Who is in the Kitchen at Mai House?

Note: Click here for a more recent update.

There are strange doings at Mai House. In January, founding chef Michael Bao Huynh was out. Or was he? Apparently, it was just a misunderstanding: he had merely gone AWOL for five weeks.

In March, Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn launched a tasting menu at Mai House, based on the food he’d prepared on the TV show.

Yesterday, the mystery of Huynh’s whereabouts was apparently resolved: Gael Green reported that Huynh had taken over at Rain, on the Upper West Side. And today, Eater reported that Mendelsohn was fired at Mai House. Eater reported, at first, that another Top Chefer, Lisa Hernandes, was replacing Mendelsohn, but later in the day this was retracted.

If this were any other restaurant, we’d assume an Eater Deathwatch was in order. But because it’s a Drew Nieporent restaurant, we figure it’ll all get sorted out. We love Mai House, and want it to live long and prosper.

But who is in the kitchen?

Mai House

Note: Mai House is closed. There was never an official announcement from Myriad Restaurant Group, but as of June 2009 the space had been shuttered for months, and it wasn’t even open for the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. If you’re not open for that, then you’re not open. Mai House never truly caught on, and it did not survive the departure of the original chef with the short attention span, Michael Bao Huynh, who went on to cook many of the same dishes at BarBao on the Upper West Side, now also closed.

*

To paraphrase the song, “Mai House is a very, very, very fine house.” But business appears to be slow, based on a Tuesday night dinner that found the restaurant sparsely attended.

That’s too bad, because I think chef Michael Bao Huynh’s Vietnamese-inspired menu is terrific. I rated Mai House at two stars in November, a verdict I’m standing by today. In January, Frank Bruni of the Times awarded two stars as well, but a less impressed Adam Platt in New York awarded only one.

As this visit was a mix of business and pleasure, I didn’t snap any photos. We ordered a lot of food, of which I can only recite the highlights. We started with the Hot Spring Rolls ($11), the Wild Boar Sausage ($11), and the Frog’s Leg Lollipops ($12). The sausage has gone through a number of re-designs. This time, it was served in meatball-sized pieces skewered with toothpicks. The frog’s leg lollipops, each about the size of a large gum ball, came with an addictive hot sauce.

The highlight was the Sweet & Sour Spicy Whole Red Snapper ($28). The body of the fish was fried crisp into the shape of a cylinder, so that it could be used as a serving vessel. This was so cleverly done that I didn’t realize at first that I was looking at a dead fish. The meat of the fish itself, apparently removed before this operation, was deposited inside. Huynh balanced the spices to perfection, so that the sweet, sour, and spicy all had their turn. The fish itself was quite tender.

It would be easy to be cynical about yet another big-box Asian restaurant, but at Mai House the décor doesn’t overpower the food. Service was attentive and competent.

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

Food: **
Service: *½
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: **

TriBeCa Grill

TriBeCa Grill used to be a tough reservation when it opened sixteen years ago. It was Robert DeNiro’s restaurant. Celebrities dined there. My companions last night—none of whom had been before—asked me to alert them if I saw anyone famous. We didn’t. But obviously they’d heard of the TriBeCa Grill’s reputation. The restaurant was full, and it is still doing well.

In more than half-a-dozen visits to TriBeCa Grill, most of them lunches, I’ve never had a bad meal, or even a bad course. Yet, there’s a certain je ne sais quois that’s missing. I would never suggest that anyone go out of their way to visit TriBeCa Grill. It has no unique selling proposition. It’s a very good New American restaurant that is simply solid in its category. Most neighborhoods have one like it, so there’s no reason to make the trip. But if you happen to be in TriBeCa, you won’t go wrong at the Grill.

We were seated last night in a small back dining room that I had never seen before. It has only 5 or 6 tables. The walls are studded with abstract oil paintings and charcoal drawings. There is no exposed brick to reflect the sound. It is a far more refined atmosphere than the raucous main dining room.

To start, I ordered a Charcuterie Plate ($14), which comes with a veal & foie gras ballotine, serrano ham, and chicken liver mousse. It was all excellent. The very smooth chicken liver mousse stood out. It’s essentially your grandmother’s chopped liver, but with the texture of a purée. It comes with toast points for spreading.

