Les Halles
411 Park Avenue South (between 28th & 29th)

I do apologise for the gap in posting -- this is due to heavy travels to both England and Latvia, as well as a stressful period relating to various projects, taxes, etc... But my stomach has rebelled, and I am once again dining out! So let the reviews flow once more! BTW as the coming days and week go on, I will add some reviews from both locales of my travels, so enjoy!

The other evening I wandered out to Les Halles in Midtown for a good meal. I've had a few bad experiences at the famous eatery (of Anthony Bourdain fame...well, in some ways...), so I wasn't expecting much -- especially my once-again-girlfriend had gone incommunicado at work.

I was sat at a corner window table, which was nice, as the place was rather empty -- both due to it being Monday evening and also from the after-effects of the nasty storm in the region (Central Park received almost 9 inches of rain that Sunday!). With a nice bottle of red from Languedoc, I had a good meal for once.

Service in this factory-like-bistro is always problematic, especially when an unordered shrimp and avocado salad showed up... After 10 minutes the grilled calamari with fennel (encornets grillés, crudité de fenouil) showed up. It was okay, nothing too special -- too little squid, way too much fennel... So I was lukewarm by then.

The main course was the grilled rib-eye (l'entrecôte du boucher), which was done rather spectacularly -- one of the best steaks I've had in months. I was suitably impressed for once, though the side of grilled green beans was a bit boring.

After some coffee and polishing off the bottle of wine, a chat with some of the staff (an excellent front-room co-ordinator named Jenna -- ask for her if you drop into Les Halles) and some patrons, I wandered out, somewhat relaxed but tired...

Not bad, I may just have to come back to this place...

Food: B
Atmosphere: B
For Lone Diners: B+