What the hell am I doing on the UWS (in fact this is may first UWS posting)?! I was so confused that I ended up taking the A train to 125th street. There's nothing worse than seeing you train go past your stop and then not stopping for another 5 stops. But in any case, there are almost 0 reasons for me to ever go to the UWS, but Aarti had always wanted to try the Meatless Monday tasting menu at Dovetail. So even though I won't go near the UWS with a ten foot pole, I was willing to make an exception for my best friend's birthday. This place just proves to me that just because a restaurant is vegetarian focused doesn't mean you're doomed for a meal of boiled vegetables (other great veggie places: Dirt Candy and 4 Course Vegan).
Dovetail only has this vegetarian tasting menu on Monday nights, so if you're interested don't forget that fact. Luckily for meat loving folks, they also have a vegetarian focused section which includes meat and seafood. My first impression of the restaurant was that it was super stuffy and for the older crowd. It was pretty fancy, quiet and one of those places that had a wine list that was 50+ pages long and white table clothes. We each ordered a round of cocktails and then waited and waited and WAITED to place our order. I was almost so angry that I was going to get up and flag down our waiter.
When he finally showed up, he was actually fairly helpful in giving his definitive opinion on the dishes on the menu. It's usually a bit frustrating when you ask a waiter for their opinion on a dish and they hem and haw and don't give you a straight answer. Aarti asked his opinion about the pasta or the seitan and he gave definitive firm answer that the seitan was better. So between Aarti, Will, Dan and I, we all got different dishes on the vegetarian and vegetarian focused menu. For the purposes of not writing a 5 page long entry, I'll focus just on my meal but note that everyone else gave high marks for their meal as well.
The amuse bouche was some shredded radish which was ok but the absolute killer was the warm foccaccia bread served with the freshest olive oil I have ever had. It was almost like they squeezed the olives right there and then. This set the tone for the rest of the meal. For my 1st course, I got the white gazpacho which was basically like a cold chowder. While I generally don't like gazpacho, this one was really fresh tasting and not too boring (maybe it was because of the cream?). My next course was the pea dumplings and it was amazing. It consisted of the freshest peas I've ever had and stuffed in a beautifully thin skinned dumpling. Sadly in a place like this, I wasn't surprised that there were only 3 dumplings as I surely could have had about 20 of them. Aarti had also mentioned that her vegetables tasted like they were literally picked 30 seconds ago. My next dish was the corn risotto with thinly sliced beef on top (it consisted of a slice of pure fat and then a slice of melt in your mouth meat on top of it). It was simply amazing, no words for it really, just mouthful of joy and tears.
The tasting menu is a 3 course meal at $46 but there were some choices on the menu that required you to pay extra. Such as the gnudi (sweetbreads) which was $14 extra (no one got that) and the baked onion and truffles ($18 extra) which Will got and for dessert the chocolate souffle which is $6 more (Aarti got it). The meal also came with your choice of dessert. I got the bread pudding, Dan got the peanut butter ganache, Aarti got the souffle and Will got the carrot cake. They were all really fabulous although I will say that even as a chocolate hater, Aarti's dessert was the best. It was piping hot, soft and served with coffee ice cream and a side of carmel sauce. F'ing Delicious. My bread pudding was good and light but I've had better (I'm looking at you Blue Ribbon Bakery) and I took a bite of Dan's dessert and it was like eating peanut butter out of a jar.
Overall, the quality of the food was beyond high quality. But it's one of those places that you'd expect your parents or grandparents to love (or just what I imagine UWS-iders would enjoy), so just be prepared when you go. Don't expect anything hop, cool, or trendy. Expect mature, traditional, and quality. Also, the service was a bit lacking in that it was painfully slow in the beginning but then evolved to being almost a bit too attentive. The total bill with 2 rounds of cocktails and extra supplements was $346 without tip for 4 people. So clearly not an everyday meal but definitely worth it for a nice event.
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