The State of the Bouley Empire

David Bouley’s growing empire fascinates me. What is it like to build seven restaurants at once? Not seven clones, but seven one-of-a-kind places?

One of the seven, Secession, is an early failure. It got zero stars from Adam Platt this week. If it gets much better than a weak singleton from Frank Bruni, I’ll be surprised.

I walked by the others last night for a brief look-in. Here’s a report:

Bouley Bakery. The bakery has now moved into the old Bouley restaurant. It’s a work in progress, with signs of unfinished construction. David Bouley himself was wandering around inside. They’re selling baked goods and soups, in what appears to be a makeshift space. My understanding is that there will eventually be a wine bar in here, but that part isn’t ready yet.

Upstairs. With the bakery gone, Upstairs has the whole building to itself. I saw four lovely tables on the ground floor with — gasp! — white tablecloths and formal glassware. It actually looks like a pleasant place to dine, certainly not the case when I visited three years ago, and promptly crossed it off my list. There is no longer a menu posted outside, but a sign on the door announces various prix fixe sushi specials, presumably still available on the second floor.

Bouley Restaurant. This is now open in the old Mohawk Atelier building, on a scale of unprecedented luxury. There’s a private dining room on the lower level with a separate entrance. The kitchen features panoramic windows facing the street. If you can’t afford to eat at Bouley, you can press your nose to the glass and watch him (or more likely, his minions) cook for those who can. It’s a gutsy move—a new take on the idea of an “open kitchen.” There’s no menu posted, at the restaurant or online. I’m in no rush to visit until I read a few more reports, but I may stop in for a drink sometime soon.

Reboot at Bouley's Secession

Update: A commenter (below) says that the prix fixe was for two days only, and that the original menu has returned. We have not been by to see if this is so. Besides that, “Restaurant Week” specials typically do not supersede the entire menu of the restaurant.

* * *

In my review of David Bouley’s new restaurant Secession, I suggested that “about half this menu needs to be jettisoned.”

Bouley has done a lot more: he has thrown out practically all of it. As of last night, Secession is serving a $45 prix fixe. I walked by the restaurant this afternoon and had a look.

There are now just 7 appetizers, 6 entrées (all served with a pot of Tuscan fries for the table) and 4 desserts. That compares to last week’s menu, which had more than 25 appetizers and 25 entrées. I didn’t note every item on the new menu, but the available entrées include chicken, Wiener Scnitzel, and Spaghetti Carbonara. The long charcuterie menu has been reduced to just one pâté.

The menu is headed, “A Preview in Collaboration with Zagat.” You can’t make this stuff up.

I don’t suggest for a second that my review had anything to do with it, but there are enough terrible ones out there that Bouley clearly needed to do something—fast. With this more limited menu, he can now focus on the basics, as he should have done in the first place. Calling it “a preview” keeps the critics out,” or at least might persuade them to be gentle.

Secession

Note: Secession has closed. It will be replaced with a Japanese concept called Brushstroke, supposedly by the end of 2009 (but don’t hold your breath).

David Bouley has been a busy guy. He has something like seven restaurant projects going right now. We’re not talking about seven stable, business-as-usual restaurants, but seven in a state of flux. And we’re not talking about seven clones, but seven very different concepts. The obvious question is whether he can keep so many balls in the air, or if some of them—indeed, perhaps all—are going to land with an embarrassing thud.

So far, we have the answer for one of these: Secession, which just opened, replacing Danube. THUD. There is plenty of time to right the ship, but Secession needs a lot of work. With his next project, the new flagship Bouley, set to open next week, when will he have time to fix Secession, which right now is beyond mediocre?

It is not merely flawed execution—though there is plenty of that—but an absurd concept. The menu has practically as many options as a diner. It is more than any restaurant could expect to do well. And as one food board participant noted, they are almost sure to be always running out of things. If there’s to be any semblence of consistency, about half this menu needs to be jettisoned.

