Degustation

»Dinner at Degustation 9/23/11 - a review

Degustation was the fourth stop on this week's Parents-Take-Manhattan foodie itinerary and the only restaurant I had visited before (except for EMP, although that doesn’t really count since our first visit was pre-Humm). I knew my parents would love the open kitchen concept and I hoped they’d love the food as well. I was blown away by Degustation when I was there a few years ago and I was hoping...+READ Degustation was the fourth stop on this week's Parents-Take-Manhattan foodie itinerary and the only restaurant I had visited before (except for EMP, although that doesn’t really count since our first visit was pre-Humm). I knew my parents would love the open kitchen concept and I hoped they’d love the food as well. I was blown away by Degustation when I was there a few years ago and I was hoping for a repeat experience.

I had heard some bad things about the service at Degustation of late and I’m happy to report that we encountered no problems. We happened to be sitting on the corner near the plating area, which was a terrific spot as it enabled us to see all the details. The woman who was running the pass was friendly and more than happy to answer any questions we had about the food (our own and everyone else’s). Our waiter was also friendly and helpful.

Because there were four of us, we were able to sample most of the menu. I was dismayed to learn that they had replaced the incredible, béchamel/cheese/bacon filled croquetas with something called Bomba de la Barceloneta, which were similar but filled with a spicy tomato sauce - however, they were quite delicious as well. The signature tortilla with soft quail egg was enjoyed by all. We then sampled a coconut soup with herbs and cherries, which was light and refreshing but underseasoned, and a special salad with ricotta, butternut squash, micro greens and caramelized pepitas. It was fine, but somewhat unbalanced to my palate - the sweet pepitas and sweet squash dominated and there wasn’t enough tang or salt - it almost felt like eating a dessert.

Our courses became slightly heavier as the meal went on. Highlights included an oxtail stuffed squid on squid ink oatmeal risotto, which was really delicious. Very salty, very savory. The oxtail covered up the flavor of the squid, though. The octopus with pork belly was another of my favorite dishes of the night - tender, meaty octopus braised in a flavorful broth, accented with crisp belly.

Other nice dishes included a scallop special with artichoke - it was one plump and sweet scallop on a smear of artichoke puree with a couple of grilled baby artichokes beside it. The sweetness of the scallop played nicely with the earthy puree, but the baby artichokes were underdone. The same artichokes played a role in my squab with foie gras - the squab was a bit tough and underseasoned, although using the small rectangle of foie gras terrine as a sort of sauce helped. Less successful was the flank steak with sauerkraut and rye, which sounded better than it was - the steak, though rare, was exceedingly tough and flavorless. Fried anchovies were relatively tasteless as well, which is odd since they are generally such a strongly flavored fish.

My final dish was the foie gras terrine with blood orange, which our waiter described as “almost a dessert.” I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but I soon found out when the dish was delivered. It was a puck of foie gras terrine sandwiched between two crisp crackers (looked like an ice cream sandwich), on a plateful of blood orange marmalade, raspberries and edible flowers. Gorgeous, but unfortunately the foie was a bit too cold, underseasoned and lacked a prominent foie gras flavor (which made me feel as though they had loaded the terrine with butter or other less expensive ingredients and skimped on the foie). The marmalade was delicious on its own and the slight bitterness was lovely with the foie, but unfortunately the foie lacked both the salt and the liver flavor it needed to stand up to such a sweet accompaniment.

Everyone else had the torija for dessert, which ended our meal on a high note - I am not usually into bread pudding but this was incredible - the fresh grapefruit played so well against the rich, sweet, creamy-soft bread. The chef working the pass was more than happy to tell me how they make it, so I am looking forward to trying it at home.

