frank Bruni demoted both Vong and Mercer Kitchen earlier this year; and V Steakhouse at the Time-Warner Center folded quickly. I was a fan of 66 before it closed, but few diners took it seriously.

No other elite chef has attempted to juggle so many responsibilities at once. But against all odds, most people agree that Jean Georges is still the extraordinary restaurant it was in 1997, when Ruth Reichl awarded four stars, a verdict that Frank Bruni re-confirmed earlier this year. The Michelin Guide has been the butt of every imaginable criticism, but no one disputes that the Michelin inspectors know French cooking, and the Guide has awarded its top honor of three stars to Jean Georges in each of the last two years.

That’s the backdrop to my own first visit to Jean Georges last weekend for a 46th birthday celebration. The restaurant offers a choice of four courses prix fixe at $95, a seven-course tasting of Vongerichten favorites at $125, or a seven-course seasonal tasting menu, also $125. We chose the autumn tasting menu, which was fairly close to what is now displayed on MenuPages (sure to change in the near future):

Hamachi Sashimi Fresh Herbs, Champagne Grapes and Buttermilk
Foie Gras Brulé Spiced Jam and Toasted Brioche
Wild Mushroom Tea Parmesan, Chili and Thyme
Red Snapper Lily Bulb-radish Salad, White Sesame and Lavender
Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Fuji Apple, Endive and Crystallized Wasabi
Roasted Venison Quince Madeira Condiment, Broccoli Rabe and Cabrales Foam
Dessert Tasting

(The night we were there, the first course on the menu was scallops, but we requested the Hamachi Sashimi as a substitution.)

The were two highlights. Foie Gras Brulé was one of the best foie gras preparations we could recall, with a light crisp crust covering a perfectly prepared lobe of foie gras, and the spiced jam adding a contrasting flavor kick. Likewise, the snapper was probably the best seafood dish we’ve had all year, again because of the contrast of ingredients—the fish and the radish salad. On the other hand, the Hamachi Sashimi, the Lobster, and the Venison, are all dishes I will quickly forget.

My friend and I had different reactions to the Wild Mushroom Tea (actually a soup). This dish is served tableside from a silver bowl, with the warm soup poured over parmesan shavings. My friend seems to have gotten far more of the chili peppers than I did, so whereas my portion lacked the contrast that is essential to these dishes, her portion was far more successful.

I haven’t found the desserts anywhere on the web, and after seven courses I’m afraid my memory has failed me. I do know that we were offered a trio of options, each of which was a quartet of small desserts on a square plate. I have completely forgotten what they were, but all four were excellent—and it is rare that I feel that way about desserts. This was followed up by petits-fours and servings of home-made flavored marshmallows, cut tableside from large multi-colored strips. There was also, of course, birthday cake.

The amuses bouches were also strong. As often occurs in restaurants like this, the server’s explanations went by all too quickly, but there was a trio of them—a small square of goat cheese, a small sliver of sashimi-quality fish, and one other item.

The bread service was distinctly inferior for a restaurant in Jean Georges’ class, with a choice of simple French-style baguette rolls or sourdough bread (neither warm) and garden-variety butter. Per Se, Alain Ducasse, and Bouley all have far more impressive bread service than this.

We noted that all of the serving staff are quite young. (Our primary server reminded us of Pat Sajak in his twenties.) Perhaps this explains a number of service glitches. At one point, the server started to pour my wine glass before catching himself at the last moment, as he had not yet poured for my girlfriend. At another point, plates were deposited, taken away, then brought back again. Servers were at times unsure about when to pour and clear wine glasses, and at one point in the meal we felt that the pace was slightly rushed.

We ordered a wine pairing and received six excellent choices, with contrasting varieties and regions, although at no point did we speak to a sommelier—again, I consider this a minor lapse for a restaurant in this class. It is not the wine staff’s fault that five of the six wines were white, as they were all sensible choices for the menu. But perhaps the overall effect would have been better had the fifth course (the lobster) been an item that paired with red.

There are a couple of wonderful tables at Jean Georges that occupy small alcoves, and we were lucky enough to have one of these. With a wall on three sides of us, it almost felt like our own private world. However, it meant that all we saw out the window was the Time-Warner Center across the street, instead of the more compelling park views that many of the other tables have. We noted that there is nothing particularly lovely about the room itself, although it is of course tastefully decorated, and the service accoutrements are all lavish. When we left, we were sent on our way with just a tiny paper bag, containing a tiny box, containing two tiny pieces of chocolate.

