The NoMad was THE hot restaurant about a year ago but it hasn't really seemed to die down by the looks of my visit last night. It was still super crowded with a mix of tourists and beautiful people and Amy and I were only able to get a 6pm reservation. In all honesty, I was ready to hate this place because I'm so not a fan of uber trendy places. But I gotta say that this place really surprised me and I quite enjoyed my meal and even the scene there.
When we first got seated, Amy and I were seating in their weird dark alcove of a room, away from the main atrium space. We kindly asked to move and they were really nice about accommodating. So I was immediately pleased with the service. The menu is broken out into snacks (1 or 2 bites), appetizers and entrees. Luckily, the menu had a lot of great veggie options which worked great for Amy. There are so many great sounding options that we eventually just handed the reigns over to our waitress for her suggestions. For appetizers, she recommended the snow peas ($15) and the egg ($17) and for the entree she convinced Amy of the eggplant ($24) and I opted for the scallops ($28). Unfortunately, what The NoMad is famous for their whole roasted chicken for two but that'll have to wait until next time since there was no way I was going to eat it by myself!
The snow peas were cut into long thin strips and tossed with lemon juice and served with a sprinkle of pancetta, mint and pecorino cheese. It was just barely cooked, so it had this great crunch to it. I loved the simpleness of it. Despite it being fall, it reminded me of a perfect spring dish. I really enjoyed this dish a whole lot. The egg dish was what the waitress said was a must have. It was a poached egg with asparagus, brown butter, quinoa and enoki-like mushrooms. The egg had this amazing almost raw yolk center and mixed with the brown butter, it was pretty delicious. On to the entrees. I usually don't get scallops at restaurants since you usually only get 3 if you're lucky and it never seems like a filling meal. But I just had a craving for it and went for it. The dish here had 5 giant scallops served with thin slices of green tomatoes, thin rolls and bits of cucumber and sprinkled with borage. Like every scallop dish, these scallops were seared which is really the only way to cook scallops. These were seared perfectly with just the right amount of give to each bite. I love the pairing of it with the green tomatoes and cucumbers and for the first time in my life, I was actually full from a scallop dish. I had a bite of Amy's eggplant and it was delicious as well. It was roasted with soy beans, madeira, and black truffle. It was a very meaty and hearty dish that was ideal for a vegetarian. At this point, I was super full but I'm always a sucker for a good dessert. Again, we asked our waitress to pick something for us and she was really enthusiastic about the milk and honey dessert ($13). True to it's name, it tasted exactly like milk and honey. It was 3 scoops of milk ice cream drizzled with honey and served with shortbread and brittle. While our waitress did a great job with all of the other recommendations, I wasn't a huge fan of this dessert. It might of been because I was already full but I don't really associate milk and honey with dessert.
In the end, I was really pleased with my experience at The NoMad. I mean, don't get me wrong, the crowd and vibe isn't something that I would opt for normally, but since I live in New York, every now and then, I've got to indulge in the high maintenance scene every once in a while. This would be a great place for a client dinner and if everyone wants to go and try the chicken for two with me, let me know! Total bill: $80/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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