Five Minute Review: Danny Meyer’s Maialino

Those within radio distance of New York’s Z100 know that the popular Six Second Reviews is a popular weekly event from Moviefone.  Today has been a day.  And a half.  Like the kind where I might have spilled over into tomorrow’s fun and challenges, and I don’t want to press my luck any further and would like to wrap up today.  Like now. So in the spirit of Moviefone’s Six Second Reviews, how about a Five Minute Review on Danny Meyer’s Maialino restaurant in NYC … long on pictures, short on words.  Sound good?  Let’s go.

One of my favorite parts of going into the city is seeing the skyline as I approach.

When I don’t know where I’m going, this is not a good sign.

Gorgeous blue skies and big white, fluffy clouds today, along with a balmy temp of 36. Not complaining at all, will gladly take this over what we’ve had lately.

Greeted at hostess stand and seated within minutes. The menu for our luncheon today. Decisions, decisions.

I went with the salad for the first course, being virtuous and all that. Sarah got the ravioli, which smelled divine. The salad? Amazing. Never would have put celery, fennel, hazelnuts and cheese together, but it created a magical little bite that we all inhaled.

The road not traveled.

I try to pick things I’ve never had before, and this was my first time for Sea Bass. I know, I’ve apparently led a sheltered life. I would totally get this again. Light, buttery, flaky, sublime. The radicchio salad did nothing for me, but I’m not a fan of radicchio usually so I’m biased and willing to admit that.

Have no idea what the dessert was, but Sarah and I shared the first piece with the pine nuts on it. It tasted a little like Key Lime, but I don’t believe it was. Whatever it was, it was gone quickly.

Can’t have a blogger lunch without a snap of the bloggers, right? Luckily only one grey hair shows up on camera. On me. Sarah, being 10 years younger (!!), has a ways to go ’till she earns her grey.  If she tells me again that she was graduating high school when I was getting married … ;)

The bathrooms in this restaurant are kind of random. No door on the opening to the bathroom area. Two unisex stalls side by side. Odd lever to work the water. Just odd all around.

The bar area where you walk in.

The service was swift, although our waitress did take time to pick her fingernails during our lunch and fix her hair in the mirror that was in our (private) room. Drink refills were quickly taken care of without a word, and plates cleared nearly immediately. The speed of service was perfect and although lunch ran an hour long, we never felt rushed.

Parking in this area is terrible, even though the restaurant is in the Gramercy Park Hotel. For future visitors, we found a parking garage on 21st Street, about a block and a half from the hotel. Of course said parking garage was found after circling the area for 30 minutes, but so it goes.

And the purpose of the luncheon meeting? It was hosted by the folks behind the new food search engine site, Foodily.com (Food I Love You). An interesting concept, it is a completely visual site. Type in a recipe you’re looking for and it will point you to tons of sites (blogs included) with recipes that have what you want, with heaps of pictures to lead the way. It will also show you recipes that your friends like, complementary side dishes, menu plans and scads more. The official launch was yesterday, and it’s been fun learning about the site and poking around. With food, it is totally about the visual experience, something that the Foodily team is capitalizing on.

Project 365
February 3, 2011, Photo #34
New recipe I created for the folks at Betty Crocker. Coming to a screen near you. Soon.