The Restaurant Fairy
+4.5
What Chef John Fraser does with vegetables is rather extraordinary and I've always been a huge fan of his Michelin-starred Dovetail.
Fraser’s latest ode to the locavore movement comes in the form of Narcissa which is housed in André Balaz’s Standard East Village hotel.
The main focus of Fraser’s menu is a variety of seasonal vegetables that star on every plate. There is no dearth of offerings of meat and seafood too but every dish is enhanced with market driven produce that really makes his signature style shine.
I had a superb Gnocchi dressed with swiss chard, chestnuts and sage – one of the best I have ever tried! The sides of “Supergreen Spinach” which comes with thin homemade potato chips is just divine.
I could go on and on about all the things I loved about Narcissa but I suggest that you go try it for yourself!
Remember when I visited Narcissa and fell in love with the Carrots Wellington? I’ve been meaning to return to Narcissa and finally went back to Narcissa a few weeks ago for a lunch in the beautiful garden. Narcissa is not a vegetarian restaurant, but the menu is veggie friendly and the meatless dishes are very well executed. Based on how fantastic the gnocchi was last time, I decided on the whole wheat orecchiette ($16). I’m the kind of person that almost always has a pasta craving.
The orecchiette was a very enjoyable al dente with good whole wheaty texture. If you’re not a fan of firm pasta, you might want to pass on this one. Orecchiette pasta is the perfect shape to catch the bright broccoli rabe pesto. Every bite has a nice balance of pasta and pesto. There’s tasty roasted garlic, aleppo pepper, and sunflower seeds in here too. Oh man, this place is so good, it’s ridiculous. Read more >>
Our visit to Narcissa was fueled by my interest to try the Carrot Wellington entree that I had read about before coming to New York. Suprisingly, this was the one dish which fell short on its flavours. Everything that our server suggested was delicious. I did not check with him about the Carrot entree. The combination of texture, taste and presentation was excellent for all the other items that we ordered. Service was good overall.
25 Cooper Sq - New York City
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