Perhaps they are heading in that direction. Last night, there were marginally fewer items offered than on the menu that I posted a couple of weeks ago. But it is still far too much, with something like 25 entrées and an equal number of appetizers in multiple categories. I mean, spaghetti carbonara and shrimp kebabs? They seem to be just phoned in. The menu, printed on a huge broadsheet, is also unwieldy to handle at the small tables.

The prices, at least, aren’t exorbitant. Almost all of the appetizers are below $15, and most of the entrées are $25 or less. Steaks range from $21 (skirt steak) to $32 (sirloin), but if they’re aged prime, as the menu says, that’s a pretty good deal. Nearly all of the wines are below $100, with many good choices below $50.

The brasserie menu and befuddled service are at war with the surroundings. Danube’s faux Klimt interior has been retained, which was a wise move, as this is still one of the most gorgeous rooms in town. It still feels like it should be a three-star restaurant, though it most certainly isn’t. Chairs and banquettes are comfortable, but our table wobbled. About halfway through, the server came by and stuck a piece of cardboard under one of the legs.

 

The charcuterie section of the menu offers nine homemade terrines, pâtés and boudins (sausages), all $11. We ordered two of those, and then waited. And waited. It made no sense, as these items are obviously pre-made. There was bread service, but it was stale. This was hard to figure, as the bread just next door, at Bouley, has always been excellent.

The boudin noir, or blood sausage (above left), comes with six different garnishes, but this isn’t clear on the menu, and our server was at a loss to explain it. Apparently they were out of one garnish, and had substituted another. Or something. For all that, it was pretty good. The Terrine du Chef (above right) had a flat, dull taste, and came out too cold, as if it had been in the fridge all day. The accompanying bread was again stale.

  

One of the more unusual menu items is Baby Goat; they were out of it, but didn’t bother to tell us this when the menus were handed out. I was offered Baby Lamb instead ($25; above left). It was presented in a cast-iron skillet, but I thought they’d serve it out onto a plate. Instead, they just left it for me to eat directly from the skillet, which was a bit wobbly. The kitchen did a respectable job with the lamb, but the potatoes underneath it were greasy and stuck to the pan.

I had asked the server to recommend a side dish. He suggested the mac ’n’ cheese, or technically “Grandmother’s Pasta and Cheesse Gratin” ($9; above center). Perhaps a better name is “supermarket pasta elbows.” They were too watery and not cheesy enough.

My girlfriend had the Skirt Steak ($21; above right). Apparently it was supposed to come with sauce, but the server forgot it; we did too, till we re-checked the menu afterwards. The steak itself was tender and nicely seasoned, but the accompanying schmear of what looked like mashed potatoes wasn’t any good at all. It also came with fries, which were soggy and limp. A runner asked what was wrong with them, and we told him. “I’ll tell the manager,” he said. Instead, our waiter came back and said, “Sorry about the fries.” At another table, the fries weren’t delivered till after everyone had finished their entrées.

Earlier in the evening, we’d had drinks at the bar, which they offered to transfer to our dinner tab. When the bill arrived, they weren’t on it. I’d like to think they were making up for the fries, but I doubt it. Surely, in that case, a manager would have come over and said something. I think they’re just discombobulated. We pointed out the apparent error. The server just said, “Forget about it.”

The dinner crowd was an eclectic mix. For the first part of the evening, the average age of the room was definitely over 50, but it got younger as time went on. The staff can’t decide what atmosphere they want in the dining room. Lighting levels were adjusted three times during the course of our meal. The full menu is also available at the bar. It has several comfortable tables, and a number of people seemed to be dining there by choice. It was standing-room-only by the time we left.

The dining room was never full, though it got close by the time we left, a bit after 8:00 p.m. Curiously, we were seated right next to a party of six, even though the restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived. About half-way through our meal, another party of two was seated right next to us, though there were a good dozen other two-tops with no one else around. Spreading people out when the dining room is empty is a pretty basic service concept, not yet mastered here.

