NYC Restaurant Week Lunches

Funny thing is that i haven't participated in NYCRW in a couple of seasons. I'm not sure why - the food quality certainly has not gone down and the deals are not any less worthwhile. The only excuse I can give is that sometimes when you start traveling around you start forgetting that great food exists in NYC and it's right at your doorstep...either that, or I'm lazy and I didn't feel like battling opentable for reservations [funny story about opentable on next blog].

I really have to thank twitter (nycgo, newyorkology, notablenyc) this year for giving me a heads up to when RW would be, and which restaurants normally participate during this time. Making reservations early is a good strategy if you know your schedule beforehand or if you want to take your chances.

Today's entry is just about the lunches - both of which, I forgot to take pictures of the food. I remembered at dessert, so I have dessert photos and some borrowed from other sites that depict the food I ate at said establishment.

GOTHAM BAR AND GRILL- not sure why i've never been here, but it's always been on my top 10 places! Had a delightful lunch with my friend Lori who luckily had a pretty relaxed afternoon and could take a full 2 hour lunch. Full RW Lunch Menu.

Asparagus Salad and Chilled Corn Soup (courtesy of Yelp)

Both were wonderful and summery. I had the Asparagus salad and the dijon mustard dressing was magical. The soup was surprisingly sweet and completely reinvented the concept of corn.

Chicken Sausage and Mezze Rigatoni with Braised Duck (courtesy of nyctastes.blogspot.com)

I was so full after eating the chicken sausage - it had wonderful seasoning and great accompaniments on the side. Lori's Rigatoni was also very good - the duck was tender and very flavorful.

Toasted Corn Cake and Gotham Chocolate Cake (my own pics!)

Yes, that's a lemon thyme popsicle! The corn cake, blueberry and lemon flavors mixed together beautifully. The Chocolate cake was ridiculously decadent - more ice cream was needed to balance out the chocolatey-ness.

BAR BOULUD - Very unassuming location by lincoln center with a great outdoor seating area. Very nice scenery outside and modern comfortable look inside. I've been to DB and other Daniel Boulud establishments and this one is definitely up there with it's lighter (french food is sometimes too much for me) fare and less expensive prices. Restaurant Week MENU

Pate Grand Mere w/ slices of toasted baguette - Amazing.

(pic thanks to eatingintranslation)

Coq au Vin - this picture is from DB, but it looks exactly the same (pic from joseph mallozzi).

Three large pieces of chicken in a great wine reduction - 1/2 of this came home in a doggie bag with me. The pate with toasted baguette was a meal in itself.

Both desserts - Praline Rouge Bavaroise and the Macaron au Chocolat

The Bavaroise was like a berry panna cotta on a praline cracker in a lemon sauce - tart, sweet and refreshing! The chocolate cookie and ice cream melted in your mouth - best thing ever.

This concludes my restaurant week lunches - next entry will be about the dinners. There are even more pictures of those...thank god i only went to two of each!