Wednesday, March 5, 2014

SD26 Visited 2/28/2014 3.5 Forks

SD26 19 E 26th St., New YorkNY 10010




I usually am not a huge fan of Restaurant Week in NYC as I think they are usually not that great of a deal and most of the times restaurants don't have their A game on during that week.  But totally unbeknownst to me, the girls and I ended up at SD26 during Restaurant Week and it turned out to be not a bad experience. 
First, the decor of the place...it's a bit dated and cheesy.  It kind of reminds me of a place out of American Psycho.  When you walk in there this large bar area and then these weird private rooms to the side, then when you get to the hostess, you walk into this huge cavernous room.  I can't quite explain it but it just had this 80's feel to it.  They tried to jazz it up with a modern touch by having the drink/wine menu on an iPad but they were just heavy and bulky.  I’m not sure what the point of only having the drink menu on an iPad and not the entire menu is. 

I was surprised at how crowded it was given how easy it was to get a reservation on a Friday night but maybe with Restaurant Week it got booked up later in the week.  The restaurant week menu was 2 dishes and 1 dessert from a pretty extensive list of appetizers and entrees for $38.  That's a pretty great deal considering most of these dishes alone cost more than $20.   Since I love to eat, I opted for the Uovo with White Truffle Butter and the Beef Cheeks for my 2 dishes and the Baba al Rhum for dessert.  Yes - I chose two very heavy dishes but the Asian part of me really wanted to take maximum advantage of the deal.  I didn't know what to expect from the Uovo but I was told by my old VP that it was a must order.  When it came out, I was pretty surprised - it was one giant raviolo that took up the entire bowl.  Normally I would say that one piece of raviolo is ridiculous and a rip off but honestly this was so rich and heavy that one is more than enough.  When you cut into it, a delicious runny practically raw egg yolk oozes out of it as well as some soft ricotta cheese.  The truffle butter topping added a decadent touch but it did make me realize that I do prefer my pasta with a tomato based sauce as opposed to a butter sauce.  But the dish was still tasty and very luxurious.  The rest of the girls got the eggplant caponata which looked like a better starter dish since it looked a bit lighter and not as heavy.  We did have to wait a bit for our next dishes to come out which might not have been a bad thing.  My beef cheek was served on top of a bed of potato gnocchi and braised in red wine.  While it did cut pretty easily, it didn't have the tenderness I was expecting.  It was a little bit tough with more tendon/connective tissue than I was expecting.  My main issue with the dish was the gnocchi – they were a bit on the bland side and didnt really pop in my mouth with flavor.  But dont get me wrong, I finished the entire dish so clearly I didnt have too much of an issue with it overall but after looking at Vivis spaghetti dish, I kind of wish I got a tomato based pasta dish instead of 2 butter based pasta dishes.

By the time I finished my 2nd course, I was stuffed and if dessert didnt come with the Restaurant Week deal I might have skipped it.  But I do love a good rum cake dessert and this one wasnt bad.  While it didnt look like it was soaking in alcohol, once you bit into it, it had a distinct rum taste to it.  I wished I had more room to finish it but I was just bursting at the seams that I had to leave half of it on the plate. 

All in all, it was a surprisingly positive experience for Restaurant Week given my general lack interest in it (at least for dinner – sometimes the lunch deals are pretty good, like the one at Nobu).  I wouldnt necessarily put it in the same category as I Sodi or even Perla food wise although price wise its right up there with them.  Ita fun place for a group since they have several large tables which is why we were there.  Total bill:  $69/pp with drinks, tax and tip
  

Photo Credit:  Yelp

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