Will that be Mr. and Mrs?

Gordon Ramsay at the London doesn’t open for another 17 days, so the only thing we can talk about is the reservations line. Over at eGullet, every comment by Ramsay’s reservationists is being thoroughly dissected. For instance, one caller was told, “No trainers are allowed in the dining room.” (Trainers are the British word for athletic shoes.)

This morning, I called for a December 30th reservation. The person who answered spoke American English, and explained the dress code as “jacket & tie for the gentlemen, smart dresses for the ladies.” But there was one quirk. When I requested a table for two, she asked, “Will that be Mr. and Mrs?”

I have no secrets about whom I’m dining with. Nevertheless, there are probably some diners for whom that’s an awkward question. In New York, married couples are outnumbered by gay couples, dating heterosexual couples, unmarried partners living together, married people cheating on their spouses, business associates, and friends who are simply having a social night out. Does the restaurant really need to know the relationship of its customers?

Ramsay’s New York restaurant will be the latest serious contender for four New York Times stars and three Michelin stars (see press release). Opening night is November 16th. Introductory pricing will be $45 prix fixe for three courses at lunch, $85 prix fixe for three courses at dinner, or $117 for the tasting menu. I do not expect those prices to last.

Ramsay already holds three Michelin stars for Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, and he also operates several one-star restaurants. I dined at Ramsay’s one-star Savoy Grill over the summer (report here). Another of Ramsay’s one-star restaurants, Maze, is the inspiration for a companion restaurant called The London Bar, which will serve small plates and bar food—also at The London Hotel.

Gordon Ramsay at The London (151 W. 54th St. between Sixth & Seventh Avenues, West Midtown)

BLT Burger

Note: BLT Burger closed in April 2014. Long before that, the chef Laurent Tourondel had severed his relationship with the restaurant and all of the other “BLTs”. As of May 2014 the space was a Mexican restaurant called Horchata.

*

The Bistro Laurent Tourondel empire keeps growing, and this week Tourondel added another offspring to the brood: BLT Burger. If first impressions are any guide, the new outpost will be just as successful as the first three (BLT Steak, BLT Fish, BLT Prime). An eGullet post mentioned that the place was packed on a weeknight just a day or two after it opened, but I had no trouble getting a table at 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon.

The restaurant doesn’t much resemble the other BLT’s, except for the chocolate brown upholstery on the banquettes. The prices certainly set it apart. Unlike the other BLT restaurants, BLT Burger could actually be called a bargain.

In addition to the “Classic Burger” ($7), there’s the “BLT” Burger (two patties, $11), a Kobe Burger ($16), Lamb Burger ($10), Turkey Burger ($7) or Veggie Burger ($7). All burgers come with tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard and mayo. Cheese is an extra $0.50, other toppings (such as bacon, avocado, portobello mushroom, chilli) are $1.50. A “combo” of the classic burger with fries and a milkshake will set you back all of $13.

There’s a variety of sandwiches ($10–15), salads and appetizers ($9–14), sides ($2–5), and desserts ($3–6). The whole back page of the menu shows an impressive array of drinks, including nine kinds of milk shakes ($5), five kinds of floats ($5), four kinds of alcoholic milk shakes ($9), house cocktails ($11), twenty-seven kinds of beer ($3–10), and six wines by the glass ($6–9). Sodas are $2 or $2.50. Tap water (free) comes in a beautiful tall glass caraffe.

I had the classic burger with cheddar cheese ($7.50). The burger was enjoyable, but nothing special. I would have preferred a thicker patty. The “BLT” Burger, with two patties, is always an option, but I thought that would be too much of a good thing. Onion rings ($4) were delicious. I especially admired the lightness of the batter. A strawberry-banana milkshake ($5) was plenty of fun. Service was friendly and efficient.

You have to wonder if Laurent Tourondel can keep up the quality as his empire grows. Ominously, BLT Fish was stripped of its Michelin star, and I must admit my last visit to that restaurant wasn’t stellar. At least two more BLTs are on the way: BLT Market in the former Atelier space, and BLT D.C. But for now, Tourondel is happy to go downmarket, and at these prices BLT Burger is sure to be a hit.

BLT Burger (470 Sixth Avenue between 11th & 12th Streets, Greenwich Village)

Lonesome Dove Western Bistro

Note: The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro closed in March 2007, not long after it had opened, after receiving mostly terrible reviews.

*

The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro carries a 27 out of 30 Zagat food rating in Dallas. If it were in New York, that would put Lonesome Dove on a par with such standouts as Alain Ducasse, Chanterelle, Gotham Bar & Grill, Masa, and Veritas.