On our tasting menu, the foie gras, the red snapper, and the desserts showed how Vongerichten’s cuisine can still be extraordinary, even if (as Frank Bruni claimed in his review) not much has changed in ten years. I do realize that it’s nearly impossible for every course out of seven to be a mind-bending experience. Certainly everything we tasted was at a high level of competence. But I wanted just one or two more of those courses to be sublime.

Jean Georges (1 Central Park West at 60th Street, Upper West Side)

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

Asia de Cuba

Note: The original Asia de Cuba closed in October 2011. It re-opened in March 2015 at a new location in NoHo, at 415 Lafayette Street. The review below is of the original location.

*

The communal table at Asia de CubaA friend of mine adores Asia de Cuba, Jeffrey Chodorow’s fusion restaurant where pan-Asian meets pan-Latin. When she asked where I’d like to be taken for my birthday, I thought it was the perfect choice — a restaurant she loves, and one I’d never been to.

Since it opened in 1997, Asia de Cuba has been the ultimate “scene” restaurant. Unlike many such places, the buzz hasn’t died out. Almost a decade later, the young and the gorgeous haven’t stopped flocking there. Philippe Starck’s luminous double-decker interior still turns heads. Downstairs, a communal table the length of a football field dominates the dining room. Upstairs, the comfortable bar area and additional dining tables overlook the room below.

Reviewing for the Times in 1997, Ruth Reichl wasn’t impressed. She began, “You won’t eat well at Asia de Cuba.” There wasn’t much that she liked, but she proceeded to award a star anyway—surely the best evidence of the star-inflation for which she was known:

I’m not impressed with the ropa vieja of duck, either. One of those thoroughly cross-cultural inventions, this is a variation on the classic Latin beef stew (called ropa vieja because the meat shreds like old clothes) served like Chinese minced squab in lettuce leaves. The idea is to spread the lettuce with hoisin sauce, add a few pea shoots, some thinly sliced snow peas and calabaza squash, spoon some stew on top, wrap it all up and eat it with your fingers. Nice idea, but it doesn’t taste very good.

I’m glad I didn’t read Reichl’s review before we went, as we ordered that very dish ($19.50), and it was a hit. They’ve changed the vegetable accompaniments since Reichl had it, but the idea is still the same. The server brought the duck to our table still on the bone, then shredded it and left us to wrap it into delicious pancakes with the accompanying lettuce.

Miso cured black cod ($33) comes with a black bean and edamame salad. It’s competently done, but these days every Asian-themed restaurant has a version of that dish, and the one here didn’t erase memories of the better renditions of it. My friend recommended a couple of side dishes: Plantain fried rice with avocado salad ($9.50) and Lobster boniato mash ($13.50), which both lived up to her enthusiastic endorsements.

Ruth Reichl and I do agree that the coconut cake is excellent. The restaurant served it with a candle and “Happy Birthday Marc” written in chcolate syrup on the plate. Like everything else, it was a huge piece, which even two people sharing could not finish.

The restaurant has some wonderful specialty cocktails. I loved the Coconut Cloud Martini ($12), made with coconut rum and Stoli vanilla, topped with coconut shavings. We also had the Mojito ($12), for which my friend says Asia de Cuba is deservedly famous.

Like many restaurants in the genre, Asia de Cuba serves the food family style. One appetizer, one entree, and a couple of side dishes are more than enough for two people (indeed, my friend took home leftovers). The ample portions somewhat make up for the stratospheric prices: appetizers are $19–26, entrees $23–59 (most over $30), side dishes $9–$13.50. I would prefer smaller portions and prices, which would allow a party of two to sample more of the menu without spending a fortune.

If Asia de Cuba’s food is no longer unique, it is certainly plenty of fun. Ruth Reichl’s 1997 review didn’t offer much promise, but in fact kitchen is doing a very respectable job. And if you can’t make it to New York, there are Asia de Cuba outposts in London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Asia de Cuba (237 Madison Avenue between 37th & 38th Streets, Murray Hill)

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

Wallsé

I visited Wallsé about a week ago for a special occasion. I’ve reviewed this restaurant twice before (here and here). My enthusiasm for it remains undimmed, so I’ll just get to the food recap.

