I had the recent privilege to visit New York city with my wife for my 10th anniversary. We booked a reservation at Bobby's newest restaurant, Gato and a small trendy Italian restaurant in the Upper East Side. However, life interrupted, our kid got sick, and we made it to Manhatten barely in time for the show. We looked to see what was available that night, and nearby and found Bar Americain, Bobby's other restaurant
I was excited to return here, because my last post covered my meal cooked from the recipe book of the same name. I wanted to see how my food compared in taste against Bobby Flay's chefs.
Sadly, the meal I made (New York Strip Philly Style) was the special for Saturday night, and I was there on a Thursday. I settled for the fresh, hot potato chips with blue cheese sauce, the crab cake, and the shrimp and grits.
The real winner here was the potato chips. I just could not get enough of them. I tried to duplicate myself from the Bar Americain cookbook. I'll compare the ones from the restaurant to the ones I make in my next entry. These were really good!
The crab cake was beautiful and meaty. I mean really beautiful. The green basil sauce it rested on smelled strong and sweet. Look at the dark green swirls. I really liked the presentation here. The taste was amazing too, but...I almost felt like it was a bit undercooked inside. I'm not sure if that's the way it was supposed to be--I'm not a crab cake veteran or anything. Crisp outside, but the binding was a bit delicate--but tasty. I don't want to say it was bad. The tarragon tartar sauce added a bit of "tang" to it with just a tinge of anise flavor.
The shrimp and grits had that distinctive seafood smell. I saw that bacon and shrimp and I knew it was going to be great. I tried my best to note the texture of the "grit." The last time I made I threw it all out because I thought I got it all wrong. I thought it was supposed to be smooth. I think you can make it that way, but clearly there was some bite to this. Very subtle, but the smoothness of the grits was off set my just little bits of texture. This was good to note, because I guess I wasn't too far off when I made them.
But holy butter, batman. As the grits started cooling down, I saw a bit of butter separation in there--it was a layer of oil that must have come from adding a stick just to my dish. It actually started getting unappetizing at that point--but not enough to not make me finish my meal.. I was very sad after I ate there. I must say I was a bit disappointed.
I shouldn't be a food critic. It really was quite good. And I cleaned my plate. But this was my second time here, and both times I felt like I got the "wrong thing." My wife's meal looked better. She got the french onion soup and the standard filet mignon. I was like, "Really? Those old tropes?" But she had the last laugh on me that night.
As simple as the filet was, the steak sauce (not pictured) really made the dish. The steak was cooked just perfect. I'm so jealous how perfectly they cook these steaks. And just look at that cheese on the soup! I want to rip it off and chew on the whole thing like a pack of cheese gum. I should have gone basic.
Anyway, it was a notch down for Bobby that night, compared to my life changing experience I wrote about with Mesa Grill. But I went to Gato the next night...mind blown again. I'll talk about my experience in another entry, but first.... I'm going to make those potato chips! They are in the Bar Americain cookbook, so I'll see you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment