Eleven Madison Park has been open since 1998 and was bought by the current owners in 2011, earning 1 Michelin star.  The very next year it made headlines by catapulting from one to three stars in 2012 under its Exec chef Daniel Humm and it has maintained being in this precious tier ever since.  A long awaited facelift in the kitchen and bar area took place in 2017 and dining is available in both bar and its main hall 7 days a week (lunch at weekends only).

For my seat (on my own) I had a corner table in the impressive bar overlooking some guests who had come in to the bar for drinks only and one or two either gaining a lucky seat in the bar when all else was full or opting for the lower tasting menu (available in the bar only) deliberately.  After deliberation with my very capable waiter, I opted for two of the snacks as they simply sounded too good on top of the shorter tasting menu of five courses (you will need to decide which menu to go for when booking through the online booking tool called Tock).  Menus in the dining room can go upwards to $335 per head for up to 10 courses and in the bar, the shorter 5 course menu can be had for $175 per head as a much more reasonable offering.

Prior to my snacks a box arrived on the table, containing and cheese and apple cookie.  This was a very pleasant amuse bouche that did its job well and was a good opening welcome.  My snacks themselves were beef tartare with foie gras in marrow (served inside the middle of a hollowed out cow’s bone) and black truffle tart with cheddar.  Here was the first dichotomy I faced: as silky as the foie gras was, the sheer sight of how much there was to get through, coupled with the size of the truffle tarts would put almost anyone in a state of terror at the amount to have to handle.  The steak tartare was pleasant and had a small acidic kick to it but ultimately, with the sheer volume of foie to devour, it was overall too vastly fatty a helping in my eyes.  The cheddar cheese and truffle tarts were very good with beautifully thin bases and a well-balanced topping formula, but with both snacks being $30 each, I almost wish I was warned how big they were or perhaps the portion sizes here could be toned down along with their snack prices as a more appropriate pitch which I think would also go down better in both senses with your average diner.

First of the main menu was billed a corn soufflé but was ultimately more like a crème brûlée with bonito (mackerel variant) and caviar and corn.  This was absolutely delicate with beautifully constructed mini muffins and a winning dish.  It was clever, rich and I did like the sweet ham jelly inside complimenting the lemony hollondaise on top – a thee star dish without question and I believe is also one of their signature staples.  The butter for the bread is worthy of a mention alone: cultured butter with Dorset cheese from Vermont and salt from Long Island was nicely done and spread on pastry that was almost a mix between croissant and brioche – a delicate and gorgeous touch.

Next I was invited in to the kitchen for a delightful interlude of a lolly – this was a strawberry syrup and puree base accompanied by their house made vanilla ice cream rolled in lemon snow – a very nice treat.  After this pleasant interlude of the strawberry popsicle, the next dish back at the table was foie gras with marinated egg plant (aubergine for UK readers) and mint.  The savoury from the egg plant and sweet gel with a hint of mint were pleasant but perhaps the tang being a little dominated by the savoury – there was just too little of the sweet to make much impact I felt.  However, a friendly little number all the same.

Butter-poached and charred lobster came with greens and bean ecrasse (crushed).  The lobster was plump and had an aniseed-like glaze with fabulous clarity and viscosity without taking away the lobster’s flavour too much.  But if that was smoking barrel of sauces, then the onion and blueberry jus for the duck was the atomic bomb of reductions.  This was an incredible glaze which I have no problem saying was good enough to drink straight from the flask afterwards for what remained and this complimented a wonderfully cooked duck with perfectly appropriate honey and lavender glaze on top with a delicate cheese and onion tart with blueberries on the side (another long-standing dish).  It’s moments like this that make it all utterly clear…

Dessert was a blackberry ice cream and granita with caramelised milk and lemon spheres which was another complete pleasure and sealed the verdict of a very good meal overall.  Finally came a petit four and shot. Whilst grappas and in this case home made apple brandy from the restaurant is not my ideal choice as a digestif, it was a nice touch to have offered as its own and with a chocolate pretzel done as well as a chocolate pretzel seemingly can be.  The real star at the end though for me was the take away present of home made toasted granola (in a quality logo’d glass jar and going away present bag) to have for breakfast the next morning.  I am no problem saying this was 100% the best granola I have ever had in my life and I tried to minimise the amount taken each morning to maximise its life in the kitchen – sadly, that wasn’t going to be very long obviously.

