05.08.08
Review of Fleur de Sel, Saturday March 2008
5 E. 20th St. & 5th/6th Ave., 212-460-9100 (now closed)
Great for: excellent service, getting daintily drunk on copious amounts of wine
The Boyfriend and I had heard great things about this place, plus we wanted to be in the Flatiron area one Saturday night. Luckily, I managed to snag a reservation in the morning. We waited about 10 minutes for our table, which was not at all annoying because we got “free bubbles from the chef” (two flutes of champagne) and an excellent corner table. We also enjoyed the sexy librarian – I mean, beautiful hostess.
The prix fixe is $89 for just food, $145 with the wine pairing. Each of the six (or seven if you count the amuse) courses has a choice of two dishes and wines, so we got both options all the way down. Be careful – it is a lot of wine. We were quite hammered by the end of the meal.
The initial canapé of sea bass, eggplant and caviar wrapped in zucchini with basil and lemon oil was pretty good, though I couldn’t taste the caviar. It was the first time I didn’t hate eggplant.
We started with a quail and foie gras terrine with smoked almonds and apple purée next to a salad of snow pea slivers with a slice of toasted baguette so thin it could almost be used as a knife. The whole thing was good, but very liver-y. I liked the salad a lot. The Maine lobster in black truffle mayonnaise with Asian pear may possibly have been the sweetest savory course I’ve ever had but it was oddly good. The pairing was a 2006 Riesling and a sauvignon blanc.
Next we had crispy frog’s legs with sweet garlic purée and parsley coulis, which tasted like chicken and was surprisingly good. A nice first experience for me with frog. The escargot and polenta gâteaux in red wine sauce topped with a crisp sheet of parmesan was also praiseworthy, and we don’t even like snails that much. These came with an Austrian weiss and a white rioja.
Sadly, the meal did not live up to its early promise. The pan-seared wild striped bass “aux poivre and thyme” with roasted parsnip in lobster vanilla saffron jus was good but a bit overcooked. The Maine sea scallops with curry-glazed (Bugs Bunny-size) carrots, honey gastrique, grapefruit and taro chips were too sweet. We liked the Spanish Valdeorras pinot grigio and the Tocai Friulano from Napa, though.
The pistachio-crusted venison loin with potato gratin (instead of the promised venison sausage gratin) was pretty good. We liked the Long Island duck breast with a roulade of swiss chard and trumpets royale with a dumpling on top despite the mushrooms. They gave us a cabernet franc-and-merlot combination Bordeaux and a syrah de grenache made of different Côtes du Rhône, both quite heavy but well-matched with the food.
For our penultimate course we had a selection of American artisanal cheeses with toasted raisin walnut bread, blackcurrants, walnuts in honey and poached cranberries. I found it odd that the cheeses were American and not French, since the place makes a big deal out of its fancy Breton cooking. The Gruyère was good; the New York chèvre was yummy, solid and tasted like bleu cheese; the Point Reyes (California) chèvre with green pepper was tasty; and the California bleu cow cheese was very strong, but surprisingly likeable considering my usual dislike of bleu cheeses. I am sad to report that this was the best course. We also liked the dessert wines, a Sauterne and a chenin blanc.
Dessert was a Navan (vanilla cognac) chocolate tart with chocolate sorbet which was alcoholic and delicious, and fleur de sel caramel with cocoa nib ice cream that tasted like a decent flan. I didn’t care for the errant salt crystal I found in the latter but I suppose it’s a hazard of that dish. Instead of the logical dessert wines, we had a Sauterne made of sauvignon blanc and sauvignon, and a red grenache. They were pretty good, as were the complimentary petit fours after.
It was quite an old crowd around us, which was mitigated by the attractive waiters and very attentive and knowledgeable service. In fact, the stellar service was better than the food. It seemed like a design vs. an execution problem. Everything was done very well, but the composition of each dish fell short in our eyes.
I have lots of good things to say about the décor, though. In the middle there was a lovely arrangement of flowering cherry branches and a Japanese bonsai tree trunk, while the room was perfectly and softly lit with squares of canvas over all the ceiling lights. It felt like a modern, elegant French farmhouse. The midget forks and giant spoons and knives were a little incongruous, and I discovered splinters in the underside of the table the hard way, but overall our booth was very comfortable. I also liked the free chocolate muffins we got on our way out.
Basically, the food was pretty good, and the service was exceptional. I would have rated the place slightly more highly, but it was a bit pretentious (especially in their promotional material), overly expensive and trying to be so much more that it really felt like a letdown.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $375
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: low.
