Love/Hate at a Restaurant

I was attending Toy Fair 2011 in NYC this past week and I had plenty of enjoyable moments, met dozens upon dozens of great people, and even managed to get a meal in here and there. Some were good, some not so good, but one in particular turned out to be my favorite and least favorite all in the span of about an hour and a half.

Not having any plans for dinner and walking around the theater district, an associate and I came upon this restaurant called Bond 45. The menu was hanging outside the door, as is common in New York City and it looked like good, appetizing fare, so we went in.

We studied the menu, heard the specials from our waiter, who was an awesome waiter by the way, got some recommendations, and made our selections. We ordered the Burratta appetizer, which is their homemade Mozzarella cheese. You can get it with tomatoes, which we did, or you can get it with prosciutto. When it arrived at the table it was nothing spectacular to see, just a big hunk of cheese and some sliced tomato with garnish.

Then we ate it.

I kid you not this is probably one of the most amazing food experiences I have ever had. The mozzarella was soooo creamy and smooth you didn't have to chew it. It dissolved almost instantly when it touched your tongue. The flavor of the cheese was so good I didn't want to eat the tomato because it would spoil the flavor of the cheese. Honestly, it was a savoring moment; I was at one with my Mozzarella.

Next we ordered the house salad. It was a salad of bitter greens and their house made vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was somewhat sweet, and however they make it, it works great with the bitter greens.

We should have stopped there.

We then made the unfortunate mistake of ordering entrees. My associate ordered the chicken dish, the name of which escapes me and I'm OK with that. Actually if I had a reason to remember the name it would be so I don't ever order it. I didn't taste it and my associate wishes she hadn't either. As it turns out the chicken was not cooked all the way and with the ambiance and mood lighting you can't really tell. Needless to say, she did not fair well that evening.

I went with seafood. Relax folks, this is not another raw chicken story. I ordered Linguine with lobster, shrimp, clams, and mussels. I thought I would get linguine with shrimp, clams and mussels in the shell, and lobster cut up into the pasta with the shrimp. Nope; I was correct about everything but the lobster. The lobster was a lobster split down the middle and I'm guessing broiled and laid on the plate for aesthetics. Well it looked pretty but that's about it. It was possibly the driest lobster I have ever eaten. As a matter of fact it was so dry I'm doubtful this lobster even LIVED in water at all. The rest of my dish was OK, but once the star falls flat the rest of the show is hardly worth watching, if you know what I mean.

OK, here is the sum up. DO go to Bond 45, DO have the Burratta appetizer, DO have the salad, DO NOT get the entrée. Just my opinion.