Fangirling over Le Bernardin

At a request that came in today from my blog's biggest fan... Yes, I'm referring to my mother... I'm back for a followup to my cliff hanger of a post last fall. Mr. O and I did spend a fantastic weekend in New York. We ate and ate and ate and then boarded the train at least 5 pounds heavier but also... as they say fat and happy!

The culinary highlight of our trip was a phenomenal dinner at Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin. The food was amazing and I'll get to that that in a moment but I have to say, I was very impressed with the staff. Everyone from the charming woman at coat check to Monsieur Ripert himself was friendly, welcoming and utterly unpretentious. You never know what the "stuffiness" level of a fine dining restaurant will be. While I love to experience the creativity of a chef's menu, I don't want to feel uncomfortable in my surroundings. That includes the furniture as well as the staff. This was an ideal experience. 

I can't continue with our raving about the artwork displayed around the restaurant. I loved the enormous painting along the wall of the bar. You can just get a glimpse of the mostly blue boating painting, La Barca Verde in this photo. You can also go here to see the restaurant art gallery, just click on gallery, natch. 

I DID take a few pictures of the fabulous tasting courses but somehow they're gone... not on my camera or my computer. I don't know what happened. Surrry Mamere!! but I did find this one online. this is the tuna carpaccio which was our first course, I think. It was my favorite! 

On top of having a fabulous meal, divine cocktails and heavenly service about midway through dinner the sweetest most soft spoken person came out to our table to greet us. Yep, the utterly adorable and handsome Chef Eric Ripert came by our table to say hello and give us his latest cookbook and even signed it, including a note to li'l ol me! Yes, Eric knows my name! {commence teen girl squeal} The whole encounter lasted about 60 seconds but he couldn't have been sweeter. It was really just the icing on the cupcake of an already memorable evening. 

First and foremost, Mamere, thank you thank you thank you for one of my most favorite birthdays!

Cheers, 

Ouiser

P.S. I could do an ENTIRE other post on our lunch at Momofuko Noodle Bar. Trust. Go. Order the Steamed Pork Buns and thank me later! Also the momofuko ramen and the chilled spicy noodles were both were divine!