Blue Hill: A

Blue Hill is nestled on Washington Place off of 6th Avenue. Actually I should probably say Blue Hill is nestled below Washington Place off of 6th Avenue. The restaurant is barely discernible amongst a row of lovely stone and brick townhouses - the only sign of a restaurant is a literal sign, or plaque, reading Blue Hill in stately letters and an awning arching over the quaint brick stairs leading down to Blue Hill's dining room. The dining room is actually beneath street level, but instead of giving the restaurant an eerie basementy feel, it is cozy and almost exclusive feeling - like a kind of elegant old boys club (is that an oxymoron?) but without the inherent sexism. The waitstaff is attentive, if not a bit overly serious, but then again that's probably their perogative. But waitstaff never factors in too too much to my overall rating of a restaurant because really I'm there for the food - unless the waitstaff spits in my food in front of me, I'm not too concerned.

The meal started with, well wine of course, but first an amuse bouche/crudite of sorts. Blue Hill, known for their Blue Hill Farm in upstate NY where they get all their produce and meat, seems to rejoice in proving that pure, unadulerated, local food is tastier (and healthier I suppose) than preserative riddled supermarket food anyway. This seems to be a popular notion these days but Blue Hill undertakes the task with ease and elegance...not that there's anything wrong with screaming "organic" and "local" from the rooftops, but the quality and freshness of Blue Hill's food is so ingrained in the philosophy of the restaurant, there seems no need to announce it or make a big show. Back to the crudites! Now I am not a big vegetable fan so this should mean a lot coming from me - the quality of taste of these lone vegetables was magical...or maybe the taste seemed magical to me precisely because I've been flushing vegetables down the toilet since I was five. The carrot, beet and spinach were crisp, fresh, salty and enormously rich in flavor.

I next had the fennel soup, which was as warming and thick and lovely as a soup can be. I also had a bite of This Morning Farm Egg which was, as you can imagine, extremely fresh, but not for yolk haters, as the gooey yolk oozed about the plate begging to be sopped up with a chunk of hearty baguette.

For my entree I had the grass-fed lamb. I love lamb and this dish was no exception, but it wasn't knock your socks off good like I expected. Meaning there wasn't any "extra" flavor or kick to take it from being delicious to outstanding, like the previous courses. However I ended on possibly the higest note possible. Yes, that's right, dessert! I finihsed with the steamed cheesecake: "..dark chocolate, roasted peanuts & maldon salt" umm how can you go wrong with that??? This was serious cheesecake, not overly heavy like some cheesecakes tend to be, turning your stomach after the first few bites, just the perfect balance between heaviness and lightness and the peanuts (an odd choice I thought at first) added a wonderful salty kick to the dark chocolate. I must also reccomend the Passionfruit Souffle - although I did not taste it due to my aversion to fruit, it received rave reviews from all around the table.

And that folks, was the end to a magical evening!

Rocco: A (for canolis/dessert)

Wow, can I just say that Rocco's has the best canolis I've ever had...I was never a huge fan of canolis until I tried a chocolate canoli at Rocco's. And now I am seriously of the opinion that there are few better desserts. A small chocolate canoli at Rocco's is perfect as an extremely satisfying, but small and not too heavy dessert (well not too heavy for me but I'm a big dessert eater). The filling is not gooey nor is it fluffy, the consistency is more solid, more confection-ey (if that's a word). Have you ever had a real whoopie pie (being from Maine, I've had dozens but upon moving anywehre else in the United States, I find there's a vast shortage of real, homemade whoopie pies, otherwise known as moon pies...but if you call it a moon pie, you've probably never had a real whoopie pie)? Well the filling of the canoli is similiar to the homemade filling of the best whoopie pie you've ever had (in this case, Mrs. Unnold's famous homemade whoopie pies, which I have the recipe for if you're interested).

Alas the picture is not of the famous Rocco canoli but of another dessert there. I forget the name of it, but that's not important because this is just a filler picture until I get a picture of a canoli. Not to say the other desserts aren't tasty, they are very, but they don't have the same jaw-dropping quality of the canolis.

Cafe Condesa: A+

Wow, I can't believe it's been a MONTH since I last posted. My excuse is really my puppy, Franklin. And that's not really an excuse but sadly he's pretty much all I think about now. So clearly that needs to change and I need to get some kind of an adult life back...but before I review Cafe Condesa, perhaps a picture of Franklin to get things started??



How cute is he????

Ok also before I start this "review/personal restaurant experience" I have to admit that I've pretty much stopped taking pictures during my meals out. This is due to the fact that I find the flash going off every ten minutes very rude and annoying, and so from now on, unless the mood in the restaurant strikes me as being incredibly casual and the other people in the restaurant are hippies or don't care about being blinded by my flash, I'm going to refrain from taking pictures. Sorry. But I'll try to be better about updating my blog from now on, pictures or no pictures.

Cafe Condesa has been one of my favorite restaurants in the West Village since the first time I took my friend Akeli there on a whim. I don't think I had read any formal reviews of the place but I skimmed a bunch of five star yelp reviews and decided to give it a try. Mostly I was intrigued by the resounding "excellent food at strangely inexpensive prices" sentiment in all of the reviews. I've been to Cafe Condesa four or five times now and I can truly attest to that sentiment. It's not just that the food is amazing (and we'll get to the specifics in a moment), it's that the prices are so low, not only for the West Village, but also New York City in general, that each bite becomes even more heavenly because you can't believe the deal you're getting.

The best appetizer I've tried, and I've tried it several times now, is the baguette and warm brie, drizzled with honey and pinenuts. It's probably pretty difficult to go wrong with an appetizer like this, yet I've never had anything so tasty in all of my life that contained the same simple ingredients of baguette and warm brie. The brie to baguette ratio is perfect and the warm brie itself is just the right temperature and gooiness. The honey is wonderfully sweet and sticky. In other words, I have never ordered this and not gobbled down every last bit of baguette and brie and everyone who has shared this appetizer with me has been equally delighted.

I have two favorite main courses, both fish: Lemon Sole and Striped Bass. To be fair, I didn't get to enjoy more than a couple of bites of the Striped Bass because my sister ordered it and, while she's very generous and I'm sure would have given me as much as I could eat, I saw her face light up in pure pleasure after the first bite and didn't want to rob her of her happiness. Both fishes are cooked perfectly, so that the fish is melt in your mouth but not at all fishy tasting. The sides, "mashed potatoes, spinach and a parsley lemon butter sauce" for the Sole, and "tomato, poblano pepper and capers with plantains and rice" for the Bass, compliment the fishes perfectly.

For dessert I have only tried one: the chocolate souffle cake with (I believe) espresso gelato. Kind of a tried-and-true staple dessert, but nonetheless one of the richest and most heavenly chocolate souffle cakes I've ever had. The extreme richness of the gooey cake, balances perfectly with the sweet lightness of the espresso gelato.

The reason this is the first ever restaurant to receive an A+ is because for once I have found a restaurant in the west village with amazing food where I didn't feel like I was still getting swindled by the price. Too often I end an amazing meal with the sentiment "Wow that was exquisite but I sure am paying for it." At the end of a meal at Cafe Condesa I guarantee the only thought going through your head will be "Can this bill be right??" as you prance out the door, body filled with a delicious meal and pockets filled with enough money for dinner next week at Cafe Condesa.