10.08.08

Review of Bagatelle, Wednesday August 2008

Posted in French, Meatpacking District, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 13:46 by Dominique

409 W.13th St. & 9th Ave./Washington St., 212-675-2400
Great for: picking up cute finance boys, tuna tartare, steak aux poivre, sparkly bottle-fueled birthdays, lazy people who want to go clubbing after dinner

My friend Dominique (she’s Angel, I’m Devil) invited me to her friend’s birthday here.  It’s extremely scene-y and fun.  Plus, the club Kiss & Fly is only a short passage away.

The tuna tartare with ginger and scallions is very good. It comes with a lot of avocado but they are quite generous with the tuna as well. I found it slightly chewy in a good way, not so much that you forget what you’re eating; just enough to avoid being slimy. The lobster ravioli tasted noticeably of mushrooms, which was mitigated by their texture blending in with the onions. The pasta was soft with not much lobster flavor; still pretty good in its pesto sauce. 

The calamari came in what I call crazy Chinese form – unbreaded, with an abundance of peppers and sauces.  (It’s crazy because I don’t like it.)  It was too chewy for me to forget I was eating squid.  I just picked at the peppers.  The coquillette, elbow macaroni with Emmental and ham, was probably the best mac & ham with an afterthought of cheese I’ve ever had but that’s not saying much. It did taste nice and fresh though. Don’t touch the bowl, it’ll burn you. I found adding some tuna salted it up nicely.

My steak aux poivres with creamy spinach instead of french fries, which they brought me anyway, was tender, spicy and delicious.  Bagatelle definitely made up a few points in this round. The spinach had only a hint of cream, with bread crumbs on top, and was quite good at first until it bored me. Incidentally, the lighting is so dark I had to eat the fat in my steak because I couldn’t see to cut it away.

Instead of dessert we had lots of bottles of Champagne.  Also, I met a really cute guy in line for the bathroom and some other guys at the bar as I waited for Dominique Angel before dinner.  Better than dessert, in my opinion.

The waiters try but service can be desultory, what with the crush at the bar and the sheer volume of ego and hair in one room. Try for a table in the romantic, cozy back nook but don’t expect the waiters to be able to reach you there.  They are at least nice, which makes up for a lot of slowness.  Don’t be intimidated by the pretty hostesses, either.  They’re very helpful.

Apparently on Saturdays around 2 the place is like a day club in St. Tropez. Don’t bother trying to do anything at the bar after 10pm - it’s about 6-7 deep in a space that supports 5 at best so only the skinny will succeed. There are lots of cute banker boys if you’re into that, as well as a DJ who’s quite good.  Take a deaf date, you won’t be able to hear anyway.

The food is better than it has to be but not as good as it could be. It’s clearly a bagatelle compared to keeping the crowd liquored up, though they provide an impressively extensive menu considering the simple banker/ad girls/socialite clientele.  It’s fun, I’d definitely come again.

Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: don’t know, probably a lot. (Thank you B!) Apps are $10-18, entrées $24-36.
Noise level: club with non-deaf DJ
Chance of walking in: as slim as most of the social x-rays who come here.

I did end up coming again, on a date this time, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the scallops St. Jacques as well.

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