The great thing about New York and lets face it everything is great about it, is that you pretty much have to or should walk to your destination. And by destination,I mean restaurants of course! After that long walk, sometimes many blocks, you will be rewarded by the spectacular food. And when I say “food” in New York, I’m talking about bread, no comparison to any bread I’ve ever had in L.A.
Bread server just came by and I’m always greedy so I ask for one of everything, and then I often have them hunt for the heel. Runs in the family, my dad was keen on the heels and would ask busboys to go fetch “the end” as he called it, from the kitchen. Okay, breads not killing me today which is probably good (better for my health) because I can really scarf down the bread and butter. I’m thinking maybe this isn’t the day for the freshest bread but what I always like about Nice Matin is that you don’t have to ask for butter. It’s automatically served.
Yes, as you can see, I’m at Nice Matin, my first stop in Manhattan. Only for lunch though because my favorite dish, the crab salad that they are now calling crab louie is only served at lunch and never at dinner. Did I mention the butter they serve is mostly served soft, cut into two large triangles and drizzled with dried herbs and a touch of olive oil. Rachel Ray would chime in with a “yummo”.
Okay, hate to have my first review be a bad one, but I just got my crab salad and this is honestly a crab louie and nothing like the crab salad that I marched twenty something blocks in the heat for . They changed a very good dish and I HATE when restaurants do this-and I want to say to me because it can feel personal ( I know it’s not ).
The erstwhile crab salad, the one I will now always long for, had a remoulade sauce. This one unfortunately has a creamy french dressing. My former crab salad had beautiful cherry tomatoes, this one has big chunks of tomatoes. I don’t feel the big chunks are as inviting, the little ones I would pick up with my fingers and pop them in my mouth. These I need to fuss with and cut with a knife. I am so disappointed by this turn of events. I really wanted my first review to be a good one and was fully expecting to arrive here and wax poetic about the food. And I realize I am picky, but I never send anything back, I just suffer through it.
When the hostess sat me down today, she called me Ma’am…..should have been a sign things were not going my way, women hate being called ma’am. Unless you’re from the south.I love the atmosphere, like a cool upscale ice cream parlor, a little retro thrown in. It’s french but no french attitude, booths and good lighting. You can hear people when you eat lunch with them and there are some more private seats in leather booths which I always love. I think you should go. I have always loved it and I should get over the crab salad glitch.
other options for lunch that you might want to try at Nice Matin:
chopped salad with tomatoes, asparagus, corn, cucumbers, peppers, fresh beans, onion, celery and feta cheese
salad nicoise
omlette provencal
with ratatouille and goat cheese
chilled cream of tomato soup with whipped ricotta and sweet corn
And you definitely need to go for Sunday Brunch, since it’s a french inspired coffee shop, you can always get croque monsieur or croque madame, the bread basket on Sunday will have croissant, pain au chocolat, cranberry scones and amazing pumpkin muffins that I often throw extra ones in a bag to take home
other Sunday brunch dishes to order:
smoked salmon with soft scrambled eggs, creme fraiche and chives
eggs benedict
salmon benedict
orange buttermilk french toast with maple baked bananas and creme fraiche
Tags: best restaurants upper west side, new york restaurants, nice matin, nice matin new york, restaurant reviews, upper west new york, upper west side
great start Fred. Having eaten there, at least a dozen times, with you… it was almost like being there, wish i had been. can’t wait to read more.