2011 NYC Winter Restaurant Week Review: Sea Grill

Restaurant week in New York City proved to be a great way for me to discover a very popular and multi-awarded restaurant, the Sea GrillSea Grill, n.

This is the street-level entrance on 19 West 49th Street, at the Rockefeller Center.

After we descended down the stair case, our party of four was led to a rink-side sitting location. The view of the outside made the contemporary interior bright and animated, reminding me of Frank Lloyd Wright who  made it his characteristic design to make the outdoors and the indoors as one living space. 

The restaurant-week menu was eclectic, with two to three choices per course. Our taste preferences turned out to be more European.

For our appetizer, we unanimously ordered this.

 Just by reading the the description "House-Cured Smoked Salmon

avocado, cilantro chive vinaigrette" I could imagine how tasty this would be. 

 Our main courses were delicious:

Pan-Fried Skate

Belgian endive and frisée salad with brown butter caper sauce

Skate wings are the flat, pectoral fins of the sting ray, made up of  cartilage. In this recipe, the skin has been removed, then breaded and pan fried, and garnished.

 Daurade à la Plancha

wilted escarole, olive oil crushed potatoes, black olive tapenade

"Daurade" is the French name for sea bream or seabass, which is a mild-flavored, white-meat fish. Prepared in this Mediterranean fashion, it was so flavorful.

Our dessert choices:

Caramelized apple tart, 

whipped caramel ganache, granola streusel  

This is their version of "tarte tatin" which is an upside-down apple tart. During preparation, the apples are first caramelized in butter and sugar before baking them on a phyllo-dough crust. In France, it is, sometimes, served with vanilla ice cream or "creme fraiche," which is similar to sour cream. 

Valrhona Chocolate Pot de Crème

mint Chantilly cream, chocolate pearls

I ate this chocolate dessert, guilt-free, as it was made with dark chocolate plus...oh well, I decided that I was going to walk and walk to burn the calories from this one!

This was an exceptional meal for the price of $24.07 per head. Thanks to Executive Chef Jawn Chasteen and Pastry Chef Michael Gabriel, they whipped up a well-balanced menu, packed with nutrients in their choice of ingredients. 

Thank you to NYC Winter Restaurant Week 2011. What a treat this was. The success of this program is based on the participation of restaurants such as this.