Indochine

In a city where fusion restaurants are about as exciting as vanilla ice cream, the staff at Indochine remain pretentious, despite their incompetence. French-Vietnamese cuisine was a novelty in 1984 when Indochine opened its doors but it has since become one of many fusion restaurants of every color and flavor imaginable. Indochine is a beautiful restaurant with large palm trees inside the room and bare white walls.  It feels like a special place. But if I returned I would serve the staff a slice of humble pie. What do I know though? The restaurant was packed on a Saturday evening at 8:30, so packed that we had to wait 15 minutes after our reservation time, for our table to be ready. I guess a lot of people sacrifice friendly service for good food.

I was there for a friend’s birthday so I sampled a lot from the menu. We started with a spicy beef salad special as well as tender and delicately spiced lamb loin, served atop shrimp crisps. Another standout for me was the filet mignon carpaccio with ginger scallion oil, one of the best I’ve had.  A steamed chilean sea bass marinated in black bean chili paste had just enough ginger broth to make the fish slick and flavorful, without drowning it. Unfortunately the sweet rice and sticky rice were a gloppy mess, lacking any elegance of seasoning or texture.  Stick with the steamed jasmine rice, a safer bet. Their extensive menu of specialty cocktails fared well: a friend had some kind of Maker’s Mark tangy berry concoction and I had a cucumber infused gin martini, both well-made.

Though the food was generally good it does not make up for the snub hostess or our bumbling waiter who forgot dishes without apology, all the while maintaining a thick attitude. Some might choose food over service but I’m not one of them, especially when the meal isn’t cheap.

Indochine: 430 Lafayette Street (between 4th and Astor Place)
Cuisine: French-Vietnamese
Average Entree Price: $18-$23

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Geisha

Beauty is only skin deep at Geisha, the seemingly trendy Japanese den around the corner from high-end Upper East side Madison shops like Oscar de la Renta and Lambertson Truex. Despite a beautiful dining room, and a scene of pretty patrons, the quality of food was lacking. A trio of tartares (salmon, mackerel, and tuna) each with their own unique preparation like mustard and shallots with chili vinaigrette or coriander and ginger were buttery but bland, then served with lazy crostini that literally crumbled to pieces with each bite. A minute spicy tuna roll was fine, though topped with some metallic extra pieces of tuna, that detracted from the roll. Maybe sushi isn’t the specialty here, but if platters start at $75, it should be.

Service was so-so, we were confused after being greeted by two different people but then sat with empty beer glasses between courses. Our waiter/waitresses seemed too self-involved to notice that we needed a refill.

To be fair, we only went in for a late bite and Geisha also has a selection of fusion style entrees that we missed like duck breast with maitake mushrooms and short ribs with wasabi-infused red wine jus. The menu was crafted with help from Eric Ripert, but I don’t see him in these dishes.

Despite all this, the restaurant was full of diners on a Thursday night at 10PM, a tough feat for any restaurant in this economy, especially an overpriced and underwhelming one. Perhaps someone can enlighten me—what am I missing?

Geisha: 33 East 61st Street (betw Madison and Park)
Cuisine: Japanese/French Fusion
Average Entree Price: $26-$75 ( a wide range depending on what you get)

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Sapa

French-Southeast Asian fusion? What IS that? Well, it is delicious and relatively well-executed at Sapa in Chelsea. The sleek minimalist restaurant is vast with two large dining rooms on different levels and soaring high ceilings. The décor is clean with a palette of dark wood and white lanterns hanging low from the ceiling. There is a handsome bar which serves up creative cocktails such as a cosmojito (figure it out), arguably one of the best drinks I have ever had. Towards the back, Sapa also has a “roll bar” where chefs craft homemade spring rolls filled with anything from lobster or crayfish to foie gras.

The menu is a nicely woven integration of cuisines with specialties such as peanut glazed spare ribs and coriander crusted ahi tuna with braised oxtails and a port wine reduction. It took my friends and I quite some time to decide what to order with all of the appealing options. The waiter brought us some pita bread with a pickled onion as well as a roasted red pepper spread. I found this to be a little out of place with the menu and neither was very good. A minor blunder on their part.

We started our meal with a spring roll sampler which featured a hamachi roll, a crayfish roll, and a beef roll. We all agreed that the rolls were just so-so. They were not explained well by our waiter who casually dropped them off with three mystery dipping sauces. We were a bit confused by them. Tasty, but not standout items. For entrees: one friend had the braised lamb shank with a spicy pistachio sauce, couscous and apricots, the other had the grilled maya prawns with an asian chopped salad with feta cheese and Chinese sausage. I had the cocoa and peanut glazed spare ribs as well as the Asian chopped salad. Everyone really enjoyed their main courses. The spare ribs were a huge portion that I gladly shared. The meat was incredibly flavorful and easily slid off the bone. The Asian chopped salad was perfectly accented with a light dressing and I was pleasantly surprised by how the feta and sausage paired well with the Chinese vegetables.

Just after we requested our bill, the waiter approached our table with a large tray of complimentary freshly baked cookies and we each chose one. Supposedly they do this at the end of every meal but it was a nice surprise for us! Though they got off to a bit of a rocky start, the entrees were the stars of the show and made the meal worthwhile. I definitely recommend Sapa if you are in the neighborhood.

Sapa: 43 W 24^th Street Betw 6^th Ave and Broadway

Cuisine: Southeast Asian, French

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