Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Restaurant Review: Fig & Olive

When Jamie decided to delay his business trip one more day just to hang out with me last night, I knew an impromptu Restaurant Week date was in order. Instead of playing the usual "where do you want to go?" back and forth game, I texted him a time and a place. Fig & Olive, nice and close to home, and I have wanted to try it for such a long time (you know, all four years of living on the Upper East Side). Plus, it's on the FGF 101 in 1001 list, so it seemed like an extra efficient choice!

The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice, not too loud, perfect lighting, and we weren't seated too closely to our neighbors - all great things by NYC standards.

We started off with a bottle of pinot noir, and since we were afraid that the Restaurant Week portions might be very small, we also ordered a cheese board to start. The board was one of the best I've had - just the right amount and variety of cheese, bread, almonds and jams (fig, apricot) to start a meal.


Of the Restaurant Week options, I chose to start with truffle mushroom croquettes, per a strong recommendation from our waiter. He was spot on, they were perfect. Just the right amount of truffle and cheese, so savory.

My main was the primavera lobster risotto, which was generous in portion, and very rich. The veggies tasted so fresh, and the risotto texture and flavors were spot on. The "lobster tail" was a bit tiny, but I think that the portion is larger on the normal menu, and the risotto itself was so good that I didn't mind at all.

For dessert we shared both options (a cherry, mascarpone, pistachio "dessert crostini" and a "chocolate pot" with crunchy praline financiers & vanilla cream), of which we agreed the chocolate pot was the better choice. Smooth, creamy, chocolatey... the best way to end the meal.

Fig & Olive was a great Restaurant Week choice - I think we had an excellent sampling of their menu, and I don't think we even needed to order the cheese plate. That said, with our add-ons (the wine and cheese), the bill did wind up being way more than we'd like to spend on a random Monday night. There is only one more week of Restaurant Week, so I recommend getting in on this prix fix while you still can.

Next up for Alycia and me? Le Cirque with some girlfriends this Thursday...stay tuned!

See this review on Yelp!

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