Sunday, February 24, 2008

Allen & Delancey: Exclusive and exquisite

allendelancy1.jpg


The restaurant gets its name from its location- it is at the intersection of Allen and Delancey streets in Manhattan. And its a good thing that we know that now because this gem is really hard to find. Run by one of Gordon Ramsey's ex-chefs, the quality is exactly what you would expect from a restaurant of this class. We heard of this place by word of mouth. Make reservations at least a month in advance. We went there for our anniversary. One of us had the flu, but the friendly staff was nice enough to give us another reservation in a couple of days at short notice.


Lift the heavy curtains at the entrance and you walk into a swanky candle-lit bar. The restaurant sections are appropriately lit with candles only for the 'romantic' twos tables, and slightly more light for bigger tables. They have a communal table which is becoming increasingly popular in chi-chi places of late. Our table was in a cozy corner between an antique bookcase and a big wine rack (see below).


DSC07487.JPGDSC07471.JPGDSC07485.JPG


From watching 'Hells Kitchen' we figured that Gordon Ramsey is unusually picky when it comes to how scallops are made ("these scollops are overdone you f**** b*stard you. Get out, get out!"). So we had to order the scallops as the appetizer. And they were really perfectly done. In fact, our standards for good scallops has increased many orders in magnitude. The foodie had the trout and the photographer had the lamb. Both dishes were impeccably made and of just the right portions. The accompaniments on the plate complemented the fish/meat perfectly. The textures were pleasing and the tastes made us go wow. Of course we wished we could actually describe what the sides were. Verjus, Herb Werts, Trompettes? Each of them was amazing, but made us want to run out after dinner and get a chi-chi food dictionary. Dessert was a chocolate crunch terrine, and probably the only 'normal' and familiar dish in the entire night. We don't usually take photos of the dish after we finish, but in this case, we took it to illustrate that we would have licked the plates had it not been a sophisticated place. Service was courteous and the waiter was patient enough to explain every dish to us. He only flinched when the foodie likened the "truffled fingerlings" to classy french fries.



Highly recommended for fine dining on special occassions. Around $67 per person including wine and their speciality pomegranate martini.



Food: 9/10


Service: 8/10


Ambience: 9.5/10


Allen & Delancey, 115 Allen St, New York, NY 10002



No comments: