Every year, Alex and I choose a restaurant to celebrate Christmas, around Christmas time. The first year, we went to Perilla. It was fantastic. We loved it so much that we named our cat Perilla. Last year, we went to The Breslin. The Breslin was also great. The Breslin does not take reservations. We took our chances and arrived at 5:30. We were seated at 6:05, and had a delicious meal!
I put an unreasonable amount of pressure on where to go each year. I always want to go somewhere awesome. By awesome, I mean that I want to go somewhere that is either buzz worthy, or some place I have wanted to go for awhile. I want to go somewhere that feels special and that would not be a place I would just go to on a whim to drop more money than usual.
We thought about going to Recette, a restaurant in the West Village. We heard great things about it, and it has been on our list for almost a year. But, I also really wanted to go to ABC Kitchen, which received the Best New Restaurant of 2011 by James Beard. So, I made a reservation at ABC Kitchen. Then, I found out I had to work the day that I made the reservation and the night that I was free was fully booked. I called day-of to be put on the waitlist. I read on the internet though that they reserve a few high-top tables for walk-ins.
I walked-in at 5:45. A little early for dinner, I know. But for restaurants that book up really fast, sometimes your only option is to go super early or really late. The Maitre D' told me that they had high-tops available. We sat as soon as Alex arrived at 6 p.m. For your reference, they have 5 high-top tables that are first come, first serve, reserved for walk-ins. They were all full by 6:30. If you go, go early!!!
We sat down and perused the menu. The menu is very extensive. There are snacks, appetizers, pizzas, entrees and sides. It is hard to decide how many to get of each! Everything at ABC Kitchen has that local, organic vibe, but it is not at all crunchy. And the best part is, you are in this beautiful space, that is so white winter wonderland, and the servers wear sneakers! I love upscale approachable food in a casual fine dining space. It is literally the best of all of the worlds. It almost seems impossible to achieve that kind of harmony.
We ordered the fresh mozzarella, the chicken and pork sausage, and the pretzel calamari to start. As for entrees, the entrees seemed somewhat appealing, but also pricey. Although I am not always opposed to pricey, it seemed that I could try more smaller cheaper dishes instead of putting all of my dollars towards a $22 hamburger or $32 fish. Alex ordered the $28 bass and I ordered the $16 spinach and goat cheese pizza.
The chicken and pork sausage came out first, and it was pre-split for us. I love that! It is very classy, and just nice. The chicken and pork sausage rocked. Loved it! Next, we had the mozzarella with toast. That was also great. I love fresh mozzarella. The pretzel calamari was good calamari, but I didn't get the pretzel flavor so much. It was not bad, but I would not get it again.
The entrees arrived a little while later. The pizza had a whole wheat crust and was covered in Spinach. It was delicious and very manageable (but sorry the picture is bad. the light was off). I had 3 slices and Alex had 1. He also enjoyed his bass, but he felt I made the better decision with the pizza. Although the bass was good, it was $28. We would have been better off with 2 more apps instead of the bass.
The dessert menu came and there was a sundae on it. For your information, Alex is a sundae fanatic. A sundae on any menu means we are ordering it. He loves sundaes so much that I ordered him one at Perilla when we got the 7 course tasting menu. So we had 7 courses, plus the sundae. He will never say no to a sundae.
The sundae on this menu was a salted caramel ice cream, candied peanuts and popcorn, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. $12. The sundae came out and it was so big. There were 3 enormous scoops of ice cream. And popcorn in ice cream is so amazing that I am not sure I can eat ice cream without popcorn in the future. It was fantastic. It was a great way to end the meal.
Overall, we had another successful Christmas celebration. I recommend going early and getting bar seating. Order a pizza, some apps, and a glass of wine. I think you will enjoy yourself!
Have a delicious day!
NYC Menu Girl
0 comments:
Post a Comment