I had always wanted to try the restaurant March because I recall Sterl always mentioned that it was one of his favorites, but since I rarely find myself with any reason to be in Midtown East, I’ve just never gone. That changed this weekend. K and I wandered in without a reservation and the first thing that struck me was “wow, this place is really swank and I am sooo totally under-dressed”. I even caught the hostess looking at my jeans as I asked if they could accomodate a table for two. They do have a very unusual setup in that the hostess is seated at a desk so I suppose maybe that was reason she was looking down there, or maybe she was just scoping out my crotch to see what I was packing hahaha. Regardless, she just smiled and said she could seat us.

As we entered the dining area, I felt even more under-dressed as all the diners were of the elder variety and every male was donning a jacket and tie. Maybe we were being treated as second class because we were wearing jeans, but instead of being seated at a regular table, they sat us at a banquette where we had to sit side by side and we were essentially facing a wall and the side of a booth where another couple was seated. Even so, it was kind of a comfy bench with an elegant little throw pillow to rest against. The nattily dressed waiter came over to take our cocktail order and naturally I continued with my champagne kick, this time Perrier Jouet since that’s what they offered by the glass. Then came the menus and since they were out of the sashimi (since it was Sunday) and I couldn’t decide what to order, I naturally opted for the 8-course tasting menu where the chef gets to choose. Then the festivities began… There were soooo many dishes that I can’t possibly remember them all, and some courses they brought different items for me and K, so we tasted well more than eight different dishes. But here’s what I do recall…

We were started with an amuse of celery soup, served in what has become the ubiquitous shot glass/foamed soup presentation. It was really rich, creamy and had what I believe was a hint of truffle with only the slightest tinge of celery flavor, but hey, you’ll never hear me complaining about cream and truffle over celerey. Then there was a salad of frisee, parsley, walnuts and sublime bleu cheese over a layer of what I believe was thinly sliced apple or pear arranged like carpaccio. A nice presentation and the quality of the super flavorful yet somehow subtle bleu just took it to another level. Speaking of another level, we also had a dish with succulent chunks of poached lobster with bits of bacon (yummm) and tiny discs of soft potato all sitting in a sweet and rich corn chowder that was so good it could easily be a featured app even without the lobster.

Then came a surprising pumkin soup. Surprising because sitting in the broth were pieces of unagi, Asian pear (which K said they call nashi pear in Australia) and the coup de grace- foie gras! I smiled as I noticed K saved her foie gras for last. Then we had an agnalotti dish which I don’t recall the stuffing for because it had white truffle and that’s all I was zoned in on. Fantastic. Let’s see, what else did we have… There was a dish with a hunk of salmon that was still practically sashimi-like but showed signs of some type of slight cooking, so I’m guessing it was either steeped in oil at low temperature (like under 190 degrees), or mildly smoked. I believe there were chanterelles along with it too. Onto the meat courses…

There was chicken cooked sous vide with chanterelles and a silky potato puree. The chicken was so remarkably tender and juicy and full of real chicken flavor, so unlike the supermarket variety. The chef had done something interesting with the chicken skin too. It had apparently been removed and somehow cooked completely flat and crisp so it was more like a shard rather than the bubbled up look you normally associate with chicken skin crackling. I’m guessing it was somehow pressed and dehydrated while being cooked. Very interesting, and I liked the effect. In all, it appeared like such a simple dish but it was definitely one of my favorites. Then there was duck served with both a leg and a breast with a little mound of quinoa and some figs. Pretty standard fare I thought; not remarkable like most of the other dishes. By this point we were both pretty stuffed, although K was more stuffed than me, and I had to bat cleanup on the last couple of dishes. When I ordered the 8-course tasting I asked if the chef pared back the portion sizes to accomodate the additional courses and the waiter said yes. Well, I wondered about that as the final meat courses were served- steak for her and what I believe was venison for me. Each plate contained six generous slices of meat, yes, SIX. Awesome, except for the fact that neither of us could finish them (well, I probably could have, but I’ve got nothing to prove). I sampled a bit of each and had them wrapped to go. They were of course perfectly medium rare and delicious, but I can’t recall what sides accompanied them.

Then came the palate cleanser which was a shot glass of something with a little quenelle-shaped scoop of raspberry sorbet suspended in it. This looked promising, but the raspberry was way too tart. That was the only real miss by the kitchen the whole night I thought. Dessert time. For one dessert we had a little chocolate cake and for the other, a little cheesecake type of thing sitting in a pool of berry soup. The chocolate cake was nice; moist and rich, but perhaps a little too rich considering the state of our bellies at that point. The berry soup thing was awesome though. The cheesecake was not quite a cake in texture but not quite light enough to be a custard either. The texture was smooth but not slippery and the flavor was mild, sweet and very appealing. Contrasted with the brightness of the berry soup, it was the perfect closer for a huge meal like that. All told, I thought the kitchen did a solid job, the waitstaff was attentive without being intrusive (remarkable considering we stayed so late that we were probably keeping them from going home) and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Not a bad choice for a spur of the moment dinner, eh? 🙂