Summer Restaurant Week 2007 Pick: Brasserie Ruhlmann

Cafe Centro is my top pick for a French bistro in NYC. I decided to stray away from dining there during restaurant week and eat elsewhere. After a few cocktails at the Rink Bar at Rockefeller Center, my boyfriend and I dined at Brasserie Ruhlmann (Image Credit (left): Opentable.com), located across the street.

I ordered the following:
Appetizer: Chilled Local Corn Soup/Blue Crab Meat Fritter/Mustard Oil
Main Course: Braised Chicken in Curry Kaffir Lime Broth/Confit Eggplant
Dessert: Thin Apple Tart, Granny Smith Sorbet

The appetizer was presented as a crab meat fritter sitting in the center a white bowl. The waiter poured the chilled corn soup around the fritter. The soup was quite good – very sweet; the fritter consisted more of batter than meat.

My entree was interesting – chunks of chicken breast, potato, and eggplant in a light curry broth. Not sure how curry stew could wind up in a bistro menu, but overall, it was good.

My dessert was not off the restaurant week menu. They ran out of all of them, so I settled for the apple tart – a 1/3 inch thick tart with a delicious apple sorbet.

My boyfriend ordered the moule frittes, which was not the greatest we’ve had. Oh Cafe Centro, you have spoiled us.

Overall rating of the restaurant:

Service: Average (I had to keep reminding the waiter to bring me tea…I asked several people for lemons for my water – never got it).
Food: Average
Ambiance: Excellent – when the weather is nice, grab a table outside; Indoors is great too – you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to another world.