Marvelous mussels at City Hall

Last Thursday, AS and I embarked on another dinner-finding mission in Tribeca. It was 8PM, and we had no reservations. Would this end well? We'll see.

After a bit of walking, we chanced upon a decent-looking option. It seemed nice inside, and there were some patio tables hosting a few enthusiastic diners. A glance at the menu revealed that this was City Hall-- and the options looked pretty good. We were sold.

A short chat with the convivial host later, we were seated at a table outside. Our unceasingly upselling waitress made her first appearance ("Can I start you off with some San Pellegrino or Fiji water?" Uh, no.). A few moments of deliberations passed, and we placed our order. Out came City Hall's version of the bread basket: a small boat of crudites with the occasional olive and pickle thrown in.

Lots of crunch!

The rest of our food arrived a relatively short time later. In a slight deviation from the Green Soup theme, AS pounced on their daily special-- white bean soup. Since there were a few sprinkles of green on top, I hereby appoint this soup Honorary Green Soup Chapter 3.

Green soup

AS's other dish that evening was the Prince Edward Island mussels, served in a white wine and garlic broth. Surprisingly, AS pronounced these mussels the best he's ever had, even including the very PEI mussels consumed in their home province. Well done, City Hall! From my perspective, the enormous bread baton served alongside the mussels seemed pretty appealing, for what it's worth (very little).

Superlative

My choice was the Warm Goat Cheese and Beet salad, served with shaved fennel and asparagus. In retrospect, I don't think this salad actually had asparagus in it. But there was some lettuce, and the large puck of goat cheese was quite tasty. There were thickly sliced beets at the bottom, which were sweet and tender, and the shaved fennel added some crunch and not much else. Overall, it was a decent salad, one that probably would have been enhanced quite a bit with the addition of asparagus. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Pretty

We were both pleasantly surprised by City Hall. The atmosphere was quite nice, and in general the food was high quality. Sitting outside on a quiet Tribeca side street on a beautiful evening with some good food and a gradual sunset... not too shabby in my book.

City Hall
131 Duane Street
212-227-7777