Fine dining has been evolving for years. Most of it is welcome: More upscale global cuisine, more creativity, smaller menus, fewer white tablecloths and more a la carte options. But sometimes, a tasting menu — where you have few (or no) choices to make and beautiful small plates come out in perfectly timed intervals — is just what I’m looking for.
And though fewer chefs are offering these ambitious menus these days, I’ve sampled three in the past few months that were worth writing about, and worth your celebration dollars. Who serves your favorite tasting menu? As always, let me know at [email protected] .
This incredibly reasonable three-course menu might be one of the best-kept secrets in town. For just $48 per person, you choose from a few options in each course. The menu changes frequently, but we thoroughly enjoyed the spring flavors on the day we visited.
The first course featured fresh, bright chilled pea soup, punched up by garlic cream and chive oil and one of the best salads I’ve eaten this year — bitter endive with some revelatory savory granola, funky blue cheese and sour rhubarb juice. The middle course centers on pasta, and a delicate stuffed pansotti, with a light, airy spinach filling, was the highlight, but the fresh pea clamshells, enriched with an anchovy-spiked sauce, were spring on a plate. A lovely charred bavette steak and some perfectly seared scallops nestled in a silky cauliflower puree rounded things out.
Dessert is extra, but a spice.
