Review: The Carlyle Restaurant, 35 E. 76th St., New York
As promised, today I will feature the restaurant inside the Carlyle hotel in New York.
Since I was staying at the hotel I took the above photo before the restaurant opened so as to give you an unobstructed view.
My table was underneath the photo of the man taking a Napoleonic pose (see below photo of the photo hanging on the wall behind my table):
The photo made me chuckle to myself in a nostalgic way as I remembered when Emma adopted the Napoleonic pose once for an outdoor photo when she was in a playful mood. I still have that photo somewhere on my computer, Anyway, enough about Emma - on to the review:
The Carlyle restaurant is steeped in New York History, being both a local favorite for Upper East Siders as well as a dining spot for visiting hotel guests. As the Carlyle has won awards recognizing it as the best hotel in New York, the guests passing through the restaurant are often prominent celebrities. As I mentioned in my post yesterday about the hotel itself, the Jackie Kennedy and John F. Kennedy really liked this hotel, and Woody Allen dines here frequently prior to playing his clarinet in the next door Cafe Carlyle. It is a traditional formal restaurant in an old school sense, and with its connected rooms feels a bit like being in a private club or country house.
The in-season treat tonight was white asparagus flown in from France (Provence) which I decided to try for my appetizer. They are cooked then chilled, and served cold with a dipping sauce:
A photo of the white asparagus dish as it arrived at my table.
This dish was quite popular with patrons tonight and I saw a number of other tables order it as well. When I was starting my dessert a newly-seated table ordered it and I heard the waiter apologize that the supply of white asparagus had been fully used up already. They appeared quite disappointed at this news. If I had just received my appetizer course I would have offered to give them each one of mine to try as I am very accommodating to others in that way. As it was I had already eaten that course, which was very nice and cooked the right amount of time prior to chilling. I like chilled white asparagus but have never liked them served heated, whereas with locally grown green asparagus I like them served hot and freshly steamed.
For my main course I ordered a dish I am most partial to and which one rarely finds on the menu of restaurants - Lobster Thermador. Here is a photo of this dish as I paused from enjoying it to take this photo:
A very Gatsby-like main course I think. I have always loved this, but it is difficult for most restaurants to make this, which is why it rarely appears on menus. It was first invented in 1894 in Paris and involves cooking the lobster, removing it from he shell, mixing it with an egg, cream and brandy among other things, and returning it to the shell. It is delicious!
Last December I was hosting a dinner party for twenty friends at the rooftop private dining room at the Park Hyatt hotel in Toronto and I requested this be the main course. It got rave reviews from my friends as it is a special dish (I did invite Emma to come to that dinner as well, and while she surprised me by tentatively agreeing to come two months prior when the dinner invitations went out, she changed her mind two weeks before the event and cancelled, thus missing an amazing meal. The other guests were probably relieved at this development as Gatsby-Daisy meetings are playing with complex and intense emotions - maybe she wanted to spare the other guests the uneasiness her magnetic presence on me might have caused them).
I also hosted a dinner party for my parents and a dozen of their closest friends later that same month at the Hazelton hotel in Toronto and I requested Lobster Thermidor be served there as well, which also received acclaim from all present. One advantage of the dish rarely appearing is that when it does appear the chef in question takes pains to serve it perfectly, it being a tricky dish to master. The Carlyle restaurant's executive chef Jacques Sorrei has taken care to make sure their Lobster Thermidor was exceptional. I really enjoyed it.
The dessert I ordered was a Grand Marnier souffle - a favorite of mine. Now in this the Carlyle slipped up a bit. The sauce had a little too much grand Marnier in it, which made it a little harsh. I could have forgiven this as intentional variation on a theme, but the texture of the dessert was also off - it stuck together when I tried to take a spoonful - sort of like sinew holding it all together. I'm not sure what went wrong in the cooking of this souffle, but something did as this isn't the proper texture. I would have sent it back, but as I was reviewing them I just ate it anyway and made note.
Grand Marnier souffle as it arrived - problems in the texture marred this dish, coupled with a harshness to the sauce.
Here is a snap I took of another table of patrons. They were the ones who wanted to order the white asparagus appetizer I had but dined too late in the evening as it was sold out by the time they ordered it:
I hope what they did order was as good as the white asparagus.
The table to my right (not shown in a photo) contained a couple in their twenties at a table for two on a date who could not wait to be alone back in their room. They made it through the dinner but before dessert or coffee were kissing and fondling each other rather intently. Actually it was the girl initiating this intimacy - he tried to delay it till later and focus on the nice food, but she was pretty insistent and not to be put off - haha. They skipped dessert and no doubt headed upstairs to their room when they left...a little sheepishly bidding goodnight to the head waiter...knowing they had been the entertainment in the room that night. Ah, the intensity of young love.
So, a very enjoyable evening's meal all told. I will give them 3 1/2 stars instead of 4 due to the problems with the souffle, but if I had ordered a different dessert they could easily have gotten four stars.
I hope you enjoyed the review, and do check back tomorrow for another blog update.
