Restaurant Roundup: wd-50

A few of my girlfriends and I have developed a recent tradition of emptying out our bank accounts (maybe that part is just me) and eating at one of the cities most famous (and usually most expensive) restaurants in the city. In the past we have gone to Eleven Madison Park (my fave), Picholine, and Faustina. This past week we decided to try out Wylie Dufresnes' wd-50 on the Lower East Side. Being a big fan of Wylie's I was expecting some pretty avant-garde food. My two friends and I decided, as we usually do, to each get different appetizers and entree's so we could accomplish as much as the menu as possible.

(side note)
The best part of this restaurant is that the kitchen is completely open, so not only did I get to eat delicious food, but also I got to watch them make it. I was immediately star stuck upon seeing Wylie in the kitchen working his magic. The kitchen was sparkling and extremely calm. Although I wanted desperately to run into the kitchen and watch with a closer view, I am pretty shy. One of my friends, however, is not so shy and asked the waiter if we could go into the kitchen and meet Wylie. After panicking for a few moments, the matire'd came over and told us he would show us around the kitchen. We went right up to the front where Wylie and his Chef de Cuisine Jon Bignelli (whom I fell in immediate love with) were plating dishes. I introduced myself, red-faced and giggly. They were both so nice and congratulated me on culinary school,l then went back to work. My night was complete

Ok, now back to the food. For our appetizers, I chose the Tomatillo-pine gazpacho with soybean falafel and octopus confit. My friends chose the Cuttlefish with cashew, rootbeer and watercress, and the Peekytoe crab roll with salt n' vinegar chips and celery mayonnaise. My gazpacho was delicious. The thing I quickly noticed about the food here was that to fully grasp the whole idea of the dish you had to combine every component on your spoon and taste them all together. Seperately each piece was rather confusing, yet once you combined them it was an incredible explosion. The dish that taught us this was the Cuddlefish dish. Each part of the dish was cut up into little cubes. The fish were cubes and the rootbeer was in jelly form in a cube. I tasted a piece of the fish on its own and it was rather bland. Once you put all of the ingredients together, however, it was like nothing I have ever tasted before.

For our entrees, I went with the scallops with chicken fried lentils (pictured above), radish, and lychee puree. My first friend had the Cod with a pea and cocunut mash, carrot dashi, covered in a nori noddle. My second friend went with the Wygu flap steak with barley and turnips. All three entrees were truly unique and definitely delicious.

Although the food here is great, the real reason to check out wd-50 is purely for the experience. Each dish is so exciting and one-of-a-kind. It is a journey I most definitely want to go on again.