Celebrity chef Tim Love has opened a New York branch of the Lonesome Dove. His version of western cooking is fun, but the restaurant is befuddled with service problems and has already received one pan at the hands of the Post’s Steve Cuozzo. Based on our experience last night, I suspect more are coming. [Update: The critics did indeed give the Lonesome Dove a thrashing, with both Adam Platt (NY Mag) and Frank Bruni (NY Times) awarding zero stars.]

The signature dish is called the Tomahawk Chop, a portion for two that includes a 24–30 oz ribeye with an 18-inch “tomahawk” bone (Love designed the cut himself), a lobster tail, seared scallops, yukon gold mashed potatoes, and baby asparagus. The menu doesn’t show a price, a conceit whose absurdity Frank Bruni has already pointed out. Are they hoping people will order it without realizing they’re on the hook for $125? [Update: Per Bruni, the restaurant denied they were trying to trick anyone. The price ($120) is now printed on the menu.]

Anyhow, we already knew the price and were happy to give the Tomahawk Chop a try. There is nothing subtle about Love’s cooking. The scallops, asparagus and steak were slathered in butter. Did such a heavily marbled cut as ribeye need any more fat? I wasn’t sure what Love did to make the mashed potatoes and the lobster so spicy, but they both packed plenty of heat. Even a margarita came laced with jalapeño peppers. The whole meal was solidly prepared, if not transcendent.

The staff at Lonesome Dove are enthusiastic about the food, and they don’t hesitate to tell you so. Their enthusiasm doesn’t translate into good service. It took ages to order a drink at the bar. Getting a bar tab also took forever (they would not transfer it to the table), and finally I just plopped down cash. Once seated, we asked for tap water, but none arrived. Our server asked us about water again later on, having completely forgotten that we’d already asked for it. We ordered wine; a few minutes later, she was back to clarify what bottle we wanted. A wonderful warm homemade bread was served with butter, but no butter knife.

We had probably the worst seat in the house, looking directly into the open kitchen. We don’t blame the restaurant for this—after all, someone has to sit there. But if the kitchen is open, it ought to be neat. What we saw was a cluttered mess. A server dropped a pair of tongs; she picked them up, shrugged her shoulders, and took them out to the dining room to serve food with. Another server appeared to sneeze into a customer’s water glass. The washroom clearly hadn’t been cleaned in hours, as used towels had overflowed the wastebasket and were covering the floor.

All of the chefs wear cowboy hats, including Love, who was in the house. Our server boasted that if we ordered the Tomahawk Chop, Love himself would personally carve it for us tableside. Someone carved it for us, but not Love. (We did see him carve a steak at one table, and share a glass of tequila with friends at another.) I couldn’t care less who carves my steak, but servers shouldn’t be selling an audience with the Great Man unless he is able to follow through. The server at our table didn’t even leave that gorgeous 18-inch bone behind for us to admire; at another table, they did.

Chef Love takes credit for the décor, but it’s nothing to be proud of. There’s a cowskin carpet outside, a stuffed buffalo head on the back wall, some cheesy watercolor paintings, and a lot of exposed brick. The ugly space is at war with the false elegance of the white tablecloths. The wine list is a serious one, but it’s presented as loose sheets fastened to a clipboard. In everything it does, Lonesome Dove fails as a fancy restaurant, but it also fails as a rustic cowboy restaurant.

There is much that is clever in Tim Love’s cuisine. I’d love to come back and try the prairie butter (buffalo bone marrow), the kangaroo nachos, the quail quesedillas, the deer chops, the wild boar foreshank, or the stuffed tenderloin. But what Love clearly needs is a service manager—someone who will whip the lackadaisical staff into shape. As we were leaving, we asked for business cards. The hostess produced a card for the Dallas restaurant’s beverage director, wrote a New York number in pencil (having first looked it up on a computer screen), then handed it to us. Doesn’t that sloppiness just sum up what’s wrong with the Lonesome Dove?

Lonesome Dove Western Bistro (29 W. 21st St. between Fifth & Sixth Avenues, Flatiron District)

Food: *
Service: needs a ton of work
Ambiance: unimpressive
Overall: * (just barely)

Update: The restaurant closed in early March 2007. Tim Love contacted me by email shortly before the restaurant folded. He said:

In your review of my restaurant you do not make one comment on the flavor, texture or presentation of the food. While you did comment on the water color paintings (which are actually oil), the buffalo head (which is actually a Hereford steer) and a clipboard for a wine list (which is actually a cowhide mounted with saddle spurs made by one of the most famous saddle makers in the world, Leddy’s).

