Clover Eats!
Sharing restaurant experiences through photography!
Le Bernardin in NYC (3 Michelin Stars)
My husband loves nice food, so we are trying to eat at all the Michelin restaurants in the New York area. I am not a particular fan of seafood, but don’t mind it when it is done well, so agreed to grab lunch at Le Bernardin during an NYC stopover. We showed up early to our noon reservation, but despite that, were rushed through the whole meal, only getting the menu seconds before having our orders taken. We spent less than an hour for our lunch, and while it speaks to efficiency on the part of the staff and kitchen, it certainly put a damper on our meal. I was shocked that this restaurant had three Michelin stars. Our appetizers – okay, entree – meh, dessert was quite nice though. Overall, really not impressed at all.
Fred’s review: Their take on crab cake was accompanied by a fragrant shellfish-cardamom sauce reminiscent of a bouillabaisse. The appearance was mesmerizing with a flavor to match – probably the best crab I have eaten. The dover sole was light, flakey, with a crisp skin accentuated by toasted almonds, and a slight tartness from the beurre blanc proved a perfect accompaniment. My dessert featured three separate preparations of strawberry – including a generous topping of freeze-dried bits, making the desert feel larger than a single course although still sticking to a single theme. The bread selection was also particularly impressive, perhaps revamped after the criticism from the latest NYT review – Clover and I both picked just one item (she got a soft slice of rosemary bread, while I had a roll flavored with sundried tomatoes), although I did get a twinge of jealousy when I saw the next table ask for three. I love the breadth and consistency of the menu, with each course clearly featuring a single fish front and center. I would be excited to try some of Eric Ripert’s masterful and innovative preparations of other seafood in the near future.
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
A fantastic meal at Vox in Reykjavik, Iceland
Vox was probably the second-best meal we had, after Grillid. It was a bit out of the way, and we had to take a cab to the Hilton but it was so worth it. I wasn’t particularly expecting much, it was almost empty despite it being a weekend night, and it was ranked highly on TripAdvisor. But my husband said it had a Michelin Plate and so was worth a visit. I’m happy I came because the food was amazing!
- The sauce for the bread was one of the best bread sauces I’ve ever encountered – brown butter, mustard seeds, and chives.
- The ‘Little Fly’ cocktail was adorable, but although it was an award-winning cocktail, it wasn’t really anything special.
- The service was a little off – most of these nice restaurants ask about allergies, for example; the pacing was also off, only seconds after we got bread, the first course of the tasting menu came out, and we were left to scramble to rearrange our plates. Besides these little hiccups though, the food was wonderful.
- The single of ravioli is raviolo and we had a lovely bite into this one. There was also a lot of last-minute sauces poured at the table, freshly mixing with the food.
- Lamb and celeriac and mushrooms appeared again, as seems to be expected in Iceland
- The brisket was overly salty, and unfortunately made a reappearance with the lamb
- The pavlova dessert was divine.
- Overall, a great experience, far above Nostra and just a smidge below Grillid. 10,900 KR. Check them out on their website!
Icelandic Street Food in Reykjavik, Iceland
Stopped by Icelandic Street Food because Matur og drykkur wasn’t open yet and we had a flight to catch. It was a special day with everything being free and a pay-what-you-want system with all proceeds going to charity. We got a lamb soup bowl and a doughnut; we wanted the crepe-like pancakes but they were all out already, though another patch appeared right before we left. Nice spot for a cozy snack, check out their website.
Nostra in Reykjavik, Iceland
This is ranked higher than the amazing Grillid on Tripadvisor, so we were really excited to check them out. While still a nice experience, this was certainly not as good as the one we had at Grillid, despite costing a similar amount (12,900 ISK).
My notes from the meal:
- lovely design of the restaurant, lots of interesting glass and mirrors, would have been cool if the name were a palindrome or otherwise symmetric but instead, we just saw ‘ART/SON’ everywhere
- they were nice and flexible with a change we had to make in our reservation on the weekend, this is always appreciated
- they handled our friend’s allergy okay; he didn’t develop anaphylactic shock so that was good
- there was certainly enough food in the 8-course tasting menu we got; I wish there was a written version of the menu because sometimes it was hard to understand our waiter, but here’s my general memory, please pardon any errors
- amuse bouche with hazelnut butter and roe
- bread and lovely butter (we got cautioned to ‘take it easy with the bread because there’s a lot to come’)
- cheese wrapped in cheese whey?
