April 3, 2006 | Ask Gael
Send me to a lively French bistro
I felt a shiver of excitement at Café d’Alsace as I savored a gorgeous soup bowl of that almost abandoned classic, quenelles de brochet, rich and cleverly textured for its 21st-century revival.
February 20, 2006 | Ask Gael
Cocoa-flavored gnocchi? Do I dare?
I admit I had little hope for that gnocchi, or for fried cod over lemon marmalade, or fennel salad with licorice-spiked olive oil, bold moves on the menu at brand-new Spiga.
February 13, 2006 | Ask Gael
Is it the real or discount David Burke at Bloomie's?
Taste the mellow green apple lobster bisque and those fabulous Asiago truffle fries and you'll believe the real David Burke has been lurking nearby in this
stainless-steel, smartly checkered canteen.
February 6, 2006 | Ask Gael
We're hungry for Comfort on the Upper East Side
The narrow storefront that was Butterfield 81 has always catered to the neighborhood, and that's Francesco Antonucci's mind-set here in a room that is stripped-down and simple.
January 23, 2006 | Ask Gael
Is it Gilt or just plain brass?
I have little tolerance for dinner as a cataclysmic life experience. But bad-boy chef Paul Liebrandt promised to soften his edge at Gilt in the freshly restored hallows of the departed Le Cirque 2000.
December 19, 2005 | Ask Gael
And what's a barbounia?
It's a small, not all that remarkable Mediterranean fish, but the restaurant that has taken its name is making waves already.
December 5, 2005 | Ask Gael
Stop the (food) world
If you hunger for constancy and dignity, it's time for Cafe
Boulud.
September 18, 2005 | Ask Gael
I'm Bored With All Those Copycat Trattorias
It looks like just another unassuming storefront on a shabby stretch of Ninth, but you get a hint of the unabashed ambition at Roberto Passon as soon as you see his ravioli—each twisted to look like a flying nun’s headdress, then butter-tossed with asparagus slivers and fried sage.
August 15, 2005 | Ask Gael
What's new in nouvelle Chinese?
The very name, Mainland, hints of homage to the past, but chef-partner Brian Young isn't bound to tradition.