There’s no reason Secession couldn’t be a great restaurant, but it isn’t right now. Too many basic things misfire. The staff is too confused. David Bouley needs to cut down the menu to about half of its currrent length, and the front-of-house needs a serious kick in the shins.

If there’s any silver lining, it’s that the prices are low, and that encourages a re-visit. If I hear that things have improved, I’ll drop by again one evening and dine at the bar.

Secession (30 Hudson Street at Duane Street, TriBeCa)

Food: Uneven
Service: Uneven
Ambiance: ***
Overall: Uneven (no stars)

Secession: The Menu

Secession opened this week. It’s the successor to the late lamented Danube, David Bouley’s tribute to Austrian cuisine that closed two months ago. The faux Klimmt décor survives, and it gives the restaurant its name. You might think that “secession” refers to the American Civil War, but it’s actually an Austrian art movement, of which Klimmt was a part.

The cuisine here is mostly that of a French brasserie, with a nod to Austria (Wiener Schnitzel remains from the Danube days), and another nod to Italy via consulting chef Cesare Casella. It says on the door, “Breakfast Lunch Dinner.” (You can only barely see that in the photo on the left.) Breakfast and lunch haven’t started yet.

I worry about the sprawling menu, which seems to offer a bit of everything. The charcuterie could be impressive, but it’s not available till October 13th. As one poster noted on Mouthfuls, “they offer six different preparations of boudin noir alone. How much boudin noir are they planning to sell?”

Our reservation is a week from Friday. In the meantime, we offer you the menu (click on the image for a larger version):

State of the Bouley Union

 
Restaurant Bouley (left); In case you were wondering… (right)

David Bouley, chef/owner of three successful TriBeCa restaurants, is throwing his whole restaurant empire into a state of turmoil.

The flagship, Bouley, will be moving into new quarters in the old Mohawk building, a block away. His bakery, now located across the street, will move into the old restaurant space. That will create room for the restaurant Upstairs to expand into all three floors of that building. (I wonder if they’ll still call it “Upstairs”?)

Bouley’s Austrian-themed restaurant, Danube, will close, to be replaced by Secession, a French brasserie. Lastly, he’ll be creating a three-story Japanese restaurant, Brushstroke, in the space formerly occupied by Delphi, which had been the oldest restaurant in TriBeCa. The place closed last year after it couldn’t agree to a new lease with its landlord.

These changes are supposed to happen in the course of this year. Mind you, all of these restaurants, existing and to be, are literally within one block of the current Bouley space. If David Bouley is a control freak, he won’t have to go far to check up on any of his projects.

So how is the state of the Bouley union? Let’s begin with the flagship, Bouley. I was able to get a nice wide-angle shot (above), because there are no cars outside. This is one of the Community Board’s major complaints about the place. Notice the sign outside, “No Double Parking.” At the moment, there’s no single parking there either.

 
Restaurant Upstairs (left); At Danube, “Do you think someone’s going to blog about us?” (right)

Business is brisk at Upstairs (above left). This was the first night of the year that the outdoor tables were in use. Over at Danube (above right), a gaggle of employees loitered outside.

  
The old Delphi space will house the new restaurant Brushstroke, and apparently, Luxury Lofts up above

The space that will be Brushstrokes still looks like the vacant hulk that was Delphi. It isn’t a very appealing sight. Note the sign for “Luxury Lofts” next door. Doesn’t look very luxurious, does it?

This restaurant has not had an easy gestation. In February, a committee of Community Board 1 twice voted to deny Brushstroke a liquor license, based on years of complaints about the way Bouley runs his restaurants. Bouley put on a charm offensive with the full Community Board, and miraculously, they voted in favor of recommending a liquor license. (They almost never override the committee vote.)

Here it gets creepy. The very next day, the Buildings Department issued a Stop Work Order at the Delphi site “after finding that a floor joist had been removed without providing shoring.” That seems almost too coincidental. Could it be that someone in the area who had opposed the liquor license filed an anonymous tip?

 
There’s no work being done here, after the Dept. of Buildings found unsafe conditions

It looks like this restaurant still has a long way to go. I don’t think we’ll see Brushstroke before 2009.

France Makes a Comeback

 

In today’s Times, Florence Fabricant reports that traditional French restaurants are making a comeback (“There’ll Always Be a France, Especially in New York”).

Evidence:

• Daniel Boulud has just opened Bar Boulud, with a classic French bistro and charcuterie menu.
• Later this month, Alain Ducasse will open Benoit in the former La Côte Basque space. Ducasse already opened another French restaurant this year, Adour, in the former Lespinasse space.
• Next Monday, Brasserie Cognac opens in West Midtown. Rita Jammet, who owned La Caravelle, is on hand as a consultant.
• Keith McNally, who owns perhaps the most successful casual French restaurant in New York, Balthazar, is converting Minetta Tavern (in Greenwich Village) into a French bistro.
• Later this year, David Bouley will convert his three-star Austrian Danube into a French brasserie, Secession. Bouley is also moving his eponymous flagship French-inspired restaurant to a new space about a block away from its current location.

What’s notable is not merely that these restaurants have a nod to the French tradition, but that many of them are overtly traditional, serving the old standards (lobster thermidor, cassoulet, duck à l’orange) that were considered dinosaurs a short while ago.

Bouley told Fabricant, “I see traditional food coming back. It’s also newly popular in France, and it’s great to see. I have an emotional connection to that food, to my grandmother’s cooking: some of my family comes from Arras and Tours. And I love the tradition — braising rabbits and boning fish tableside, but in a relaxed atmosphere.”

These new restaurants lack the “jacket-and-tie mandatory” atmosphere of their “Le” and “La” predecessors, but in many other ways they’re throwbacks.

I, for one, am delighted. It’s not that these restaurants are uniformly excellent. I love some of them (Le Périgord, Le Veau d’Or) and have been underwhelmed at others (La Grenouille, Adour). It’s just fascinating to see that restauranteurs are giving New Yorkers something different by giving them something traditional.

Frank Bruni, who usually finds French food so dull, is going to have to brush up on Escoffier.

Bouley

Note: This is a review of Bouley at its former location on West Broadway. Click here for a review of the new location, to which the restaurant moved in November 2008.

My mom and I had dinner at Bouley last week. I had already been to the restaurant twice before, including a visit last summer, when two colleagues and I were most impressed with the tasting menu. This time, we ordered à la carte.

I loved my appetizer, described on the menu as “Organic Connecticut Farm Egg Steamed with Black Truflle, Serrano Ham, Parmesan Reggiano and 25-Year Old Balsamic Vinegar” ($22). This is typical of a Bouley dish, with a large number of ingredients and a cooking style not anchored to any one region. It all fits together, and never feels too busy or over-engineered.

The entrée was Baby Pig ($42)—not currently listed on the website, so I can’t quote every ingredient. If a little less clever than the appetizer, I was nevertheless pleased with the careful preparation, with the crispness of the skin contrasting the tender flesh underneath.

Dessert was excellent: “Tahitian Vanilla-Nishiki Rice Pudding with Tropical Fruit Compote and Yuzu Sorbet” ($13). On top of that, there were several bonus courses: the amuse bouche (a tomato gazpacho), pre- and post-dessert, and petits-fours. We were, of course, sent home with the signature sponge cake, which I enjoyed for breakfast the next morning.

The wine list is lengthy, expensive, and generally French. The Saint Domingue we ordered ($90) was excellent, and the staff kept our glasses filled without my ever having to touch the bottle—a degree of pampering worth mentioning only because it is so rare.

A few years ago, there was a sense that the front-of-house at Bouley was letting down the kitchen. Several lapses—unforgivable at a restaurant purporting to offer a four-star experience—were cited in Frank Bruni’s demotion review three years ago. I myself had noticed some minor infelicities in two previous visits, but on this occasion the staff had it just about perfect.