Overall impressions: While we enjoyed our meal, I was not nearly as impressed with Degustation this time around as I was a few years ago. I just looked at my previous review (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/511075) and I can still taste some of those amazing dishes in my mind - nothing we had this time even came close (except maybe the torija. That was damn good!). Prices are a bit higher now as well (although that’s to be expected). The tasting menus, at $55 for 5 courses and $80 for 10, are still a pretty good value, but I won’t recommend Degustation as enthusiastically as I have in the past. Hopefully they’ll find a way to get Genovart back or find someone equally good to take over!-COLLAPSE / REPLY (2 Replies) (by biondanonima, created September 27, 2011)

My husband and I were also very disappointed in Degustation, sister and brother-in-law absolutely loved it. I felt like we ate at two different restaurants. We had some kind of mixup that definitely impacted what I ate (called and asked whether they could do the larger tasting menu for a vegetarian, told yes, confirmed before date of dinner, walked in and was told it wasn't possible; this was...+READ My husband and I were also very disappointed in Degustation, sister and brother-in-law absolutely loved it. I felt like we ate at two different restaurants. We had some kind of mixup that definitely impacted what I ate (called and asked whether they could do the larger tasting menu for a vegetarian, told yes, confirmed before date of dinner, walked in and was told it wasn't possible; this was like 8 pm on a Friday night and it was supposed to be a special dinner; I think they said they could do the 5 course no problem but don't remember that clearly now. They did apologize and just said whoever I spoke to made an error - both times, I guess.). I really liked one of the desserts and wasn't wowed by anything else. My husband (meat eater) didn't particularly like any of his dishes. The set up was very cool and we were excited to watch the cooking. Unfortunately, the food just didn't impress us. Like I said, though, my sister and brother-in-law talked about their meal for weeks. I just don't get it (other than the setting), but the place definitely has its fans. We wouldn't ever bother returning.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (4 Replies) (by Olive123, created September 11, 2011)

»Degustation - very poor

This negative review does not do the night justice because I was not paying attention to the ingredients and details of all 12 courses.

I know tasting menu courses are small, sometimes one bite. We were literally served a (one) cherry tomato cut in half with something drizzled on top. Now the drizzle could have been this elaborate sauce made from a virgins sweet simmered in truffle oil. But it...+READ This negative review does not do the night justice because I was not paying attention to the ingredients and details of all 12 courses.

I know tasting menu courses are small, sometimes one bite. We were literally served a (one) cherry tomato cut in half with something drizzled on top. Now the drizzle could have been this elaborate sauce made from a virgins sweet simmered in truffle oil. But it sucked.

The whole night I watched the chef taking meticulus care of a square piece of meat (?). He turned it gently, cooked it on its side, proddered and poked. The block was cut in 1/2 inch slices. It was unediable and I'm a pig who can chew down just about anything. I spit it out.

The remainder of the courses were bland and nothing special?-COLLAPSE / REPLY (4 Replies) (by shoeman, created September 10, 2011)

My wife and I came back from dinner tonight. What a disappointment. Degustation used to be one of our favorite restaurants, hadn't gone in a few months so we were excited to go back. We were the only diners on a Thursday early evening. This should have been our first hint that soothing was not right w/the restaurant b/c all the other times we were there it was always crowded.

The food just...+READ My wife and I came back from dinner tonight. What a disappointment. Degustation used to be one of our favorite restaurants, hadn't gone in a few months so we were excited to go back. We were the only diners on a Thursday early evening. This should have been our first hint that soothing was not right w/the restaurant b/c all the other times we were there it was always crowded.

The food just seemed so uninspired, the sturgeon was almost unedible. The texture of the ago blanco was way too grainy and lacked any flavor. The flank steak was dried out. The caramelized torija, which I used to enjoy, was just sweet, no complexity at all sugar on top of hardened sugar.

Wes wan't there. The server staff & probably the cooks knew that we didn't enjoy the food. They never asked how the food was. The ingredients were definitely not top quality. Sad how a restaurant can go downhill so fast.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (17 Replies) (by chuck_apex, created August 25, 2011)

»Degustation 10-Course Chef's Tasting Review + Photos

Photos are here: http://www.donuts4dinner.com/2011/05/24/degustation-chefs-ten-course-tasting-menu-spanishtapas-east-village/

Degustation is designed entirely to facilitate a relationship between the chef and the diner. With only 16 seats arranged in a half-rectangle around a bar that encompasses the prep area, you don't miss a moment of your dinner being made. For better or worse.

