Tag Archives: major food group

NYC – 5/3/16 – Buvette, Employees Only, Untitled and Santina

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Buvette
An early evening stop for one of my favorite cocktails the Sidecar.  Incidentally one of my dad’s favorites as well so I suppose fitting that I am writing this on Father’s Day.

Employees Only
The last two times I attempted to go to Employees Only I couldn’t get in so for once got their prior to opening.  Within 5 minutes of doors every seat was taken.  And I basically just don’t get it.  These cocktails were good, but as no ingredients were measured, even before taking a sip I didn’t expect them to be anything great.

Untitled
I seem to think about Untitled only when its warm enough to sit outside and not in other months so it sometimes falls off of my radar.  Like other USHG spots it is just incredibly solid.  No earth shattering dishes but just consistently really really good with excellent service.

Octopus, marinated radicchio, preserved lemon

Smoked arctic char mousse, fennel, rye toast

Pulled pork lettuce wraps, fried oyster, peanut miso
Cured fluke, kohlrabi, cara cara orange

Baby lettuce, spring onion, feta

Roasted and fried chicken, polenta, swiss chard
Cheese Plate

Sticky toffee cake, oranges, earl grey

Santina
And why not have a nitecap of one of my absolute favorite things in NYC?  Lamb tartare cecina.

NYC – 3/6/16 – Sadelle’s

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I wish I could say that service has improved but at least the breakfast and lunch menu has remained consistently fantastic.  Since Sadelle’s has opened I have eaten more bagels than in the last 5+ years.  However it is best to stick to weekdays and avoid at all costs on the weekend.  What a complete zoo.

House beets

Smoked Scottish Salmon

NYC – 3/1/16 – Santina

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The tricolore splendido salad has been one of my favorite things at Santina but evidently I haven’t ordered it for a while as I had no idea that they had been playing around with the plating.  Some things are better left alone.  When the dish arrived I was initially confused by not seeing the tuna on the top and thought it was forgotten.  The percentage of olives was much higher than it used to be and overall this salad was somehow terrible.  Please revert to the original version.  Thankfully my server replaced it with the squash carpaccio which is always fantastic and removed it from the check.

Gamberetti cecina – rock shrimp, chickpeas
Tricolore splendido salad – tuna carpaccio

Squash carpaccio – winter squash, honey agrodolce

NYC – 10/17/15 – Sadelle’s, NYCWFF with Virgilio Martinez and Matthew Lightner, and Nomad Bar

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Sadelle’s
Another visit and I wish that I could say that the service improved but sadly such was not the case.  Although I did have it much better than the people seated on either side of me who were missing dishes and had to ask repeatedly if they were coming or forgotten.  And not much of a spoiler that on my most recent visit this weekend it is still not good.  As I’ve never had any service issues at any of the other Major Food Group spots, it does baffle me a bit what is going on here.  Growing too quickly perhaps?  But nevertheless I will continue to return because I love the food.  The salads are what I want to eat everyday for lunch if I could.

Beverly – turkey, cheddar, beet, bacon, tomato
Pickles


NYCWFF – Virgilio Martinez and Matthew Lightner
Most of me just wants to say that this was a complete sh*t show, the end.  I was really looking forward to this dinner to have Matthew Lightner back in town and to finally have Virgilio Martinez’s food and maybe decide if I would ever make the trek to his restaurant in Peru.  The NYC Wine and Food Festival (NYCWFF) has been in existence long enough that there is really no excuse for such poor organization and service, especially at one of the priciest events of the weekend.  Of the hors d’oeuvres, we somehow only received 2 and after inquiring several times as the dinner proceeded were told that the kitchen had run out.  When the number of guests are known and the room fairly small, I still don’t understand how this was possible especially as these were not passed hors d’oeuvres.  Our table was ignored by the servers and when we questioned this and complained, the response and lack of even an apology from the organizers was disappointing at best. When paying a lot for a dinner, having to do battle to just get the food on the menu is absurd. I’ve had a good run of events at the NYCWFF but I think this is the end of the road for me.

Tart of Sprouted Grain with garden salsa and smoked clams
Rock of the Sea Razor Clams with avocado cream
Pseudocereals with Andean grains and citrus
  

Marine Soil Scallops with aji amarillo tiger’s milk and seaweed

Porridge of Heirloom Rice and Smoked Fish with mushrooms and sourdough
 BBQ Lamb with petals of beets and rose, aromatic red sauce
 Cacao and Chaco Clay, chocolate ganache, chaco clay and dragon fruit

Nomad Bar
And when dinner is underwhelming and you are still hungry where else to end up by Nomad Bar for my favorite cocktail, Satan’s Circus, plus a hot dog.  I’m not sure how I got by before this place was open.