This was a quality experience for all the reasons outlined at the beginning and for some hit moments.  The meal itself was skilful and I did not leave bloated, save for a bit of discipline in only having a few bites of the snacks at the beginning to leave space as the only thing to be aware of or order for two perhaps.  I thought the service was impeccable here and once again, in spite of hearing numerous things about Eleven Madison Park before going (good and bad), the version I had was an entertaining and fun time which created a pretty happy smile all said and done.  I’m not sure what the sceptics are on about here – I would come back in a heart beat to Eleven Madison Park and would be happy to splash a lot more next time in a blow out context with others, now that I know the lay of the land here.  It appears to me that a quality time will be had by all.

Ordering is a serious business and you MUST know what you want and have the cash to pay when your ticket is given, as timewasters will be sent to the back owing to seemingly never-ending queue.  What is a nice touch is the carvers slicing small pieces off for you as you wait at the counter and as you walk past the hundreds of photos on the wall of virtually everyone famous in history with their photo on the wall on their visit, you will feel glad of trying.  Wonderful pastrami, that is everything your local Tesco version is not, but a pretty hefty price tag at the same time.

The brioche was very well done and made on-site with lemon butter that was nice and subtle.  Yellowfin tuna crudo with spicy avocado purée, crispy quinoa for texture and black lime was a pleasing amuse bouche and gave a sense of the efforts made by this kitchen on their non-advertised dishes. Soft tuna and all came together well with a little heat and nicely balanced oil.

Salmon rillettes, market greens, French breakfast radish was marvellous.  The made crisps were approaching too much salt for comfort, but altogether it was beautiful and came with Fresno chilli purée, tuile crisp, bagel, poppy seeds, pepper & salt. Beautifully crisp and all worked really well.  The only issue being it was approaching maximum hull crush depth for saltiness.

Foie gras was beautifully done. The seared component was great as it was swimming and leaking fat everywhere and actually felt quite light and the terrine with black mushroom with the pickled gooseberries, tomatoes and blackberry jus was knock out.  The fried sourdough was up there with Dinner by Blumenthal and this was a gorgeous dish.

There were no issues on the trout and actually the olive worked really well with flavours.  This was a colourful, course, light and softened flavours for the harsher elements of olive and pepper which was really good and this dish basically had it all. The fact I was scraping every last molecule of sauce off the plate and annoying other guests with the sound by doing so says something here.

Parsley, basil and a salsa verde purée decorated a spinach based tortellini filled with lamb with corn purée confit potato and rye tuile.  This had a bit of heat in the tortellini and the corn velouté was gorgeous.  Duck with onion ring, came with Australian truffle, yam (an onion herb) on top with cherry compote and soya bean purée.  All these elements worked beautifully with each other.  A gorgeous duck came with gorgeously done supporting acts with perfect sweetness of the cherry compote to go with the warmth of the onion ring. Just bravo!

It was a little odd to have the coffee given before the dessert but effectively this was the petit four and I was a-ok with everything.  A light and sweet cream cheese ice cream akin to Simon Rogan’s GBM dish of 2012 was enjoyed to round things off and that concluded was essentially a superb meal, well recommended.

The bill itself came to $179 including four glasses of wine and considering what I had, this was not only reasonable, it was a great meal.  Apart from one waiter wanting to get away from the table as quickly as possible in the beginning, the service was very good with wiping of the table and topping up of water done throughout the meal.  Well worthy of its star which I was pleased to see and well recommended to me and hopefully from me to you now if you want to try – it’s worth a go!

