This was my second time dining at Eleven Madison Park. There aren’t many restaurants more highly regarded – the Michelin three star restaurant continues to climb the list of the world’s best restaurants, currently at #3 in the 2016 list. I think my expectations were a little too high in my first visit and have been wanting to give EMP another try.
I’ve been to Le Bernardin once, dining on the chefs tasting menu in the main dining room. This time, I came to try more of Eric Ripert’s seafood-centric cuisine in the bar/lounge area.
The restaurant serves the full menu in the lounge, as well as a ‘City Harvest menu’ for lunch. This fixed menu offers three courses (two options for each) for $49, with $5 of that going to a local organization called City Harvest (which helps feed the city’s underprivileged). Given that $49 could be the price of just one entree in the main dining room, this seemed like a great price point to drop in for lunch on a few courses.
I’ve dined in Per Se’s dining room once, but this was my first time dining at the restaurant’s lounge, called the Salon. In the Salon, right outside the main dining room, the restaurant offers an a la carte version of that day’s tasting menu. Desserts are also offered a la carte, as well as a dessert tasting menu priced at $70 for 5 courses. I picked out a few items from the evening’s menu – one appetizer, a fish, a meat and a dessert.
While planning meals over the last couple of days in Hong Kong, we wanted to fit one more dim sum lunch in. T’ang Court, a Michelin three star restaurant at The Langham, was just a couple of blocks down from the hotel and had a last-minute reservation available.
Like fellow three-star Lung King Heen, the menu was extensive even for lunch. We planned to go for one of the set tasting menus, but they were only offered for tables of 2 or 4. Oddly, neither could be tailored for a party of 3 so we went a la carte.
Dim sum was one of the things my family and I really wanted to explore while in Hong Kong. How much better would it be in Hong Kong vs. California? My mother’s cousin, who is a frequent visitor to the territory, recommended Lung King Heen as his favorite. The restaurant at the Four Seasons, which is Michelin three-starred and ranked 99th best restaurant in the world, certainly promised to be a different kind of dim sum experience compared to what we were accustomed to.
While spending a couple of days in Macau, my parents and I decided to stop by three Michelin-starred Robuchon au Dome at the Grand Lisboa Hotel for lunch. The Robuchon name was certainly a draw, but so was the opportunity to dine in the dome atop the hotel, which happens to be the tallest building in Macau.
Much of the restaurant’s 14,000+ bottle wine list is on display at the entrance in a hallway of wines, before taking an elevator up to the dome and restaurant. The elevator opened up to a piano and grand chandelier, surrounded by seating with 360 degree views of Macau. Given some really dense fog on this day though, the view wasn’t quite as spectacular as expected.
While traveling in New York, a few coworkers and I had one free night to have a dinner together. They left it up to me to choose a restaurant for the four of us. It didn’t take too much deliberation to pick Per Se. This would be my first time dining here and the first Thomas Keller restaurant for the rest of the party.
Eleven Madison Park 11 Madison Ave New York, NY 10010 Dining date: 2/28/15 Eleven Madison Park was one of my most anticipated meals in a long time. Since chef Daniel Humm and manager Will Guidara took over the place in 2006, the restaurant has skyrocketed to be regarded as one of the best in the…