Do I even work? – Vong, London Bar, Molyvos and davidburke & donatella

Despite telling myself that I shouldn’t spend any money going out to eat in the weeks leading up to my vacation – where I am going to potentially waste a lot of money going out to eat – I ended up going out to a few places. Fortunately, I only ended up having to foot the bill 50% of the time. How? I usually run out on the bill or I begin yelling and screaming at the table....that I have a bomb strapped to my chest. No, no, no...just kidding....read and ye shall learn.

VONG

200 E. 54th St., New York, NY 10022
at Third Ave.
212-486-9592

http://www.jean-georges.com/

My series of culinary adventures began on Wednesday, August 28^th a little bit before lunch. My wife had mentioned earlier in the week that we should have lunch sometime soon so I figured today was as good a day as any. Better get it over with in case I die soon or something. She had mentioned Vong several times before and since I wasn’t dying to go, I figured lunch would be the best option. Lunch usually isn’t as expensive and you can get a pretty good idea of what the food is like. I met her at 57^th and Lex and we walked over to Vong at 54^th and 3^rd. Entering the restaurant I was struck with a feeling of not actually being in a full fledged restaurant, let alone an establishment associated with Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It felt like one of the many, random places in the city that YOU (not me, because I usually bring my own self-made delicious creations for lunch) might go for a mediocre bite to eat. The décor was red and pinkish banquettes with multicolored wallpaper. We decided to go with the $20 prix fixe lunch menu. I figured that no matter what was brought out, I wasn’t going to cry over $20. I started with a honeydew and mango soup with a mound of crab meat in the center. It was cool and clean but nothing special. The soup and crab didn’t have much flavor; I only occasionally got a burst from a piece of mango. My wife started with shrimp and pork spring rolls. Again, they were crisp but the flavors were only decent and I felt like any halfway decent place could have served this up. For my entrée, I had a grilled beef salad with greens, red onion and pickled vegetables. It was kind of messy, and the flavors were all jumbled. The vegetables were naturally spicy and the meat with kind of torn / sloppily cut but tender. Again, no distinctive, pleasing tastes. Just a jumble of ingredients on the plate and nothing exciting. My wife had a hanger steak slathered in a dark, spiced sauce. The steak was precut – kind of strange. The sauce was slightly sweet with some spices. The meat was tender and sort of enjoyable. For dessert, you had a choice of sorbets or an alcoholic, coconut based concoction. As much as I’d like to go back to work drunk to make the day go by faster, my sense of discipline and the desire to keep my job led me to choose the sorbets. This was probably the best part of the meal. The raspberry was slightly spicy and creamy. The leeche wasn’t very good but that is because I don’t like the fruits. My Indian wife enjoys them immensely and enjoyed this sorbet. The lat was a tart passion fruit sorbet that I also enjoyed. The sorbets came with two cookie crisps on top. They were sugar coated and slightly spicy. Also enjoyable. We also, got 2 sodas – I a Ginger Soda and her a Chili Fruit Blast or something. She didn’t enjoy hers and as usual stole my tasty Ginger Soda (I'm going to start spitting in my food and see if that deters her) which had a fresh ginger taste – nothing artificial like Ginger Ale. They were good, but they weren’t $5 good! No wonder Vong charges $20 for lunch – they figure you’re going to get a drink and they mark the stuff up 300%! What a rip-off. Overall, if lunch is any indication of dinner I can’t believe this is a 1 Michelin star restaurant. I would not be interested in coming back for dinner. The décor is uninspiring, the food is bland and uninspiring and there is no really reason for me to want to try again with dinner when there are so many other wonderful places in the city – I’d rather go to Nougatine for lunch and Jean-Georges for dinner. With tax and tip the bill came to about $64. Expensive for lunch.

THE LONDON BAR

151 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
212 468 8889

http://gordonramsay.com/thelondonbar/

So later that evening I had dinner plans with two friends at 6:30pm for Molyvos, a Greek place on 55^th and 7^th. We’ve had a quiet late August at work and have been getting out right at 5pm. With time to kill, my co-worker was nice enough to offer to keep me company at the London Bar which is part of the London Hotel on 54^th and 7^th. As long as I’m buying the drinks, she is keeping the seat warm. The London Bar is part of the Gordon Ramsay setup at the London Hotel and includes Maze (tasting size portions), Gordon Ramsay (fine dining) and the London Bar (drinks and nice bar food). All serve food but each is distinctive in their approach and offerings. We arrived and I ordered my old standby, Campari and Soda. For those of you not familiar with Campari, it is bright red and easily mistaken for a sweet, girly cocktail. However, it is a mixture of herbs and alcohol and is bittersweet – more bitter than sweet actually....just like me! Mixed with soda to cut some of the syrupiness it becomes the perfect concoction to ease my perpetually bothersome stomach, allowing me to relax and settle down. My colleague ordered a glass of Riesling. Time passed by due to good conversation and eventually her friend, a manager at the restaurant appeared. A very polite and affable gentleman, we began talking about our shared love of food and dining out. I glanced at my watch while they speaking and realized I better start going to my dinner. The bartender informed me my bill had been covered by my new friend. How gracious. I thanked him and was preparing to mention that I needed to leave when he offered to show me the kitchen. There was no way I was passing up this offer and I knew my dinner companions would understand. He led us through the main dining room – Gordon Ramsay has some quirky habits such as letting ruffians like me walk through during dinner service and leaving the doors to the main dining area open so the noise of the bar drifts in – and we first reviewed the wine storage area. 700 bottles in temperature controlled units, sorted by type. The kitchen is a sight to behold – large, clean and very professional. The head chef Josh Emett shook my hand and was very friendly. The chef's table is beautiful – black granite I believe. It is positioned on a platform so you have a perfect view of the kitchen while you dine. I would like to be in a position one day where I can enjoy my meal at the restaurant at that table – but since it is about $1700, I may have to wait. We finished our tour of the various sections and exited on the other side by Maze. I said my goodnights and headed off to Molyvos.

