Resto, New York City

It's a girl Her-mes!



This one is for you, sis. Er not the cupcake-crazy one... The Hermes-crazy one... So I'm now a proud aunt to my sister's orange baby. Last time I checked it it slept soundly next to my sister, loved the great outdoors when she took it out for walks and oh, its got its own raincoat. I think my sister's maternal instincts are really kicking in... Cliche as it sounds, I'll bet my sister probably thinks her life is complete.

Back to New York.

By now some would have noticed the absence of one quintessential item– the burger.

Although I had defected temporarily to Camp Gyro, the burger was my To Eat list, and I had listed places like Shake Shack, The Spotted Pig as notable burger-hunting spots.

I walked past the Shake Shack at Madison Garden but the queue was freakin’ long. I might understand the fuss to check out the fuss and would have queued if I had company; but alone, I had better things to do like er- ponder about The Meaning of My Existence on Earth.

OOOOM





Nope, I didn’t manage to garner a conclusion ... Err not very impressive I know but I’m on a holiday! Apart from thinking about how many ice cream scoops I should have (two, of course!), I really shouldn’t be taxing my mind too much.





We had deviled eggs on crispy pork toast. Hard boiled eggs and deep fried toast? This is breakfast food all vamped up! Haha of course something as delicious as this should break out of the breakfast-sunlight confines but I couldn’t help but think of the makeover that Frenchy did for Sandy in Grease.

We also had the grilled veal salad, which was ‘ok,’ paling in comparison to the crispy pig's ear salad, filled with chicory, tarbais beans, poached egg and deep fried ear crackers. Could I grab a bag of pig’s ears to munch on the flight home?



Moving onto our mains…



Robert’s steak and frites was presented to him in neat cuts that revealed a beautiful shade of pink that cosmetic companies would kill to replicate.


Looks like someone's prayers came true



From our friends down under (and I don’t mean Australia but under the sea), Philip had the Chatham cod and Paulina had the moule frites, a deep metal pot of smallish mussels that 7 of us couldn’t finish



I finally made a peace offering to the Burger faction with Resto’s burger. The mini celebrity was loaded with gruyere cheese, red onions, pickles and served with –what else?- frites.



The patty alone would have warranted a walkover unfortunately, but the untoasted and undressed bun created a loophole for the crown to slip through. The chunky fries were a few minutes off the optimum crisp-crunchiness but that didn’t stop me from finishing my share and Chervin’s.



Speaking of Chervin’s, his beef cheek carbonade was sensational. The beef cheeks were braised in beer and were so tender you could have feed it to a teething child. The frites, oh the frites! They lay at the bottom of the pot, like parched land waiting to be blessed by rain. And blessed they were. Coated in stickish caramelized gravy... We go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong

This doesn’t happen very often but the entrees and main courses had set such high standards that the desserts failed to live up to.



We had the chocolate bread pudding, whose sourdough chunks overwhelmed the mute chocolate flavour; and the liege waffle, a limp doughy object flicked with a pinch of icing sugar



The food at Resto isn’t revolutionary but most of it was great. 7 of us sat by the window savoring the cool spring breeze, dining, people-watching… basically enjoying the resto-f the night.

Resto
111 East 29th Street
Phone 212 685 5585