Restaurant experiment: Dos Caminos

Dos Caminos

373 Park Avenue South between 26th and 27th Streets

New York, NY 10016

212-294-1000

http://www.brguestrestaurants.com/restaurants/dos_caminos_park/index.php

Mike, Douglas, and I came here for Restaurant Week lunch, and we didn’t even order off the Restaurant Week menu.  Oh, the irony!

The Two Paths is very popular with the businessperson crowd, but we were bequeathed a nice semi-circle booth.  Of course we had to start off with the guacamole.  Dos Caminos is famous for their tableside freshly mashed guacamole; I’ve had it before, and it’s a knockout.  Even though it contains cilantro, I can rise above that just because it’s so scrumptious.  Indeed!  And the chips are hot, crunchy, and salty: the perfect complement.

I ordered a passionfruit margarita and the carne asada burrito ($17), “grilled marinated steak, chihuahua cheese, pico de gallo, baby arugula, spinach tortilla.”  I requested no pico due to all that pesky cilantro.  And it was most excellent.  That has to be the most expensive burrito I’ve ever eaten however.  The meat was rockin.  The salad on the side was too spicy and will earn a thumbs down from me.  

Douglas and Mike were game for dessert, so I went along.  We ended up with the cajeta sundae which was “vanilla bean ice cream, roasted banana ice cream, chocolate & cajeta sauce, cajeta sabayon, cascabel salted peanuts.”  Even with only a third of it, I was stuggling; the thing was massive.  The brittle-like piece in the middle?  A dessert in itself for real.

What is cajeta, you ask?  According to trusty Wikipedia, it’s a gooey syrup sauce made from caramelized milk.  Ah, the caramel-like sauce in there.

And what is that milky shot, you ask?  That is a delight called horchata.  It was new to me.  Our waitress Jenny (ask for her if you go to this Dos Caminos) gave them to us on the house.  Ah, refreshing!  This version of the almond-y milk beverage had a small dollop of sorbet in there.

Oops, lunch went over.  Two hour “business” lunch.  Yeah, that’s right.

For Mike: 4.5 out of 5 stars (rating Time Out NY style)

Restaurant experiment: Sushi Samba 7

Sushi Samba 7

87 Seventh Avenue at Barrow Street

New York, NY 10014

212-691-7885

http://www.sushisamba.com

Leslie pointed out the West Village Sushi Samba to me over three years ago, and I remembered it because she was saying it was in Sex and the City (disclaimer: I do not watch that show).  Since then, it was on the food rolodex, but I hadn’t pulled it out until now because Zen wanted to do Restaurant Week and wanted a Japanese joint.  Okay then, Sushi Samba it was.

Peruvian, Japanese, Brazilian.  There sure are a lot of Peruvian places in the West Village, no?  The hostesses exuded bitchy vibes.  The colorful room made up for that.  Though a loud table of mostly males nearby brought the points down a bit.  Our waitress’s heavy accent was sometimes difficult to decipher.  Swift service though.

Frito Mixo
squid, prawns, rock shrimp, ponzu mayo, smoked soy

The seafood was fine, nothing stellar, but I was all over the ponzu mayo.  Dee.  Lish.  Harped about it to Zen.  Smoked soy was just tempura dipping sauce.

Braised Short Rib
roasted garlic, boniato purée, honshimiji mushroom , cabrales-stuffed shishito

The pepper looked like a breaded okra.  The rib was tender though lacked distinctive flavor. 

Warm Chocolate Banana Cake
maple butter, banana chip, vanilla rum ice cream

The wafer was exceptional!  They needed to forget the other components and just make this dessert solely chocolately wafers. 

Sushi Samba was style over substance.  Not bad food, but I wouldn’t enthusiastically rave about the place to my pals.  Though I did feel trendy sitting in our corner booth with bamboo wall.  If you wanna go, go early, and be armed with a reservation.

Restaurant experiment: Giorgio’s of Gramercy

Giorgio’s of Gramercy

27 East 21st Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South

New York, NY 10010

212-477-0007

giorgiosofgramercy.com

Giorgio’s is smack on a rather untraveled stretch of East 21st Street. Inside, the restaurant is long and thin, like a railroad apartment or snooty Gramercy model, and it’s very red. Blood red. The sparkling chandeliers are a gorgeous touch.

It is currently Restaurant Week which is my excuse to go out and eat. So I met up with Leslie here for dinner. It wasn’t too packed when we arrived, and it filled up more later on, but it wasn’t too noisy or slammed. You know the Restaurant Week deal, $35 prix fixe. Rock on. Don’t be fooled by the name Giorgio’s; it’s not a purely 100% Italian restaurant.

