Whatever you're doing...take 2 minutes and look at Le Bernardin's website. Once you've done that, start saving for the plane ticket to get to New York and the cost of the meal. This is, without a doubt, the best meal of my life. I've been to some really good restaurants before (Bartalotta, Craftsteak, etc.), but this is so beyond even those. It isn't even fair to comprare any other restaurant to Le Bernardin. It really is in a category all of it's own. The food, service, atmosphere, even the flowers are incomparable. I will try to do my best to describe our meal there, but it really is hard to put into words.
Quick side note, we had a crazy morning before our 12:30 lunch reservation. When we were getting dressed, Ryan noticed that his trusty sportscoat had lost a button. Now if this were any other restaurant, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal...but this was Le Bernardin! Jackets required! (or should I say "le jacket"?) So we got onto the subway as fast as we could (it's pouring rain), and went to Macy's. Now I realize this is the shopping mecca of the world, but hey I had a 20% star rewards coupon that I wasn't about to go unused! So after running around the 30 floors of the men's department, we finally settled on a grey pinstripe Tommy suit. Now we were off!!
Well, one last hitch. The cab let us off one block away to avoid traffic. No problem...except we walked in the wrong direction and ended up getting almost lost. Thank god for the navigation of Ryan's droid (btw, that phone paid for itself this trip!). Well we finally got turned in the right direction and made it to Le Bernardin, only 2 minutes late. We checked our coats and were seated at a beautiful romantic table.
I could go on and on at how beautiful the restaurant was and how great the service was, but let's get to the important stuff: the food! We ordered a bottle of Iron Horse champagne and were brought a smoked salmon dip as an appetizer (I'm sure it had a much fancier word than dip...but hey, I'm a southern girl at heart!). Madeline's dining- appetizer: tuna tartar on a foie gras baguette garnished with extra virgin olive oil and chives; entree: crispy seared black bass with mini pork buns; dessert: vanilla yogurt with basil ice cream and blueberries. Ryan's dining- appetizer: tuna pancetta with pickled vegetables; entree: baked lobster with truffles; dessert: chocolate and peanut butter. We were also brought a complimentary passion fruit dessert because for my belated birthday and little almond and pistachio cookies (which normally I hate nuts in cookies, but these were so good we asked for seconds!). Everything was so good. I think my favorite part was my appetizer.
Pictures: Ryan's entree, Madeline enjoying Iron Horse, Ryan in his new suit in the cab, Ryan's appetizer, Madeline's appetizer.
More pictures coming up!
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