Adour Alain Ducasse @ NYC *
Merinque with Mango Sorbet and Passion Fruit Foam
Shame on you Alain Ducasse. My previous two dining experiences at the Alain Ducasse restaurants in London and Paris were among the best meals I had this year. Consequently, I had intentionally been waiting for a special occassion before choosing to dine at Adour, a restaurant that I was sure would have a particularly memorable meal in store for me. And memorable it was; memorably terrible!
There is a resason why I tend to avoid traditional French haute cuisine and that reason is sauce. Although I’ve successfully conquered my childhood aversion to butter, I still find foods smothered in cream and thick, buttery reductions singularly unappealing. Why mask the naturally fresh flavor of lobster? The yellowtail ceviche was suspiciously fishy, the vegetables, doused in the sort of red sauce I normally associate with cheap Chinese takeout, were limpid, the cod all but tasteless, and the veal horrifyingly mushy. I am not a picky eater and I’m usually too reticent to speak up when food is unsatisfactory, but tonight, perhaps emboldened by my dining companion’s audacious personality, course after course was sampled and refused.
To be fair, the off-menu dessert brough out by the kitchen in a last-ditch effort to save the meal was a sugary, frothy fantasy, however my overally assessment is that here is a case study for an empire that is expanding too far, too fast.
Details: 2 East 55th Street New York, NY 10022-3103 (+1-212-771-2277)
1 comment
You are such a vital forcem with such a unrequited desire for good food that it pains me to hear that you were so disappointed by an establishment that feigns to be worthy of patronage by suchas you. I have had the pleasure of many good meals at restaurants cheffed by the above mentioned entrepreneur and only in his New YOrk establishments have I been so bitterly dissapointed as you, once when the chef ( who was fired shortly therefter ) came out to apologize that none of the food was hot because the burner had burned out( an admission which did not devolve itself onto the bill at the now happily deceased predecessor to the restaurant under review). The only thing I can think of is perhaps you dined late in the evening and the chef was out on one of those liasons that the French are so famous for, and the souschef was new on the job. I can almost taste the yellow chinese sauce on the vegetables and cod you desribe, and hopefully your evening with your audacious companion had a happier ending than the meal itself. vic
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