Love conceded that service was sub-par in the restaurant’s early days, though he insisted the problems had since been fixed. He felt that I, like other reviewers, were criticizing West-of-Mississippi cuisine without having any basis for evaluating it. He thought it was like dining at Lupa, and comparing it to a sushi bar.

Love’s message gave no hint that the restaurant was about to close, but as the announcement came just a few days later, clearly he must have known. He probably thought that the New York critics were out to get him. Truthfully, I wanted to like the Lonesome Dove. I just wasn’t wowed, particularly given the sloppy service and stratospheric prices.

Kittichai

Note: This is a review under chef Ian Chalermkitticha, who has since left the restaurant. Ty Bellingham is his replacement.

*

My friend and I had dinner at Kittichai on Friday night. The Thai-inspired cuisine is artfully presented by executive chef, Ian Chalermkitticha, for whom the restaurant is named. The décor is spectacular, but it doesn’t upstage the food, which is uniformly successful.

The menu is divided into several categories:  appetizers ($7–19), soups ($8–10), vegetarian ($6–14), curries ($19–24), fish & shellfish ($24–28), poultry & meat ($22–25), and sides ($3–7). Every dish we saw, on our table and others, came on a differently-shaped plate or bowl. At Kittichai, presentation is part of the game. Most dishes are suitable for sharing.

I started with the Meing Tuna Tartare ($10), which comes with eight small round pastry shells that would normally be used for petits-fours—the menu calls them “limestone tartlets”—each holding a small peanut.  An ample portion of tuna comes spiced with ginger and lime. One at a time, you spoon a mouthful of tuna into one of the tartlets; eat and repeat. It was one of the most clever appetizers I’ve had in a long time.

My friend started with the Crispy Rock Shrimp ($13), which came in a grilled eggplant and palm sugar-tamarind sauce. She pronounced them terrific; I tasted one, and fully concurred.

For the main course, I had the Baked Chilean Sea Bass ($28). The menu describes the marinade as “yellow salted beans with morning glory,” which isn’t very helpful. Frank Bruni’s description, “divinely moist Chilean sea bass under a caramelized sheen of palm sugar and red curry paste,” is more apt. My friend had the Dry Spice Rub Duck Breast ($25). Once it arrived, a server brushed on a decadent pinapple broth tableside. It was perfectly tender and came with a side of crispy leg confit.

The wine list didn’t have much to do with Thailand. It was over-priced in relation to the entrée and appetizer prices, with not many reds below $50.

Kittichai (60 Thompson Street between Spring and Broome Streets, SoHo)

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

Trestle on Tenth

The Chelsea restaurant Trestle on Tenth opened this summer with a “press juggernaut” behind it, but early reviews were mixed. I was intrigued enough to give it a try, but after a dismal performance, I won’t be back.

Lesson #1: Sometimes, you should just trust Frank Bruni. He described an oxtail and pig’s foot terrine as “gelatinous and unfocused.” I thought it tasted like a slice of supermarket head cheese. It comes with what purports to be housemade mustard, but might as well be Grey Poupon.

Lesson #2: Sometimes, you just can’t trust Frank Bruni. He loved the saddle of lamb, and I must admit it looks terrific, with a generous lobe of fat surrounding the meat.  But my friend’s lamb was cold, and mine was barely lukewarm. We sent them back. They returned at the correct temperature, but the dull gravy was about what you’d expect at a diner—except that a diner would include mashed potatoes and would only charge you $8.95 for it. The greens it came with were inedible. I found my plate had too much salt, while my friend found too little of it.

Another Bruni recommendation was the side dish of gratinéed pizokel, with onions and gruyere. It also came lukewarm, and tasted like cafeteria food. We sent it back too for reheating.

Not everything misfired. My friend liked the salad of butter lettuce, bacon, and buttermilk dressing. The bread service was also good, with a vat of soft butter, though alas no butter knives to spread it with. The wine list has been much praised, and we were pleased with a cabernet franc at around $40.

After all that went wrong, a restaurant serious about service would offer to comp a dessert or an after-dinner drink. Perhaps a manager would come over to apologize? Truthfully, we were eager to get out of there, but it would have been a show of good faith. However, nothing further was said. We paid up and headed out to Room 4 Dessert, and a far more pleaseant experience.

