Lunching at Del Posto - NYC

Del Posto is Mario Batali's Michelin-starred restaurant with 4-stars by the NYTimes. For dinner, the lowest cost tasting menu option of 5 courses is $115. For lunch, however, they offer a 3-course menu for $29 - one of the best lunch bargains in Manhattan, especially considering the amount of extras that they include in the three courses. They also include 3 different amuse bouches and an array of mignardises served after the meal, so it comes out to 3 courses along with 2 mini courses.

I've read about this lunch bargain a few times and this has always been on my to-do list. I finally got to try it out earlier this year and it definitely did not disappoint!

butter & lard for the bread

While I've read online that some people seem to enjoy the lard that Del Posto offers its guests for the bread basket - I would recommend passing on the lard. I did not enjoy it.

Carne Cruda with truffled salsa, parmigiano-reggiano & wild watercress (supp $10)

I don't usually like red meat at all, but I actually loved this dish - the truffled salsa definitely helped! (Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who ordered it, so I couldn't steal too many bites...)

Insalata Primavera della terra with sheep's milk ricotta dressing

The salad that I ordered was almost too pretty to eat!

Young lamb alla Romana, garlic yogurt with ceci & swiss chard ragu

Whole Wheat Tonarelli with spicy cichercie, rosemary, & shaved bonito flakes

I ordered this after reading about it as one of NYTimes food critic Sam Sifton's "Best Dishes of 2010." I've never ordered anything with bonito flakes before - when the waiter brought out the dish, the bonito flakes were moving! It freaked me out a little, but it tasted good - well as good as whole wheat pasta can taste.

Sfera di caprino celery & fig agrodolce & celery sorbetto

This was another one of Sam Sifton's best dishes of 2010. While I enjoyed the novelty of celery sorbet, I was glad I ordered the chocolate ricotta tortino instead ~ amazing & it comes with olive oil gelato, which Mario Batali is famous for!

Chocolate ricotta tortino toasted sicilian pistachios & extra virgin olive oil gelato

mignardises!

As a parting gift, they also gave me a small box of 2 chocolate truffles - extremely rich and delicious!

The service was definitely one of the things that stood out about Del Posto - this is definitely the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to and that was reflected in the service. As I was settling in after just sitting down, I hung my purse on the back of my chair. Almost immediately, a waiter came over and put a stool down next to my chair for me to put my purse on. It was completely unnecessary and I've never seen anyone do this at a restaurant before! Needless to say, you get a LOT of attention at Del Posto!

Spice Market - NYC

Spice Market is one of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's many restaurants in New York City and currently his only Asian restaurant in the city (Matsugen, a Japanese restaurant specializing in soba noodles closed recently). [His new restaurant, ABC Kitchen, just won Best New Restaurant at the James Beard Awards - can't wait to try that one out someday! My friends and I have been trying to go to brunch there.] Given Spice Market's location in the Meatpacking District, the overstated decor - described on the website as "a casual, sexy atmosphere" - seems to make sense. I'm not sure if I would agree with "casual," but the interior definitely transports you to what feels like a Southeast Asian palace.

The food is supposed to amount to the "idealization of a Vietnamese street market or a Thai food stall" (per the restaurant's website), but I think this restaurant's exotic decor stands out more than its food, which seemed fairly middle of the road to me.

First off, was "Salmon Tartare, Soy Ginger Dressing, Avocado and Radish." I love tartares and especially enjoy it when a restaurant offers a fish tartare not made with the predictable tuna. While the salmon was fine, I did think the pairing with avocado didn't really mesh too well - and the dressing definitely did not complement the salmon (perhaps a touch of acidity would have helped).

We also got the Pork Vindaloo - I loved the plate that it came out on, it added to the authenticity of setting. This was perhaps my favorite dish because of its extreme spice factor. That being said, it still didn't match what I expected for a Jean-George's restaurant - although it does taste much better than what you would expect for average "Asian street vendor food." We also got an order of the "Chili-Garlic Egg Noodles with Seared Shrimp and Star Anise" because it was a favorite of my dining companion's and he had been craving it for a while. While this dish was pretty good, it almost tasted like house special lo-mein I could order from any generic Chinatown restaurant, and just adding some chili oil to it.