Then came the Grilled Long Island Duck Breast ($26) with spinach, a butternut squash & apple purée, and sundried cherry sauce. Actually, that sauce reminded me of a Chinese hoisin sauce. Anyhow, it was another excellent dish. The duck was tender, and it came in ample slices.

A pumpkin cheesecake ($9) was a bit less successful; perhaps it had been in the fridge a bit too long.

It’s no small accomplishment to continue serving such uniformly good food. After 16 years, many restaurants would take their eye off the ball. TriBeCa Grill is still dependable.

TriBeCa Grill (375 Greenwich Street at Franklin Street, TriBeCa)

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

Nobu

I had lunch at Nobu on Wednesday, probably my 4th or 5th time at the restaurant, always for lunch. (Accounts of two past visits can be found here and here.)

As I have noted before, if you show up without a reservation at 11:45 or noon, you will invariably be seated. In the past, we’ve always been told that we’d have to be finished by 1:30, or so. No such guidance this week; even when we left, at 2pm, the restaurant was not full.

I started with a salmon skin roll, which was very good, if not quite offering the taste explosion of the best sushi restaurants. My colleague and I shared four of the signature dishes: yellowtail tartar with caviar and wasabe sauce; spicy rock shrimp tempura; squid “pasta”, and miso black cod. I think the squid pasta has lost a bit of its lustre; when you get over the novelty, it is really nothing special. But the others are all top-notch, and it is no surprise that they bring the miso black cod last. Although imitated a hundred times over, there is still no miso black cod like Nobu’s.

I finished with an apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream, and while you don’t think of Nobu for its desserts, this was beautifully prepared and a sensory pleasure.

Service was excellent.

As an unrelated aside, did you ever wonder why you can’t get through to Nobu on the reservation line? At lunch time, there are five phone operators sitting at a booth near the front door. They are the reservations department. While waiting for my coat, I overheard one of them telling the others about a recent social event she’d attended. The phone rang: “Nobu, can you hold, please?” After putting the caller on hold, she finished her story about the social event.

Nobu (105 Hudson Street at Franklin Street, TriBeCa)

Food: ***

Service: ***

Ambiance: **

Overall: ***

Sushi Lunch at Nobu

Note: Click here for a more recent visit to Nobu.

A vendor took me to lunch at Nobu yesterday. Just like the last time, we appeared promptly at the opening time 11:45am and were seated immediately, promising to vacate our table before 1:30pm.

Nobu offers several sushi and sashimi assortments for lunch, priced between $22.50 and $26.00. Any one of them is a steal, in my opinion. I ordered the “Special Sushi” at $26.00, which came with somewhere between 12-15 pieces, plus Miso Soup. The ingredients were first-class, as one would expect at this temple of Japanese cuisine. This must be one of the best upscale sushi bargains in town.

One of my dining companions offered me a piece of his softshell crab sushi, an astonishing composition. Another of the composed lunch plates offers Sashimi with Soft Shell Crab Roll at $23.50. I shall have to try that next time.

Nobu (105 Hudson Street at Franklin Street, TriBeCa)

Montrachet

Note: Montrachet closed in May 2006—ostensibly for “renovations,” but it never re-opened, and its wine cellar was sold. The space (with the same ownership) is now Corton.

*

In March 2004, New York Times interim restaurant critic Amanda Hesser made a stir when she demoted Montrachet, the long-time three-star standout in TriBeCa, to two stars. Whether Montrachet deserved the slap-down may be debated, but the review stood out for its soul-lessness.

I had a chance to find out for myself last week. Hesser’s comments about the décor seemed to me completely wacky. She wrote:

Entering the restaurant is a bit like stepping through the looking glass. There is no coat room in the tiny foyer. A small portable heater set on top of a wine cask buzzed at the coat checker, who took my coat, hung it on a metal rack in the dining room, then looked up my reservation. She was polite, warm even.

Before me stood a dining room with sponge-painted walls and self-consciously modern paintings. It felt like a scene from “Wall Street.” I could picture Michael Douglas sitting at a red banquette, bellowing into a first-generation cellphone the size of a shoe.

I hadn’t been to Montrachet in years, and I suddenly felt the disappointment of returning to a childhood home and finding that the backyard is not so big as you remembered, that the curtains are kind of shabby. Montrachet even smells old.

I can’t comment on the coat rack and space heater—it being high summer, these accoutrements were entirely unnecessary. But the space itself seems elegant and refined. It didn’t smell old.

