Craft – New York, NY

With the wife recently celebrating her birthday, her mom wanted to take us out for a really nice dinner while we were all in NYC. We are all big fans of Top Chef on Bravo so who were we to refuse when her mom requested that we all dine at Craft, Tom Colicchio’s flagship restaurant. The menu had lots of interesting things to choose from…including a whole suckling pig for the table to share, sweetbreads in both appetizer and entree sized portions, but it was the 7 course tasting menu that caught our collective eyes. Once again, when it was suggested that we all partake in the tasting menu, who were we to refuse. I also insisted that we added an 8th course…an appetizer sized portion of sweetbreads. I had been wanting to try this item for a long time now and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Here’s all 8 of our dinner courses: 

Course 1: Raw Tai Snapper, American Caviar, Island Creek Oyster. The fish was super-fresh and really light tasting. The salty caviar, sweet oyster, and crunchy, mini potato chips were all nice compliments to the thinly sliced fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 2: Brebis Blanche Agnolotti Matignon (AKA pasta filled with sheep’s milk cheese) and Lamb Bacon. The crispy fattiness of the lamb bacon was a great compliment to the tangy, cheese filling of the pasta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 3: Olive Oil Poached Cod, Morels, Chickpeas, FavaBeans, Razor Clam. This dish was awesome…one of those dishes where all of the little components work well together. The fish was so perfectly cooked it melted in my mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 4: Sweetbreads (according to Wikipedia, the thymus gland of pork, beef or lamb). I had never had sweetbreads before and wasn’t sure to expect. They were pan sauteed and had a nice brown coating on the outside and were really rich and tender on the inside. I’d say that they reminded me of a cross between a chicken nugget and chicken liver, but that would do a disservice to the delicate sweetbread flavor. I really enjoyed this. I don’t remember what kind of sauce it was served with, but it had good acidity to it to help cut down on the richness of the sweetbreads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 5: Guinea Hen, Black Truffle Grits, BrusselSprouts. I’m not normally a fan of grits, but these were excellent…I’m sure it had something to do with inclusion of the black truffle. The guinea hen was also very well cooked. Another dish where the sum of all of the small parts together was greater than any individual component.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 6: Eleysian Fields Rack of Lamb, Gnudi Swiss Chard, Trompette Royale. I love lamb and this dish featured a lamb chop that was so tender and perfectly cooked that I wanted to cry. The wife felt that it was a bit on the rare side, but I prefer my meat that way, so I was happy. The mushrooms and the little gnudis (kind of like gnocchi, but I think you substitute potato flour for a soft cheese) were absolutely delicious too.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 7: Meyer Lemon Sundae, Hibiscus Syrup, Coconut Merengue. This was probably my least favorite of all of our courses. It was a great palatte cleanser and the women-folk really enjoyed it saying it was a nice break from all of the hearty, heavy, earthy courses we had up to this point. See, I wanted no break in the action and I’m not a big ‘lemon sorbet’ fan. With that said, I will admit that it wasn’t bad…I ate all of mine…but definitely not something I’d order again. It’s just a personal preference. But it was quite refreshing and really got me in the mood for our final course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course 8: Chocolate Ganache Tart, Cocoa Nib, Creamsicle Ice Cream. This dessert was so freakin’ good. Anyone that knows me really well will know that I have a soft spot for anything resembling a really dense chocolate cake made with minimal to no flour and this was no exception. The cake, the ice cream, the little bit of candied orange zest on the ice cream…it was a big winner in my opinion and a great end to a really superb meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, this meal was fantastic. There was a nice progression from dish to dish. Lots of the items (the pasta, guinea hen, and lamb) all featured the kind of bold and earthy flavors that I really like. There were a few minor service issues in the beginning…we had asked to be moved from a table that was right in the path of servers entering and exiting the kitchen only to be moved to another table that was right next to another really busy part of the dining floor. When we asked again if we could be moved to the next table over that was in a bit less-trafficked of an area, the hostess instead of saying ‘of course, sit where you’d be most comfortable’ said ‘ummm, let me check’. But once we got that all straightened out and figured out who our server was, things were back on track. The wife did notice that there was some ‘back-and-forth’ with the service. For example, when I ordered a refill on my drink, a server brought it by the table, then went away, then walked around a bit, then finally deposited the drink on the table. They did this a few times with some of our courses as well. I was too busy in food heaven to notice. And I thought that our head server Victor (or Vincent, I can’t remember exactly) was good…he was very attentive to our needs and happily fulfilled all of our requests. 4 stars all the way, I would definitely repeat this menu if given the option to do so.