- fish and mousse/yogurt infused with hay and red onion crisp
- ceviche-like dish
- mussels on leek and foam
- yummy potato chips and leek foam
- cod with a lobster sauce, lardo
- beef tenderloin, ‘horseradish snow’, celeriac
- pre-dessert with whey sorbet
- grilled pineapple on sorbet
- fudge and frozen yogurt?
- sweet treats – marshmallow, caramel, and delicious sour fruit
- there seemed to be a lot of use of local ingredients, similar to what we got at some of the other restaurants we went to in Iceland; beef, celeriac, lots of fish
- I liked how they used one ingredient in multiple ways – we got one dish with both pickled red onion and a red onion crisp
- the plating job was lovely
- it’s nice that they had cocktails; I enjoyed my ‘Burnt Orange’ though it bothered me that the glass was sticky
- unfortunately, our water glasses went unfilled on several occasions, though to be fair, my husband drinks a ton of water with meals
- things dragged on at the end
Check out their website.
Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur hot dog stand in Reykjavik, Iceland
We had to stop by this famous hot dog stand despite the freezing wind and rain. Got the ‘everything’ hot dog and it was fabulous. The line moved quickly and so did we – the hot dogs were gone before we finished walking down the street. Check out their website!
How does this place not have a Michelin star? Our amazing experience at Grillið in Reykjavik, Iceland
Some thoughts:
– absolutely amazing food
– tons of creative and playful takes on food – for example, the take on garlic bread involved a soft potato bread meant to be pulled apart by your hands with a generous dollop of mushroom butter and then dunking it into a garlic soup – you’re surprised at first – where are the utensils? Would a restaurant of this caliber really let you eat with your hands? But then they come out with hot towels and a lovely cracked plate with the crack lined with gold – kintsugi-style
– loved the marshmallow caramel pops at the end, on a stick and bed of forestry
– celeriac and fish; seems very Icelandic
– service was good but not really warm or particularly attentive; water glasses refilled frequently but it’s not like EMP
– great view of the city, high up, overlooking; 360 astrology decorations
– comfy chairs
– mostly older clientele
– some of the items a bit salty (fish, lamb, dessert)
– no cocktail bar
– certain flavors incorporated in multiple ways in a dish
– always an interactive portion of the food – bringing freeze-dried or sauce or torch at tableside – really fantastic
– overall, I’m shocked this restaurant doesn’t have a Michelin star – maybe needs a better name and some better service but the food is top-notch
Check out their website!
Our tasting menu:
“4 COURSES MENU
Small snacks from the kitchen
Potato bread, roasted garlic soup and cep butter
Dover sole, ramsons & crispy chicken skin
Fillet of lamb, trumpet & cep mushroom
Beef tenderloin, celeriac, oyster mushroom &
spruce cream
Hazelnuts, arctic thyme ice cream & pears
Sweet delights
MENU ISK 11.900” (~120$)
And a handful of other Iceland shots:
Peking duck at Decoy in NYC
We were told that Decoy had some of the best Peking duck in NYC. We booked the duck dinner for two ahead of time for the first round of dinner of the day. This dinner comes with the choice of two small plates off the menu – we went for the foie gras strawberry tarts, see above, in the shape of a little duck; and the oxtail dumplings. They also provide some fried fish skin ‘chips’ with three different kimchi style banchan – mango was my favorite! With the duck/wraps, there were two interesting sauces in addition to the usual hoisin sauce, a raspberry-based and a satay-like. My favorite was still the hoisin. You also get a rice dish included with the duck dinner, we opted to get the truffle egg, which unfortunately was really mostly egg and not very truffle. Drinks – ‘Year of the Salty Dog’ was adorable, with a little paw print in the foam. Fred was not very impressed with the meal, but to be fair, we had just come from Per Se so everything paled in comparison. Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
Dim Sum Palace in NYC Midtown
We stopped by this little basement dim sum spot while in Midtown, before going to the very cool Spyscape interactive museum. To my great disappointment, because it wasn’t the weekend, they didn’t have my favorite rice noodle wraps. The xiao long bao were delicious, as they always are. They have high-quality color menu with photos, which is always helpful for when we’re feeling adventurous. Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
Agora in NYC
Grandma’s ravioli
Chicken Shish Kebab with garlic yogurt
A nice restaurant, were able to get seats on a Friday night without problem. Fantastic yogurt garlic sauce. Really friendly wait staff, offered me the pumpkin lamp when they noticed I was taking photos. Grandma’s ravioli was delicious with great yogurt garlic sauce. Unfortunately, my chicken was bad in several places, ruining the dish for me. I brought this to the attention of one of the waiters who was apologetic and nice about everything. Check them out on Yelp!
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