Restaurant review: Minetta Tavern

As previously mentioned, last Sunday night, Judd and I had dinner at Minetta Tavern to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The tavern, named after the Minetta Brook which used to run south west from 23rd Street to the Hudson River, has been around since 1937, but was recently acquired by Keith McNally and his team (the people behind Balthazar and Pastis) and reopened after extensive renovation in 2009. As is the case with Balthazar or Pastis, Minetta Tavern is wildly popular and should you still want to eat at Minetta Tavern after hearing all of the things I did not like about it, plan on calling one month in advance and spending a while on hold. And if you don't call immediately after they open, expect to be offered a 5:30pm or a 10:30pm reservation. We chose 5:30pm.

Minetta Tavern is quite pretty inside. It really does feel like an old tavern with pressed tin ceilings and a checkerboard tiled floor. But the service was awful and the food ranged from above average to just plain not good. When Judd arrived a few minutes before I did, he was not allowed to sit down. Instead, they insisted that our whole party - of two people - be present before he could be seated. It was 5:30pm. The restaurant was not crowded or particularly busy. This made no sense. When I did arrive and we were seated, it took at least ten to fifteen minutes for our waitress to take drink orders. And then an additional five minutes for any bread to arrive at our table, even though at 5:45, the restaurant still was not particularly crowded or busy.

To start, I had a beet salad with fresh goat cheese, walnuts, and shaved onion. It's pretty hard to screw up beets and goat cheese, but these beets were small and sweet and the goat cheese was nice and creamy. Judd ordered an oxtail and foie gras terrine which was ok but not as good as I thought it would be given the inclusion of foie gras. I would have skipped the oxtail and gone with a simple torchon of foie gras, decadent though that would have been, had it been offered.

The real reason I had wanted to try Minetta Tavern was the steak. Frank Bruni, the former New York Times food critic, in his review last summer, raved that the restaurant was serving some of the most "expertly aged, flavorful and exquisitely prepared prime beef in New York." He went on to award Minetta Tavern 3 stars (excellent). To put that rating in context, note that in his five years as the food critic, reviewing one restaurant per week, Bruni only gave 33 restaurants 3 stars. The dry-aged cote de boeuf, a large ribeye steak served with roasted marrow bones, got particular praise. But at $104 for two, it seemed too expensive, even for a special occasion. So I ordered filet mignon au Roquefort and Judd ordered a bone-in New York strip. We shared a side of french fries.

Judd's steak was good. It had a nice char and was well-cooked. In contrast, my filet was all-around terrible. First off, it was wrapped in bacon. Normally, that would sound good. But when our waitress mentioned that the filet would be wrapped in bacon, I asked that mine not come with bacon. She scoffed and told me the filets were pre-wrapped and that the bacon added a nice flavor. So I acquiesced. And I am sorry I did since the bacon added nothing to the flavor and instead prevented the filet from getting any real char. I ended up cutting it off the steak and setting it aside. Second, the filet was still practically raw when presented to me. When I asked that it be put back on the grill until it was "medium," as I had requested, it left our table for over 10 minutes, by which time Judd had finished half of his steak and I had eaten a lot of french fries. When it returned, it was not much more thoroughly cooked inside despite the duration of its trip to the kitchen. Third, the roquefort, which I had imagined would accompany the filet in the form of a rich blue-cheesy sauce on the side, akin to a bernaise, was crumbled all over the top of the steak! And it was so strong! Ugh. I was not happy. Finally, the meat was tough and not at all "expertly aged" or "flavorful." Some of you may be rolling your eyes and wondering what I expected by ordered a filet mignon, a lean and generally flavorless cut of steak, but I order it all the time and have rarely been so disappointed.

The french fries were fine. I've had better. Especially at Les Halles, where they have some of the best fries ever. And $9 for a side of fries borders on outrageous, I think. (A side of fries is $5.50 at Les Halles.)

We shared a trio of forgettable pots de creme - vanilla, espresso and chocolate custard puddings - for dessert and were in a cab heading home by 7:00pm. I will not be returning to the corner of Macdougal Street and Minetta Lane any time soon since we could spend the same amount of money at a dozen other steakhouses which have better steak and reservation times. And less attitude.

*

Details:

113 Macdougal Street

New York, New York

(212) 475-3850 -- memorize that number if you want to try this place, as you will be dialing it over and over and over again.

Overpriced dinner for two with a side of snooty service: $200