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| - It took a little effort to convince three friends, married with children, to visit a restaurant that's charging more than a C-note per person for a dinner. But under the guise of it being a special occasion, coupled with the express written consent of their spouses, got them on board.
The $350 menu prestige was a bridge too far for them (and in almost any other circumstance, for me, too), but the 5-course dégustation menu was a nice compromise. I won't bother going into details about the individual courses because the menu will change by the time you visit and the cooking is far beyond what I'm capable of judging in and of itself. As you can tell by the recent five-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide and the Michelin star it's held onto from those few years when Michelin was rating Vegas, the food is going to be good. I will note that the courses were pleasantly leaning a little more vegetable-heavy: there were daikon "noodles" in the scallop dish and a cauliflower puree instead of a starch under the veal cheek dish. Not only does this lighten the menu a little bit (not making you feel completely stuffed by the end of the night), but I think it also takes more finesse to prepare. Also, although it's primarily considered a French restaurant, there was Japanese, Thai, and Italian influences on the menu, too, which celebrates the globalization of modern American cooking. Finally, while I've had truffles before, this is the first place I've been where they were used to elevate a dish rather than treat the mushroom like an expensive garnish.
The food was amazing, and judging by recent reviews in the New York Times, exceeds the mothership that was a staple of fine dining many years ago. No matter how good the food is, (and no matter how many photos I took and menus saved) I'm going to forget about it eventually. Even recalling the finer details of the courses now, a week after our visit, is difficult. What's not going to fade is the memories I have of spending three hours with friends I haven't seen in years and the experience of sharing this well-paced and rightly-proportioned meal with them. How we were treated with the right amount of formality and with impeccable service. Sitting there at the end of this great meal and with a glass of Pappy Van Winkle in my hand and feeling the afterglow of a special night. That's what I'll remember.
Will Guidara, owner of Eleven Madison Park:
"If you save up your money for something special, you can buy a nicer stereo system, get a nicer car, go to the theater and sit next to the person that you love and not talk to each other. Or, you can take a few hours of your life and create a memory. That's the business I am in: of creating those moments, of making the impossible possible, at least for a few hours."
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