Aquavit Cafe - Review

Intro
Aquavit Cafe - Highly Recommended
65 E 55th St, New York 10022
Btwn Park & Madison Ave
Phone: 212-307-7311

In the past 8 years, I've been to a lot of restaurants in NYC, but for some reason I've never been to Aquavit and really had no desire to go. Maybe, it's the fact that Scandinavian food doesn't have that same appeal to me as Italian, French, Japanese, Thai, etc. But, it was a bad mistake on my part, since Aquavit Cafe was such a solid meal with great flavors. Overall, I give the restaurant an 86/100.

My Menu
1) Salmon Terrine ***
2) Salmon Gravlax ***
3) Octopus Appetizer *
4) Swedish Meatballs **
5) Pull and Peel Crawfish
6) Foie Gras Ganache **
7) Arctic Circle *
8) Aquavit (Mango, Lime, Chili ** | Pear * | Fig * | Horseradish ***)

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) The salmon terrine arrived in a ramekin topped with a butter cap. Didn't look like much, but when you pop off the cap you see this glorious mixture of rich buttery cooked salmon. This was a total what the f moment. I could have swore that this was 50% butter and 50% salmon mixture, but Porthos believed there was no butter in there. Smeared on some warm bread and I was in Valhalla!
2) Another what the f moment here (back to back!). When I think of salmon gravlax, I think of lots of red onions and obviously the salmon. Fun, but a lot of the time you lose the salmon flavor buried in onions. This was basically all salmon, a hint of dill, and barely any red onions. It was absolutely spectacular. This salmon was rich and fatty cut into big strips. The texture was off the chain too teetering between raw and barely cooked.
3) The most tender Octopus I may have ever had. Served with some chili type oil and an uber intense avocado cream. Unfortunately, the Octopus flavor got lost a little to me, but the combo was still quite nice.
4) OK, so the only Swedish meatballs I can remember are from Ikea. Sad, I know but those lil guys are hella tasty. These at Aquavit are obviously much tastier. Great with the potato puree, gravy, and the lingonberries. Wish the meatballs were softer, but that's probably my tendencies toward the Italian style.
5) Like Porthos mentioned before, it was crawfish week at Aquavit and I was craving some. These were nicely flavored (heavy on the dill), and perfectly cooked - nice and tender. Unfortunately, it is such a pain in the ars to extract the tiny bits of meat. I'm a little lazy, so the only shellfish I will ever work on are lobster, shrimp, and dungeness crab.
6) A soft almost crepe like shell filled with liquid, creamy foie gras. Such an unctuous flavorful dish. Accompanied by arugula sorbet (refreshing and very tasy), and a duck confit cube with some kind of crispy coating - almost like rice crispies. Great stuff.
7) Basically, goat cheese parfait filled with a fruit cream inside and a fruit sorbet. Tasty dessert, but didn't dig the texture that much. The parfait had a nice rich and sweet goat cheese flavor, but it was incredibly icey at first. To me, not a pleasant texture. Eventually, it changes into something more pleasant, but that's only after waiting a while. All other guests we were with loved this dish though.
8) Aquavit is a Scandinavian alcohol much like vodka, usually distilled from potato or grain. The ones that I had were insanely flavorful, but a little harsh. I loved it though and the horseradish was the best - nice and refreshing. Warning though - the group I was with didn't dig any of the aquavit since it was a tad harsh.

Overall Restaurant Experience (86/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Incredibly solid cooking. I would have given this a higher rating, but my main entree wasn't that great - not due to the cooking, but because the amount of work to satisfaction ratio wasn't high.
  
• Service 8.2/10 – Friendly waiter and very knowledgeable about the food and beverages. Food came out a tad slow, but didn't mind since the conversation was fun.
  
• Atmosphere 9.0/10 – Looking like a Japanese sushi house with the minimal design and the blond wood. Rare that you get this quality of food in such a relaxed atmosphere. Definitely digged the feel of the place. Got there at 8:15 on a Thursday and was seated immediately - we had a reservation. Crowd was a hodge podge of groups of 4-6, older couples and younger couples.
  
• Price 8.8/10 – $100 a person for the whole meal, which was a great value consider the quality of the food and the number of drinks we had.
  

Closing Comments
Definitely would go back again to try out the other entrees - either to the cafe again or to the main dining room. Love how fresh everything tasted and I may need to start playing with dill now...