Ouest, $28, April 2010, party of 4, April 2010

At the urging of the party present at my Prix Fixe meal at Ouest, I will review a Brunch. The party being my husband and our friends, Laurent and Mee-Ryung. None of us are fans of brunch for various reasons.  To me, brunch is a way for restaurants to use up food that is left over from the Friday and Saturday service by mixing it in eggs and potatoes.  Besides, my husband makes a killer French omelet, if I have a hankering for eggs.  I also think that the B-, C- or hung over- Team is working in the kitchen on that day to give the chef some time off.  I know this is a bleak view of a meal that is extremely popular in NYC, but, for me, there are just too many factors working against a really good, quality meal.  Then, my friends and I went to Ouest for our Sunday lunch.

Ouest is considered one of the more notable, destination restaurants on the Upper West Side. I have eaten dinner here a few times and thoroughly enjoyed it.  On this visit, my friends and I, found ourselves staring at a Brunch menu, no burger or pasta dish to soothe our brunch-phobis souls.  The $28 Prix Fixe menu includes juice or coffee, an appetizer and a Brunch item.  We were stuck: seated and menu in hand we could not walk out, besides I would forfeit the opentable.com points.  So, as food adventurers, we just went with it, but did not expect much.

We were confused by the Brunch menu, as if it were missing a page. So, we were not sure what was included on the Prix Fixe menu.  Once we got a quick explanation from our pleasant, yet distracted waiter, we ordered our Appetizer and Brunch and forgot the juice and coffee.

We were served a basket of warm breads.  There was a nice variety, all were fantastic.  There were cranberry, blueberry and raisin breads. They were hard to divide fairly with the rest of the table once they had been tasted.  They were sweet and moist.  The basket also contained some beautifully herbed rolls that begged to be buttered.  It set quite a good mood for the start of our accidental Brunch, even if the service started a bit slow and shaky.

The salad appetizer was fresh and flavorful.  The lettuce was lightly and carefully covered with a Ceasar dressing with a little grated parmesan.  The house made yogurt appetizer was thick and full bodied with a nice tanginess to it.  The cherries added just enough sweetness.  The spicy tomato bisque was not very spicy, nor was it technically a bisque. Technically, a bisque starts with a seafood stock with that particular seafood diced into the soup, but even, the great,  Larousse concedes that most pink or red purees are called bisques, even if it is an imprecise descriptor.  It was tasty, nonetheless. It was drizzled with a bit of flavored oil and cream, then sprinkled with chives.   Our appetizers were enjoyable.  We wondered how our next course would be.

I ranked the Brunch items from 1 to 4.  1 being the least favorite and 4 the best.  Do not assume that the dish that ranked 1, the hanger steak and eggs, was bad.  It was very good, but, just an ordinary breakfast/brunch item.  The steak was done to a perfect medium rare, the potatoes were seasoned well and the eggs, ordered "over medium", were expertly cooked to "over medium".  I rarely see eggs presented as they were ordered, so this impresses me.  The 2nd ranked was fried poached eggs over duck prosciutto.  Again, this dish was far from being bad.  The cured duck breast was thinly sliced and salty, it was a bit of an exotic treat.  It paired well with the fried poached eggs, however, they were a bit overdone.  The omelt souffle ranked #3. It was light on the tongue, but rich in flavor. In between the egg layers was wilted spinach and a craftily seasoned hollandaise sauce that made you want to lick the plate.  It also had thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms around the souffle giving the dish another flavor dimension.  The smoked sturgeon dish got the most points and snaps.  The flavor of the fish was an "mmmm, oh!", meaning, it tastes terrific when you first put it in your mouth (mmmmm), but as the flavor coats your tongue you realize its not just terrific its spectacular (oh! and your eyes get really wide).  This experience, doesn't happen often because there is an element of surprise.  There was a small frisee salad over the two skillfully prepared poached eggs and some lardons around the plate, which, always add a yum factor.  To our surprise, we were enjoying our brunch and talking about how fantastic the food we were eating was. 