Do you...+READ Photos are here: http://www.donuts4dinner.com/2011/05/24/degustation-chefs-ten-course-tasting-menu-spanishtapas-east-village/

Degustation is designed entirely to facilitate a relationship between the chef and the diner. With only 16 seats arranged in a half-rectangle around a bar that encompasses the prep area, you don't miss a moment of your dinner being made. For better or worse.

Do you want to see the plastic storage bowl your rabbit liver came out of? Do you want to look at a whole container of cooked bacon slabs on the counter throughout your meal and know that you only get two tiny pieces? Is that worth it to get to watch your chef so delicately place a single slice of Fresno pepper on top of a sardine with a pair of forceps? It's not exactly the most romantic of date spots, but dinner at Degustation is special in its own way.

• amuse-bouche: fish skin, sherry vinegar

Being served this the moment we walked in the door was kind of hilarious, if you know me. While I can at least eat seafood without much complaint now, I still don't find it the least bit comforting or homey. And it was actually my first time at Degustation that I tried fish skin for the first time. At least that was attached to a piece of actual fish, though; this was just straight-up skin.

And I actually kind of liked it! It was only slightly fishy, and the texture reminded me of Cheetos: crispy, puffy, and full of tiny air holes. The sherry vinegar was so sour it made me wrinkle my nose, but I liked the combination.

• amuse-bouche: ham and apple croqueta

Clearly this is much more my speed. A crunchy exterior, a creamy potato interior punctuated by ham bits, and a smoky emulsion underneath that I kept coming back to, trying to scrape more off my plate. This still wasn't as good as the one at Tenpenny, but I think it was improved over the last time we were at Degustation.

• amuse-bouche: Spanish tortilla, quail egg, shallot jam

This was our favourite on the plate because it was the most original and complexly-flavored. The tortilla had the texture of a Shanghai bun skin, and the filling was like caramelized onions: sweet and sour and like it came off the bottom of a cast iron pan. The shallot jam is just really nice, too; it has all of the flavor of an aged wine with all of the texture of a homemade jelly.

• hamachi crudo

I somehow didn't take a photo of this, but it was served on a spoon with pickled vegetables. It wasn't fishy but had that distinctive fresh ocean flavor that you find in mild seafood like scallops and shrimp. The refreshing bite was a nice palate-cleanser for the more intensely-flavored amuses.

• uni, sunchoke panna cotta, ramp?, pepper

I love a savory panna cotta; you just don't get enough creaminess in savory foods. Panna cotta topped in sea urchin is a little bit different, but I understand that uni is considered a major delicacy, and I've only had it a handful of times at this point, so I was open-minded.

It tastes like iron, looks like orange chicken skin, and has the texture of mousse. Which is not to say that I didn't kind of enjoy it. The spice of the single slice of pepper really pervaded the entire bowl, and I can really get behind the idea of uni pudding, which is basically what this was.

The problem is that everything in the bowl was just so unfamiliar. About halfway through, it started seeming just, you know, something someone should eat only if beef isn't available. I ended up mixing the rest of my uni into the panna cotta so I could disguise it. I'm still a work in progress, I guess.

• monkfish liver

On the other hand, I think I can honestly say that I like monkfish liver. I had it first at an Asian buffet, but it was drowning in some sort of sweet sauce that I figured was the only thing making it palatable.

But no, it tasted like any other totally non-fishy organ meat and had a wonderful flaky, chunky texture. And, as I've probably made abundantly clear, I hate tomatoes despite years of trying not to, yet these were weirdly delicious. The cilantro and red onion overpowered that gross not-quite-sweet, not-quite-savory thing tomato has going so that the topping tasted like a fresh, crisp salsa. I really loved the way that nothing could get soggy because of the way it was cut into little slivers.

• asparagus soup, bacon, salmon roe

I was really excited when this was set down in front of me. I was ready for something earthy and familiar. We sunk the contents of our spoons into our cups of soup and were delighted by crunchy bacon and artichoke tips and . . . SALMON ROE? I wrote in my notebook, "Just give me something without fish!" Even the wine this was paired with tasted salmony to me. At least the soup itself was delicious, with a savory foam on top that reminded us of eating garlic and onion potato chips.

