This afternoon I met a friend for a quick catchup and bite at Millesime, the new-ish Seafood brasserie by chef Laurent Manrique, located in the Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue and 29th street. Entering the restaurant, not through the hotel is certainly awkward -- one goes down a flight of stairs through a separate what seems bar area that is closed during the days and then up another flight of stairs. When you reach the landing, you enter a very bright and airy dining room, modeled on the classic large scale French brasseries. My eye was first drawn to the salt and pepper Eiffel Tower shakers on each of the tables -- kitsch in their surroundings. I don't necessarily think the restaurant has figured out whether to take itself seriously or lightly but I think a decision in either direction would help.
So what about the food? You have your classic raw bar options, tartars, appetizers, salads, sandwiches, mussels, a few entrees and then basically five different fish options that you can chose how to prepare them. This fish selection would seem appropriate at a brasserie in a seaside town in the Mediterranean in the summer but on a March afternoon, it didn't seem to fit. I also found it unnecessary to have French names for dishes with their English translations underneath, it seemed too much.
So what did we have? We split three of their salad options which were inventive unique takes on classic pairings.The first salad was what they called a grilled Caesar salad -- grilled romaine, smoked black cod, Parmesan, and lime. Instead of being a dressed salad, there were three distinct servings on the dish -- in each case a small bunch of romaine was grilled, topped with EVOO, dressing, Parmesan, lime, a small crostini and a thin slice of smoked black cod. An excellent preparation and a great interpretation of a classic -- the chef really transcends what can sometimes be a run of the mill boring salad and refreshes it! The romaine was tender and melted in your mouth where as the lime was the perfect citrus edge with the nutty creaminess of the Parmesan and the smoky fishiness of the cod -- a perfect melange of ingredients.
Next up we had their shrimp, avocado, and grapefruit salad which was served in a scooped out avocado. A well done melange of flavor profiles that melded together but it felt like this was the sort of salad that belonged at a hotel restaurant in Miami, not in French seafood brasserie style restaurant in Manhattan.
Lastly we had their Tuna Nicoise salad which was fabulous -- again the chef really went above and beyond the traditional version of green beans, canned tuna, eggs, anchoives, and the such. This version had a basil coulis on the bottom with a thin round slice of tuna underneath a mixture of fresh veggies tomatoes, peppers, microgreens, small haricot verts, slivers of quail eggs, small pieces of black olives, a few slices of fingerling potatoes but nothing to overwhelm and "startch-ify" the salad. Light, delicate, fresh, dynamic, flavorful and all around delish. It's obvious that the chef can create his own distinct delish versions of the classics and I think that if he focuses on that, the restaurant would be very successful. I cannot speak to his mussels or entrees or the raw bar selection but from the salads, it seems like in certain instances he nails that traditional brasserie cuisine -- reinventions of the classics but while still maintaining some of the integrity of the original.
Millesime
The Carlton Hotel
88 Madison Avenue
NYC
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