Dinner at Courgette in NYC, New York

We went out one evening with my colleagues, to a restaurant called Courgette, located Midtown, next to the Dream Hotel. Courgette: what an interesting name! It means zucchini in French and my compatriots and myself found that it was a funny name for a restaurant and associated it with either vegetarian cuisine or a cuisine offering different variations of this green veggie. We were wrong: not only it was not vegetarian, but there was not even one zucchini on the menu!!!

It is for sure a nice place: the bricks and wood give it a warm and rustic feel. There are four areas to eat:

The bar, wide enough so you can feel comfortable:

and adjacent to the section where they cut meat:

The main dining room with its small communal table and then two different dining rooms, a small one well lighted, where the main attraction is the fish display:

And a dimmer one that can accommodate large groups.

The menu, elaborated by Estonian-born, Michelin-starred Executive Chef Andrey Korobyak is not French, contrary to what the name of the restaurant suggests: the restaurant website qualifies it as New American and for the most part, it is Italian, serving classical Italian dishes such as bruschetta, burrata, pasta...

We started off with sharing appetizers. First were the bruschetta:

Traditional bruschetta with herry tomatoes, olives, sun dried tomatoes, onions and basil:

Mozzarella, Prosciutto and Pesto Bruschetta:

King Crab with Piquillo Pepper Bruschetta:

I thought it was a perfect appetizer to share because there were two good size bruschetta so we could split them for four people each. Like any bruschetta, it was a bit messy to eat...

Then we tried the burrata salad:

It was served with cherry tomatoes confit and a pesto sauce that paired perfectly with the soft and creamy taste of the cheese. I loved it but would have liked some toasted bread with it.

The last appetizer was the scallops:

The two sea scallops were served each on a bed of truffle mash potatoes that had mushrooms I believe it was morel) in it! It was divine: the scallops were perfectly seared and cooked, not rubbery and the mash was scrumptious with the mushrooms adding some bite to it. Definitely recommended!

Then, I ordered a Baby lamb with salsify, eggplant puree and morel mushroom sauce.

The dish was ok for me: the lamb was a bit overcooked and dry and was topped with a chicken mousse that was bland. Also, the morel sauce did not have that much mushroom taste. I liked the eggplant puree though!

I was able to try the ribeye with truffle fries and bearnaise sauce:

First of all, the presentation was beautiful and very appetizing. My friend Malika ordered it medium well, that I would normally consider a culinary blasphemy !!! It was pretty good though although I admit that the meat was not of the quality of a steakhouse (the price was not either anyway)! The meat had enough fat and a nice char on the outside.

The fries were like I love them: crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, cooked perfectly all the way through. Dipped in the sauce, it was delicious. 

We skipped dessert as we were all full. It was definitely a great dinner and I recommend Courgette if you want to have a nice fine dining experience.

Enjoy (I did)!

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And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!