APPETIZERS

Originally I wanted the braised baby octopus, but I paused when I saw it came with cilantro. Our waiter Michael, who looked like a middle aged character actor, graciously asked the kitchen about cilantro’s involvement, if it was just sprinkled on or what. It wasn’t just sprinkled on. I went with my second choice: “Garlic Prawns, Winter Vegetable Julienne, Artichoke-Black Truffle Vinaigrette.” The prawns were the size of a cell phone; they were mammoths. Yum. What a generous portion too, almost like a mini-dinner. I should also add that the free bread had a pleasing sesame seed crust, and the amuse bouche of crab salad on crostini also enlightened the tongue. Leslie went with the “Mizuna [sharp greens], Prosciutto di Parma, Breaded Goat Cheese, Pomegranate Candied Pecans, Citrus-Balsamic Glaze.” She let me try the croquette-looking goat cheese. Scrumptious!  My appetizer ended up being the superstar of the three course meal.

ENTREES

Fish is boring. I picked out the “Grilled Filet Mignon, Steamed Vegetables, Homemade Cornbread, Roasted Shallots, Port Wine Reduction” while Leslie got the “Orechetti [pasta], Garlic-White Wine Cockles [clams], Fresh Tomatoes, Pesto.” The filet mignon reminded me of meatloaf which wasn’t what it was supposed to do. I’m blaming the reduction in part. The vegetables were just steamed veggies. The homemade cornbread came out looking like a small banana sliced lengthwise. It was right on though, with just the correct amount of sugar.

DESSERT

Leslie ordered the “Apple Pie with Whipped Cream.” I selected the “Trio of Gelato or Sorbet,” going with sorbet since my favorites were in the triplet (passion fruit and guava, in addition to that ever-so-trendy pomegranate). My fondness for tropical fruit sorbets must be obvious, as Leslie said that my face lit up. Like a Christmas tree! You can’t go wrong with sorbet. But you can go wrong with apple pie. It looked sort of like a take on the turnover at McDonald’s but with puff pastry. OK, that was slightly cruel. But it was true.

We concluded that Giorgio’s is a safe place. It’ll please older people and younger people and by younger people, I mean non-children. The food doesn’t blow you away. It’s not as memorable as wd-50, a restaurant which Leslie and I talked about over our meal; I ate at wd-50 a year ago and it’s still being discussed. I can’t see myself mentioning Giorgio’s in January 2010. You’ll like the food but you won’t be ecstatic about it.

Tip: happy hour goes until 7pm, drinks 50% off! Of course I noticed this sandwich board advert after I left the restaurant.

Restaurant experiment: Anthos

Anthos

36 West 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

New York, NY 10019

212-582-6900

anthosnyc.com

Anthos sure has accumulated the accolades: one Michelin star, nominated as a James Beard Foundation Award Best New Restaurant. This was the last meal during my Restaurant Week. We were seated upstairs in a small anteroom containing four tables. I couldn’t decide if upstairs was where they put the rejects, or if it was special and more private and quieter than the main dining hall downstairs.

The meal started off with lots of little goodies. There’s a tray of olives and fried fish, amongst other things. And you get a free shot of mysterious vegetable puree. The guy who presented it to us was sort of a low talker. I thought he said parsley soup, but that couldn’t be right. Parsnip? It was truly amusing my mouth. And there is a roll presented with both cow and goat milk butter.

Down to business. My first course was the raw meze of fluke with apricot, yogurt, and hazelnut. It was pleasant, then again, I am a raw fish fiend and am partial to uncooked fish flesh. Ambika said it was a bit salty, but it wasn’t too sodium laden for me. The second was a lamb shank. The meat was falling off the gigantic Flintstones-sized bone, very tender. However the flavors just weren’t doing it. I was eh on it. The dessert was interesting. Stacy got prepared strawberries in a little bird nest, too cute! Ambika and I went with the chocolate sesame cake: chocolate bottom layer, mousse-like sesame top layer. And hazelnut brittle crumbs on the side. At first bite, the combo was a bit weird, but it grew on me with each subsequent bite.

Anthos sure has a large staff. We had a main waiter, and with each plate, it was a different runner. With this kind of upscale joint, you expect a certain level of service. Therefore I was slightly dismayed when the runners put the wrong item in front of me not once but twice. We had to tell the guys that I ordered that, this plate is hers, blah blah. At least the service wasn’t snobby. And when they put the forks down, the tines were facing the table. I wonder if there is a reason for that. The check comes with little take homes, twin almond cookies wrapped up with pink ribbon. Like a party favor from a wedding!