The four of us chose the five-course tasting menu ($70). There were two choices for each course:

First course: foie gras terrine with plum compote; or cauliflower salad. My girlfriend and I both had the terrine. It’s hard to screw up foie gras—and the restaurant didn’t—but the silver dollar-sized portion was gone all too quickly.

Second course: spicy lobster soup with lobster ravioli; or sea scallop. The scallop, accompanied with glazed onions, was as tender and flavorful as one could want. The lobster soup, of which I tasted a bit, was an unusually spicy preparation, but I thought it worked well.

Third course: Wiener schnitzel with potato-cucumber salad and lingonberries; or fried sweetbread. I was the only one at my table with the guts to try the sweetbread. It was much larger than I remembered it in the past, and lightly breaded, to allow this juicy delicacy to speak for itself. I didn’t try any of the Wiener schnitzel, but everyone else at the table was pleased.

Fourth course: Kavalierspitz (beef shoulder) with creamed spinach, potato rösti and apple horseradish; or grilled venison loin with red cabbage, wild mushrooms and elderberry sauce. Once again, feeling adventurous, I took the road less traveled by—the kavalierspitz. While there was nothing wrong with this dish, frankly it was rather bland. After tasting a bit of the venison, I realized quite plainly that I’d made the inferior choice.

Dessert: Viennese iced coffee with vanilla ice cream and espresso sabayon; or grilled pineapple. Three of us chose the iced coffee. I thought it was just fine—the taste of iced coffee and espresso foam is pretty predictable—but my two companions considered it a dud. The grilled pineapple was also fairly uncomplicated, but I tasted several bites and found it a sweet treat.

Neither dessert option was as impressive as the rest of the meal, but the first four courses were up to Wallsé’s usual standard. I didn’t care much for the Kavalierspitz, but when you are being adventurous, you must be willing to accept some risk. Service was up to the usual standard, and we were quite happy with an Austrian white wine at around $50 a bottle.

Wallsé (344 W. 11th Street at Washington Street, West Village)

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

Savoy

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

These days, there is nothing newsworthy about a restaurant menu that’s built around seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers—what New York’s Adam Platt calls an “haute barnyard.” But when Savoy opened in 1990, chef/owner Peter Hoffman didn’t have a lot of company. Savoy has remained a New York favorite, offering a refined and romantic dining experience.

When you arrive at Savoy, you find yourself initially on the bustling ground floor, which serves small plates and sandwiches, and doesn’t accept reservations. If you’re there to visit the fine-dining restaurant, the hostess leads you upstairs, where the setting is far more serene, with a wood-burning fireplace, warm lighting, and candles on every table.

My friend and I were attracted to the identical menu choices. To start, we had the Grilled Sausage with mustard greens and lentil salad ($10). I thought it was terrific, although my friend was concerned to see pink on the inside of the sausage. (As Frank Bruni has noted, many restaurants are now serving pork rare, but not all diners have gotten used to it.)

Salt Crust Baked Duck ($28) has been one of Savoy’s signature dishes for many years. The server explained that the salt is used during cooking to keep the moisture in, but it is scraped off before serving, so the duck doesn’t taste all that salty. It is an excellent preparation. I especially appreciated that the duck breast was sliced thick, and there was a visible layer of fat on the edges. The accompanying plum dumplings were an unexpected treat, but black kale was rubbery.

The wine list is not long, and features mostly smaller vinyards. We landed on a very fine grenache for $42. Service was very good, aside from one pet peeve that seems to crop up more often these days: no butter knife.

Many chefs with this kind of success would be looking to branch out—launching a second restaurant, then a third. Peter Hoffman just keeps his eye on the ball at Savoy, which continues its charming ways in a renovated 1830s Federal style townhouse in SoHo. For my money, Savoy a more relaxed and romantic atmosphere than Blue Hill, while offering a very similar style of dining that is arguably just as good, or better. By all means give it a try.

Savoy (70 Prince Street at Crosby Street, SoHo)

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

Blair Perrone Steakhouse

Note: Blair Perrone closed in 2008.

*

Nowadays, it seems every waiter with a Peter Luger stint on his resume wants to open a Luger clone in Manhattan. With Mark Joseph, Ben & Jack’s, Flames, and two outposts of Wolfgang’s, you are never very far from a faux Luger experience. The newest of the Luger offspring is Blair Perrone, which opened in late 2005. It’s the brainchild of Charlie Blair, who worked at Peter Luger in Great Neck, and Joe Perrone, who was a manager at Mark Joseph.