There is, I suppose, a certain sense that David Bouley is no longer innovating—that he is too busy opening new places to really focus on his flagship restaurant. But there is a certain sense of refinement and polish at Bouley that very few restaurants can match.

Update: A few weeks later, I was back at Bouley with a colleague. We had the tasting menu with wine pairings. All of the food was polished and refined, but there really wasn’t any “wow” in it. I once again felt that the service was rushed, as it had been the last time I had a tasting menu here. Given the track record over multiple visits, I’ve at last concluded that 3 stars is the correct rating, not the the 3½ stars I had awarded previously.

Bouley (120 West Broadway at Duane Street, TriBeCa)

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

Upstairs at Bouley Bakery

Note: Click here for a more recent visit to the restaurant, which closed in July 2010.

Upstairs at Bouley Bakery is the casual cousin to David Bouley’s eponymous Michelin two-star restaurant.

These days, it’s pretty common for high-end luxury restaurants to have an informal companion establishment serving less expensive fare. Jean Georges, The Modern, Country, and Gordon Ramsay all have versions of it (though the details vary). Usually, they are located in the same building. Upstairs is across the street. Unlike the luxurious mother ship, Upstairs doesn’t take reservations. Everything about it screams informality.

I’ve been hearing great things about Upstairs lately, and as I missed lunch at work today, I decided to drop in. At 6:15 p.m. on a weeknight, Upstairs is actually rather pleasant. There were only about five people there when I arrived, and it was still less than half full when I left.

That’s the best way to experience Bouley Upstairs. On weekends, the noise is deafening, and the servers need the agility of Romanian gymnasts to reach the tightly-packed tables. My last visit, on a Saturday evening, was so unpleasant that I really didn’t want to return. The food is great, but at some point the surroundings are just too oppresive to enjoy it. Visiting early on a weeknight changed the whole experience.

To start, I ordered the homemade gnocchi with gorgonzola in a cherry tomato sauce ($12). I was impressed with the pillowy softness of the gnocchi. It wasn’t at all chewy, as gnocchi tends to be when a less assured kitchen is preparing it.

Roast chicken ($15) came in a parsley root purée with grilled fava beans and a taragon sauce. I seldom order chicken in restaurants, but I wanted to see what Bouley’s team would do with such a humble meat. It was everything you could ask, remarkably tender and full of flavor.

The bread service is terrific, as you’d expect from a restaurant above a bakery. There are many three and four-star restaurants not serving bread as good as this (e.g., Jean Georges).

The staff are not as attentive as they should be. Even with the restaurant more than half empty, they don’t notice when your water glass needs filling, when your plate needs clearing, and so forth. The knife that I used to spread butter was left on my table for the appetizer course, and when I asked for a clean one, the server seemed flustered, as if it were an unusual request.

David Bouley has announced that the size of the restaurant will soon double. His Bouley flagship restaurant will move into the Mohawk Building at the other end of the block; the bakery will move into the space the restaurant is vacating; and Upstairs will expand into the downstairs space now occupied by the bakery. Got that?

Perhaps, once it has grown, Upstairs won’t feel quite as cramped as it does today. In its current configuration, nothing would persuade me to dine there on a weekend. But on a quiet weeknight, I can heartily recommend it. The food is first-class, and it comes at a remarkably low price. I mean, there are probably diners that charge $15 for their roast chicken without doing it half as well.

Upstairs at Bouley Bakery (130 West Broadway at Duane Street, TriBeCa)

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

Bouley

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

I’ve been dining out periodically with some consultant friends from Boston. Last week was their final week in New York, at least for a while (their contract having ended), so we decided to go for a “blow out” meal somewhere special: Bouley.

Bouley is one of New York’s iconic high-end restaurants, helmed by celebrity chef David Bouley, who also runs Danube and Upstairs, both of which are just steps away. The restaurant is located in a stately TriBeCa building that announces its importance with understated elegance. Inside are two lovely rooms dubbed the “red room” and the “white room.” The entrance lobby is lined with fresh apples. The intense aroma transports you into Bouley’s world.

