Chanterelle
2 Harrison Street (at Hudson)

It wasn't easy getting a booking here, but me and a friend managed this one evening and went for it. I had always wanted to eat here, and the menus here always looked both adventurious but solid. So I went into this place with extremely high expectations. Unfortunately, a good amount of it wasn't met...

The place is beautiful and would be great for a romantic evening. It has the obligatory high ceilings and open spacing, the look of a classic restaurant's dining room. Very posh and polished. But that was it really...

We had a good table, but it was annoying as the waiters kept bumping into me due to bad placement of tables and chairs in the middle vein of the space. Plus, the floorboards seemed weak, so my chair was rocking a bit when people walked. It's like an old house's dining room...

But all that could be forgiven for a good menu and good food...and that's what I hoped for. For the starter I had the seafood sausage. Interesting, but the middle was cold. Cooking mistake? My friend had the assortment of raw seafood. Looks nice and he said it was nice, but I passed because of the boring selection. Can people get away from salmon and tuna? They've been done to death, and tuna is bloody endangered because of this overuse...

This was not a great start. And for a pricey bottle of red that turned out a bit "table-ish" I was getting disappointed. I usually would go with venison if I see it on a menu, but I was not a big fan of the saddle -- so I went with the roast sturgeon for the main. Mistake. It was sliced and cooked in a way not condusive for sturgeon. This is an oily fish, and nothing here accentuated it. And it seemed it was roasted in a low temperature oven, so it tasted like bland whitefish. My friend had the scallops...which looked like the little ones you buy at...ugh...Gristedes or D'Agostino... Plus the sauce was like a cheap, wannabe fra diavolo. Pathetic.

The desserts were nice, as we both had big ones. The "maple tasting" was not bad, but did not save the meal. Plus, they didn't bring our after dinner drinks for nearly 10 minutes. Unacceptable in a restaurant of this class.

I left Chanterelle very disappointed. It was all talk, no substance. And the service failed too, as did the menu. Every aspect failed. Plus, they didn't feature their namesake! How can you name a restaurant Chanterelle when there was hardly a mushroom to be found on the menu? Ugh...

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

Bamiyan
358 3rd Avenue (at 26th Street)

After a long day of meetings and more post-meeting wine consumption, me and a friend stumbled into Bamiyan for a quick dinner. I've walked past this place so many times but never tried it. I remember having good Afghan food in the DC area, so why not? Plus, having not had lunch and drinking tons of wine, I was hungry.

The place is bigger than you think, with an interesting design -- almost faux exotic. We were in the back room and it was a chilled environment -- which we needed. We ordered quickly and the food came pretty quickly, a plus.

We split two starters -- the kadu (pumpkin-filled turnovers) and the kachaloo (pea-filled turnovers). Not bad, especially the sweeter one. The main course I went with a safe bet, the koobideh (minced meat skewers grilled). It's as good as any other Persian restaurant, although the portion was smaller than most.

It was a good meal, but we were both wiped so we got out of there. I took an order of mantoo (dumplings) to go and had it later in the night. It wasn't that great, and the sauce didn't work. Oh well...it was cold anyway...

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

Amma
246 East 51st Street (between 2nd & 3rd)

I do apologise for the lack of updates, but it's been a pretty nutty time recently. Anyway, I'm here to catch up on a few reviews. The first is a quick weekend lunch at the relatively new Indian place of Amma. As you know I've been critical of most Indian places in Manhattan (especially Devi).

The place was nearly empty which worried me. But we had an okay meal -- nothing special, but it was satisfactory. The place had a fusion-y feel, non-traditional -- which always concerned me. The decor was nothing special either, but as you know, I'm not big on that. What annoyed me was that it was an empty restaurant, and when another diner came in, they put him right next to us. Why????? Ugh...

The starters we shared -- one was a the saffron chicken (pretty bland) and the other Goan shrimp (pretty boring too). The spices were under-emphasised, as I feared. But it was okay. The main course I had the "Parsi halibut" -- which was a bit undercooked and under-spiced. I wonder why they "dumb down" the flavours so much.

We dragged out the meal for awhile but it was out of momentum. It was just a bit too boring after awhile. The only amusing thing was the nice background music (of which the waiters could give us no useful info...). Satisfactory, but I doubt I'll return.

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