Let's start with the ambiance -- the dining room is surprisingly small and seats only around 30 people. The environment is very romantic, with candlelight and white table clothes. The table for two is a tad large to be considered "intimate", but that leaves plenty of space for the various glassware and plates. I liked that the tables were not tightly packed so there's a semblance of privacy.
Our waiter was business-like and didn't try to make small talk, not that I mind since I didn't want to chat for five minutes while I itch to dig into my food. The overall service was impeccable. The servers always walk to the other side of the table instead of reaching across to place new silverware or fill our waters. Even the guy that hands out the bread makes sure to put the bread right-side up with the seam on top. That type of attention to detail is certainly admirable and enhances the dining experience.
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| The bread plate |
Another aspect of La Folie that I love is that the restaurant allows patrons to build their own tasting menus from the entire menu. Many places only have two choices for each course on the prix fixe menu and won't let the diners substitute from the a la cart list. With La Folie, there are no throw-away courses. After some discussion, Orin and I decided to go with a 4 and 5 course tasting menu, each getting our own soup & salad, appetizer, fish & shell fish, and poultry & meat courses while sharing one dessert.
After we ordered, we received two amuse bouche courses, compliments of the chef. The first was a black pepper meringue with squash puree. I had never tried savory meringue before and it was certainly a wonderful play on texture and flavor. I was pretty hungry and didn't savor the bite as carefully as I should have. The second amuse bouche was a quail egg poached in cream inside a chicken egg shell and topped with a potato crisp. You have to break the raw egg yoke and mix it with the cream. This custard was utterly decadent -- so rich and creamy. I actually dipped some of my bread in there to soak up all the goodness. A promising start to dinner indeed!!
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For our first course, we picked a play on Scotch eggs and a deconstructed Dungeness crab salad. The first dish consisted of a Triple T Ranch tempura duck egg on a sweetbreads pancake, Frangelico almond pesto, and wild mushroom salad with truffle vinaigrette. The egg was cooked to perfection -- the yoke was runny but the white was completely set. As someone that dabbles in the culinary arts, it requires tremendous skill to consistently soft boil an egg to that state. My guess is that they must have cooked the eggs in a thermal immersion circulator first before frying it. I didn't really taste the sweetbreads in the pancake, but it did add another textural element to the dish. The refreshing salad and vinaigrette cut the richness of dish to balance things out.
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| Tempura duck egg |
The crab salad was my favorite dish of the night. The crab meat sat on a cauliflower panna cotta, topped with a yellow curry tuile and the plate was dotted with curried spiced crab vinaigrette and bits of black caviar. Similar to the meringue, I've always associated panna cotta with desserts. The cauliflower-ed version here was beyond silky. The only thing close that I can compare it with, in terms of texture, is soft tofu. I can only imagine the many passes through the chinoise the panna cotta base had to go through to remove all lumps. The crab was sweet and light and the sprinkling of micro-greens gave the dish a spicy, mustard-y note. The course was absolute perfection.
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| Dungeness crab salad |
For the appetizer round, we shared the Hudson Valley foie gras torchon and the pig feet, lobster & sweetbread terrine. Obviously, my finger prints were all over these selections since I'm a big fan of offal. The foie was accompanied with smoked apple barbeque glazed squab, blood orange marmalade, brioche puff, fruit and nut bar and a cheese tuile. Surprisingly, as much as I love foie gras, this dish wasn't a standout. The foie was rather bland. Maybe if they served the dish with more suitable toasted bread slices, it would have elevated the dish. I even specially ordered a glass of sauternes to help burn off the richness of the foie, but that deep flavor that I expect from the duck liver simply wasn't there this time. Next time, I'll make sure to order the seared foie instead.
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| Foie gras torchon |
The pig feet, lobster & sweetbread dish was served with a lentil salad with bacon and hazelnut vinaigrette. Surprisingly, this was Orin's favorite course of the night. The lobster and sweetbread terrine was wrapped in the gelatinous skin of pig feet. The texture of the outer skin was soft and jelly-like, almost like well-stewed tendon. Despite its richness, it didn't taste fatty at all. I couldn't really tell the ingredients that went into the terrine were lobster and sweetbreads if I didn't read it off of the menu. I think the flavor of the sweetbread, although not organ-y, did dominate the more subtle lobster. The lentil salad and frisée were a change-up in terms of texture, adding a bit of a bite. The vinaigrette, designed to tone down the decadence of the terrine, was a bit too sour for my taste, though.
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| Pig feet, lobster & sweetbread terrine |
After two heavy appetizer courses, our palates were ready for a little respite as we ventured onto the fish course. Orin had the seared wild black cod and I the lobster and mushroom risotto. The cod came with a ragout of Brussel sprouts and black trumpet mushrooms, truffle gnocchi and brown butter sage caper sauce. I'm generally a bit reluctant to order fish at restaurants because they have a tendency to cook it past the point of my preference. Even at some top notch places, I get that little furl on my brow after the first bite of the fish. This cod, however, was impeccable. The skin was nice and crispy and the fish flakes off with the slightest turn of the fork. If it weren't for the crispy skin and the bit of color from being cooked over direct heat, I could have sworn that the fish was sous-vide. The trumpet mushrooms add more earthiness to the light dish. The truffle gnocchis were wee pillows of deliciousness -- the skin had a bit of crunch, yet the center maintained the lightness gnocchis are known for. The addition of the intoxicating truffles just pushes the dish over the top.
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| Black cod with truffle gnocchis |
The lobster risotto came with a sliver dome, a pretty decadent touch. The risotto was served with leeks, lobster broth and fried baby sage leaves. The rice was firm, but not undercooked like some places. I felt it could have used a few additional minutes for the starch to develop more. The lobster flavor was very intense. A lot of sea creatures were sacrificed for this dish. The lobster pieces were firm, I think mostly claw pieces. The most surprising part of the course was the fried sage leaves up top. I thought it was mostly decoration, but the flavor of the leaf was unadulterated by the frying oil. The chef was a bit heavy handed with the salt, I thought, but not overly so that would make me dislike it.
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Next up, the final savory course -- ladies and gentlemen, I present poultry and meat! We picked the duck and the lamb. The duck was served three ways: liberty farm duck breast, smoked duck tongue, duck leg stuffed with duck pâté, turnip, squash panna cotta and cranberry orange sauce. The duck breast was cooked to perfection, so tender and flavorful. The fat under the skin didn't taste oily at all. The duck tongue was a bit salty and the smokey flavor overwhelmed its natural flavor. The duck leg wrapped duck pâté was also delicious, although at this point, my stomach was already groaning with too much food. The turnip and panna cotta was a nice touch and added more sweetness to the duck. I'm totally inspired to try my hand at a savory panna cotta the next time I do a fancy dinner party.
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| Duck three ways |
The lamb was also done in three ways -- we have a rack of lamb, lamb tongue, and lamb sausage wrapped in spinach leaves. The accompaniments were butter beans with chorizo and a taggiasca olive lamb jus. Like the duck, the lamb rack was divine. A little under-cooked and the meat would be chewy, a little over and it would be tough. The tongue didn't taste all that differently in terms of the flavor, but the texture was more buttery. The lamb sausage had the most intense seasoning, although that overshadowed the natural taste of the lamb. The butter beans provided a good textural contrast to the meat. I just wish I wasn't so full by that point. Oh what I would give to cough up all the bread I ate to make room for the meat!! It was sinful that neither of us could finish our dish. I almost cried when the waiter cleared our half full plates. I had to make a strategic decision to save a little space for the dessert.
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| Lamb three ways |
We're close to the home stretch! Before our dessert arrived, we received a palate cleanser. It was a small shot of La Folie's house-made citrus soda, with a blood orange segment on the bottom. It was certainly a welcome preamble to our baked Alaska. Our baked Alaska contained huckleberry and basil ice cream, a lemon biscuit and huckleberry panna cotta on the side. This was my first baked Alaska and unfortunately, I was not able to make a clean first cut to take a picture of the bisection. The dessert was light; the meringue wasn't too sweet and the ice creams inside were tart. The best way to savor the dessert is to get a bit of everything onto one spoon. The panna cotta was a bit bland after the sweet and sour baked Alaska so if you order this, I advice that you try the panna cotta first. It obviously takes great skill to make a dessert this intricate and it's definitely worth a try.
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| Huckleberry baked Alaska |
At the close of the meal, our waiter brought us a few petite fours compliments of the kitchen. At this point, we felt like foie gras ducks stuffed to the gill. The check should come with a wheelbarrow because that was the only way that we could get out of the restaurant. Our waiter kindly packed the little desserts in a box-to-go. It was wonderful to leave with a loving memory in a box of our wonderful meal. I certainly enjoyed it the next day. Although I still couldn't forgive myself for not finishing the meat. Now that's a regret that I will share with my grandchildren. They will learn from grandma's mistakes.
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La Folie is, without a doubt, the finest meal that I've had to pleasure to enjoy in the city. Everything about it was exemplary. The servers were well trained and were prompt and unobtrusive. The atmosphere was romantic and the noise level perfect for an intimate meal. The food, of course, was almost beyond reproach, even for a picky eater such as myself. The presentation of our courses was artful and a feast for the eyes. I certainly hope to be back here in the future for many special occasions to come!
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