Inside the Kitchen

While Spice Market's food didn't necessarily meet my expectations, it definitely won me over for their atmosphere. For dessert, we ordered ginger ice cream and it was served in this adorable take-out box. I'm a sucker for packaging and interactive food! The ginger flavor wasn't too overpowering - if I didn't know it was ginger, I probably would never have guessed it. It was a refreshing end to the meal!

Matsuri-NYC

So while we were looking for places to hold the engagement dinner, there was one japanese restaurant that was considered as a contender for EN,  it was Matsuri. The main reasons were that they had a well priced tasting menu and I heard the serving sizes were larger than at EN. The pictures from this night are not very good since I only had my iphone camera to depend on and the restaurant was oh so dark.

When you first enter, it looks like small place, but you walk down the stairs you see that the main dining room is in a HUGE basement decorated like a japanese anime dream sequence.

Matsuri interior

When we first sat down, we really liked the interior of Matsuri. We were seated in a booth, that had a canopy type structure, which made it feel quite private. The choice was basically made to hold the party here at this point.  DF and his roommate both ordered the $65 tasting menu and the sake flight. I had the rice pot, agedashi tofu, and a cocktail called "Toyko 75".

Tokyo 75

OHhhh.. what could I say about this cocktail? The ingredients: Shochu, yuzu, prosecco, calpico.

I like shochu and yuzu just fine, prosecco is my wine of choice, and I really don't believe you can go wrong with calpico. BUT all together, the drink was quite an assault on my tastebuds. It was pretty bitter and its only redeeming factor was that berry (asian plum?) on the plastic sword. NOT worth the $14. 

Kumamoto Oysters

First up was the oysters served with yuzu ice. I thought this was a good dish. The ice on top is yuzu flavored so there was an icy sour lemony flavor with the oyster.  DF on the other hand did not enjoy it so much, he felt the yuzu was covering up the natural oyster flavor. 

Kobe Beef Tataki

First entree was the Kobe beef with mustard vinegar sauce. The taste of this dish was pretty plain, something you'd expect at a lower end restaurant made with regular beef. A great injustice to the kobe beef used in this preparation.

Agedashi Tofu

After having the Agedashi tofu dish at EN, this tofu dish tasted like something you could make at home. The texture of the tofu was like the ones you buy at the asian grocery stores. Its supposed to be deep fried, but the outside of the tofu was soggy from the sauce. The sauce itself was too heavy and covered the taste of tofu.

Sake Black Cod

Miso black cod is such a common dish at japanese restaurants, you'd think most of them would get them right by now. This one is cooked with sake instead and really left a lot to be desired. The skin was mushy and the meat did not come off in sections like fresh fish should.

Duck Breast

The roasted duck breast was too tough for me to even finish! I did hear that duck dishes are difficult to get right because some chefs tend to cook the crap out of the duck, this is most likely what happened here.

Sushi Assortment

DF and his roommate were really offended when this dish arrived at our table. First of all, the eel and cucumber rolls were falling apart and they didn't think the sashimi looked too fresh. Their main complaint was that this looked like something we used to buy at our college cafeteria. Since I enjoyed the sushi served in college, I happily gobbled up all the rolls.

Rice Pot

The final savory dish was the rice pot. At this point in the evening I was sorely disappointed with my dining experience at Matsuri. This rice pot did not really help. I only liked the two giant piece of shrimp you see at the top of the dish. The rest of the dish was mixed with chicken and I had a really hard time eating it. I think I would have preferred friend rice instead. The chicken was not flavorful and I just felt like this dish only accomplishes the goal of filling you up, it is not enjoyable or satisfying at all.

Ironically, the best dish of the night was the one I did not take a picture of. The green tea tiramisu and red bean ice cream was a delish end to an otherwise disappointing evening. It did take them a good 30 minutes after the last dish served to get us our dessert though. I thought maybe they had forgotten about us, but it was worth the wait to end the evening on a high note. The tiramisu was light and not too sweet. Red bean ice cream was so good I ate it all myself (even though it was technically DF's dish). 

The bill for everything came out to be around $90 per person. It really is too much to pay for the quality of food we received. The restaurant is in the trendy meatpacking district, so it is always filled with well dressed party goers getting a bite to eat before getting completely trashed. Its proximity to the best nightlife in the city is most likely what is keeping it alive despite the food quality and price. It's a skip for me, and I'm very glad we ultimately chose EN instead.