  

NYC – 10/9/15 – Sadelle’s

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My first attempt to visit Sadelle’s unfortunately was on a Monday and I did not realize that they were closed.  Its probably good that I gave them an additional week to work out some of the kinks.  There are several restaurants where terrible service completely ruined the experience for me and because the food was not exceptional I will never return.  On this visit to Sadelle’s service was honestly a complete disaster.  My table evidently fell through the cracks with no server assigned and I sat for 25 minutes before even being able to catch somebody’s attention.  And it really went downhill from there.  However in spite of this Sadelle’s is one of my favorite new restaurants of the year.  I absolutely loved the waldorf salad including the lemon vinaigrette which tastes exactly like one I used to make.  I wasn’t expecting anything great from the house beets but this may be the best beet salad I’ve ever had.  The fresh herbs and lemon zest made them somewhat addicting.  While I believe that food and service are equal parts of the experience, on rare occasions great food is enough to forgive the other issues.  I took a chocolate babka to-go and may have eaten the whole thing in two days (even though I hate to admit it).

Waldorf salad – chicken, raisin, walnut, celery, apple
 House beets
 Chocolate babka

NYC – 6/13/15 – Santina

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As many reviews have said, Santina is the hit of the summer.  Its definitely my favorite opening this year and I will continue to visit frequently.  Hence this may be the last time I add it to the blog otherwise the entires will become far too numerous.  The food is consistently fantastic but on this visit, despite being one of the first parties in the restaurant at 10:15 am, we were seated at the worst possible table right by the entrance to the kitchen and bathrooms.  Perhaps a minor detail, yet no need for that when the dining room is completely empty.  I somehow didn’t take a photo, but a big thank you to the kitchen for the pannetone french toast.  We didn’t even think to order it but it was some of the best french toast I’ve ever had!


Giardinia Crudité

Salmon Affumicato Cecina

Arugula Fig Salad

Shrimp Zingara with a poached egg

NYC – 3/4/15 – Dirty French

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It has taken me much too long to get to Dirty French.  In my defense I was traveling most of the first few months it was open.  But I was also afraid that I was going to be underwhelmed and that it was going to be too loud in addition to various other negative comments I had read online.  The fantastic flatbread started dinner on the right note and overall all of the food was excellent.  It was loud yes, but not as bad as I had anticipated.  And service was extremely friendly, although I sat with an empty cocktail glass in front of me for much too long without being asked if I wanted another.  Much like Carbone I can’t help but feeling that it is overpriced and so it won’t be in regular rotation.  But it was perfect for celebrating a friend’s birthday and I do look forward to a return visit.

Flatbread w/ Fromage blanc

Carpaccio – lamb, aubergine, yogurt 

Millefeuille – trumpet royale, green curry 

Meunière – brook trout, sesame, dried apricots 

Duck a l’ Orange – ras el hanout, preserved oranges

Chèvre Salade – kale, sunchokes, sand pear

Pommes Frites

Tatin – pineapple, banana, rum raisin ice cream

NYC – 2/21/15 – Santina

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My first visit to Santina happened to be during a snow storm and the bright cheery seaside decor was completely transporting.  But at the same time the glass walls offered a beautiful view of the snow falling in the hours before the plows come out and it turns into an ugly mess.  This is probably my favorite restaurant opening in NYC in the last year.  It truly doesn’t often happen that I feel the need to immediately return to a restaurant because I really want to try the majority of the menu.  While I did not try any of the pastas on this visit, everything I did have was very light, especially in comparison to Major Food Group’s other recent openings.

The lamb tartare was elevated with mint and olives and a terrific filling to the cecina, a chickpea pancake served in a cast-iron skillet.  But the stars of this dish were the accompanying salsa verde and tomato soffritto.  Separately both are extremely good, but together they are spectacular.  I wish I could eat the Tricolore splendido salad, topped with tuna carpaccio, everyday for lunch.  And the squash carpaccio is easily one of the best squash dishes I have ever had and so much more than I was expecting when I ordered it.

Fiori – gin, chamomile, Campari 

Lamb tartare cecina 

Tricolore splendido 

Amalfi gold – bourbon, orange, ginger, creme de peche

Squash carpaccio

Lime meringa