Lunch: Cafe Boulud

The rules for restaurants are different on the Upper East Side. Take ho hum Italian spot Via Quadronno on East 73rd, which charges $10 for tomatoes on toast, and no one so much as bats an eye—especially not that Real Housewife of New York in the corner. But there’s an upside to this kind of disposable income when it’s applied wisely: the presence of a captive wealthy audience also means that expensive but exquisite restaurants have a place to thrive and prosper.

Café Boulud, the Daniel Boulud restaurant on East 76th, closed for renovations and just reopened last month. It’s already packed at the prime ladies-who-lunch hour, 1pm on a recent weekday.

“I’ve seen Upper East Side apartments like this,” my fellow Balmer friend said, looking around at the museum-quality black and white interior hung with mirrors and colorful modern art. And indeed, the crowd of women in jewels and headbands and men in serious suits seemed right at home on the spare but clubby leather chairs and gray-upholstered banquettes.

An amuse bouche of fried risotto balls with black truffles was a sign of good things to come: This dish, which is easily mangled in less adept hands, had only a hint of black truffles, not the overwhelming, cloying flavor of rice dunked in truffle oil. Cafe Boulud’s were creamy inside, crunchy ouside.

The menu is divided into four categories: French classics, fall flavors, farmer’s market items, and flavors of Asia. While this made sense thematically, it took twice as long to order as you skipped from category to category piecing apart the appetizers and entrees. On the other side is a prix fixe menu, and though it does not say so, you can order items from here a la carte.

I don’t know if it’s possible to pack more mushrooms into the wild mushroom ravioli with shaved parmesan, shallot confit, and mushroom broth ($22), shown at top. The ravioli were the very essence of fall mushrooms: earthy, faintly exotic and almost meaty. The delicate, buttery sauce laced with shallots and strewn with yet more mushrooms provided just the right counter note.

We oohed and aahed over the fall squash risotto ($20) and its sublime, candy-sweet puree of squash, perhaps butternut mixed with sugar pumpkin. Rarely can a chef eke such an intense flavor out of vegetables alone. The risotto sat in a pool of creamy foam, and no, when Café Boulud does foam, you will not mind.

Onto the main course. The slowly baked monkfish combined elements of Mexican cuisine and spa food, cooked simply in a corn husk and dotted with black beans, cilantro, salsa verde and grilled lemons. This was a beautiful piece of fish.

A waste not, want not Vermont chicken breast entrée ($36) featured a single raviolo stuffed with chicken liver and savoy cabbage-wrapped chicken sausages stuffed with dark leg meat alongside the tender chicken breast with its crispy skin. The cranberry chicken jus sauce struck a tart note that fast-forwarded to Thanksgiving.

Speaking of, if only mom (or I) could make this pumpkin mousse for dessert instead of regular old pumpkin pie. Café Boulud’s takes the sweet and spicy elements of an American classic and lifts it to airy French heights.

If you’re used to dining in other neighborhoods, prices like $44 for a tasting of Pennsylvania veal can induce initial sticker shock. Boulud has softened the blow by including a $28 two-course or $35 three-course prix fixe menu to the options, as well as a brief listing of two $28 wines by the bottle, so go ahead and pop one open, ladies. These would be great cost-cutting options if you dined here often. If you only venture into luxury land every once in a while, however, don’t deny yourself the pleasure of getting exactly what you want at Café Boulud.

Café Boulud
20 East 76th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues
New York, NY
212-772-2600
danielnyc.com