MOLYVOS

871 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019

(212) 582-7500 phone

http://www.molyvos.com/About.aspx

Molyvos look ordinary from the outside and when you enter it seems like a standard restaurant. It isn’t until you go to the back that you realize it is actually quite big and attractive in its own way. I enjoyed the rustic nature of our wooden table. I decided to order the grilled octopus as I have been prone to do lately when I see it on the menu somewhere. I was pleased with my decision – it was some of the most tender I have ever had. It was also grilled just enough so that it had some char on the tips and the flavor of this char with the tender flesh was perfect. It was simply dressed with oil olive and served with garlic and tomatoes. Simple and wonderful. My entrée wasn’t as heavenly - Lahano Dolmades - tender cabbage leaves filled with ground lamb, beef, pork and arborio rice, spiced yogurt garlic sauce. It sounds like it has all of the components of a great dish, but the cabbage overpowers the overcooked meat on the inside and the sauce doesn’t do anything to enhance the flavors. You are left with the slightly soggy cabbage and the bland tasting meat. Kind of reminds me of my Mom's stuffed cabbage from my childhood. Her's was covered with tomato sauce though. Dessert was better – a small olive oil type cake with cream on top. Overall, I thought the food was pretty good and I would probably come back again to try a different entrée. Overall, with three people each having an app and entree, one shared dessert and a bottle of wine, my portion of the bill came to $76 with tax and tip.

Davidburke & donatella - Thursday, August 29th

133 East 61st Street
(Park and Lexington Avenues)
New York, NY 10021

http://www.dbdrestaurant.com/info.html

Having been here a few times before, I pretty much knew what to expect from DBD. Solid new American food, done in slightly whimsical ways with good, fresh flavors. Sometimes I feel that while this place is good, it isn’t necessarily memorable. I’ve come more than once because my wife really likes it. The main dining room is quite striking. Done up in red, with balloons floating in the area. It reminds me of a fancy living room. It probably used to be a room in a fancy upper east side townhouse. Just like the one I DON'T live in. Although my bedroom is painted in a slightly sickening red color. So, I went with lobster and sea urchin gnocchi to start and was blown away. The strong, delicious pungency of the sea urchin with the lobster and small bites of gnocchi was wonderful. Bits of roasted tomato and mushrooms mixed in also lent their vegetal flavors, further enhancing the dish. This appetizer was very memorable. For entrée, I decided to go with the Bronx Style Filet Mignon of Veal with Vanilla kabocha squash purée, roasted cipollini onions & tarragon natural. I read somewhere that Chef Burke 'invented' this cut of veal. He was studying the veal or something and realized some part was being used fully and instructed the butcher to carve it in a new way. Low and behold this cut was born. The chop is large, tender and full of that young, fresh veal flavor. The mash below was also wonderful and rich tasting. Overall, a very good dish. My dining companions got things I have tried before – lobster steak and the braised short ribs on cavatelli. Both very good, although the lobster steak comes with way too many shoestring fries. For dessert I stuck with a classic and got vanilla crème brule. Not much to explain here – it is what I just wrote, just done very well. I only ate 20% and brought the rest home where my wife proclaimed it was too eggy. Funny thing is, I really don’t like eggs – but I love carbonara, I like poached eggs on the hash at Mesa grill and I enjoyed this crème brule. One of my companions got the cheesecake lollipop tree – you just have to do it if you haven’t before. The lollipops are actually quite good – very soft and creamy. The women got a kick out of the bubblegum whipped crème it came with. Women love whipped cream...they love to eat it I mean....the whipped cream that is. I didn’t pay the bill here but the prix fixe for all this food was $49 – that is an INSANELY good price for a restaurant of this caliber. I don't know if that price is for a limited time only but I'd jump on it ASAP. There were some other things off menu that sounded amazing but would have cost more. However, I don’t think you can go wrong for the price they are charging here. The table are kind of close, but its no big deal. I would definitely recommend dining here at least once – I’ve done it 3 times already.