By steakhouse standards, Blair Perrone offers a comparatively refined atmosphere for your meal. The gargantuan restaurant occupies almost an entire city block between 47th and 48th Streets, with panoramic picture windows looking out on a fairly uninteresting stretch of Second Avenue. If only such a view were on the waterfront. The interior is dominated by the predictable dark wood paneling, but the tables are generously spaced, the seating comfortable, and the double-height ceilings give the usual steakhouse cocophany room to dissipate.

The menu is entirely unoriginal. Thick Canadian bacon ($3.25) was served in the usual Luger style. The NY Strip ($39) came pre-sliced on a sizzling plate, but the exterior char wasn’t as crunchy as the better examples in town, and the marbling was uneven, with several slices at the end not really worth eating. Creamed spinach ($9.50) was pedestrian.

Service was friendly and very good to start with. Joe Perrone himself came over to my table twice to say hello. But as the restaurant filled up, my waiter gradually lost touch with me as, other parties started to compete for his attention. The bread service (a basket of home made onion rolls) was excellent. I didn’t order dessert, but the choices were the usual steakhouse fare. Indeed, you could easily overlook them, as the after-dinner menu is dominated by an impressive selection of cognacs, brandies, single-malt and blended whiskies.

I was encouraged to see a wine list with plenty of choices between $35 and $50. In common with most steakhouses, wines by the glass are not listed on the menu. If you ask, the server simply says, “Merlot, cabernet, pinot noir, zinfandel, or shiraz.” At these prices, can’t they be bothered to put it in writing, so that you at least know what you’re ordering? Anyhow, I didn’t feel overcharged for a $9 glass of pinot noir, but I still don’t know what it was.

If the wine list is gentle on the pocketbook, the other prices are not. At the superior Wolfgang’s, the NY Strip is $36.50, the bacon is $2.75, and the spinach is $8.95. For some items, the differences are even larger. For instance, Blair Perrone serves a 40-ounce ribeye at $48, while the ribeye at Wolfgang’s is $36.50. I am not sure if Wolfgang’s serves a 40-ounce cut, but I’ve had it several times, and it is more than most people can consume, assuming you’ve ordered appetizers, side dishes, and wine.

The attractive space is Blair Perrone’s selling point. But it is surprising that owners who took such care in remodeling the space didn’t have a single original thought in the design of the menu. They have done a competent job at reproducing the standard New York steakhouse, a durable format that seems to do well almost anywhere. But unless you have other reasons for a visit to East Midtown, you might as well visit another steakhouse closer to home.

Blair Perrone Steakhouse (885 Second Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, Turtle Bay)

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

Earth

Note: Earth closed in early 2009.

*

Earth NYC, a pan-Asian restaurant in far west Chelsea, hasn’t gotten much press. It opened eighteen months ago as a nightclub, and added a dinner menu about five months ago. Book at any time you want, and you get a 1,000-point bonus on OpenTable. At 8:00 p.m. last night, only a handful of tables were taken.

The menu covers a lot of ground—or tries to. Each item is labeled for its place of origin: Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, India. There are plenty of choices: seven soups & salads ($7–10), a dozen small plates ($9–21), seventeen large plates ($14–27), and seven kinds of bread, rice, and noodles ($4–16).

For a place designed primarily as a club, our expectations were low. The strong appetizers were therefore a pleasant surprise. I started with the very respectable Vegetable Dumplings ($9), which came with a side salad of shredded lettuce and carrots. My friend was equally impressed with Lamb Samosa ($9), three savory pastries stuffed with minced lamb. She was also quite pleased with the Chicken Chilli Basil ($14), but my Chicken Curry Ayam ($16) was mediocre. The chicken, which came in a soup bowl, was tough, over-cooked, and drowned in a dull curry broth.

The space is reasonably comfortable, with plenty of room between tables. The funky Asian soundtrack in the background is not oppressively loud. The decor? You will either love it or hate it, depending on your tolerance for lipstick red. I was reasonably impressed, but it won’t be to all tastes. A spectacular 30-foot wall of candles has potential, although they were not lit last night.

Service was at least competent, although our water glasses usually went a while without being refilled. A bread service would be helpful, given that both appetizers and entrées were a tad slow to come out.

