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Café
Boulud, is the sort of neighborhood restaurant you could only find in
the most sophisticated neighborhood in America, serving the flawless,
clean-lined French cuisine of [Daniel] Boulud's disciple Andrew Carmellini...his
cooking is as detailed as a dish at DANIEL while uniquely capturing the
spirit of the original. Café Boulud may be my favorite restaurant
of [Daniel] Boulud's, a place I could happily visit several times a week
without getting bored.
Jonathan
Gold, "Restaurant Review : New York," Gourmet, December 2001
Daniel Boulud
is widely acknowledged to be among the great chefs in the world, not just
for his influence in saving French haute cuisine from the "Is this
really worth it?" doldrums and the absurd excrescence's of fusion
cooking, but for raising refined European and American comfort food to
the culinary sublime.
...[At Café
Boulud] you may choose among gnocchi that has sucked up meat juices flavored
with black truffles, or Boulud's grandmother's chicken fricassee, or barbecue-braised
pork with red beans and corn bread.
John Mariani,
"Best New Restaurants," Esquire, December 1999
If you have
ever wanted to find out what happens when a great chef at the top of his
form stretches out and takes chances, this is your opportunity...You never
quite know what the menu will offer. Most days there are 30 or more dishes,
and none are ordinary. You might discover a seviche of scallops and oysters
paved with caviar listed as a seasonal dish. All delicacy and luxe it
offers a stunning contrast to the hearty casserole of tripe, pure peasant
food that is being offered as a traditional dish. What do either of these
dishes have in common with the gorgeous salad of beets, endive and apples
laced with pistachios, which looks like a picture from an English garden
magazine? Just this: They are all completely delicious.
Ruth Reichl,
"Café Boulud: Daniel Boulud in a Laid Back Mood," The
New York Times, December 9, 1998
We admire Daniel
Boulud and his prodigious talent, but his notion of a café is akin
to Stephen Sondheim's notion of a Sunday in the park. No, Café
Boulud doesn't fit any acceptable definition of a café and the
sensational food has little to do with bistro fare. It starts with the
freshest and finest ingredients and involves labor-intensive precision
in preparation, as in the "simple" appetizer of a dozen exceptional
garden vegetables, sliced and diced and infused with basil, ginger and
olive oil.
Gault Millau,
"Café Boulud," Gayot's NYC Restaurants, 1999
The food at
Café Boulud is nothing if not distinctive... The meals that I ate
there were wonderful. Since Andrew Carmellini took over as executive chef
in January, the restaurant has only gotten better and better.
Moira Hodgson,
"The Show Moved to 65th Street, The Food is Another Story,"
The New York Observer, May 17, 1999
Daniel Boulud
becomes more impressive with each new enterprise...Now Café Boulud
emerges triumphant.
Bob Lape, "Boulud
Outdoes Himself, Creates Air of Casual Chic: With signature dishes and
more, East Side café is starworthy effort," Crain's New
York Business, November 9-15, 1998 |