Restaurant experiment: Park Avenue Summer

Park Avenue Summer [Autumn/Winter/Spring]

100 East 63rd Street at Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

212-644-1900

parkavenuenyc.com

Most restaurants in New York remind me of San Francisco as they don’t change with the seasons, but Park Avenue Summer does.  Come fall, it’ll be Park Avenue Autumn, winter Park Avenue Winter, you get the point.  In addition to the name change, the decor and menu are altered appropriately to suit the season. 

This was a rare chance for me to be a lady who lunches.  As Nick and I were walking into the restaurant, an older woman was leaving and mentioned to us that it was very crowded in there.  Um, that’s why we have reservations!  Even still, we had to wait around 5-10 minutes.  The summery main dining room was yellowy and white.  Cattails and some kind of goldernrod-like flowers grew in the middle of the room behind my head.  Plaster casts of turtle shells were on the walls.  Even the servers were wearing buttery colored dress shirts.

Thank goodness for Restaurant Week.  Otherwise Park Avenue Summer would be a beatdown on your wallet, with lunch items ranging from the teens to 40 bucks.  I went with the salmon tartare appetizer.  I wish I could refer to a menu so that I could be more specific about it, but it was delicious, coming with some sprouts, and burnt toast points as a vehicle for the salmon.  Nick commented that the portions were generous, and indeed that was so.  We both ordered the filet mignon open faced sandwich which was the bomb.  The slices of tender meat were arranged on a piece of soft toast, and then yellow and red cherry tomatoes (more grape than cherry) were plopped on top, with horseradish creme drizzled generously all over.  I was afraid that the creme would be too horseradish-ish, but I was fretting for naught.

Dessert is where I erred.  I was coveting Nick’s goat cheese mousse (“like cheesecake!”) but liked my sortbet selection just fine (cherry and rhubarb).  The presentation of his dessert was eye catching for sure.  The mousse filled up what looked like toilet paper rolls, and then graham cracker crumbs were sprinkled all over the cheese, and everything was bathing in peach nectar.  Too bad Park Avenue Summer doesn’t let you sample all the desserts.  The panna cotta with basil foam was intriguing as well.  Kickass-sounding ice cream flavors though (basil, sour cream, chocolate tea!) and sorbet (chocolate ancho).  At least my sorbets had an element of mystery to them, as they were sitting on top of some pineapple thing, almost like a slab of sugar-ized frozen pineapple.  Hmm. 

It bears repeating: that sandwich was the bomb.

Restaurant experiment: i Trulli

i Trulli

122 East 27th Street between Park Avenue South & Lexington

New York, NY 10016

212-481-7372

itrulli.com

I must confess, I live for NYC’s winter and summer Restaurant Weeks.  What’s more exciting that rounding up members of your posse and sampling fancy fare at a fraction of the cost?  Not much!  $35 gets you a prix fixe dinner: starter, entree, and dessert; $24.07 for lunch.  Feeling like you’ve swung a fab deal is always a happymaker. 

Batting first was dinner at i Trulli.  Stacy and I were offered the option of sitting outside or sitting inside.  Since the heat wasn’t up to its usual oppressive self, we ended up outside.  The covered patio is actually very lovely.  If you don’t look up, you can forget that you’re in Manhattan.  We were seated by the small waterfall which was in front of the rare thing called greenery.  Ceiling fans kept air circulating.  i Trulli wasn’t that crowded (we were dining on the early side), but it seemed to be filling up more when we were ready to roll.

I went with the Apulian bread salad with heirloom tomatoes, onion, and cucumber even though there was complimentary bread which came with a mystery spread.  Something white and whipped.  Stacy and I were stumped.  The bread salad could be characterized as strong, with the strong vinegar kick and strong taste of onions.  I liked it.  My entree was veal ravioli which was fine.  Last but certainly not least was my dessert: chocolate and toasted almond semifreddo with almond brittle.  This was hands down the best part of the meal.  A semifreddo is an Italian take on the ice cream cake.  It just sounds fancier in Italian.  The top chocolate pudding-like layer was fabulous.  I mopped the three layer cake in the chocolate drizzle on the plate: delightfully chocolately!  Can cake be an anti-depressant?  The semifreddo made all my troubles slip away temporarily.  Stacy ordered different plates so we sampled each other’s edibles.  That’s strategy right there. 

Our waiter was polite but not a superwaiter.  He wrote down what we ordered on a notepad [I am incredibly impressed if you don’t need to write down our picks].  Pacing of the dishes was a bit off; they were coming out somewhat faster than is optimal.  And we had to pour the chilled red wine ourselves 75% of the time.  A slight frown for those.  However he did check up on us about twice and did clean the crumbs off the table before dessert.   

i Trulli is probably a bit more high-end than it should be, but it’s a solid dining experience.  If you like grazing on dandelions, the regular menu uses them quite a lot, fyi.