Our  accidental brunch was a delicious and amazing meal.  Our opinions about restaurant brunch may have been a bit shaken, but the four of us will still likely seek out lunch on Sundays as we normally do together.  I will gladly return to Ouest for any meal they are serving.  They truly deserve their high regard in this neighborhood, but their rating of 24 by Zagat, to me, is a little low.  I will give them one more point and make a note to come back for dinner soon to confirm or better that score.

Nougatine at Jean Georges, $26, April 2010

Nougatine translated is a type of candy that is sugar and nuts and butter.  It is harder than a caramel, but not as hard as brittle.  It is what the pock marked flooring resembles at this Jean Georges restaurant.  Nougatine is considered the more "casual" portion of the renown French restaurant Jean Georges. However, casual is hardly the term I would use to describe this elegant, sophisticated, light-filled restaurant sitting at the base of the Trump Tower across from Central Park at Columbus Circle.  This lunch was one of the most anticipated Prix Fixe lunches I have planned.  It is a close as I could get to the real Jean Georges restaurant without the pricetag.  Nougatine's menu parallels the Jean Georges menu, but is lighter and less exotic, yet still classic and deserving of its own fanfare.  It is hard to believe three course Prix Fixe lunch is only $26.  What a deal.  My dear and loyal friend, Mee-Ryung, was there to experience the meal, as well.

The wine list is quite large and diverse.  It has any wine you may want.  If you can't figure out what to order there is a pleasant sommelier to guide you to your perfect bottle, half bottle, magnum, glass.  He will recommend a fitting wine for your choice of food and will be agreeable to what you have selected, even if he doesn't recommend your pick. The bottle prices are on the high side.  There are a scant selection of bottles under $50, but who wants to look cheap?  Order from the short, but adequate, by the glass menu or get a nice half bottle for two to share.  I do recommend wine with this meal, a soda is an insult to the food and water just dilutes the flavors.

There were several first and second course items to choose from on the menu.  All of which were described in a very mouth watering, yet, enigmatic way.  I was at the edge of my seat waiting for our starters to arrive. M's tuna tartar was fabulous.  The tuna itself was delicious and beautifully presented.  The sauce that was poured around the tartar had a mixture of ingredients that, while not extraordinary (ginger, soy, garlic), was so well balanced you could have drank it.  I got a mango and goat cheese salad (I know, salad, what was I thinking?).  It, too, was delicious and beautiful, but its construction is what impressed me.  The frisee was cut to a proper size so it was not awkward to eat and the goat cheese did not top the salad, instead it was in the salad, stuck in little frisee leaves.  The flavors of the goat cheese mango melted together along with an occasional kalamata olive for a salty punch. I am definitely going to try making this salad at home.

The second course was nearly as divine as the first.  M had beef tenderloin with brussel sprouts. The beef's pink center was bright and slightly warm.  It was very tender and flavorful.  It was pretty close to perfect.  The beautiful, white cod I ordered sat proudly on cranberry beans and leeks.  It was the boss of the plate. It tasted fresh and was seasoned perfect.  The proteins of this course were impressive, however, the accoutrements weren't very memorable, not that they were bad, they were up against a dominating partner.

The one thing I love about the Prix Fixe lunches I have had so far is that you don't get stuffed on a plateful of shameless food.  You have resonable portions of fine, quality ingredients that satisfy you,  but not fill you. So, when dessert comes you have little guilt.  We ordered the two dessert choices: chocolate and carmel. The warm chocolate cake with vanilla icecream was, well, the bomb.  It was chocolate around chocolate with a gooey center flowing from a warm, moist cake.  The icecream was a perfect accompaniment.  I had the creme de carmel with citrus segments.  The creme de carmel was fabulous, not too hard or soft.  The citrus segments were good to mix with the flavor of the carmel.  A happy ending to a happy lunch.

This was the best lunch so far.  The food was extraordinary, the setting was elegant, the service was a bit, well, French (sorry, M & L), but, appropriate.  For the price of $26, what a treat!  AND, I forget to mention, Jean Georges was there overseeing the restaurants from the open kitchen. I am impressed by that.  This is a lunch that will be hard to beat.  It has raised the bar for my future lunch adventures.  I am so spoiled here in NYC.