Unusually for a restaurant at its level, Bouley hasn’t succumbed to the prix fixe trend. The menu is pricey, but still à la carte. Appetizers are $16–29. Entrees are $38–45. The tasting menu ($90) is also unusual, with several choices offered for most of the courses. It is also shorter than some tasting menus, offering an amuse bouche, three savory courses, a palate cleanser, and dessert. The menu mentions the availability of a seasonal chef’s degustation menu, without stating the price.

In light of the special occasion, we chose the regular tasting menu, on which I had the following:

1. Chef’s Canapé (which I have forgotten)
2. Phyllo Crusted Florida Shrimp, Cape Cod Baby Squid, Scuba Dived Sea Scallop, and Sweet Maryland Crabmeat in an Ocean Herbal Broth
3. Mediterranean Rouget with Mung Bean and Saffron Risotto, Rose Olive Puree, and Parmesan Foam
4. Maine Day Boat Lobster with a Fricassée of Baby Bok Choy, Sugar Snap Peas, Celery Root Purée, and a Passion Fruit and Port-Wine Paprika Sauce
5. Wild Hudson Valley Strawberry Soup with Homemade Fromage Blanc Sorbet
6. Washington State Rhubarb “Shortcake” with Crème de Cassis, Guava Sorbet, and Warm Wild Strawberry Jam

(For the record, there were two options for the second course, three for the third, four for the fourth, and two for the dessert; the list above shows the selections I had, copied from a menu I brought home with me.)

All the courses impressed me as complex, expertly composed, and exquisitely prepared. I particularly loved the seafood medley (the second course). The lobster was superior to a similar dish I had at Per Se in February. The presentations, too, were gorgeous and artistic, with each course on a different style and pattern of china, and usually accompanied by a decorative swish of some kind of sauce.

As there were only three savory courses, each came in a portion large enough to appreciate and dwell upon. As special as the Per Se experience is, the nine bite-sized courses on its menus go by too quickly, even if the meal itself is a long evening. The portion sizes at Bouley seemed perfectly judged.

Bouley is legendary for its bread service. On a cart wheeled to your table there’s a choice of eight breads, all baked in-house. They are all, of course, fresh, but I found the butter a little too hard and uncompromising.

The pacing of a tasting menu can be a challenge, and this one felt a bit rushed. From arrival to departure, the whole experience was just 90 minutes. Service was polite and efficient throughout, and no one ever acted like they were pushing us out the door, but in the end they did just that. An extra dessert course (not listed on the menu) arrived while we were still eating the first one.

As we were leaving the hostess said, “I have a gift for the ladies.” Then, my two companions were each handed a wrapped Bouley coffee cake. I didn’t say anything, but I thought it should have been obvious that I was not going home with either of them, and deserved a coffee cake of my own.

Until a couple of years ago, Bouley carried four stars from the New York Times. The current critic, Frank Bruni, demoted it to three. I can see why. Bouley doesn’t create the sustained magic of a Per Se or an Alain Ducasse. The food, I think, is up to that level, but the overall package falls a bit short.

Bouley (120 West Broadway at Duane Street, TriBeCa)

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

Return to Danube

Note: Danube closed on August 2, 2008. It re-opened in October as Secession, a French brasserie with Italian and Austrian influences. The pseudo-Klimt décor remained in place, but with a more casual vibe. Secession closed in May 2009 after receiving scathing reviews. The space is supposed to re-open as a Japanese restaurant, Brushstroke.

*

I visited Danube for the second time last night. (An account of my first visit is here.) It remains a wonderful restaurant for a special occasion. The Klimt-inspired décor is a gem, although it occurred to me that curtains in the main dining room would be an improvement. It almost spoils the atmosphere to look out the windows and see gloomy Hudson Street outside.

Although Danube is a beautiful room—arguably one of the city’s nicest (it shares the top Zagat rating of 28 for décor)—it is not a large space. As at many New York restaurants, you could easily reach out and touch your neighbors at adjoining tables. Luckily, the room is not loud. I don’t know if it’s because diners are speaking in hushed tones, or because the heavy carpeting and tapestries absorb the sound.

