brasserie 8 1/2

9 w. 57th street (btwn 5th & 6th aves)

Located in the bottom of the bank of america building (notable from the outside for its large, red number nine status), brasserie 8 1/2 was one of the many new and fashionable locales filmed on a sex & the city episode. for opentable restaurant week this year, i finally got myself out to a restaurant and went here along with some friends.

the famous swirling, descending staircase had a slightly dirty carpet (kind of to be expected, but also making it less impressive), and it descended into a bar/lounge area, followed by a impressively large dining area (none of the typical, crowded LES/E Village dining scene). with a 25% discount on red wines, we ended up splitting two bottles of an argentinian malbec, which i enjoyed thoroughly. (malbec’s have become one of my go-to reds)

i started with a slow-roasted squab, accompanied by some sort of sauce and a cauliflower flan with a “liquid foie gras” filling. it was really good. the squab was medium rare and the flan. oh the flan. i need to figure out how they made a cauliflower flan. the foie gras filling i could have done without, but the flan was a perfect consistency with a light essence of cauliflower. several others got the oven-roasted tomatoes with mozzarella “pasta” which was also really good. for my entree i had the salmon with pearl barley, bacon foam (i think), and some vegetable. the salmon was delectable, just underdone, and the barley underneath was good too. i wouldn’t say it was a standout spectacular entree that you can’t get anywhere else, but it was very good and i was rather impressed by the size of the salmon fillet (not stingy at all). i finished by splitting two desserts with S: the chocolate cupcakes and hot chocolate shot & the vanilla creme caramel. both were standard but good, although we both agreed that the shot of hot chocolate was rather unexpectedly classy.

overall, the meal came to $56/person including tax and tip. i would say it was a most enjoyable first nyc-restaurant-week experience, also in large part due to the fantastic company. :) i’ll have to do a better job of keeping my ears out for the next restaurant week before i leave the city. definitely recommend for restaurant week, don’t know about general recommendation.