Fedora belongs a group of other really solid West Village restaurants such as Perla, Jeffrey's Grocery, and Joseph Leonard. They're all small, cozy, and excellent restaurants - so it's hard to go wrong with any of these choices. Previous to this, I had been to all of them except for Fedora, so I figured it was time to complete the list.
Fedora is located in the basement of a rowhouse in the middle of the Village but it's not as hard to find as it sounds. VA and I were there on a random Monday night and when we first got there, it was pretty empty but as the night went on, it filled up quickly but then again, it's quite small so it's not hard for it to be packed in here. The menu leans towards Modern American with roast chicken, skirt steak and sea bream as the main entrees. Either we were really hungry or everything sounded amazing to us - we totally over ordered and would have ordered more if our waitress hadn't stopped us half way through. We started with a dozen oysters ($3/each), deviled egg ($7), spring pea salad ($16), ricotta gnocchi ($24), roasted chicken ($32), and miso eggplant ($10). The prices are definitely on the high side - especially for the 1 deviled egg we split and the roasted chicken but the quality of all the food was excellent, so I'm wiling to overlook it in this instance.
The oysters were a mix of 2 different kinds that I can't remember but they were super clean and fantastic. They were shucked to perfection - not a single shell in sight. The deviled egg was literally 1 egg for $7 but I guess it did have trout roe on top of it and well, it was quite the beautiful sight (and delicious). I'm glad I had it but I probably wouldn't order it again given how much I like a basic deviled egg without the roe on it. The spring pea salad was light and refreshing - despite having a fried oyster on top of it! Then came the ricotta gnocchi, roasted chicken and eggplant and it was quite clear at this point that we were in way over our heads. If I had to cut one dish out, it would have been the gnocchi - I've always been a bit indifferent about gnocchi and this one was no exception. It was good especially with the braised lamb and english peas but gnocchi just never wows me. The chicken on the other hand was amazing. I know it sounds lame to rave about chicken when it's pretty easy to prepare at home but this one was juicy and came with foie gras stuffing and fava beans (be still my clogged heart). There wasn't a single piece that wasn't tender and soaking in au jus. It was so much chicken that we couldn't finish it all and that made me incredibly sad to leave half of it behind. The miso eggplant was a side dish and it was also done well - not too mushy and served with toasted sesame - but we probably could have done without them too just from a stomach space issue.
Overall, it was a great place to catch up with an old friend. It's intimate but not too loud (as many small places can be) and has a really solid line up for food and drinks. The staff was super friendly and accommodating when we had to move our reservation a few times. Gabriel Stulman seems to have built a really strong foothold in the West Village of neighborhood favorites. While the prices are a bit expensive here, I would put this place on your Village rotation of places that don't disappoint. Total bill: $110/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
No comments:
Post a Comment