Eleven Madison Park

When the San Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurants were announced for 2012 there were 3 New York restaurants listed in the Top 20, Per Se (#7), Eleven Madison Park (#10) and Le Bernardin (#19). With a trip planned to New York where food was to take centre stage, it seemed like a noble goal to try and fit one of those three in the trip. The decision swung Eleven Madison Park’s way thanks to a weekend saunter through Barnes & Noble that ended up with a browse through the Eleven Madison Park cookbook.  Food that looked that good on the printed page was something I wanted to see up close as well as taste.


Upon arrival at the restaurant, the staff were still being briefed and the main revolving door was locked. 5:30 prompt, doors opened and we were ushered to the bar to look over a cocktail menu. Staff briefing finished just as we settled and so the customers who had arrived were ushered to their tables. This gave the chance to sit and to take stock of the space. Eleven Madison Park occupies the ground floor of the old Metropolitan Life Insurance Company building so the restaurant space is suitably high-ceilinged with tall windows giving a very airy feel. The building was intended to be New York’s tallest building but lack of cash in as a result of the Depression in 1929 and the simultaneous construction of the Empire State building using the same stone meant it stalled far short of its intended peak at 30 floors. The main restaurant has room for 89 covers and there are additional private dining rooms available with a separate kitchen. An immediate pleasant feature was that a table for two would have been used to sit four people at most restaurants so there was plenty of personal space.

The menu is baffling in its brevity. It consists of sixteen single words, in a 4 by 4 grid representing  each dish’s main ingredient. If ordering the four-course menu, then a word should be picked from each row to give the basis for the four courses. Frankly, it was easiest to order the tasting menu so you didn’t have to think about it. 

With the main challenge of the evening out the way, food immediately started arriving. A box was brought to the table labelled “Black and White Cookies”, complete with a history of the name. Going along with the theatrics, the string on the box as untied, and the box opened, to reveal two black and white cookies. However, as this was the start of the meal the appearance of a black and white cookie was maintained but the taste was not. The main biscuit was a parmesan cheese wafer with a foie gras filling. The black part of the topping was truffle based, the white was creme fraiche based. A simple concept but the taste combination was lovely. Even better, the “icing” came off on your fingers so you had the perfect excuse to lick your fingers clean once the “cookie” was finished. This was a good start to things.

Shortly afterwards, a cup and saucer was delivered to the table with a small bunch of hay wrapped thyme suspended in the cup. Smoked apple tea was poured not the cup to give a refreshing drink that got more appealing the longer the thyme soaked in the liquid. However, when we were moving from cocktails to wine I’m not sure what purpose this served even though it tasted very pleasant.

Quail egg on toasted brioche was delivered at the same time. This was a simple starter with a perfectly fried quail egg topped with chives and a sliver of bacon. This was the perfect mouthful, the luscious yolk bursting in the mouth to give a rich combination with the crisp toast.

The next two amuse bouches arrived at the same time and confounded expectations. Mackerel is a fish I love because of its full frontal assault on your senses. However, the horseradish chip with mackerel and lemon balm was the most delicately flavoured piece of mackerel I’ve eaten. The gentle taste from the fish and chip rolling round your mouth was very pleasant but the aftertaste lingered to become absolutely wonderful. This was the type of amuse bouche where you immediately want to order another one. Even better was the scallop chip with scallop and pickled daikon. This was the snack I expected the mild flavour from but the pickle and scallop combination was incredibly punchy. One bite was not enough. 

This was followed by a taster that was relatively mundane. The chickpea punis was delicately fried and nicely crispy to the bite. It was garnished with a strip of orange peel, dill and yogurt sauce. It was pleasant but nowhere near as moreish as the bites that preceded it. This was accompanied by yoghurt lollipops that were coated with Madras curry powder and lentils. The frozen yoghurt was lovely and refreshing. A word of caution though, the lollipops came mounted in glasses filled with small pebbles that show a tendency to attach to the lollipop stick. Disappointingly, these pebbles are not edible even though we tried.

The amuses really hit stride with the next course. Sea urchin with apple snow, celery cream and cracked black pepper was wonderful. The fresh marine taste of the sea urchin soared with the apple and it was amazing that this was improved further with the participation of the pepper. 

The sea urchin was rapidly forgotten with the next two tasters that had to be the best of the bunch. What was merely announced as fingerling potato was unbelievable. The small piece of fried potato was topped with caviar and lemon “caviar”. The potato was delightfully tender and the caviar was fine by itself. However, as a whole it became a synergistic combination of flavours that tasted like the ultimate fish and chips.

Coming out at the same time and no less impressive was the smoked sturgeon sabayon. Served in a trimmed egg shell, the lush sabayon had a wonderful light smoked fish flavour and the cubes of smoked sturgeon gave it some textural body. Dill oil at the bottom of the egg shell was a really good combination with the fish.

House-made breads were then brought to the table before the full menu started. The bread was served with cow butter, goat butter and Amagansett sea salt. Goat butter was a new experience and combined with the warm, flaky crisp bread it was delicious. Nice as it was to have bread, anticipation of the next courses was of far greater interest.

The first of the tasting courses was “Almond” from the grid of 16. This featured green almonds, almond curd, almond flowers, cucumber caviar, caramelised milk tuile, nasturtium leaves and ham. A nice elegant dish with some surprises around the plate. The almonds were picked very young so they were hollow inside. The almond curd had a strong almond essence type flavour. The cucumber caviar was pickled and very finely diced so it was a particularly refreshing element in a dish that had a fresh vibrance about it. The milk skin was delicious providing crunch in amongst the softer vegetable textures. Surprisingly the ham added least to the dish.

