06.27.11
Review of Vandaag, Friday September 2010
103 2nd Ave. & 6th St., 212-253-0470
Great for: everything I tried, stretching out your legs
There really aren’t enough Dutch restaurants in the city. Before, I couldn’t have told you what they eat in the Netherlands besides pot brownies and maybe… chocolate? But if this place is any indication, I definitely like the cuisine. It was a very fitting celebration for me booking my first big commercial and finishing my samurai movie.
The Aussie Astrophysicist and I started with an amuse bouche of broccoli and smoked eel, which was excellent. I love amuses – I’m picky, so it’s good for me to try things outside the stuff I usually order.
The terrific romaine with sausage crumble, pistachios and herring vinaigrette was a really interesting mixture of flavors. I loved the rich, tasty hit of sausage. And the vinaigrette is a dream. I wanted to roll around in it. I never thought I would enjoy a herring-based food so much. The beer-battered lamb sweetbreads with pickled Concord grapes, aïoli of pickling juice and Holland peppers were just as wonderful. They were crunchy and earthy while still being quite tender inside. We dipped all the other dishes in the aïoli, too, it was that good.
The special of halibut, cured for hours with sugar and salt then painted with genever, is worth the wait. It’s soft, subtle and comes in nice big pieces. Like ceviche, only much better. AA and I were intrigued by the hete bliksem (“hot lightning”) and had to check it out. The crisp fingerling potatoes, bacon, apple and stroop (caramel) syrup spiced up with cayenne and thyme were a strange, delicious combination. I actually liked it despite my usual distaste for sweet and savory mixed together. The bacon was insanely fatty and the syrup was not too gooey. They complemented the heaviness of the other ingredients well. I found myself even liking the finely diced apple pieces.
Three appetizers and one side turned out to be enough for two light eaters. My Manolin cocktail was fennel-y and yummy. (Yes, I partly ordered it because it sounds like Manolo.) We had super friendly service from the incredibly knowledgeable bartender. Actually, everyone there was very nice in general.
I was impressed with how much space the restaurant has. It’s so big they left some areas open! It’s especially lovely with their minimalist white and silver decor. Basically, any time I’m in the neighborhood and just got paid, I will definitely stop by.
Rating: 8.5 / 10 (but we didn’t have any entrées)
Our cost: $75 (3 apps, 1 side, 1 cocktail, 1 beer)
Noise level: a bit noisy
Chance of walking in: the wait is probably not too bad.
