A restaurant I had been waiting to try. Everything about it appealed to me: decor, ingredients, cocktails, the menu and the endless hype. The dining room is beautifully decorated in Scandinavian style with wood tables, wire lighting fixtures, Eames chairs and an enormous floor to ceiling window on 2nd Avenue. What a room for brunch when it is flooded with light!
The waiters are dressed in white collared button-downs, jeans and adorable mis-matching floral aprons; but when I asked my usual pre-dining question, 'what are your favorite menu items?' The answer was, 'Everything is good', which was unenthusiastic and only highlighted appetizers. One thing she was right about, everything was just 'good'.
Starting with the pickle pot, I thought it was a good prelude of what was to come and unfortunately, I was wrong.
Pickle Pot complete with cucumbers, turnips and fennel
Barely there gravalax with celeriac, celery, bitters, leaves, seed and roe
(The fishy roe was the noticeable ingredient)
The one dish the waitress seemed to be excited about was the bitterballen slow braised oxtail croquettes with mustard relish; but alas, another tasteless appetizer. Authentic croquettes are typically, what most would consider, tasteless and are jazzed up with some type of dipping sauce. But these were OXTAIL! Slow braised oxtail tasteless? What the heck? They tasted exactly like a regular croquette. Slap on the wrist for me since I never order the most popular dish the menu.
The Mangalitsa pork (heirloom beans, Sepia, pear, clove jus 28) was the most enjoyable dinner item. Mangalista is a fattier cut of meat, therefore, is abundantly rich. The sepia was apparent, although I'm not sure how it tied into the dish.
Hete Bliksem ’hot lightning’ - crisp fingerlings, bacon, apple, stroop syrup
By far, the best eats at Vandaag and described by the waitress as 'Heaven in a Bowl'. Crispy potatoes with chunks of bacon, microscopic chunks of apple in a housemade stroop syrup. This dish blended sweet and heated (aftertaste) that was awesome!
We waited thirty minutes for the waitress to take our dessert order that the skyr custard (maple, rhubarb, granola bar, mace) was just brought over and on the house. Glad the decision was made.
Bottom line - Vandaag tries too hard with their menu. There are too many ingredients they're working with. Don't reinvent the wheel. Simplify.
Vandaag 103 Second Avenue @ 7th Street (212) 253-0470
http://www.vandaagnyc.com/about.html
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