Disappointment is an understatement. We had New Year's Eve dinner at Green Apron, where they were hosting a $100/pp prix fixe menu. We had high expectations since this was supposed to be a new farm-to-table restaurant in the area.
The menu looked great: rabbit rillette with date mustard and winter pickles to start, parsnip velouté and warm endives to follow, with a choice of venison filet or winter vegetables as the main course. Dessert was a pomegranate gellee and coffee mousse. Sadly, the flavors were not entirely there, the service was mediocre considering the price, and the portion sizes were laughable.
The rabbit rillette was served on a tiny crostini. The dish in itself was about the size of a quarter. The plates were cold, so I presume that this was something the kitchen made ahead of time. The parsnip velouté was not bad - but it was warm in some places and cold in others. Again, probably made in advance and not fully heated through. The warm endives were a joke. First off, mine were cold (and the plate was semi-warm). The date that accompanied the endive was pretty disgusting. They sat on a bed of chèvre mousse which I did not enjoy, with an apple balsamic foam. Even though I tried a little bit of everything on this dish, I just couldn't eat it. It was gross.
Let me make a side note here - there was a bread plate at each seat. Since they did not offer bread at the start of the meal, I thought maybe it would be offered prior to the entree. I was wrong. After the endive, the servers took your choice of entree and did not ever bring you bread. I had the venison filet. Although it was tasty, the portion was half the size of a credit card. Please explain to me how that is even considered an entree. Sheer and utter disappointment. Why is this $100 per person?
At this point, since we were at a table facing the window, we got a view of the torch lighting ceremony - which the server couldn't really explain to me what it was except that they did it every year. Also, we had a nice view of the fireworks after. During this time, the pomegranate gellee was brought out. It was the size of a gum drop, sitting atop a spoon, resting on a saucer. Zero points for plating on this one. The coffee mousse was brought out shortly after, and it was a huge dollop of mousse with a cherry gel on the side. Also zero points for plating. It was like they weren't even trying.
The checks were brought out with the quickness. Boom. Including a glass of wine and tax, I felt pretty ripped off.
Service? Not the best. One of the servers over poured the champagne, so we had bubbly all over our table. Another server filled our water glasses to the brim, but these were tiny glasses. Trying to drink them without spilling was a balancing act. No bread, no small talk, you would think that they weren't happy to be working that night. Dinner sounded great, but that was all. We should have opted for take-out pizza instead. read more