I have a tough time getting a read on this place, given that one of the entrées and both appetizers were good, but the other entrée was not pleasant at all. As prices are modest, we certainly didn’t feel cheated. But with so many other intriguing restaurants to try, I probably won’t be rushing back to find out whether my dull curry was an anomaly.

Earth NYC (116A Tenth Avenue between 17th & 18th Streets, Chelsea)

Food: Satisfactory; possibly better
Service: Satisfactory
Ambiance: *
Overall: Satisfactory

Sushi Yasuda

Which New York restaurant has the best sushi omakase? Leaving aside Masa and its stratospheric $375 prix fixe, the debate usually comes down to Sushi Yasuda and Kurumazushi. Over at eGullet, a discussion thread comparing the two is now in its fifth year.

Last night, I decided to give Sushi Yasuda a try. The experts all suggest reserving a place at Yasuda-san’s station, but he was off-duty, so I was seated at the bar before Hiro-san. There is no “fixed” omakase at Sushi Yasuda. Rather, there is an ongoing dialogue with your sushi chef, who prepares pieces one by one according to your taste. I eat basically everything, so I asked him to surprise me. I’m sure (or I like to think) that he reacted to my expressions of delight as the meal progressed, and we talked about the fish as each piece was presented. This is the experience you simply don’t get if you sit at the tables.

With only a few exceptions, everything I had was a simple piece of raw fish atop a molded wedge of rice. Hiro-san applied just the right amount of house-made soy sauce and wasabe (checking that the degree of heat was agreeable to me). It’s hard to think of a dining experience for which the connection with the chef is more personal. He molds a wad of rice into the right shape with his hands, applies the fish, adds seasoning, and puts it in front of you. With your hands or a pair of chopsticks, it goes into your mouth in one bite.

Hiro-san was midly offended that I wanted to use chopsticks most of the time. For one particular piece, he directed, “This time, you must use your hand.” However, at the end of the meal he opined that I must be used to eating quite a bit of sushi, so I guess I didn’t come off as a complete novice.

There is no fixed end to the meal; it ends when you finally declare you’ve had enough. I had 25 pieces, which I suppose is a lot (Hiro-san said it was). I won’t enumerate all the different kinds of fish I had. The list includes tuna, yellow tail, salmon, trout, mackerel, crab, oysters, roe, and eel, among others. The quality of the fish and the delightful parade of flavors were superb. Most of the items were raw, of course, but for one fish he carefully removed the skin and fried it on an open fire. Three little pieces of fried fish skin were the last thing I had.

I was prepared for a staggering bill, but the whole thing added up to just $105.75—not inexpensive, but I was prepared for something like $140, and I tipped rather more generouslly than I normally would. A small pitcher of cold sake was just $10. The efficient staff kept my water glass full throughout the meal.

The sublime space is decorated simply, in blonde woods, and comfortably lit. There are only about a dozen seats at the bar, which must be reserved in advance. The tables are quite widely spaced, and the noise level is insignificant.

I look forward to giving Kurumazushi a try one of these days, and perhaps I’ll even work up the fiscal courage to visit Masa. But for now, I can say that Sushi Yasuda fully lives up to the billing.

Sushi Yasuda (204 E. 43rd Street between Second & Third Avenues, Turtle Bay)

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

Mai House

Drew Nieporent isn’t accustomed to doing things quietly. With Nobu, TriBeCa Grill, and Montrachet (among others) in his restaurant empire, he knows how to make a splash. So it is surprising that when the Times published its fall restaurant preview, there was no mention of a new Vietnamese restaurant from Nieporent’s Myriad Restaurant Group. Was Nieporent trying to downplay expectations? If so, he needn’t have worried. Mai House, which opened just nine days ago, is a hit.

Nieporent likes to keep a close eye on his restaurants. All but one of his seven New York properties are in TriBeCa, within a five-minute radius of one another; indeed, three of them, including Mai House, are on the same block as his corporate office on Franklin Street. The night before Mai House opened, I walked in to take a look. There was Drew, lecturing the serving staff: “You’re here to serve the customer, not the kitchen.” It may not be the most startling insight, but I’ve been to a few restaurants where the staff needed that lecture. Last night, Drew was in and out of the restaurant several times, chatting up the staff and making subtle adjustments.