There are three à la carte menus at Danube: Austrian, Modern Eclectic, and the Chef’s Market Choice. Each has two or three appetizers and anywhere between two and five main courses. You are not required to order your entire meal from the same menu. Appetizers are $9-19, but most are under $15. Mains are $26-35.

I should note that Danube has what they describe as a “tasting menu” at $85 ($155 with paired wines), but it is actually a four-course prix fixe (appetizer, fish, meat, dessert), with two or three options for each course. Anyhow, that’s not what we had on this occasion.

It is remarkable that you can have a very respectable meal at this fine restaurant for $35 total (before tax, tip, and beverages), if you order at the bottom end of the appetizers and entrées. Finding an inexpensive wine at Danube is more of a challenge, as nearly all of the selections on the long list are over $60. We found a very respectable burgundy right at $60. I thought the staff left me to struggle over the decision for rather a long time. At a restaurant of this calibre, a sommelier should come over without being asked.

The wonderful amuse bouche was a small cube of smoked salmon, with creme fraiche, cucumber salad, and mustard seed. This was a variation on the same amuse that I was served the last time. The server who deposited it at our table had an extremely thick accent, and we had to ask for the description twice.

The bread service was disappointing. Several choices of rolls were offered, but both that I tried were unimpressive. At Outback Steakhouse, you get a wonderful loaf of warm, freshly-baked pumpernickle bread. Why is it that so many high-end restaurants are content to serve perfunctory dinner rolls that were baked hours ago?

The food was a happier experience. I ordered from the Modern Eclectic menu. The restaurant is rather long-winded in its descriptions. Per the website, the appetizer was described as “Freshly Harpooned Sashimi Quality Bluefin and Hamachi Tuna, Key Lime Pickled Onion, Pumpkin Seed Oil and Sesame Mustard Dressing” ($14). This was a wonderful dish, rich and flavorful.

When the appetizer is this good, sometimes the entrée is an anti-climax, but not here. I ordered “Chestnut Honey Glazed Long Island Duck Breast with Wild Mushrooms, Corn Purée and Seared Foie Gras” ($31). The duck was luscious, tender, and enveloped in fat, while the foie gras was pure heaven.

For the record, my friend ordered two of the Austrian specialties, an Austrian ravioli ($11) and the Wiener Schnitzel ($30). She was pleased with both.

The tasting menu shows an “Elderflower Gelée with Lemon Verbena Sorbet” as a pre-dessert, and I believe this is what we were served. This was a palate-cleanser, which prepared us for the “Original Viennese Apple Strudel, Crème Anglaise and Tahitian Vanilla Ice cream” ($10). I thought this was just okay; nothing wrong with it, but rather forgettable.

Service was generally smooth and polished. Early on, I felt that we were being slightly rushed through our meal. We started with cocktails. It seemed like only a few moments had gone by, and we were placing our order, receiving the amuse, and inspecting the wine—with our cocktail glasses still half full. Yet, it was over two hours before when we left, so things slowed down considerably later on. As we departed, the staff handed us a blue Bouley bag containing a wonderful lemon coffeecake, which we enjoyed for breakfast the next morning.

While no one would call Danube inexpensive, overall it is very fairly priced for what you are getting. The New York Times ratings have been bastardized in recent years, and three stars isn’t quite what it used to be. Danube has truly earned every one of its three stars.

When Michelin’s New York City guide came out in November, eight restaurants received one of the two highest ratings. Seven of those restaurants either have now, or have had very recently, four stars from the New York Times. Danube was the eighth. What this basically means is that Danube is, in at least one reasonable opinion, the best restaurant in the city that has never had four stars from the Times. There are a handful of other plausible candidates, but I’ve certainly no argument with Danube’s extra Michelin star. It is one of the city’s best fine dining experiences.

Danube (30 Hudson Street at Duane Street, TriBeCa)

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