Rouge Tomate - main restaurant

This is a long overdue review. Whenever I wait this long before posting a review, I don't have great recollection about each individual dish. One of my new year resolutions is to blog more often.

Rouge Tomate 
10 E 60th St
New York, NY 10022
http://www.rougetomatenyc.com/

First Impressions:
This is a huge restaurant, with two levels. The interior is very clean and simple with vases of fruit as decor.  The aura really fits in with the restaurant's concept of healthy, quality, locally source food. My fiance and I thought this would be a great place for a wedding reception or large event.

Although the decor is more on the casual side, the service is equal to that of a five star restaurant - there's a maitre'd to attend to all of your needs. We went there with a groupon deal and the groupon prix fixe menu included a squab dish. I really don't like any kind of non-chicken poultry so I asked if they could replace that dish with something else. The maitre'd worked with the chef to replace my squab dish with a fish dish.

Dinner:
I typically find it is difficult to find restaurants that serve more "creative" non alcoholic drinks, they usually only offer ice tea, lemonade, or Coke/Pepsi products. At Rouge Tomate, they make their own sodas and even offer non alcoholic cocktails.

I had the Nieve de Pina, which is pineapple juice, coconut water, vanilla, cinnamon, pineapple soda
It was quite thick and foamy. I actually found it slightly bland, I think the vanilla and coconut totally downplayed the sweet taste of the pineapple.

Later in the night, we ordered the pineapple soda and the apple sour. I'm not a huge fan of their home made soda. It had a bit of a chalky baking soda taste. Not like fresh squeezed juice + carbonation that I imagined it would be.

The bread basket is actually a giant basket carried around by a waiter. They have a variety of breads - pumpernickel, sourdough, "peasant bread", etc. You choose the slice you want, but they do not leave extra bread at the table.

I thought the heirloom tomatoes were quite a nice and unique touch.


Trio of Amuse

 From left to right:
1. local oyster / rhubarb / ginger
2. cucumber / caviar / dill
3. mousseron / quail egg / mushroom cappucino

I really enjoyed these three items. The presentation looks incredible, very high class. My fav out of the three was the oyster - fresh, light, and with a citrus kick. The caviar was also quite good, but a bit too salty.


Cuttlefish salad

I loved this dish. It's very big on taste but light on your stomach. The cuttlefish is cut thin and tastes delicious with the citrus sauce. This dinner was pretty heavy on the citrus items. I guess that ties all the dishes together.

Tomato Watermelon Gazpacho - cucumber / basil seed / sourdough / sherry vinegar

Isn't this pretty? It tastes like gazpacho but made from jelly. I think this concept is interesting and the execution is good. However, the texture of the jelly made it difficult to eat too much of it. I started to feel a bit grossed out when I got to the bottom orange portion. I think for a cold soup like gazpacho, you definitely want to have some texture/something to chew on.

Sweet Corn Farrotto - Santa Barbara sea urchin / Maine crab succotash / basil

I have to admit, this was not a memorable dish for me. I remember the yellow foam of the dish had the rich buttery taste of sea urchin. That's about it. I think I actually forgot about the dish the night of the dinner.

Thomas Farms Squab - local strawberry / foie gras / endive / Sicilian pistachio

This is the dish I did not have. I am sooo glad I was able to get an alternative. My fiance said it tasted very "gamey" and a bit tough. He is more open to different types of meat and he didn't particularly like this dish because of the squab. 

Thai fish and shrimp 

I feel bad I can't remember the actual name of my dish because it was really good! The taste was very strong so this small bite is perfect. Maybe if I had the full sized dish I would think it was a bit overwhelming.

Palate cleanser: I think it's rhubarb soda + cream

Caraïbe Sphere - Pear / Frangipane / Dulce de Leche / Maldon Sea Salt

This is the most beautiful and unique dessert I've ever seen. I couldn't get a before picture of it, but it was basically a giant round chocolate ball. The waiter then pours hot chocolate sauce all over it and the outside melts away. If you really enjoy warm chocolate cake for dessert, then you would like this dish.

Platter of small desserts - complimentary

These desserts all tasted rather similar, fruit on creme and a pastry shell. 

Homemade Cranola - complimentary

Final impressions: It seemed as though most of the dishes in our meal was served cold. By the time we finished dessert, both of us were basically shivering. This really took away from the experience. However, although we didn't really enjoy the cold dishes, the quality of the meal was apparent. The presentation was flawless and you can tell the ingredients used to cook was fresh and healthy. For healthy cooking, there wasn't an absence of flavor either, which is great! Because of its commitment to fresh quality "farm to table" meals, this is definitely a restaurant I would return to and recommend to others. Hopefully, next time we will order some warmer dishes.