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!