Eleven Madison Park - Highly Recommended (for suckling pig alone)
11 Madison Ave, New York 10010
At 24th St
Phone: 212-889-0905
Eleven Madison Park is a place I've been curious to check out for a while. So, I figured why not take the fiancee there for her birthday. Was it worth the wait? I definitely think so. This was by far the best birthday dinner I've taken her to - others were at One If By Land, Babbo, and Sapa. Overall, I give the restaurant a 88/100.
My Menu
We ordered the gourmand tasting menu which has smaller portions than the 3 and 4 course menus. Since I was so excited that we were eating at Eleven Madison Park, I didn't capture the gourmand menu. Here's my best description of what we ate. Btw - sorry for the dark pictures. Don't like rocking the flash at nice restaurants considering you sit so close to people. I'll find a camera next year that does great low light pictures without the flash.
1) Gougeres - Not Recommended
2) Hors D'oeuvres - Highly Recommended (must have)
3) Fantasy of Eggs - Highly Recommended (must have)
4) Beets and Goat Cheese - Recommended
5) Scallop and Lobster Ceviche - Highly Recommended
6) Foie Gras Torchon - Highly Recommended
7) Lobster - Recommended
8) Turbot - Recommended
9) Frogs Legs Pasta - Recommended
10) Suckling Pig - Highly Recommended (must have)
11) Cheese Plate - Recommended
12) Coffee Dessert - Highly Recommended
13) Mignardises - Highly Recommended
Dish Comments
1) Gougeres is an item that has been documented a plenty on this blog, so I feel like I know how this should be. The best I've had was French Laundry. Very good ones can be had at Artisanal. This was pretty sub-par. A little cold, not light, and no intense flavor. Not a good start.
2) Total redemption here and a great way to start the meal. Foie gras, truffle cookie thing was amazing and really complex flavors. As was the crunchy tamale looking thing filled with sweetbreads - tasted like chinese food, but in a really awesome way. This got the appetite going.
3) Raw egg yolk, caviar, sea urchin, and sea urchin foam. It was so rich and the caviar added a nice saltiness to it. I'm not a caviar connoisseur, but it was perfect for this dish. Great play on the idea of using different eggs. The fiancee's favorite dish of the night.
4) This was a very interesting dish - the chef's take on a beet and goat cheese salad. First spoon was goat cheese and olive oil, but it was unlike anything I've ever had before - very light texture. The second was supposed to be beets. Some how, it was like a gelatinous shell that when you put this in your mouth beet juice explodes out. Combination of flavors are good - but this is more interesting, than flavorful.
5) Raw scallops and lobster. Alone the items are ok, but combined together brings out such a sweetness to the crustaceans. The accompanying tangerine and lime juice add a nice touch. They took out this huge Himalayan salt rock to grate over, but it was more for presentation since I could barely taste the salt. Adding a dose of salt directly on would have made it better.
6) First cup has a pineapple foam with foie gras at the bottom. This was amazing. Sweet and concentrated pineapple flavor went perfectly with the unctuous foie gras terrine at the bottom. The foie gras in the bar form was very good. Again, he somehow made the foie gras so light, really unlike anything I've had. I'm always used to the FG being rich and dense.
7) Lobster with a curry foam (this dude likes foam as much as Marcel from Top Chef). Lobster again was very sweet and matched perfectly with the light citrus-y curry. The texture of the lobster was a tad chewy, but it definitely was not overcooked - actually slightly undercooked which kept the lobster very sweet.
8) Turbot with some type of truffle cream foam and tapioca. This was a beautiful dish as he recreated the scales with black truffles and potatoes(?). Tapioca added a very unique texture and the foam tasted amazing. Turbot really was indistinct in flavor, but combined with everything else it was great...perfectly cooked and very light.
9) Frog's legs, mushrooms, and pasta. This was kind of a punch in the face, since this dish was completely different than the rest...uber flavorful and not very light. Pasta was decent and the frogs were cooked perfectly. Some type of mushroom concoction was a little too overpowering for me.
10) This was by far the winner of the menu. The pig was so tender and so flavorful. When you put a piece in your mouth, what seemed like the best pork broth exploded out - very similar to the beet dish before. Add the perfectly crispy skin with the fat still underneath the skin (you know what I'm talking about) and this was maybe my favorite dish of the year. I'm a big fan of the pig and at the time I was thinking is this the best pork dish I've ever had? Now that I've had proper time to reflect, the pork tacos in Durango, Mexico is still #1 in my book. This is #2 or #3, interchangeable with the pork stew (don po) from the Landis Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.
11) Triple Creme, a runny cheese, gruyere, and a stilton. I usually love cheeses, but after Bobolink all cheeses to me seem imperfect. Still pretty good though, just a tad salty. The winner for me was the gruyere.
12) Basically a palate cleanser with what seemed like the 900th foam of the night. Still very interesting. Some type of citrus and champagne foam. The plate was shaped like a bed...cute.
13) Coffee flavored truffle like filling in a crunchy caramel cigar. Capuccino or espresso ice cream with some other foam. The crunchy cigar was a perfect offset to the insanely chocolatly filling. The ice cream and slight sour foam played a nice contrast.
14) This reminded very much of the salmon cornets from French Laundry. A playful take of the lollipop - beignets, coffee cream, and frozen peanut butter and chocolate. The best was definitely the beignets...warm and oh so satisfying.
Overall Restaurant Experience (88/100)
- Food 8.9/10 – Very unique and playful take on a lot of dishes. The food was beautifully presented and the pork dish was to die for. Majority of the dishes were more interesting though than flavorful.
- Service 8.8/10 – Generally everyone was relatively attentive. When I mentioned that it was cold in our section, a manager came by with some cashmere thing for the fiancee. Food came out in a decent amount of time, but that maybe because I was having a good time talking to the fiancee. Total meal was 4 hours (but I think on average it should be 3 hours...we just took a while to eat). I would give them higher marks, but little things I noticed a restaurant like Daniel or French Laundry would never do. Like not cleaning on the bread crumbs on the table...they were tiny, but this always happens at $125 pp places. Also, when they were pouring some sauces tableside, they would hit the rim a little. Picky stuff, but just comparing my other experiences at pricey places.
- Atmosphere 8.8/10 – Beautiful place with really old school trimming. A huge open space lead to a more relaxed feeling...much more so than the heavy hitters like Daniel, Jean Georges, and Bouley. We were seated in the back area which was more private and romantic. Crowd composed mainly of people doing business...lots of suits, which kinda sucks sometimes. Reservations were at 7pm on a Wednesday made 4 weeks in advance with no problem. Got there and was seated promptly.
- Price 8/10 – Tough judge on this. This was such a great and unique experience, but it was pricey and there are better dishes to be had for the same price point. For two gourmand menus and 4 glasses of wine and tip, the bill ran us $420. For the experience of such interesting and tasty food, I think it's worth it.
I truly think the experience at French Laundry has changed me. It made me say I've been to the supposed best and I wasn't blown away with every dish, yet I'm still happy. I think if I went to Eleven Madison two years ago, I might be upset since every dish really is not a home run. Again, the food occasionally was more unique than flavorful. I, however, did enjoy this meal very much and am looking forward to going back for the 4 course menu (3 savory+1 sweet for $102). The beef looked phenomenal that night, but I wonder if the chef will allow me to have 3 courses of the same suckling pig next time:)
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