Ursula: Hiiii! Randall and I are guest blogging today to tell you guys all about our experience at Daniel. How exciting! We went there last night for my 25th birthday and it was pretty ridiculous. First, a quick background on Daniel. I was interested in going after reading Ruth Reichl’s book, “Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise”. She used to be the food critic for the New York Times and I remember her always mentioning Daniel as the best restaurant in NYC, giving it the maximum 4 star rating, and since then I’ve been itching to try it. Its French cuisine, owned by chef Daniel Bouloud (Top Chef guest judge!) and it’s located on the UES, on 65th and Park. We knew it would be pretty chi -chi, especially since the suggested attire was tie and jacket, but we were excited for the food and service, which we knew would be amazing and make the night memorable.
So we arrive at the restaurant, the décor is really fancy…red velvet chairs, chandeliers, high ceilings, mostly couples-only tables, very romantic. We were greeted by the hostess, who was wearing a very conservative black suit (as was most of the serving staff) and chic prada glasses. As Randall excused himself to the bathroom, she immediately ushered me to the “lounge” so I could have a drink while we waited for out table. I ordered us a couple of glasses of champagne, the house of course which was also name Daniel (that guy has some serious ego…can you imagine naming a restaurant Ursula or Meng?), and the waiter brought us this delicious olive cracker to munch on. We were shortly escorted to our table…we were lucky to have a corner table so we could snuggle closely (ha) and were offered the wine list. Ok, so the wine list had a table of contents! There were bottles for $10,000, no joke! We decide to continue and stay with the house champagne since it was a celebration (and the cheapest thing on the menu)! The amuse bouche soon arrived, lobster on a bed of cauliflower mousse, broccoli mousse with goat cheese, and a parmesan cracker with more goat cheese, it was delicious. For dinner, which was a 3 course prix-fixe, I got the pressed poularde and foie gras terrine with black trumpet gelee, young turnip salad and a port reduction to start and a paupiette of black sea bass in a crisp potato shell with tender leeks and a syrah sauce as my main course. I was super bummed the special course of the day wasn’t available, “milk-fed baby pig”! The food was pretty delicious, but I must admit that it wasn’t the best that I had, I think David Burke and Donatella was much better.
A note on the service and then I’ll let Randall finish the post with what he ate and the rest of the night. All the waiters and waitresses had a charming and thick French accent, and when they served you or removed plates from the table they did it in unison…so it was like, “1, 2, 3 remove plate” or “1, 2, 3 place plate” ha! They actually covered our table cloth with a matching cloth napkin so that our food stains wouldn’t be visible (and believe me there were a few food stains, I blame it on the champagne!). They had a bread guy with 6 or 7 different types of breads, including a delicious olive loaf which I think I had two pieces of…they were all super nice, our waiter even took a picture of us (I know, super cheesy, but we were excited!), so it wasn’t pretentious and they definitely didn’t discriminate because of our age (we were the youngest couple there by 20 years!)
Randall: In my attempt to make this the best and most memorable birthday for Ursula, I felt I needed to pick a place that you would only go to on special occasion. I couldn't have found a better restaurant as this was the most fancy décor I have ever seen and from the moment I walked in we felt like English Royalty. Everyone in this beautiful house was there for a special occassion and that made it extremely special (especially to be so young, but feel so mature). I was wearing a suit and felt underdressed!!! Many restaurants take on a unique character, whether it is in the decor, the service, or most importantly the quality of food. I must say that this was top notch in each of those categories. For an appetizer, I had the tasting of heirloom tomatos which included a chilled soup with aged feta, “en salade” with goat cheese, red bell peppers bavorais and socca “nicoise” and for my entrée I had the trio of colorado lamb which included roasted chop with garbanzo-fava bean croquettes, fig leaf shoulder papillotte and tenderloin with fennel confit. The appetizer was amazing... the vegetables were so ripe and everything was prepared so delicately. Our waiter made us feel very important and had his eye on our table, ready to serve us for every time we finished a small glass of champagne. I must say that it was the best LAMB I have ever had and will have for the rest of my life (I am sure of it). It was tender yet dry and still possessed a very strong juicy flavor even though nothing was bleeding on to the plate.
My only reservation about the entrées at Daniel (and many other restaurants in NYC) was the size of the portion. I felt like I could have indulged a bit more and for the price and maybe gotten a little more meat, but I was so happy with my surroundings so the food was not the only priority... The high ceilings, polite waiters and overall sense of Royalty makes Daniel a top notch restaurant in my book. As we finished our entrees we had another glass of champagne (which was being poured in our glass at the perfect time) and went in for the final celebration... DESSERT! This was quite cute because they broke the dessert menu into Fruit and Chocolate so that you could satisfy your cravings with one theme or the other. I thought that was very neat because Ursula ordered raspberry-lemon vacherin with thai basil topped with lemon meringue and raspberry marshmallow and I ordered the warm chocolate financier with bergamot (a type of orange) gelee and lady grey earl tea ice cream recommended by our waitress. As we were smothering ourselves with chocolate and fruit (was not a big fan of Ursi's dessert -- too candy oriented) they brought out the b-day desset which was just awesome. YESSS I took a picture because in fine chocolate cursive, they wrote "HAPPY BIRTHDAY URSULA" and it was just amazing. I had a tear in my eye for my girlfriend. Romantic and well done... and the birthday dessert itself was a mix of chocolates that just excited the taste buds.
At that point I decided that this was one of the best restaurants I have been too (I’m only 23) and one of the best birthdays I had planned. It couldn't have been better executed and I noted that when pointing out to Ursula what was different about our table. Yes, it was the flower arrangement that I bought from L'Olivier who delivered it to Daniel that the morning and which they had placed on the table when we arrived.... It was an arrangement of the most beautiful fall sunflowers in a nice wide square glass vase...They escorted us out and then we went to finish off the night with an after-dinner drink in the lounge (where we first started). I think the food was top 5 in my book and rates 2nd to all the restaurants I have been too. My rankings are below:
1. Buddakan (braised short ribs -- spectacular)
2. Daniel
3. David Burke and Donatella
4. Mercer Kitchen
5. Smith & Wollenski's / Elephant
Ursula: So yeah it was a great time, the flowers were a great surprise and such a nice touch…definitely worth blogging about as I sit here at work feeling hung over from the champagne. Thank you Randall for an amazing dinner and thank you Meng for letting us write about it!
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