Eleven Madison Park - Winter RW '07

Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave.

All in all, my 10th visit to Eleven Madison Park (under three different chefs) was terrific.
Not sure how they do it, but nearly every time I eat there (especially at lunch) we get the same table...which is terrific, because we *love* the table that we nearly always get.

all photos courtesy of chocokitty, aka, the Wandering Eater

I started with the tuna appetizer (above), which was served in cubes along with pickled radishes and tangerines. A beautiful dish (looked like Easter) and very tasty. My father ordered the same dish, and I have to comment on an inconsistency - having to do with the color of the fish. My father's tuna cubes were bright red, whereas mine were more pink than red. Excellent all the same.


I went with the lamb entree, and loved that it was ever so slightly charred around the edges, giving way to tender, moist and falling-apart-in-the-middle, meat. Delicious. The broth on the bottom of the plate could be bottled and sold as it was. The olives gave an interesting flavor but didn't seem to be enough. Either make the olives stand out more or take them out, would be my suggestion.

For dessert, I chose the chocolate, banana parfait. This was good, but you could tell that Nicole Kaplan was gone. The restaurant will need a great replacement or the current pastry chef needs to step it up a notch to match DH's savory courses.

Service was fantastic (please read my review of the Orchard to see a comparison). We also received a $24.07 gift certificate that I look forward to using. In the past, this was simply a $20 gift certificate and only given out on the first day of Restaurant Week. Nice way to step it up guys.

A great restaurant serving excellent food and probably the best Restaurant Week option.

Again, thanks go out to chocokitty for the pics. Please visit the great blogs and photo collections of the people I borrow photos from. They do some great work and without them, much of my blog would be really bland.