First things first that I have to get off the chest was the hustle and bustle.  I would prepare yourself for an energetic environment where rushing waiters were almost expecting diners to move out of their way and it was a little bit of a surprise to overhear a waiter saying to himself how “…hot that girl (a diner) is right now….” to himself.  Just a tad out of the norm, to experience.  Therefore it was not the refined venue that I was led to believe, but if you are looking for a fast environment, then this will be ok for your night out.  Where the service was good however was through the numerous top-ups of water.

Wine glasses are thick-rimmed and tabletops are paper  (on top of white cotton cloths) adding to the feel of this popular restaurant being of Parisian / tavern descent.  White bread was cold and very average (company made not on-premises) as was butter, apart from being well malleable.  Again, this all falls into what a classic bistro would be like and even though I know this is a deliberate move, at the general prices of the menu, I would have thought more efforts would be easily accomplished and better here.

On to the burger.  I opted for the Black Label for $30, with my glass of cabernet being a third of that.  All the meat is sourced from Creekstone farm and the prime rib is aged for 45 days with no salt and no pepper of any kind.  The brioche bun is from Balthazar bakery and was delightfully soft for the burger.  The burger itself was very good quality and obviously well-rested as there was only one drip through the whole meal.  The caramelised onion on the top saw to the seasoning well and was great that the fries were made on site – these were very good, no question.  If you order this Black Label or the Minetta burger, it will be cooked exactly to order.

Service was not exactly polished – an uncertain waiter asked if an order was for the table he was bringing it and another waiter was walking away from me under eye contact when I was flagging him down so I had to be assertive to stop him walking away.  Maybe this is more of an NYC thing but surprising to be in a Michelin starred restaurant in America at the same time, even in spite of the Michelin criteria. If you are happy with the vibrant tussle of staff, this place will be right up your street.  You can also sit at the bar to eat for walk-ins, something that is not clear on the website.

Probably the best quality burger I’ve had, just not my overall favourite – still chuffing good though.

The meal began with salmon tartare with red onion creme fraiche inside thin pastry cones and whilst not exploding with salmon flavour, these were very fresh and a welcome start.  More successful was the cheese biscuit with Spumante cheese which was as good as they come.  It was slightly better at French Laundry with a shinier glaze on top, but still, the cheese power coming through very well.

An amuse bouche of cold potato espuma with vegetables and curry oil was silky and crunchy but could have had a fraction more seasoning for my palate.  The oysters with pearl tapioca is a signature dish from Keller and were a very welcome return having only had them weeks before in Napa at The French Laundry.  These really are perfectly balanced buttery sauce with the saltiness of the caviar and a superb dish which they can very rightfully be proud of.   Another classic was the truffled egg truffle egg which is also done very well and I also felt a much greater sense of the truffle here than at French Laundry. Beautifully done. 

Foie gras with the pepper and pastrami and sweet corn was an experimental dish. Whilst good to try a different variant for foie gras, I was not completely convinced with the pepper and pastrami as the main co-pilots on this at all.  Corn is sweet but not so sweet and thankfully the mustard was mild and a nice touch but altogether just overly savoury it arguably needed something less so to dispell the richness.  What was good though was the immaculate timing of the additional parts of brioche served – I must have been given three of these brioche buns, even when I hadn’t finished one as it was simply too cold for being ignored and replaced with zero fuss by another beautifully cooked and fresh one instantly.  Bravo here for making the guest feel truly looked after and no expense worried about.

Mackerel was superbly cooked and not too overflowing with natural oils, with utterly fresh tomato and the pretzel was beautifully soft with mustard butter that was superb.  Applause on this was worthy in itself.  Lamb from Pennsylvania was as good as any you are likely to have with wonderful, fatty flavour to it all.  Then a string of assorted desserts in true gregarious French style and these, including the petit fours were as fine as you could hope for.  The stand out sweet I thought was the sugar buttered ice cream which was frankly a masterstroke.

It has been super to visit both Per Se and The French Laundry to compare and after years of hearing about.  They represent fine cooking indeed at a premium if you are doing with the full works and should therefore only be done once a decade or so and make it a special occasion when you do so that you can go the whole hog and not worry too much on the bill.