wd-50 Review

Intro
wd-50 - Not Recommended
50 Clinton St, New York 10002
Btwn Stanton & Rivington St
Phone: 212-477-2900

Took my wife out to wd-50 and was pretty pumped, since we've been wanting to go for a while. I was expecting something similar to Eleven Madison Park - uniquely textured food with some home runs and some misses, but there were really zero homeruns here. I am definitely open to new dishes texturally, but food is really supposed to satisfy and flavors are most important to me. This place definitely falls short on the satisfaction and flavor front, but gets high marks for creativity and plating. Also, we had a case of food poisoning, which knocks this down big time. Overall, I give the restaurant an 20/100 because of the food poisoning. It probably would be 84/100 and slightly recommended without the food poisoning.

My Menu

1) Crab tail, pickled ramp, cranberry, nori *
2) Everything bagel, smoke salmon threads, crispy cream cheese *
3) Foie gras, passionfruit, chinese celery
4) Scallops, tendon, endive, parsley, hazelnut oil
5) Eggs benedict **
6) Lobster legs, brussels sprouts, lily bulb, banana-kimchee *
7) Rabbit, wild rice polenta, cassis, kale, black olive
8) Squab, butternut noodles, cream soda, carob *
9) Sweetbreads peanut, beet-pomegranate, pickled sweet potato *
10) Ricotta, caper, frozen honey **
11) Jasmine custard, black tea, banana *
12) Caramelized brioche, gala apple, sage, brown butter *
13) Concord grape sorbet, peanut shortbread **

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

Dish Comments
1) A nice amuse to start with. Perfectly cooked sweet crab tail paired nicely with the pickled ramps and cranberry foam. Flavors worked well and not as crazy as I expected from a wd-50 dish.
2) Now this is a what the f type of dish. Not necessarily in I want 10 of these, but more like this guy's f'n with me. Everything bagel flavor in ice cream form that looks exactly like a bagel and has a nice sweetness to it. Top that off with dried salmon threads and a frozen crispy cream cheese. Add it all together and it tastes exactly like a bagel with cream cheese, but with different textures. It was very fun to eat, but it tasted like a good bagel, cream cheese, with salmon.
3) Foie gras with a sour passion fruit puree piped in. Not a big fan of this dish. The foie wasn't as rich and creamy as I liked - it also needed some salt on top imho. Also, the fruit puree was much to tart for the foie. Chinese celery was a nice touch, but everything did not work well together
4) Interesting dish with two types of tendons - thin gelatinous sheet and a crispy version as well. Flavors were decent together, but the scallops completely get drowned out. Also, I felt this dish needed some acid to bring out the flavors more.
5) The best entree of the night. A gelatinized, rich, creamy, egg yolk. A truffle looking item filled with a hollandaise sauce encased in a thin english muffin shell that is waiting to burst out. Put the two together and you have a ridiculous explosion of flavors.
6) Pretty tasty dish with all the ingredients combined. Brussel sprouts adds a nice nuttiness and the banana kimchee puree is sweet and slightly spicy.
7) This was a pretty dull tasting dish. Tender rabbit, but everything tasted very one note. The only thing that made the dish pop is the sweet cassis sheet. Also, the whole plate looked like it was covered in crude oil (or squid ink), so not really that appetizing.
8) Perfectly cooked squab (maybe sous-vide) with a surprise pairing of cream soda sauce. Oddly enough it works very well and brings back great memories of childhood.
9) Encased sweetbreads that tasted exactly like chicken nuggets except it's uber creamy inside. Breaded sweetbreads and probably deep fried. A fun dish to eat.
10) My favorite dish of the night. Salty rich ricotta, capers, caper foam, and frozen honey. Great pairing of textures and sweet/salty flavors.
11) Tasty dish, but a way too intense banana flavor for me. The wife liked this better though.
12) A dish with weird flavors and textures, but it's pretty good. Don't ever expect to see sage foam in a dessert dish, but there it was. Crispy, dehydrated brown butter was an interesting touch and it felt like it was smoked too. Everything together tasted like a homey thanksgiving dish...kinda like an apple brown betty with sage.
13) Peanut butter truffle filled with a corcord jelly...basically PB and J. Really fun and very tasty to eat. There was also this dehydrated chocolate thing that was encased in a chocolate packet that is edible - uber fun to eat.

Overall Restaurant Experience (20/100)

• Food 8.4/10 – High cooking technique - taking traditional dishes and reinventing how it is texturally. Unfortunately, flavors tasted like the originally inspired item (e.g. bagel and salmon) and really nothing was that special. Desserts were by far the best, which is rare when desserts outshine the apps/entrees. Very nice plating
  
• Service 7.3/10 – Food comes out pretty fast and everyone seems to know the dishes. Very casual environment - even the servers wear jeans. Knocking this place down a little lower, since I expect better service when spending this much money. The sesame crackers they serve are tasty, but they leave a whole mess load of crumbs on the table which no one cleans up until right before dessert time. Also, almost every single dish should be served with a spoon to catch the creative sauces and foams, but they were serving forks most of the time instead.
  
• Atmosphere 8.5/10 – Very casual relaxed environment. The first thing you notice is how bright the place is - a refreshing change from all the dimly lit NYC restaurants out there. There were lights directly above the center of each table showcasing the food perfectly - great place to get pics of the food. Lots of couples, groups of 4s, and some notable chefs there as well. Open kitchen as you can see Wylie manning the pass. Relaxed environment. We had reservations and were seated immediately. I checked and it looked like you get a reservation for a Thursday night on that day as well.
  
• Price 7.3/10 – Price was decent, but not great per the satisfaction level. Bout 400 for the two of us, but like with all molecular places - you don't leave feeling satisfied. Probably cause the lack of starches usually. Afterwards, my wife was feeling the need for some fried rice - we obviously didn't get any, but it felt like it would have been nice. She had the same feeling at Moto in Chicago as well.
  

Closing Comments
Afterwards, my wife had food poisoning and I had a slight case of it as well. 99% sure it was this place since we did not eat the same things the previous two days. Without the food posioning, I would have been glad we went to check it out, but probably never would have gone back any way. If you want to go to a better place that messes with textures and flavors, rock Eleven Madison Park or more importantly Ko...if you can get a reservation.