Trestle on Tenth (242 Tenth Avenue at 24th Street, Chelsea)

Food: dismal
Service: mediocre
Ambiance: sue the decorator
Overall: dismal

Room 4 Dessert

Note: Room 4 Dessert closed in June 2007, after a spat between Will Goldfarb and his investors. Goldfarb originally stated that he would re-open elsewhere, but for now he seems to be content with consulting engagements without having a place of his own.

*

Will Goldfarb has made a name as the mad scientist of desserts, cooking up kooky but delightful sugar rushes at such restaurants as Papillon and Cru. Neither the Times nor the Post liked his creations at Cru, but he took some time off, had a baby, and resurfaced with his own dessert bar in SoHo, Room 4 Dessert. And this time, the Times was smitten.

The wonderful thing about it is that Goldfarb doesn’t have to subsume his vision to somebody else’s concept. The drawback is that diners have to get there from someplace else. So far, it seems to be working. My friend and I dropped by after dinner Friday night at nearby Peasant, only to be told there was a 40-minute wait at 10:00 p.m. The next night, after a dismal meal at the much-farther-away Trestle on Tenth, we gave it one more try, and luckily there were a couple of seats free.

The restaurant occupies a long, narrow storefront. Signage is subtle, and you could easily miss it. Inside, it’s probably 100 feet deep, but so narrow that an NBA player could stretch his arms and touch both side walls. All seating is at the bar. On the menu, which changes regularly, every category begins with “Room 4,” as in “Room 4 Dessert Glass,” “Room 4 Alcohol,” “Room 4 Sweet Wine,” and so forth. 

Desserts at R4D have funky names like “indecent proposal” and “laissez pear.” Individual desserts are $10 each, while tasting plates of four selections are $14 each.  My friend tried “choc ’n’ awe,” a four-dessert tasting of white chocolate cake, cacau mousse, sucree safranee with chocolate cream, and chocolate ice cream. I had bites of each; the mousse and the cake were particularly decadent.

I had “virtual mauritius,” which came with a brown sugar creamy, little pieces of green mango, a iogurt biscuit, and whipped frozen carrot puree. (I am using Goldfarb’s spellings in each case.) The connection to Mauritius was lost on me, but the “iogurt biscuit” was the best of the bunch, closely followed by the creamy brown sugar. The pieces of green mango were cut too small and were rather annoying.

There’s a variety of wine and hard liquor pairings recommended for every dessert. I had a drink called mar.ti.ni ($15), which is what it sounds like, and my friend had champagne ($14). Other drinks have names like “who says cali can’t age” and “hey man, nice priorat.”

Goldfarb prepares most of the desserts himself. When he came over to serve us, I introduced myself by my eGullet handle, and we had a nice chat about the restaurant. When I told him we were turned away the night before, he replied wryly, “You should have complained to the owner.” We talked about his baby girl too, and he brought over a stack of photos. Later, he comped us  a “tootsie roll” (warm chcolate praline mousse, truffled streusel ‘sex panther’, raisins, and tequilla fluid), which was terrific. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Room 4 Dessert is an expensive indulgence. With two tasting plates at $14 each, and drinks at $14–15, the bill was $57 before tax and tip. For the record, individual desserts have gone up by $1, and tasting plates $2, since the Times review came out in February. The liquor is particularly expensive. We found it a luxury well worth it—but a luxury nonetheless.

Room 4 Dessert (17 Cleveland Place between Spring and Kenmare Streets, SoHo)

Dessert: **
Service: **
Ambiance: *½
Overall: **

Peasant

The Italian restaurant Peasant is charming and delightful. Open kitchens are no longer a novelty, but no open kitchen contributes more to a restaurant’s atmosphere as the one at Peasant. The raw, rustic aroma of its wood-burning stoves make you forget you’re in New York City.

The menu is entirely in Italian, and even seasoned diners will need a translation. (Anyone know the Italian word for cuttlefish?) The knowledgeable server (from New Zealand!) happily explained the menu all night long, but it’s a lot to keep straight in your head. We wondered why they don’t just print the translations on the menu itself, which would save both diners and servers a lot of trouble. The menu is printed on distressed paper, meant to look like it’s an ancient relic.

To start, I did indeed have the cuttlefish, which came in a super-heated cast-iron skillet. Bathed in vegetables and spices, it was delightful. For the main course, I tried an off-menu special, the suckling pig liver, which was tender and expertly prepared. My friend had the osso buco, of which I had a taste. It was about as flavorful as any osso buco I’ve tried.

The bread service came with an overflowing bowl of soft ricotta (but we had to use our appetizer knives to spread it with). It took plenty of self-control to limit ourselves to one slice each.

Dinner for two, with a moderately-priced bottle of wine, came to $133 with tax, before tip.