I began with a couple of the specialty cocktails, which were only $10 apiece, in a town where they could easily be $15. Either of the Tiger Tail (Absolut Peppar, Triple Sec, Passion Fruit Puree, Thai Chile) or the Flyboy (Ginza no suzume souj, Marasca, Rhum Orange, Lime Juice) could easily become addictive.

For the appetizer, I ordered the Wild Boar Sausage ($11) with green papaya salad. The sausage is served warm, and is just mildly spicy. The kitchen slices it into small pieces, so that you can pick it up with your chopsticks. It comes mixed with the salad, which is crisp and refreshing. Braised Berkshire Pork Belly ($23), on a bed of red cabbage and drizzled with coconut juice, should be everyone’s guilty pleasure. It looks gorgeous and tastes even better. After getting on the scale this morning, I concluded I should have resisisted Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage ($4), but I’m glad I didn’t.

Vietnamese Coffee ($4) was a dud. A mix of espresso-like coffee and condensed milk, it tasted sour and dull.

The chef, Michael Bao Huynh, made his name at Bao 111 in the East Village. He must be especially fond of the wild boar sausage, as he came over to my table after dinner to inquire whether I had liked it. I replied that I did, adding that the braised pork belly was terrific too. He replied in self-deprecating fashion, “That must be because you like pork.”

The menu is still undergoing some refinement, as one would expect for a new restaurant. A pre-opening menu (PDF) had the wild boar sausage as an entrée, but now it is available only as an appetizer. While it immediately leaped out at me as the first thing to try (and I was not disappointed), evidently not enough diners were willing to take that leap of faith for a main course. I’m glad Huynh hasn’t given up on it.

The space is gorgeous (see the Eater preview), although fairly informal. There are no tablecloths, though I was happy to see lacquer chopsticks, as opposed to the disposable wooden ones they’re using at Nobu these days. The server was attentive, and almost a bit over-eager. He apparently hadn’t been briefed on the evolving menu, as when I asked for a recommendation, he suggested an item that is no longer on offer.

Mai House hasn’t caught on yet. It was only just barely warming up during the 6:00 p.m. hour last night (hardly a barometer on a Friday night, I must admit). If I am right about the cuisine, it won’t be a secret for long. If all Vietnamese cooking is this good, I’m ready to hitch the next flight to Hanoi.

Mai House (186 Franklin Street between Greenwich & Hudson Streets, TriBeCa)

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

Periyali

My friend and I have often walked by Periyali on W. 20th Street, always on the way to somewhere else. Periyali has been a bastion of upscale Greek cuisine since 1987, long before it was fashionable. It’s one of those restaurants that flies under the radar — a place that can usually wait for another day. Last night, we decided to give it a try.

Coincidentally, we both landed on identical choices: the fried calamari to start ($11) and the braised lamb shank ($26). The breaded calamari was competently prepared, but I found the garlic dipping sauce and accompanying green salad totally forgettable. The lamb shank was a hefty portion and beautifully done. You hardly needed a knive (always the test with braised meats). The accompanying orzo in a light tomato sauce was a welcome bonus. Homemade bread with olive oil would be welcome on my table any day.

The wine list is a mix of Greek and world wines (mostly France and America). I didn’t trust my ability to pick a Greek wine, so I chose a Francis Coppola Syrah at $40. I don’t usually buy wines named for celebrities, but this one was a winner. In this kind of restaurant, I’m always happy to find a good choice available that doesn’t ask for a major investment.

The space at Periyali instantly transports you to the Greek islands, with its billowing white fabrics on the ceiling and colorful banquettes. I would highly recommend it for a romantic getaway. The storefront is narrow, but goes very deep. It was not full (we were seated immediately without a reservation), but clearly doing a strong business on a Thursday night. There’s an outdoor garden (which I didn’t check out), but on this unusually balmy November evening the French doors at the front were open, and a large party was dining outside.

Service was just fine. I can’t remember the last time a manager made so many trips to the table to check if we were happy. He must have checked up on us at least three or four times.

Eighteen months ago, Frank Bruni wrote, “Nothing at Periyali proves hugely intriguing. Nothing wows,” but awarded two stars, adding that “the little touches add up slowly and nicely.” He suggested it was a forerunner to Molyvos and Thalassa. Maybe, but those other restaurants have surpassed it. Still, Periyali does a competent job, and it’s worth a look if you’re already in the neighborhood.

Periyali (35 W. 20th Street between Fifth & Sixth Avenues, Flatiron District)

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