Bar Boulud

Daniel Boulud was born and raised outside Lyon and trained with a number of French chefs before emigrating to the US. He established his first restaurant Daniel in 1993 and has become one of New York’s most renowned restaurateurs. He has steadily grown the restaurant group starting with Café Boulud in 1998 and Daniel has remained the flagship of the group, gaining three Michelin stars in 2010. As part of the group’s expansion Bar Boulud was opened on Broadway in 2008 directly opposite the Lincoln Center. It was set up as a bistro with a strong emphasis on charcuterie.

I have eaten at Daniel Boulud’s restaurants before. Once at Bar Boulud in 2010 when it was conveniently across the road from my hotel and once at Café Boulud. The visit to Bar Boulud was in the late spring so it was perfect to sit on the tables outside and watch the world go by between courses. That time I’d gone for Provencal pulled rabbit with carrot, courgette and herbs (still on the menu) followed by pan roasted sea bream with artichoke “barigoule”, marble potatoes and morels. The outdoors option was still available in late October but thankfully I got an indoor table.

The long narrow restaurant space has a very distinctive look thanks to the arched ceiling that runs the full length of the space. The plain painted side wall with a single row of silver-framed paintings on one side of the restaurant is contrasted by the wall consisting of wire mesh cages filled with gravel on the other. A long high table that evolves into a charcuterie bar runs a substantial part of the length of the latter wall. Light wood dominates on the booth surrounds, the small informal dining tables and the bar table/charcuterie bar. Wine bottles are everywhere too. The back of the seating booth serves as a wine rack, empty bottles set on barrels at the end of the toilet corridor serve as décor and the cellar on the lower floor is an impressively large vault. The wait staff were dressed in suits or kitted out in full bistro uniform of red and white striped shirts, black trousers and red aprons.

The dinner menu is extensive adding 9 pâtés, 4 meat plates, 3 sausage options and 4 classics and specialities in addition to the 10 listed starters and 9 main courses. There is also a three option nose to tail menu featuring a regularly changing meat of choice.

To start, the evening got off to a rocky start between me and the waiter. He theatrically described their wine by glass special and I’m not sure he ever forgave me for going for something cheaper that I actually wanted. Not that I cared. The cassis tea combining house tea infused vodka, black currant and mint was a good refreshing cocktail. It was followed by a selection of breads including a baguette, multispeed loaf and a brown roll. Surprisingly the breads were cold but pick of the bunch was the nutty, crusty multigrain bread with sunflower and dark sesame seeds and chopped walnuts.

The soupe de betteraves was a luxurious creamy deep pink beetroot soup with a mellow spinach subric. The wisp of gorgonzola cream added a rich blue cheese hit and the scattering of hazelnuts provided a bit of crunchy contrast as well as a wonderful taste combination with the beetroot. Borscht was a regular feature of winter menus growing up and I’ve loved beetroot soup ever since. This was a very fine example of the genre and I’d order it again in a heartbeat.

My next appetiser was from the classics section of the menu. Escargots persillade combined wild Burgundy snails with garlic, almond and parsley potato croquettes. The dish was blisteringly hot but another lovely item. The tender snails revelled in the mixture of garlic and parsley and the thin slice of tomato added a delightful sweet hit to top it off. The croquettes with their hint of nutmeg had an impressively delicate crust and were the mellow counter to the rich snails.

The main of Saint Jacques “a la Plancha” combined seared dayboat scallops, salsify, sweet potato gnocchi, duck prosciutto and Banyuls jus. The tender juicy scallops were phenomenal and the jus was an excellent accompaniment bringing out their sweetness. The sweet potato gnocchi were very slightly flavoured and weren’t really much of a presence. The prosciutto and scallop were a lovely robust pairing but the star of the dish was the salsify. The short lengths of root added a nice crunch to the dish as well as their subtle oyster flavour. Good as the dish was it would have been lacking without the magnificent salsify purée that tied it all together. This was lovely.

Having tried three very satisfying savoury courses I had to see what the dessert menu offered. The Basque custard cake with brandied cherries and vanilla Anglaise was nice enough but nowhere near the level of the preceding dishes. The pre-prepared tart had a pleasant subtle lemon flavour although it was texturally heavier than I’d anticipated. The brandied cherries added an excellent alcohol fuelled kick and the whipped cream was another highlight. 

As with previous visits to Daniel Boulud establishments, the food was of a high standard, slightly let down by the dessert. It’s difficult to view it as a place to love or inspire but Bar Boulud is a solid, reliable option for quality French food in a relatively informal setting. I’ll continue to go back on an infrequent basis and am happy to recommend it to others to try.

Overall Rating – 4/5