I was there with a party of three. Two of us chose the appetizer of Marinated Sea Scallops with Gazpacho Sauce. This was a bit disappointing, as the gazpacho overwhelmed the scallops, leaving them flabby and dead to the taste. The third member of our party ordered a Wild Mushroom Bisque, which he pronounced a success.

We had three different main courses, which all were pleased with. Between us, we tried the Magret of Duck with Pistachios and Cherry Endive Compote, the Chilean Sea Bass “en Barigoule” with Parmigiano Reggiano, and the Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Morels, Texas Sweet Onions and Truffles.

Montrachet has one of the most revered wine lists in the city, and it takes a connoisseur (or the sommelier’s guidance) to make sense of it. One of my companions knows his wines, and he chose a PlumpJack Cabernet Sauvignon — a brand previously unknown to me — that I found superb.

For the record, appetizers at Montrachet are $11-22, mains are $24-32, desserts $10-11. A cheese course runs to $16 per head. All three of us tried that, and I was gratified to find that it included good-sized samples of five contrasting cheeses, which is more than you get for the money at many restaurants in town.

Montrachet also offers four fixed menus. There are two three-course prix fixe options at $30 or $46, a six-course tasting for $79, or an eight-course tasting for $95. The latter is available only Monday to Friday.

Montrachet certainly seems to me superior to most two-star restaurants in New York. While one cannot judge fairly on a single visit, on this showing I would say that Hesser’s demotion to two stars was an injustice.

Montrachet (239 West Broadway between White and Walker Streets, TriBeCa)

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

Nobu

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

A vendor invited me out to lunch at Nobu on Friday. That meant he was paying. We had no reservation, but we were waiting by the door when they opened at 11:45am, and we were seated immediately. My host had done this before, so apparently it’s a dependable way to get into Nobu without a rez. We only had to promise that we’d vacate our table by 1:30pm. It was my first visit.

For lunch, Nobo offers a wide variety of sushi and sashimi plates, soups and side dishes, several sushi/sashimi assortments in the $23-$28 range, a prix fixe package at $20.04, and the chef’s omakase at “$55 to $65 and up.” There’s also a two-column list running to a closely-spaced half-page, which the waiter called “Chef Nobu’s signature dishes.” The menu had another name for them, but the waiter’s term sticks in my memory.

The waiter advised us to skip the sushi, and to order 4 or 5 of the signature dishes, which he told us are served “Tapas style.” That means they come one at a time, to be shared by the table. We chose 5 of the signature dishes – basically the ones the waiter recommended – as well as the Spicy Seafood Soup, which my host had enjoyed on his previous visit. The waiter’s descriptions went by at blazing speed, and frankly I wasn’t entirely sure what we’d chosen. He told us about a few special dishes not on the menu, and we chose one of these, but I always wonder why a restaurant can’t be bothered to put the daily specials on a piece of paper. I think Nobu could manage it. At any rate, it all sounded good.

The Spicy Seafood Soup came first, and it reminded me of that old commercial about the soup so chunky you want to eat it with a fork. There was just an amazing amount of seafood packed into the soup bowl. Then came yellowtail with cilantro and jalapeno peppers; I thought the last two ingredients slightly overwhelmed the first. It was the only dish about which I had even the slightest reservations. Our second signature dish was kobe beef, thinly sliced, and prepared with two kinds of spices. A tuna sashimi salad was sheer perfection, with several large slices of rare tuna. Then came squid pasta (hard to explain), and finally a black sea bass so rich and flavorful that I can still taste it.

I can see why the waiter steered us away from sushi. My host, who had ordered sushi the last time he visited, confirmed this. The so-called signature dishes are extraordinary and without parallel. The sushi, he said, is of course among the best that can be had, but doesn’t stand out from what’s available elsewhere quite so conspicuously.

With five dishes shared among two of us, plus soup, I left Nobu quite full, and yet sorry that the meal was over. Every dish was creative, full of flavor, perfectly seasoned, and prepared with an obvious attention to every detail. While enjoying our own meal, my host and I watched the parade of plates arriving at adjoining tables. No matter what you order, every dish entertains the eye as much as the taste buds. They are all works of sculpture – “Art in Food,” as my host observed. He promised to invite me back again, this time for dinner, in a couple of months or so. I can hardly wait.

Nobu (105 Hudson Street at Franklin Street, TriBeCa)