There was a time when the tasting menu – a hand- picked selection of micro-courses – was the preserve of a few celebrated chefs.
In the last year, however, the demand for tasting menus has exploded. Every restaurant in town seems to be offering one variety or another, tapping into the current vogue for smaller dishes – while still appealing to their customers’ gluttonous side.
As Sara Moulton, executive chef at Gourmet magazine and presenter of the Food Network’s “Sara’s Secrets,” says: “A whole appetizer can get boring. I think chefs have a lot of fun with tasting menus – they are all about energy, excitement and flavors.”
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay says that the experience should be reserved for the most special of special occasions. “We went to Le Bernardin and the chef (Eric Ripert) offered to make us a tasting menu and we were thrilled,” he says. “My feeling is that a tasting menu is only really appropriate [for a] special occasion, not when you are going to the theater afterwards. With a tasting menu, that is the theater for the night.”
Tasting menus – especially those that include matching wines with each course – are not cheap, but they can offer surprising value for serious foodies.
With that in mind, here’s a selection of some of the very different tasting menus currently coming out of the city’s kitchens.
Hottest new spot:
davidburke and
Donatella
133 E. 61st St.
(212) 813-2121
The extraordinary culinary confections of American master chef David Burke give this hot new East Side restaurant one of the most surprising, inventive and delicious tasting menus in town. At $75 for six courses (plus a few extra nibbles), it’s not only exceptional value, it’s almost required for connoisseurs of highly original gourmet food.
One of the most startling dishes is the first course, caramelized onion flan with sautéed foie gras. When it arrives this dish is absolutely breathtaking – not least because this is probably the only flan you’ll ever see baked inside a meticulously hollowed-out egg.
Main courses (one meat, one fish) cover everything from monkfish stuffed with lobster to braised short ribs with cavatelli and quail’s egg. If you want to push the envelope, you can opt for matching wines to go with every course selected by db&D’s knowledgeable sommelier, but this can push your bill sky-high.
For a safer option, start with a bottle of white and take it from there.
Best for the
morning after:
Gramercy Tavern
42 E. 20th St.
(212) 477-0777
Danny Meyer’s funky Flatiron favorite serves up a spectacular six- to seven-course seasonal tasting menu that currently includes torchon of foie gras with rhubarb, pistachio and arugula, and fresh bacon with glazed turnips.
Executive chef John Schaefer pulls out all the stops over the course of three very tasty hours. At $95 a pop just for the food, the tasting menu at the Gramercy Tavern could hardly be described as cheap, but, as delicacy after delicacy sallies forth from the kitchen, it’s hard not to feel your money is being well spent. The restaurant also offers a vegetable tast ing menu, with such treats as roasted beets and artichoke ravioli for $80.
Spectacularly well-informed staff add to the experience – and at the end of the night they even give you a muffin for breakfast, though you probably won’t need to eat for another 24 hours.
Most exotic menu:
Sugiyama
251 W. 55th St.
(212) 956 0670
Too often a visit to a Japanese restaurant yields the same old safe options. Miso soup, edamame and yellowfin tuna, anyone?
There’s really no danger of that at Sugiyama, a fantastic but lesser-known Midtown Japanese that only serves a “Kaiseki” – balanced, multiple-course – menu. The Zen-like chef Nao Sugiyama stands behind the bar wielding a flashing knife on the unfortunate fish before him. Occasionally he will break off from his work to grin broadly at you as you pop yet another piece of perfectly sized sashimi (whatever is best and most recently off the boat from Japan) into your mouth.
Sitting at the bar, Sugiyama-San and his two assistants will provide all the entertainment you need, while cooking up kobe beef on sizzling stones (if you opt for the $150, eight-course Kaiseki with kobe).
Chief translator San Eric Duong is exceptionally knowledgeable about the menu that Sugiyama offers, but really there’s not much to do except sit back and let Nao dictate what you are going to eat. Much like an elderly relative, he doesn’t mind if you don’t clean your plate – as long as you try it all. Sea urchin, anyone?
Best seafood:
Le Bernardin
155 W. 51st St.
(212) 554-1515
Chef Eric Ripert’s mastery of seafood is undisputed – the only thing open for question is which of his dishes is your favorite. The best way to find out is to opt for the chef’s tasting menu (as opposed to the regular Le Bernardin tasting menu) in the imposing surroundings of one of the city’s most elegant dining rooms.
The comfortably spaced tables and huge pictures of fishermen and their catches all contribute to an air of luxurious comfort – a good thing, too, as working your way through six courses, including hamachi tartare, steamed Maine lobster and crispy Chinese black bass, takes time.
The chef’s menu costs a substantial $135 a head – and you can even upgrade to matching wines with every course for a wallet-walloping $245.
Best French:
Daniel
60 E. 65th St.
(212) 288-0033
For one of the most sumptuously decadent of New York’s great French restaurants, the $125 tasting menu offered at Daniel is something of a steal – especially if you opt for paired wine, a well- worth- it $65 supplement.
The food, of course, is the real draw here, however: The tasting menu at the moment includes a fish course with a choice of seared tuna or fricassee of Dover sole, and a meat course, which tempts you with loin of lamb or organic veal chop. Serious gourmands will want to upgrade to the eight- course “Grand Tasting Menu,” eight courses based around the freshest foods available at the daily markets. This menu costs $160, plus another $85 if you want matching wines – and you do.
