Josh celebrated his birthday recently, which is always a traumatic experience for him (but next year will be even worse I bet!), so to ease his pain his parents took all of us out to a nice dinner at Craftbar. We ended up at Craftbar for the same reason that we went to Wallsé for his dad’s birthday, namely that most upper scale restaurants don’t take parties that are larger than eight people. Why this is the case, I still don’t know. It’s quite annoying though, because we tend to be a party of nine, and just missing the cut off is really very frustrating, and means that our choice for restaurants is very limited.
Nevertheless, Craftbar was able to seat us at a prime dinnertime, and after eating at Craftsteak in Las Vegas, I was eager to taste more of Tom Colicchio’s Craft empire. Josh and I were the first to arrive at the restaurant, surprisingly, so we settled at the bar to wait for the rest of our group. Josh ordered a scotch while I selected a pear cider from Sweden. The cider had a lower alcohol content and was nicely sweet and fruity. It went down like soda, and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
Pretty good pear cider
After half of our group arrived, we moved over to the table they reserved for us, a long rectangular one near the center of the back area, giving us a great view of the restaurant. The décor was a bit industrious, with metal catwalks framing the front part of the restaurant, and very tall ceilings, giving the space a lofty feel. Josh and I actually liked the feel of the restaurant a lot, as it was spacious and modern with clean lines, refined but not stuffy.
The adults in our party were running late and they told us to order some appetizers while we waited. We chatted for a while until hunger drove us to look at the menu, which featured a wide variety of appetizers and entrees, as well as a section titled “Small Plates.” We decided to order a few dishes from this section, and then settled down to munch on some breadsticks our waitress provided.
Crunchy rosemary breadsticks
The breadsticks were super long, almost a foot and half, and very tasty. They were relatively thick and on the harder side but very crunchy, and were flavored with rosemary and salt. We happily snacked on these while we waited for our small plates and the adults to arrive.
Fortunately the adults came just as the appetizers were delivered, so everyone got to taste all the dishes. The portion sizes were pretty small (hence the name “small plates”), but we just cut everything into smaller pieces so that each person got a piece. The first thing we tried were pecorino risotto balls served on top of a spicy tomato sauce. The balls were deliciously crispy on the outside and creamy and starchy in the middle. The tomato sauce wasn’t very spicy but added a nice tanginess that cut through the creaminess of the risotto.
Risotto balls with spicy tomato sauce
The second small plate we had was sausage stuffed sage leaves served with lemon aioli. We could definitely taste the sage but the sausage was mostly salty and not very flavorful. The little logs were quite dense and chewy, and although I liked the lemon aioli, this was my least favorite of the small plates.
Sausage stuffed sage leaves with lemon aioli
Lastly we had the salt cod croquettes served with piquillo peppers and capers. The croquettes were perfectly fried and the flavor of the dish brought me back to Spain, evoking memories of the countless tapas I ate while we were there. The cod had a nice subtly fishy taste that paired perfectly with the sweet red peppers, while the capers added saltiness and brininess to the dish.
Cod croquettes with piquillo peppers and capers
We were too busy catching up and talking so there was a while before we placed our dinner order, but our waitress was very patient with us and didn’t try to rush as at all during the meal. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat because the menu had so many options that I wanted to try. For my appetizer, I ended up getting the veal sweetbreads with rutabaga and sweet onion chutney. I love sweetbreads. To me, it tastes like a very mild liver, and is very rich and creamy. Craftbar’s version was really well cooked, with a crispy, salty outer crust and a velvety interior. The crust may have been a tad too salty, but when I ate the sweetbread together with the rutabaga and the onion chutney, the sweetness of those components really cut through the saltiness and richness. It was a very good dish, I only wish that the portion was larger, as it was really just a small piece of sweetbread on the plate.
Veal sweetbreads with rutabaga and sweet onion chutney
Josh selected the pecorino fondue with acacia honey, hazelnuts, and pepperoncini. I didn’t peg that as a dish he would order but he never ceases to surprise me. The fondue was cheesy and gooey, as it should be, and the saltiness of the cheese was set off by the honey and hazelnuts. The nuts were really a very interesting addition, giving both a sweet and savory crunch to the dish. There also seemed to be a lot of garlic flavor in the fondue, and although it was greasier than I preferred, it did go really well with when dipped into with the accompanying bread. It was a unique and tasty appetizer, though if ordered again it would probably be best shared with multiple people, as the dish was pretty heavy and rich.
Pecorino fondue with acacia honey, hazelnuts, and pepperoncini
Other appetizers at the table included the field mushroom bruschetta with fontina cheese, the white anchovy bruschetta with soft-cooked egg and braised leek, and the baby beets with goat cheese and candied kumquats. I didn’t get to taste everything but heard rave reviews all around, so the meal was definitely off to a great start.
