The first tip that this place is truly a "Meatpacking" restaurant was the fact that the entrance is totally hidden. You can easily walk past the entrance and the only reason I noticed it was because there was a "bouncer" outside but he was harmless. Once you walk inside, you realize that the restaurant is actually on the 2nd floor and you have to take an elevator upstairs. Once the doors open...oh yeah, you realize you're in the Meatpacking District. Everyone is all dressed up and looking a bit too chi-chi or Euro-trash. For some bizarre reason, there are 4 hostesses working the check-in desk but only 1 actually talks. The actual seating area is very spacious and the overall decor was very nautical (complete with a steering wheel at each table). Once we sat down and opened the menu, I nearly had a heart attack. Sushi rolls averaged $16, appetizers were in the $15-$20 range, and entrees in the $30 range. There was a ridiculous whole fish dish that was $78 and another that was $90. WTF? I mean you can get similar fresh seafood dishes in Chinatown for 1/4 of the price. Obviously the drinks were expensive as well, in the $15-$18 range but there were a few cocktails and glasses of wine that were $20+. Seriously?
Luckily, the food itself was good and that made the sting of the prices a bit less painful. The meal started off with hot soft pretzels served with a mustard butter. Amazing and we asked for another basket (which they forgot) because it was that good. For dinner, we ordered littleneck clams from the raw bar, a special sushi roll called the South Beach Roll, crispy shrimp with mayo, flatbread with clams, baked calms, lobster mashed potato, and the scallop and cauliflower entree. The littleneck clams and sushi roll came out first and they were both extremely fresh. While the roll itself was really good (fresh crabmeat with avocado), the fact that there were only 5 pieces for $16 was a bit ridiculous. The calms were super fresh and fishy (but in a good way) and came with cocktail sauce, horseradish and fresh lemons. Next came the crispy shrimp, flatbead and baked clams. Let me say for the record that the crispy shrimp was freaking amazing. It was like rock shrimp tempura that was perfectly battered but then coated with a hot sauce that definitely had a kick to it. I mean, this dish was perfection and totally worth the money. The flatbread was tasty and had melted cheese topped with clams but it wasn't a show stopper dish. It actually looked and tasted like something that I could make at home but obviously with some skill required. The baked clams were stuffed with breading and drowning in delicious garlic butter (it was served with nice crusty bread that was used to sop up the butter) which is always a winning combination. When our entree was served our waitress told us that it was the winning dish for Hung on Top Chef, so of course now that really sets high expectations! There were 5 very large, plumb and firm scallops. They were cooked perfectly and served with this intense cream sauce with roasted cauliflower, broccoli, and mushrooms. I actually thought the sauce was a bit too rich (I mean you could taste the butter used in it) but that also could be because I was eating the lobster mashed potato with it, which itself had about 5 sticks of butter in it. I will give a huge shout out for the mashed potato because I expecting specks of lobster but it had giant whole claws in there and totally worth the money because of it.
At this point I was so full but yet was convinced to order dessert. Since Christine gave up dessert for lent (good for you!), it was left to me and VA to eat the whole thing and I really just couldn't get more than a few mouthfuls down. We got the banana split with 3 kinds of ice cream (cookie dough, hazelnut/chocolate and raspberry). The bananas were caramelized and kind of eh, but the cookie dough ice cream was the best because not only did the ice cream taste like cookie dough but it was served cookie dough bottom. Delicious. The waitstaff was slammed on Yelp but our waitress was actually super nice and friendly. You know you're in the Meatpacking District when things only get hopping after 11pm, meanwhile I was so full and could barely keep my eyes open when we left. When we got the bill, we were prepared to spend a lot but it ended up being $97 per person! Ouch! Granted our alcohol bill was almost $100 itself. But hey, you only live once right? Now I just have to eat ramen for the next few days to compensate.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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