Dining in New York

2008-06-15T03:50:00.003+01:00

Last week I've been working out of our New York office, and, even though during the work days I consumed my meals in the office, during the week-ends (both before and after the five working days) I've tried a few places for dinner.

The first day (Saturday 7) I had a red curry at Spice (on the 8th avenue, between 20th and 21st streets), very close to where I stayed and to the office.
The place is nice and cozy, the food was good. Much better than the average curries you can get in Zurich, it was pleasantly spicey and with a nice selection of vegetables (including zucchini, maybe unusual but good). The portion was quite big, with a little cone of rice. That and a beer for about 25$ great value for the money (well, probably not so cheap for NYC, but in Zurich you won't find much in that range).

Sunday evening I went a bit further south, into the West Village and, after examining various places (there are so many nice restaurants there) I choose Jarnac (12th street and Greenwich) I nice French restaurant. I took the menu "prix fixe" ($37.00) consisting of a Carrot - Orange and Ginger Soup (extremely good and refreshing), a fillet of mackerel on a bed of beans, spinach and some other vegetables I don't remember and a Bread and Butter Pudding with Crème Anglaise.
They have a good selection of wines (and on Sunday all bottles are half price) but no much choice for glasses: the only white wine on the glass was a Pinot Grigio which was OK ($9).
All in all, the food was very good, maybe the portions were a bit small for American standards but good for a French retaurant. The overall atmosphere was very "frenchy" and it was no much different than many gourmet restaurants in Paris.

Friday evening I watched the new movie by M.Night Shyamalan at the AMC Loews Kips Bay 15 Theater (on Second avenue and 31st) and had a quick dinner before the show at the nearby Cinema Cafe (on 34th and third avenue). It's a cool place serving new American cuisine. I took an Ahi Tuna Salad, which was indeed very good. It was basically a pepper covered tuna steak (rare, almost sashimi) on a bed of sprouts, beans and seaweed ($19) I also took a dessert: apple spring-roll with vanilla ice-cream, OK but not exceptional.

Saturday has been raining almost all the evening, so I went out a bit late and didn't go too far from the corporate apartment. I went along the 8th avenue, which has quite a few dining places.
I stopped at Cola's (between 18th and 19th ) I never dine in Italian places, but I wanted to give it a try. The menu was OK, with a good selection of non-pasta entrees. for starters I took grilled baby octopus (served with potatoes and beans) which was very good. Then I took a sole (served with green beans) which was OK. The portions were quite big and the prices relatively cheap ($9 for the octopus, $14 for the sole) I took also a glass of pinot grigio (they also had chardonnay and trebbiano). There was not much choice for desserts (this seems a common issue in NYC, as opposed to Paris) the choice was between Tiramisu, Chocolate Mousse and Ice Cream.
I went for the mousse. It was not so good, and this was perhaps the first time in my life I didn't finish my dessert. It was a big cup full of an heavy and thick chocolate creme, it was not quite a mousse, but more like a pound of butter mixed with some chocolate.

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2007-05-12T12:01:00.001+01:00

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Dining in New York

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