For his main course, Josh had the pekin duck confit with duck egg, savoy cabbage, chestnut, and yellow foot chanterelles. The duck egg was really cool, as it was breaded and fried but still soft boiled, with a nice runny yolk. The duck itself was moist, though the skin could have been a bit crispier. Unfortunately, the cabbage mixture underneath was a tad on the salty side, which detracted a bit from the overall dish.
Pekin duck confit ith duck egg, savoy cabbage, chestnut, and yellow foot chanterelles
I ended up ordering the porchetta served with black trumpet mushrooms and polenta. To be honest, I had no idea what porchetta was, aside from the fact that it’s made from pork. I had read about a sandwich shop named Porchetta, which served chunks of roasted fatty pork with super crispy skin on ciabatta rolls, so I thought it would be something similar. What I got wasn’t what I was expecting, but after dinner I looked up porchetta in Wikipedia and got a definition that was more in line with what I received. According to Wikipedia, this is how porchetta is prepared: “The body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood.”
The slice of porchetta I received definitely had many layers, but unfortunately, most of it was fat. I really had a hard time cutting through it and separating the meat from the fat, and what meat there was ended up being tough and chewy. There was also sausage stuffed in the center of the slice, but it was pretty salty and uninteresting. Plus I was sad that there was no crispy skin to be found anywhere. While the polenta was pretty good, creamy with a nice grittiness, the black trumpet mushrooms on the dish were almost inedible, as they were just way too salty. I was quite disappointed with my dish.
Porchetta with black trumpet mushrooms and polenta
I abandoned my entrée halfway through in favor of Alice’s cavatelli Bolognese. She wasn’t hungry so she generously gave me most of her dish, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. The cavatelli were nicely chewy and the Bolognese sauce was dense and meaty. The entire dish was covered with crispy browned breadcrumbs, which added a great crunchy quality. It was almost like eating a really meaty mac and cheese, minus the cheese. The sauce was well seasoned and the variety of textures in the dish just made my mouth really happy (not to sound like the ditzy actresses on the original Iron Chef, but that’s just how it made me feel). It was such a comforting and homey dish, and I loved every bite of it.
Other dishes on the table included mussels cooked in white wine with garlic and parsley, a scallop, celery, pancetta, and smoked orange puree dish, the skate wing with fingerling potato and sauce gribiche, the pan-fried chicken with tuscan kale and Jerusalem artichoke, and the veal ricotta meatballs. The mussels were classically prepared and very fresh, with no sand to be found anywhere, which is always a plus. Josh tasted and liked both the scallop dish and the pan-fried chicken. The meatballs, however, were a paltry portion (three balls and no pasta), and they were tough and overly salty. The skate wing was deemed to be too salty as well, a theme that seemed to be running through half our dishes.
I know I complain when a dish is under seasoned, but at least it’s usually still palatable and salvageable with a few shakes from the saltshaker. When a dish is too salty, however, it’s hard to recover from that and the only fix is to send it back, but that’s not always the best solution either. Several of the dishes we had were on the higher end of being borderline inedible, but we didn’t feel it was worth the hassle of sending things back since it was already a long meal to begin with. But whoever was cooking in the kitchen that night was definitely a bit too heavy handed with the salt.
Moving onto dessert, Josh had the meyer lemon panna cotta with citrus fruit and ginger snap cookie. The panna cotta was fantastic – rich, creamy, and lemony. The texture was smooth and velvety on the tongue, and the flavor was refreshing and spot on. And because it was his birthday, there was also a candle in the dessert, a nice touch.
Meyer lemon panna cotta with citrus fruit and ginger snap cookie
I was slightly less thrilled with my olive oil cake with orange-cardamom ice cream, pear, and spiced walnuts. The cake was more like a muffin, and denser than I had hoped. I did taste the olive oil flavor though, which I liked (especially since I’m such a fan of olive oil gelato), but I found the dessert kind of uninteresting despite some of the exotic ingredients. It was a perfectly fine dish, but nothing really popped or stood out in my mind.
Olive oil cake with orange-cardamom ice cream, pear, and spiced walnuts
Overall we thought that Craftbar hit some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows. We loved the small plates we had, except for the sage/sausage rolls, and all of our appetizers were really well prepared and very tasty. The entrees, however, were very hit or miss. I loved the cavatelli Bolognese but was quite disappointed with my porchetta order, and a lot of people received dishes that they thought were too salty. It was a packed restaurant for a Sunday night, which may have contributed to the inconsistencies in the preparations. Service was good though, as our waitress was efficient and attentive. The prices are pretty reasonable, with small plates ranging from $6-$9, appetizers ranging from $9-$14, and entrees from $17-$26. It seems like a good place to share a few smaller dishes with some friends and have some nice wine or cocktails. There are also cheeses, charcuterie, and sandwiches on the menu. We liked the décor of the restaurant and the overall feel, with a casual yet upscale vibe, and I think we would probably come back here again.
Craftbar
900 Broadway at 20th St.
New York