• Littleneck and razor clams, pasta, butter beans

We loved the salty, garlicky flavor of this dish. After a pretty dismal experience at Flex Mussels recently, this brought me back to bivalves a little. The textures in the dish were all of a similar chewiness, but luckily, I like chewy.

• sardine, cucumber tzatziki

My boyfriend was worried I wouldn't like this due to its silver-skinned fishiness, but on the contrary, it was just a big, salty, crunchy fish stick. I loved the spicy pepper against the cool pickled vegetables, and the tzatziki was like a better version of tartar sauce.

• chicken egg, bacon, crouton

This one kind of overwhelmed us and sent us into a five-star-dish coma, starting with the adorable presentation of the brown egg on blue-and-brown-striped plates and ending with the tiny chunks of ham hidden in the cheesy egg filling. We loved the texture progression from creamy egg to chewy ham to crunchy crouton.

• rabbit tasting: liver, pate; baguette, salad

Watching a chef form your rabbit liver into a quenelle with two spoons right in front of you is kind of a joy. So is eating different preparations of the same animal in one dish. The liver was smooth and organy, but the pate was like eating a really fine lunch meat–spicy, flavorful, but so likeable a kid would eat it. Spread on the crisp baguette and topped with some pickled greens, it was hearty and filling.

• lamb, Romesco sauce, barley, olive breadcrumbs

This lovely little chunk of rare lamb was wrapped in lamb bacon and proved once again that any kind of bacon is good bacon. The Romesco sauce was nutty, garlicky, and sweet from the red peppers it's made from; we weren't sure if it was just the color, but when we swiped our barley through the sauce, we swore it made them taste like orange Nerds candy. We loved the sour dirt-looking topping, and I was shocked to learn it was made from my enemy, the olive.

• dessert amuse

I wish I had any memory of what this was, but between wine pairings and my not writing anything about it in my little notebook, it's pretty hazy. Some sort of meringue, an orange supreme, and a slice of jelly. I remember liking it, but I guess it wasn't quite memorable enough to overcome the wine.

• caramelized torija, grapefruit

On the other hand, it's almost like I can still taste this little square of French-toast-like brioche. It was our favourite dish on our first visit to Degustation and definitely did not disappoint the second time around, even without the benefit of newness on its side. The way they torch the outside but leave the inside doughy and uncooked makes for such interesting taste and texture contrasts. The chef in front of us, sensing our delight, informed us that the bread is soaked in heavy cream for twenty-four hours. And that explains that.

We didn't, however, care for the grapefruit segment on the side. I really, really love grapefruit, but next to the super-sweet caramelized bread, it became savory; usually I love the play between sweet and savory in dessert, but in this case, the grapefruit just sort of lost all its flavor, like fruit does when it's out of season.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I wasn't using a ratings system at the time of our first visit, but I think I would've given Degustation four donuts back then, too. It doesn't exactly reflect how I feel about the place in certain circumstances, though. I don't think the food is technically perfect, and for me, it's way too heavy on the fish. But for diners who are just getting into high-end food and don't mind a little roe here and there, I think it's one of the best values going.

For $80, you get to try ten tasty and creative courses and watch the chefs make them right in front of you. Things can get pricey if you opt for the wine pairings, which run the same as dinner itself, but it's still several hundred dollars less than you'd pay at many of the restaurants I've rated five stars. Of course I'd argue that the several hundred dollars is worth it for a five-star meal, but while those might be once or twice in a lifetime meals, Degustation serves more of an everyday dinner in a less-stuffy environment. Plus, did you see that torija?-COLLAPSE / REPLY (17 Replies) (by plumpdumpling, created May 25, 2011)

I dont' see anything on here about the cost of the wine pairings? I know the tasting is either 50 or 75, but how much is a pairing with that? Just trying to figure out what my bill for two if I go all out would be. REPLY (33 Replies) (by Chargenda, created February 22, 2010)