Peasant (194 Elizabeth Street between Spring and Prince Streets, NoLIta)

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

Petrarca Cucina e Vino

The restaurant Arqua has been dishing out solid rustic Italian fare in east TriBeCa for almost twenty years. Bryan Miller’s two-star review, dating from 1990, comes right out of a time warp:

Arqua is out of the way for most fans of Italian food, unless you have business at City Hall or are prosecuting drug dealers in Federal court. Speaking of courts, that artichoke lasagna alone is reason to volunteer for jury duty.

Nowadays, TriBeCa restaurants no longer depend on prosecutors and city contractors to stay in business. Indeed, traffic must be better than ever, because earlier this year Arqua opened a casual cousin across the street, Petrarca Cucina e Vino, an informal restaurant and wine bar.

Miller found Arqua’s wine list over-priced, but Petrarca has an ample number of reasonable selections by the quartino, many priced at $20 or under. You can nurse two glasses out of a quartino, so that’s not bad by today’s standards.

After I ordered some wine, the bartender offered me a selection of bar snacks. I should have been suspicious, because it was clear the other patrons weren’t touching them. Indeed, they were cold, dull, and about ready to become cat food — except that most cats would have the good sense to give them a pass.

The décor is rustic chic, with broad windows, wine bottles on floor-to-ceiling shelves surrounding the room, and comfortable bar stools. There are tables for dinner, but I didn’t examine a menu. I won’t rate a restaurant solely on stale bar snacks, but would note that Frank Bruni wasn’t smitten.

Petrarca Cucina e Vino (34 White Street at Church Street, TriBeCa)

Sushi-A-Go-Go

Note: Sushi-A-Go-Go closed in the fall of 2011.

When you want a quick bite before a concert at Lincoln Center, Sushi-A-Go-Go is certainly worth a look. The brightest spot on an otherwise dreary-looking block, Sushi-A-Go-Go offers perfectly respectable sushi at a price that won’t bust the budget.

Their version of the omakase, a Sushi and Sashimi Tasting for Two ($38), came with at least a dozen different kinds of raw fish and fish rolls, with a minimum of four pieces each (sometimes six). All were competently prepared, and at $19 a person, probably one of the better sushi deals going for the money. Don’t ask for any substitutions, though. A glass of Sake Sangria ($7.50) and a Go-Go Cocktail ($8) were also bargains in a town where any cocktail under $10 seems like a misprint.

Sushi-A-Go-Go is designed to turn tables in a hurry. It seemed like we waited a long time for our sushi platter, and our server was sometimes hard to flag down when we needed her, but in the end we were out of there in about 40 minutes. As one of the few Lincoln Center restaurants you can always get into without a reservation — and also one of the better bargains of the neighborhood — Sushi-A-Go-Go is usually full, as it was last night. The bright orange interior is the perfect antidote to a gloomy autumn evening.

Outdoor dining is available in the summer, but while Sushi-A-Go-Go had already closed its outdoor tables for the season, we were surprised to find them open at other restaurants on the block. It shows what you sometimes have to endure for a pre-theatre meal across the street from Lincoln Center.

Sushi-A-Go-Go (1900 Broadway between 63rd & 64th Streets, Upper West Side)

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

Moskin at the Morgan: A New Standard for Irrelevance

This week, as Frank Bruni recuperates from his Roman Holiday, Julia Moskin filled in with a two-star review of the Morgan Dining Room.

I suppose that if one is going to review a restaurant so far off the radar, the least one can do is award two stars — otherwise, why bother? But the Morgan Dining Room is open only for lunch six days a week, and for dinner just one day a week (Fridays, 5 to 9). And of the recommended dishes…

Green salad, beet salad, ricotta and Swiss chard tart, mussels, striped bass on squash risotto, salmon with baby carrots and parsnips, lobster salad, fruit cobbler, cookie plate

…most are salads or desserts. Of the mussels, striped bass and salmon, all we’re told is that they’re “successful.” All in all, if this is a two-star restaurant — and I’m not saying it couldn’t be — Moskin’s case is rather limp.

Steve Cuozzo of the Post says he doesn’t write reviews any more, but in a piece today called “Messed Western,” he seems to do exactly that, dropping the hammer on Ted Turner’s Montana Grill and Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove Western Bistro. The original Lonesome Dove carries the Zagat #1 food rating in Dallas, so Cuozzo’s review, if true, would be a significant fall from grace. Undeterred by Cuozzo’s review, I’m keeping my reservation at the Lonesome Dove a week from Saturday.