Eleven Madison Park (wikipedia discloses that owner Danny Meyer also counts Shake Shack in his stable!) entered this year’s S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants in the world at #50 but in my opinion deserves a ranking much higher and it also deserves more than just its one Michelin Star.

Since we had been splurging a bit on our meals this past week we thought we should dial it back some and opt for having lunch at Eleven Madison Park which, at four courses for $74, may seem pricey for a lunch was a bit more economical for us than what I presume was a similar menu at dinner for $125! Having said that every $ we spent at lunch today was worth it and more.

The restaurant has a very cool concept for its menu, designed by the winner of this year’s James Beard “Best Chef: NYC”, Daniel Humm. The menu (hidden within our serviette) consists of sixteen ingredients from which you choose three or four to form your tasting menu but the cooking is left up to the chefs. So, this allows you to indulge in a surprise tasting menu but still with some measure of control. The menu changes on a regular basis and for today’s lunch our menu was thus:

In theory you can choose any three or four ingredients you want for your meal, so if you really wanted you could order all dessert type ingredients (such as the chevre, coconut, lemon and chocolate) or all meat (chicken, pork, lamb and beef.) In reality you’re more likely to choose something from each grouping (cold, hot, meat, dessert) to ensure you have a balanced meal. If this really confuses you the wait-staff are very friendly and not at all condescending when explaining the menu – and they can offer you advice on which ingredients work well together if you’re stuck for inspiration.

Where the menu for Eleven Madison Park is minimalist you could hardly have said the same for the décor of the restaurant, the involvement of the staff, the drinks and, most importantly, the food. I absolutely loved the fact that everything was branded with the Eleven Madison Park logo which consist of cute outlines of various leaves from the menu, to the panels along the wall, to the etchings in the revolving door entrance. Oh and the butters too (one was from goat’s milk – odd tasting – and the other cow’s milk)! As an added bonus, even though there only two of us, they sat us at a table fit for four with both of us facing into the room so that neither of us had our back to the room – super like!

So, I’ve written over 400 words and I haven’t even started talking about the food. That’s how excited I was about my visit to the restaurant today. Everything about the experience was just so fun and enjoyable! But fear not, the food porn is about to begin!

Whilst deciding on drinks and the menu the first items to be brought out were some melt-in-your-mouth incredible delicate cheese puffs. Jenny – you would have adored these!

Drinks were interesting propositions. Our drink waiter was so enthusiastic about the Hot Buttered Rum that Pat couldn’t resist going for that whilst my drink of choice was the Orange Julius (kind of like a liquid version of orange ice cream!). Interesting and delicious as our drinks were, we soon pushed these to the side when our meal started in earnest.

The Amuse Bouche

Chicken veloute with toasted brioches and black truffle butter was first up. The veloute was served in a tea cup and poured out of a tea pot (for entertainment one presumes). Both items balanced each other well and I was pleased that the veloute was perfectly seasoned.

Smoked sturgeon sabayon hot chive oil was served in a egg shell with its top cut off perfectly straight and whilst this was good the item that followed next was just trufflicious, a slow poached egg, poached in truffle in an air tight container, and then covered in white truffle foam. A group of four people arrived to have lunch a little later than we did and one or two of them must have had some fussiness/food dislikes over the ingredients they could have and we saw that they missed out on this particular treat and other wonders. Such a shame when you go to a restaurant as explorative as Eleven Madison Park and you can’t indulge in absolutely everything or anything the chef throws at you!

After our trio of amuse bouche had been served we were then given some bread and butter (the aforementioned goat’s milk and cow’s milk butters, the fussy table got olive oil instead …) Bread was satisfyingly served warm.

Then we were on to our meal proper.

The Meal Proper

Undeniably the best dish of the lunch had to have been Pat’s Foie Gras (first two pictures) served two ways: in a terrine served with pearl onions and pineapple and then, in a twist of brilliance, as a crème brulee with toasted brioche. The terrine was good with the tartness of the pineapple cutting through the richness but the crème brulee was just stunning. Pat was nice enough to let me have a taste, not sure I would have been so generous! Ha ha! Something about the crusty burnt sugar flavour really did something to emphasise but contrast with the creaminess of the foie gras custard underneath.

My Turbot served fairly simply with sundried tomatoes, beans and fennel was lovely and fresh.

I stuck to the seafood theme for my next course with Nova Scotia Lobster served with roasted and candied chestnuts and spiced squash sauce. Pat had a crab with lemon juice and fresh tagliatelle pasta. Pat reports that the pasta couldn’t have been fresher and there was certainly a lot of crab (the only neg being two spots of very small crab shell!)

I can never go past a pork dish on most menus and it was no exception. Pork was served three ways, as a sausage, roasted pork belly and a kind of braised loin (I think!) This dish was served with mustard seeds, interestingly pear, and also sauerkraut and baby onions. Crackling on the pork belly was cooked to perfection.

Pat had a lamb dish served strangely with apple. Apparently it worked well!

Before moving on to our dessert we had a pre-dessert which was the restaurant’s take on the Kir royal with cassis sorbet champagne foam and meringue. It was served on this plate which looked like a pillow so it kind of highlighted the lightness and frothiness of the pre-dessert.

Coconut was the ingredient and inspiration for my dessert and consisted of toasted coconut flakes, coconut ice cream (divine), pineapple ice cream and caramelised chunks of pineapple. Did anyone say pina colada? Very refreshing and an ideal way to round off the meal.

Pat had an equally refreshing Lemon dessert. Pat considered this the weakest of the dishes but I thought he’d love it for the lemon curd, lemon sorbet, lemon cake crumbs and poppy seed shortbread. Perhaps there was too much lemon going on.

I don’t know if you’d consider them petit fours but immediately after our desserts were cleared we were presented with an almond peanut tulle but more fun a peanut banana sorbet lollipop! At this stage we were winding down and had asked for the bill (which came was delivered in a beautifully hand written form) but our waitress had a surprise for us! Don’t think she was expecting us to ask for the bill quite so quickly!

The Special Treat

Just to set the scene a little – all during our lunch service the service was attentive and friendly. Even when the wait-staff weren’t serving us drinks or checking on us they would walk by and on occasion make light conversation – but they did it in a manner that seemed entirely natural and not at all forced. I think our food was also delivered by chefs – but chefs or wait staff alike they all certainly knew their food, always a sign of an excellent restaurant. At any rate the staff must have seen how excited we were about dining at the restaurant because our surprise was … a tour of the kitchen! We were brought to stand behind what appeared to be a table laid out – it was at chest height and had a white tablecloth over it and two spoons.

I wasn’t really thinking about the table whilst the various aspects of the kitchen and the chefs were explained to us. I couldn’t believe how many chefs there were – there must have been at least ten hovering around the dessert area alone! Despite this it was an oasis of calm it seemed – no shouting and rushing around, all very neat and calm and organised.

And then, to top this all off, one of the dessert chefs then came over to make us a surprise extra item – a meringue, popping candy and sorbet dish made with the aid of liquid nitrogen (of course). This really was a fantastic personal touch (though they must do it sufficiently regularly if they had a table in the kitchen) and this left us on a definite high when we left the restaurant nearly three hours after we first sat down. I can’t say enough good things about the restaurant I certainly hope it gets the recognition it deserves.