Next up was “Foie Gras” from the first row of the menu. This was salt and sugar cured foie gras with sesame seeds, duck prosciutto, pea shoot and soy sauce vinaigrette. The thin rolled disc of foie gras was a delightful centrepiece to the dish but it was other ingredients that helped this dish become one of my favourites of the night. The lettuce in the centre of the plate was pickled so the acid contrast with the rich foie gras gave a really intense burst of flavours in the mouth.  A thinly sliced piece of duck prosciutto was a rich salty compliment to the smooth foie. The juxtaposition of vinegars and foie gras was just wonderful to me and it helped me see why foie is a big deal for many people.

This was followed by “Whey”. Caraway gnocchi were combined in the bowl with fiddlehead ferns, curd and clover. Camomile broth was added at the table. The broth was pleasant but quite thin. However, stirring the curds into the broth made it much more satisfying. The mild caraway flavour of the gnocchi also worked well with the broth. It was interesting to try clover as an ingredient but it was immediately apparent why clover doesn’t feature very often in meals.

The fish course was “Cobia”. This featured poached cobia with pine nuts, mushrooms and garlic. The fish was firm and meaty with a fairly gentle flavour. The pine nuts were finely diced on top of the fish and in small portions of purée on the plate. Likewise mushroom flavours came from a dark purée as well as the succulent, fleshy roasted mushroom. The roasted garlic was juicily tender. This was a very nice dish although the fish was possibly a little bit too cooked for me.

The main course of the meal was “Beef”. As part of the theatre of the meal, a cut of the 55-day dry aged beef was brought to the table to show what the meat looked like before cooking. The rib –eye was served with marbled confit potatoes, wood sorrel and white beech mushrooms. The meat, prepared sous-vide, was very tender and had quite a gentle flavour. The potatoes and mushrooms were excellent accompaniments boosted by the presence of shredded roast onions. In addition to the wood sorrel leaves, sorrel sauce was added that didn’t add much to the plate. The bordelaise sauce with bone marrow provided a rich gravy that was much more in keeping with the rest of the dish.

The menu moved onto a cheese course, “Chueflada”. This was Swiss, unpasteurised cow’s cheese warmed and served with pickled mustard seeds, potato, mustard greens and white pearl onion. The cheese was very strongly flavoured and worked very nicely with the gentle potato. However, it was at its best with the pickled onions where the tart onion served to rein in the rich cheese flavour and the taste combination was really effective. 

As a palate cleanser between the savoury and sweet courses, the restaurant’s take on egg cream was prepared table side. Vanilla malt, milk, seltzer and olive oil were combined and frothed up in the glass to be served immediately. This was a lovely refreshing drink with the vanilla and malt flavours standing out.

The first dessert was described as cheesecake. Vanilla cream lined the base of the dish and was topped with a thin layer of cara cara orange jelly. The dish was rounded out with a scoop of refreshing blood orange sorbet, a fairly heavy fall of vanilla snow and narrow cylinders of meringue. This was a really nicely put together dessert and not surprisingly, the vanilla and orange combination was lovely.

I was not impressed with the “Chocolate”. The chocolate part of the dish combined chocolate sorbet with a more tart plain chocolate crumble. The sweet chocolate combination was counterbalanced by a Meyer lemon crème. Each element tasted fine but for me they didn’t particularly work together. The presentation was really mundane. For me, this was a disappointing end to the meal.

However, this was redeemed by the Assistant General Manager and an invitation to visit the kitchen. At this point, the meal was left behind but the hospitality stepped up a notch or two. At a convenient time we ushered in to the kitchen and stood behind a small laid table. An edible Jack Rose cocktail was prepared while we watched the goings-on in the kitchen. Apple brandy and compressed apples were placed in a bowl and topped with liquid nitrogen. The mixture was stirred until the brandy was frozen so it could be placed into glasses. Sour apple syrup was added and the whole thing was topped with frozen pomegranate liqueur. This was an intensely boozy concoction with the compressed apple adding texture to the ice as it melted. The pomegranate puff was a more resistant crunch to combine with the apple liqueur. It was difficult to beat eating the decadent dessert while other courses were prepared and exited the kitchen. The kitchen was very low key with a constant flow of wait staff in and out and it was obvious the whole team was very focused on the task at hand. 

Once the drink was finished, it was time to be taken to another spot in the restaurant. Three tables were set aside by the front door for people to relax after the meal. The restaurant helped the relaxation by giving post-dinner drinks to be shared, in this case it was 12-year old Calvados. Furthermore, the staff were adamant that as much time was spent there as you wanted.

While relaxing, a couple more food items were delivered to the table. First up was a box containing more conventional black and white cookies. These were followed by a chocolate, caramel, peanut butter popcorn bonbon that was a delicious layered cookie. By this stage of the evening, the restaurant lighting did not compensate for the darkness outside confirming that early evening was definitely the better time to eat.

Eventually the bill came as the Calvados ran out and it was time to go back out through the revolving doors clutching a copy of the menu and a complimentary jar of granola and join the real world. 

Overall verdict.
Everything at Eleven Madison Park is so carefully thought through that when you’re there it is really impressive. However, the more I’ve thought about it since my visit, Eleven Madison Park is more about the total experience than the food. Service was impeccable throughout. The staff were friendly and there was no doubt that they all bought into the ethos of the restaurant. A good example of the attention to detail was the constant repositioning of the revolving door to make it easier on the customers. Additionally, the optimal position changes seasonally, depending on outside temperatures. There were some real highs on the menu but judged on food alone I would definitely say I have had better meals elsewhere. However, it was a hugely enjoyable night out.

An alternative take on the meal can be found at thathungrychef.com

Would I revisit Eleven Madison Park?
Definitely. Eleven Madison Park is difficult to fault as a special occasion restaurant, although I’d possibly be more tempted to go for lunch.  

Overall Rating - 4.5/5