Nice Matin

After a day at the museums or central park, your legs are usually tired and your belly is ready for some FOOD! A great French restaurant on the upper west side to take a break and have a nice meal is Nice Matin just blocks from the Natural History Museum. With the weather warming up, I'll be spending a lot more time in that neighborhood so expect more posts! I recalled a great night I spent here with friends last summer for restaurant week.  It would be a great place for a date night and there are larger tables for groups. It gets a little noisy with all the chatter but its a lively place and I would recommend it for those in the area.

Sweet Corn Risotto

Seared Ahi Tuna Steak and Grape Caper Compote on a bed of Heirloom Tomatoes

Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Cafe Boulud - Restaurant Week

Restaurant Week in NYC is coming to an end this week and I've taken the opportunity to try a few of New York's restaurants at a severely discounted price. Lunch is only $24.07 and Dinner $35. Restaurant week is a great opportunity for people to enjoy great food, restaurants, and renowned chefs at an affordable price. I can think of many meals where I paid much more than the prix-fixe prices which proved incomparable to the elegant delicious food off the restaurant week menus at New York's finest restaurants.





One hot ticket for restaurant week is Cafe Boulud who only partakes in lunch service for restaurant week; their dinner menu remains the same. I have tried getting a reservation for their restaurant week menu since last year and this year was lucky enough to stumble onto a cancelled reservation. With 24 hours of notice, I recruited my friend Niko to play hooky and take an extended lunch hour to try this french restaurant owned by distinguished chef Daniel Boulud in the Upper East Side.

 Amuse Bouche - Truffle Oil Arancini Stuffed with Fontina Cheese
 

 Appetizer - Duck Terrine with Frisee, Onion and Cranberry

 Dessert - Rum Raisin Bavariose with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

 Complimentary Madeleine Cookies at the end of the meal

From their famous end-of-the-meal Madeleine cookies to the arancini amuse bouche it was a fantastic meal start to finish. The server even told us that customers have come back to the restaurant specifically for the Madeleines and ask if they can pay to have them at the beginning of the meal as well as the end. And as someone who does not particularly enjoy sweets, I have to say they were pretty good. Subtle lemon flavors in the fresh-out-of-the-oven warm cookies with powdered sugar dusted on top for the perfect amount of sweetness. In addition to their fantastic $24.07 three course prix-fixe menu, Cafe Boulud also has a special $24 bottle of wine (white and red option) to accompany their restaurant week menu. The cherry on top!

Note*: I had the blackened flounder over creamy polenta and braised collard greens for my entree. However, I was overly excited when it came out and forgot to snap a picture of it; but believe me, it was delicious.

Armani Ristorante - Photo Essay

Last week I was fortunate enough to go with my friend Will to a menu tasting of the new chef at Armani Ristorante. This beautiful restaurant is located 2 floors above the Armani store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The Italian chef, raised and trained in Italy, has been at the restaurant for only eight months. His menu is full of bold rich flavors and delicious pastas. There were many things we wanted to try on the menu and the chef graciously opened his kitchen and allowed us to order whatever we wanted. If you are willing to splurge a little bit for clean but robust flavors in modern Italian food, Armani Ristorante should be considered on that list.

   Amuse Bouche - Raw Langoustine topped with Asian Pear & Caviar

 Il Fegato Grasso D'Oca Giovane - Chilled Foie Gras, Red Beet & Pear Salad, 92' Port Wine Reduction

 Capesante Scottate - Sauteed Sea Scallops, 'Thousand Layer' Potatoes & Black Norcia Truffles

 Crudita Di Mare (Left to Right) - Poached Langoustine, Red Beet & Orange Marinated Wild Branzino Carpaccio, Fresh Oyster, White Sturgeon Caviar, Grilled Octopus, Blue Fin Tuna Tartar

 Tartar Di Manzo - Beef Tartar with Finely Diced Vegetables, Caper Berries, Parmigiano and Baby Artichoke Salad

 Agnolotti - Duck and Foie Gras filled Pasta in Sage-flavored white butter sauce (half portion)

Risotto All'Imperiale - Risotto with King Crab Meat and Brandy Reduction (half portion)

 Variazione D'Anatra - Duck Two Ways, Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Sicilian Orange Reduction, Confit Duck Leg with Acacia Honey Potato Fondant

I Bomboloni - Italian Doughnuts with Vanilla Red Currant Ice Cream

'wichcraft

It's lunchtime in New York and the daily turmoil of choosing what to eat is a true dilemma. Dozens of restaurants are within walking distance and even more are willing to deliver straight to your office. A favorite of mine would have to be 'wichcraft.

Though probably not the biggest bang for your buck, 'wichcraft makes up for it in the quality of their ingredients and the consistently good flavors in their food. It's no wonder 'wichcraft produces delicious food with Tom Colicchio as a co-owner of the sandwich shop with partners Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky. Top Chef is one of my favorite shows and I've been to a couple of Tom's restaurants in NYC already. Now I'm waiting for the weather to warm up so I can eat at Riverpark, Tom's farm-to-table restaurant along the east river (post to come in Spring/Summer). Now nine years since they started 'wichcraft, there are over a dozen 'wichcraft locations in New York as well as storefronts in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

'wichcraft sandwiches ($5-10)

Their slow-roasted pork sandwich is fantastic. The fatty pork is balanced by the slightly crisp sour red cabbage slaw. With the heat from the jalapeno and the sharpness of the mustard, it is just a delicious and deceivingly filling sandwich for it's size. Finish off lunch with a little creamwich ($1); a dollop of flavored cream sandwiched between two crisp little cookie wafers. With several flavors to choose from, mine was chocolate chip cookie with vanilla bean cream, one will definitely fit your taste.