davidburke & donatella
133 East 61st Street (between Park & Lexington)

I was invited to brunch by a friend last Sunday, and he picked davidburke & donatella (sorry, I hate the pretentiousness of them not capitalising, but I have to follow them...). I haven't been there in ages, and was not impressed the first time. And this time it failed to impress me again.

The place was quite full, and their spacing between tables is near record low...ridiculous how intrusive it is between tables. I hate restaurants that boast such a philosophy. And also, I hate the prix fixe experience, as my frequent readers know.

With a bloody mary in hand, I chose the pretzel-crusted crabcake. It was pretty bland to be honest, nothing fancy except the visuals. The taste was bland, and you couldn't tell if it was fresh crab or tinned crab -- or even if it is whitefish. That does not bode well for the kitchen, in my view.

With the pretty lame service (again, they pushed table crumbs on me!), the main course came. The mustard crusted tuna was sincerely boring, and overcooked (despite me asking for it to be rare). Very lame, the fact that by the time I got to the last piece it was nearly cooked through showed me that the kitchen is not functioning to deal with this type of delicate timing. Shame, really.

The dessert of coconut cake was plain boring, and you could barely taste the coconut. What a waste of a brunch! And I had to endure one of the stupidest conversations I've ever heard from two "off-the-boaters" adjacent. Ugh...what a bad way to start Sunday...

Food: C
Atmosphere: C-
For Lone Diners: C- (*)