January 30, 2006 6

WD-50 (NYC: LES)

By in 03: NYC

Remember I said I would compensate all those bad deli food I had with one last BIG dinner at NY before I left? We finished our project on the very last day and we were ready to celebrate at night. Initially we booked a fine dinning place at Brooklyn but then we found out it’s ‘jacket required’ (+ piano playing + mink coat old rich people + anniversary couples arrived in limo, etc). Hell no! To avoid all the ‘business casual’ places at midtown, we found this trendy experimental restaurant WD-50 at Lower East side. I’ve read about this place often, famous for its celeb chef and the $105 nine course tasting menu, and won awards like Best Inventive Dish, Best Weird Food That Actually Tastes Good…etc. ^^;;

I was so ready to go all out to do the $105 tasting menu, but turns out they have a strict rule that everyone at the table has to do tasting menu as well. Some people in our table just absolutely cannot eat beef tongue and foie gras..etc…so just have to give up ;__;. I wish I knew that beforehand.

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I never figure out what this flaky thin slice chips are, it is like a modern sculpture. Very good. The appertizer is not mine: Corned duck with rye crisp, purple mustard, horseradish cream

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Foie gras, candied olives, green peas, beet juice $17 and Rack of Lamb with cranberry beans, parsley root, tamarind-cashew $30. The foie gras comes in a cylinder, you cut it open and the beet juice (very sweet) are inside. Almost butter-like smooth. It is this constant unexpected shift from salty and sweet, and I never manage to feel settle down with the taste before it’s over. ^^;; The lamb is absolutely amazing!

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Other people’s mains: Short rib, hedgehog mushrooms, chestnut, whiskey caramel (really really good!) and the fish (on the right). Here’s where we’re stumpled: the fish stinks! It is very fishy…ouch~~ my friend complain to the waitress and had another plate came out but it’s still the same. It is their fish supplies problem, it is just not fresh! It’s quite a shock considering the fame of this place and the price. Eventually they didn’t charged us for it.

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The fish ruined our mood a little bit and hoping the accalimed dessert can redeem the night. We had ‘French Toast’ and with a side of mustard ice cream (not in picture) :D. Those are bacon bites at the bottom that we eat with the icecream. Very nice! The mustard ice cream does taste like mustard, hoho…more milky and creamy tasting compare to wasabi icecream. The picture on the right are after meal treats, they’re curry (?) spice covered chocolate nuts. Very yum.

In the end, I find that ‘inventive weird taste’ boils down to constant sweet vs salty. I think I’d want to come back for the nine course tasting menu but other than that…I don’t think I was blown way (plus the unfortunate stinky fish). It is definitely an interesting place to experience at least once when you’re at New York.

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6 Responses to “WD-50 (NYC: LES)”

  1. donny says:

    hhmm….ok don’t get the fish. i’ll have to try this rst. so they serve different things if you pick the 9 course tasting menu?

  2. tomoko says:

    even the name is experimental-sounding!
    looks like a fun place to eat! ^_^

  3. seat says:

    The thin chips look like those snacks you get from Indian restaurants…what did it taste like?

    The foie gras looks curious~! Oh but my absolute favourite foie gras dish is very salty foie gras terrine + very very sweet mango! That combined impact of sweet+salty is shocking but very addictive~~

    The lamb looks good – very safe choice in an experimental restaurant. ^^;;; But the short rib is more pretty-looking and at the same time yummy-looking.

    Very unlucky with the fish! But US is good in this way – they changed for you, and they didn’t charge you at the end!

    The French toast is so small?! ^^;;; Isn’t “French toast” kinda common cafe-dessert? Is it good? And what do you mean the ice-cream is not in the pictures? You mean you ordered another ice-cream?

    Oh I want to try the tasting course too!! I love cow tongue!!! Considering I never ate foie gras or cow tongue until a few years ago, now I get so shocked that some people don’t eat them…^^;;;

  4. Freda says:

    I upload the 9 course tasting menu, it changes every month (lures adventurous people going back again and again ^^;;; and I bet the chefs have so much fun designing them).

    Yup I love foie gras with mango too~ but this foie gras…hmm…maybe it’s the sweet green crumbs too (is it macaron? ^^;;) that makes the dish taste like dessert. The salty buttery foie gras started to feel like…fine chocolate..^^;;

    The French toast is more like a…how to say, forgot the word, it’s a French dessert (start with a b)…almost like fried egg/tofu~ The icecream on the dish is some caramel vanilla normal one. The mustard icecream comes with another dessert, but the waitress gave us the mustard scoop on the side for free (maybe she felt guilty about the fish). That ‘paper’ in the dessert is some weird salty + sweet thing too, forgot that it is…I think the dessert menu alone is worth to come here for. They have a 3-course and 5-course dessert tasting menu too!!!

  5. seat says:

    Oh I didn’t notice the menu. It sounds so interesting! Cocoa-dashi lemon yogurt noodles oh my god what a strange menu…and very strange to use the Japanese word dashi there. The homepage has many pictures and they all look good!! The sunny-side up looks like a real fried egg!! *o*!

    Is it babaroa? Oh but it is Italian…

  6. Freda says:

    Yeah that Cocoa dashi lemon yoguart noodle sound so interesting, sound more like a dessert ^^;;; It’s feature in a food guidebook I got too.