55 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
http://www.danielnyc.com/dbbistro/cuisine.html
After endless episodes of Top Chef, and years of reading about his food, I finally had the opportunity to visit Daniel Boulud's many restaurants. As part of Restaurant Week, Natalie and I decided on a leisurely lunch at DB Bistro Moderne. It was a definite improvement on dinner at the Modern last night.
The Scene:
The space is like every other hip restaurant in town. Modern, sleek lines in a room of red and silver. The mirrors around the dining room manages to make the area look so much larger and airy. Instead of full length glass doors, a window the size of a painting, was cut out of the wall, creating an illusion of a painting of the hustle and bustle of daily NYC. Flowers and actual floral art pieces complete the touch. Absolutely a relaxing and cozy midtown place for business lunches or just to catch up with friends.
Food:
Since it was Restaurant Week, we were offered three choices for each of the 3 courses.
The Bread:
Bread is so so sooo important at a restaurant. I almost want to say that you can foretell the kind of meal you are going to get by the type of bread and butter you are served. Cold bread - food by a kitchen that obviously doesn't care. The worst bread I ever had was in a NJ restaurant - rock hard cold bread accompanied with greasy tasteless butter. I wasn't really surprised when it was followed up by an uninspired, limp and rather sad salad and beef that tastes and stinks like it has gone bad.
But today's bread was exceptional. DB Bistro has 2 types of bread in its bread basket - (1) a soft wheat with olives and (2) mini baguettes. Both were warm and served with lovely butter. We almost devoured the entire basket and I just had to take a picture for nostalgic purposes.Appetizers : Oliver's Alsatian
This is reminiscent of a flatbread pizza at my office cafeteria but less greasy and more agreeable with my stomach. An elevated and lighter version of comfort food that is for the common people. The crunchiness of the onions, a hint of fromage blanc and the meatiness of the bacon: Three ingredients - simple but yet so delicious. I wish I can reproduce this at home everyday and have it as a light snack. Now if only I can find a local shop that doesn't charge a hand and a leg for fromage blanc. Natalie raved about this dish.
Entrees:
When the entrees came around, I was so overwhelmed by the fragrance of freshly grilled seafood and roasted chicken that I almost forgot to take a picture.
Seafood Brochette (Pic)
The seafood brochette consists of grilled shrimps, scallops and octupus resting on a bed of couscous. The French are really good at cooking seafood and I love the fact that this was more of a fusion dish, instead of a traditional french seafood dish. The seafood was lightly grilled and the acidity from the citrusy lemon and an sprinkling of appropriate spices brought out the freshness of the seafood. A very summery dish. A technically well-cooked cous cous accompanied the seafood. To be honest, the cous cous didn't do much for me, except perhaps add more texture. If it was paired with the sauteed corn salad that Natalie had for her roasted chicken, this dish would have been a winner in my book.
Roasted Chicken with corn, baby spinach and chanterellesAn uneducated guess at the ingredients in Natalie's chicken - Buttermilk, bread crumbs, egg, pepper and paprika (Natalie's guess). The corn salad that came along with it was scrumptious but it is hard to go wrong with fresh corn. The roasted chicken was juicy but the seasoning seemed to be applied in a haphazard manner. It was amusing to have a mouthful of bland bread crumbs over greasy chicken and then take a 2nd bite and get a burst of spices. Maybe the chef loves surprises but I prefer my chicken well seasoned.
Desserts:
Desserts were the highlight of our meal. I had first pick of desserts since Natalie opted to use the restroom and I chose the strawberry and passionfruit cremeux with a lemon anglaise. In the spirit of being good friends, we always split our dishes. This was one dessert that almost wrecked our friendship.
Strawberry and Passionfruit Cremeux
Strawberries, pinenuts, tiny meringues, with a passionfruit and lemon anglaise and strawberry cream all on top of a sponge/ angel food cake. In this case, the cake was just fodder for all the creams and sauces. I sat there trying to spoon up as much of my half portion of sauces.
Chocolate Flan with Coffee Ice cream
With supreme willpower, I passed on my dessert in exchange for Natalie's chocolate flan with coffee ice cream. This was an interesting dessert, not taste-wise though. Texturally (if this word exists) the flan tastes more like a chocolate mousse cake with a hard chocolate graham bottom. Peanuts and coffee ice-cream were included too. It was a nice dessert but didn't have the genius and flavor profiles (sour, sweet) of the strawberry and passionfruit cremeux.
Overall Verdict:
My friends and I loved literal comparisons. When asked to describe the meals I have, I like to categorize the level of "deliciousness" to outrageous antics I would have to perform to eat the food again:
Memorable Food and Will Go Again = Run around naked in NYC
Good Food = Moon someone from my apartment
Average = Lie to my parents
Food that is edible = Why bother, I can find it anywhere
Food that I won't feed to my dog = I would rather cook it myself
I would have no scruples about running around Times Square butt naked in the middle of winter for this meal. $24.07 for this quality of food and service, I love Restaurant Week!!
