So you’re trying to impress a hot date with dinner at one of the so-called “celebrity chef” restaurants in town, the kind of place where dinner for two with wine can set you back $300—or more.
You demand outstanding service, astonishing cuisine and the kind of romantic ambiance that will pave the way for …. well, whatever comes next.
Eleven Madison Park, an aphrodisiac of a restaurant, scores big points for its elegant Art Deco looks, white-glove service and innovative contemporary French cuisine at the hands of 29-year-old executive chef Daniel Humm—voted one of 2005’s best chefs of the year by Food & Wine magazine.
Saunter into this light, airy space near Union Square and be dazzled by the 30-foot Alice in Wonderland-style windows overlooking Madison Square Park, alluring scent of exotic flowers from the many arrangements in this vast space and an air of culinary excitement and expectations permeating the room.
Expectations?
Yes, because here in Wonderland, under the talented hands of Mr. Humm, nothing is quite what it seems. A fan of reductions, foams and exceedingly slow cooking, Humm’s goal is to showcase the purest and highest quality ingredients in their finest form and artistically arrange them on the plate. Dinner service begins with an impressive presentation of amuse bouches, tiny bite-sized morsels designed to tease the palate such as black truffle macaroon with foie gras and apple cider gelée, crisp sweetbread cornet, citrus-marinated hamachi with zucchini and tobiko and goat cheese galette with Meyer lemon comfiture.
In these tasty bites, Humm foreshadows the culinary alchemy that is to follow. On one visit, alternating discs of diver scallops, Nova Scotia lobster and Satsuma tangerines arrive on a white plate encircled by a frothy, vivid orange tangerine sauce and gentle sprinkling of vanilla sea salt. An entrée of slow roasted Chatham cod appears in the surprising shape of two alabaster white discs, surrounded by saffron fumet and ragout of fruits de mer. Suckling pig confit, a much-acclaimed and flavorful “main course,” looks very much like a candy bar on the platter.
“An entrée the size of a candy bar?” you might think, reading this and not yet knowing the prix fixe menu begins at $76 for three courses (one is dessert) and can be augmented to include supplements (Alba Truffles is an additional $65), an additional savory course ($88 for four courses), or in lieu of it all, the gourmand tasting menu which begins at $120 for eleven courses ($80 more if you want each course paired with wine).
Portion size can be an issue. Search the Internet and you will find diners who visually weighed the protein and equated it with the equivalent of a toddler-sized “lunchable” at $1 per calorie. If you really need those extra calories (again, you’re trying to impress that hot date, remember?) you have dessert coming. And coming. And coming, yet again.
First enjoy your choice of dessert (silky cheesecake accompanied by roasted pineapple, kaffir lime and kili pepper shortbread is divine). Yet save room for the complimentary basket of fresh-from-the-oven madeleines, infamously described by author Marcel Proust as “squat, plump little cakes which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell.” And to top it all off, after you’ve settled the hefty check, you’re rewarded with a silver dish of mignardises, tiny bites of chocolate and miniature exotic jellies and other sweets traditionally served with coffee.
So, you might ask, Is the Eleven Madison Park experience worth the expense? If you can comfortably afford it, yes.
Alternatively, you can enjoy the space and stellar service in the sleek , upscale, and very date-impressive cocktail lounge. Arrive early enough to snag a table and you can feast on culinary delights such as heirloom beets (purple, red and yellow beets lined up, checkerboard style, on a geometric white plate on a pallet of Lynnhaven goat cheese, $14), big eye tuna with persimmons ($14) or foie gras torchon with Venezuelan cocoa ($18).
Yet another option is to book a table for lunch (a la carte or prix fixe $36 for three courses) or indulge in an a la carte Saturday or Sunday brunch. You won’t have all the bells and whistles of dinner service—with its seemingly endless “extras”—yet you will have the fantastic daylight streaming in through those impressive oversized windows and see the park.
And as for whatever comes next, well, you’ve heard of the film Love in the Afternoon, right?
Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave. (at 24th St.)
212-889-0905
