RW08: DB&D
Restaurant Week. Two beautiful summer weeks during which a vast array of sumptuous NY dining experiences become temporarily "affordable" to the average New Yorker. At $35 for a three-course meal, it's certainly not cheap (especially when you throw in wine--and how could you not?), but it's still a fun way to splurge and celebrate the dog days here in the city.
My friends and I went to David Burke & Donatella for dinner last night. Despite the 10PM reservation, the place was jam-packed. The space felt like something Alice in Wonderland would dream up, if she were going to create a New American restaurant on the Upper East Side... Ostrich eggs painted red and black, glass balloons hanging from the ceiling, paintings that look normal from far away but upon closer inspection border on the wildly bizarre... It was a fun space, and they had jammed in as many tables as possible in the two main dining areas (perhaps to accommodate the larger-than-usual crowds enticed by Restaurant Week prices, or perhaps to remain true to the eclectic decor of the place?) seated with a diverse clientele ranging from 20-somethings who could never afford the place on normal days, and salt-and-pepper-haired Upper East Siders who probably ate there every week because they couldn't be bothered with cooking their own food and cleaning up the kitchen.
But enough about the space--on to the food. "New American"--and this was true up to a point, except that the portion sizes were definitely traditional: huge. We all started with crab cake and shrimp, followed by entrees such as a salt water-soaked roast chicken (mmm creamy potatoes on the side!) and melt-off-the-bone short ribs with mushrooms and truffle mousse. We topped it all off with the desserts, which were the most memorable: a rich, chocolatey, decadent milkshake with quarter-sized cookies on the side; an apple tart with a lovely crisp crust, topped stylishly with an apple chip; and a chocolate mousse that was so dense it felt heavy on the tips of our spoons. We waddled out of there and I hailed a cab home, and I quite honestly thought that if the cab hurtled off the Brooklyn Bridge on the way, I'd die happy.
My friends and I went to David Burke & Donatella for dinner last night. Despite the 10PM reservation, the place was jam-packed. The space felt like something Alice in Wonderland would dream up, if she were going to create a New American restaurant on the Upper East Side... Ostrich eggs painted red and black, glass balloons hanging from the ceiling, paintings that look normal from far away but upon closer inspection border on the wildly bizarre... It was a fun space, and they had jammed in as many tables as possible in the two main dining areas (perhaps to accommodate the larger-than-usual crowds enticed by Restaurant Week prices, or perhaps to remain true to the eclectic decor of the place?) seated with a diverse clientele ranging from 20-somethings who could never afford the place on normal days, and salt-and-pepper-haired Upper East Siders who probably ate there every week because they couldn't be bothered with cooking their own food and cleaning up the kitchen.
But enough about the space--on to the food. "New American"--and this was true up to a point, except that the portion sizes were definitely traditional: huge. We all started with crab cake and shrimp, followed by entrees such as a salt water-soaked roast chicken (mmm creamy potatoes on the side!) and melt-off-the-bone short ribs with mushrooms and truffle mousse. We topped it all off with the desserts, which were the most memorable: a rich, chocolatey, decadent milkshake with quarter-sized cookies on the side; an apple tart with a lovely crisp crust, topped stylishly with an apple chip; and a chocolate mousse that was so dense it felt heavy on the tips of our spoons. We waddled out of there and I hailed a cab home, and I quite honestly thought that if the cab hurtled off the Brooklyn Bridge on the way, I'd die happy.
posted by the Assistant at 5:10 PM
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