Dinner Adventure

The benefits of working long hours and not having a real summer every year is being able to eat in some of the best restaurants NYC has to offer. Not to brag, well yes to brag: STK, Quality Meats, Trattoria Dell Arte, Le Crique, Del Frisco's, and so on.  It's a super major plus when you're a foodie like myself; for others, well it's just another lunch or dinner.

My latest dinner adventure with work was, Stanton Social, the popular "tapas" place in the Lower East Side.  I quote tapas because Owners, Chris Santos, Richard Wolf (TAO) and Peter Kane (Happy Ending) call them "share plates,"  which is exactly what they are.  The plates come out portioned for the amount of people eating at the table, so everyone tastes all the dishes.  I like what they're doing, the atmosphere combined with the passable dishes to share make for a great group environment.  It creates a place where everyone is involved and gets a chance to try multiple dishes.  If you look around, the scene is one any wanna be "it" person would die to be caught in; exuding stylishness, luxury, and elegance.


Being honest though, the food was just MEH!  There wasn't anything terrible on the menu, but honestly, there isn't one thing that me say, OUTSTANDING.  Of all the dishes we ate, the Thai Spiced Baby Back Ribs and the Potato and Goat Cheese Perogies were my favorite.  The ribs literally melted off the bone and the dumplings were rather tasty with the truffle cream dipping sauce they came with.  Everyone knows my love for truffle, so it's no surprise I enjoyed that one.  According to the reviews and the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", the French Onion Soup Dumplings are the item to try.  I wasn't impressed, between the stinky cheese and the hard to retrieve dumplings, they really didn't live up to all the hype.  The smelly cheese was overwhelming, and that's very hard for me to say because I'm a firm believer that the smellier the better but this smell was just too much to handle; causing for an unappetizing feeling immediately.  Not the best way to start plate.  And trying to get the dumplings out of the dish they were served in was way to complicated for me.

Despite the lack of WOW food being consumed, I'd go back to Stanton Social for two reason: 1) to continue trying the other things on the menu (it was extensive) and 2) for the experience.  And well, maybe to just say I was there.