Struggling at Landmarc

This past weekend, AV had a good friend from college in town. Since I had not yet met said friend, our big plan was to meet up for dinner at 7. When I called around 3:30 to confirm the location, the two of them seemed to be, shall we say, neck-deep in wings and beer at a bar on the UES. So suffice it to say that the planning of said 7PM dinner did not go... smoothly? I'll spare you the details; let's just fast forward to 7:30, when the three of us gathered at Landmarc in the Time Warner Center. Me: exhausted as all get-out. AV and ER: struggling.

Since Landmarc doesn't take reservations, we were fortunate that there was no wait for a table for three. We collapsed into a table that seemed to be smack in the middle of the restaurant's jet-stream, so AV and I sat shivering for the entirety of the meal. Well, I shivered, and AV eyed the door to the bathroom across the room should an a-la-minute escape be necessary.

We managed to discover the menus, which are folded pieces of paper tucked into the napkins on the table. Our server was friendly and accommodating, and she put up with our antics quite well. After vehemently declining the offer of drinks, we placed our order. A runner then brought a bread basket. ER noted that the bread was not warm. True, but it did come with room-temp (read: spreadable) butter and a bottle of olive oil on the table; given that I wasn't hungry, I took a couple of bites for research purposes, and it was definitely solid sourdough, the type you tend to see frequently around town.

Bread in a basket

We talked, mostly sharing amusing stories about AV while he sat gamely (and rather palely) absorbing the abuse. Our server popped by to let us know that our food was almost ready. And then it arrived. Starting with the poor battered males at the table, AV had ordered an appetizer portion of the Saturday pasta special, which was pasta bolognese. He said it was pretty good, but honeslty I think any carb-based food at that point probably would have done the trick. The only negative of note was that the server offered parmesan, which we all know AV loves, and their response to an eager "yes" was a tiny metal dish of powdered parm-- about two teaspoons' worth. Seriously??? That just won't cut it.

Pasta pre-parm

ER had gone with the Landmarc burger, which one of the reasons we ultimately chose Landmarc as our destination. He had asked to add bacon, a request eagerly accommodated. Sort of. The burger earned raves all around, despite the fact that the pickles crowning the overflowing mountain of accompanying frisee were not nearly pickled enough. The bacon, however, made its appearance in the form of bacon crumbles tucked in another tiny metal ramekin (pernicious little bastards, those) buried under the greens; ER didn't notice it until he was about 3/4 of the way through his burger. Landmarc, listen: if you're gonna add bacon to a burger, it's gotta be strips. I may be a vegetarian, but even I know that crumbles won't cut it, especially if there's not cheese on the burger for the crumbles to stick to. Nonetheless, bacon debacle aside, the burger was a winner.

See that tiny bit of metal peeking out next to the ketchup? Yeah, that's the bacon.

My choice (again, I wasn't hungry, so don't shoot me) was a side of sauteed spinach. This was a pretty small portion for a $6 side, and it came strangely swimming in liquid, which I suspected was chicken broth. Given that I didn't specify that I was vegetarian, I didn't necessarily hold it against Landmarc, but rather instead of inquiring about the liquid and making an obnoxious scene, I gulped the spinach as quickly as I could and then sat with it roiling in my stomach for a while. The spinach had slivers of pretty raw garlic and rings of what looked like shallots in it. It was salty. Not the most successful spinach I've ever had, but then again, I'm not sure anything would have wowed me given that I wasn't hungry.

Meh

At this point, when we were all done, another basket of bread landed on our table, right in front of me, as though it were the entree I had ordered. Whaaa?

No matter. When the bill came, a generous handful of homemade caramels also arrived-- I gulped about four of these in succession, because they were creamy and buttery and just the perfect thing to settle my stomach.

So what's the verdict on Landmarc? Well, I'm not quite sure we gave it a fair shake. Given the sorry state we were in, I don't think even Daniel would have wowed us. I've also been to the Tribeca location a while ago, and it provided a good time. I think, given the data points I have, that Landmarc is a solid place. The burger is good, the other food is hit or miss. But they have a cotton candy machine-- evident in the huge poofs of cotton candy making the rounds in the dining room as elements of dessert courses-- and how bad can any restaurant with a cotton candy machine be? Landmarc is a solid three Offset Spatula restaurant, not mind-blowing, but I'd return if the circumstances merited. And maybe next time I'm not hungry, I'll just skip right to the dessert course.

Landmarc
10 Columbus Circule, 3rd floor
212-823-6123

Mashed chick peas and tiny desserts at Landmarc

On Tuesday night, I had a celebratory dinner with a different one of my work teams at Landmarc in Tribeca. Magically, all nine of us arrived at 8PM on the dot, so we were able to comply with Landmarc's draconian reservations regulations (won't seat incomplete parties, will only hold the table for 15 minutes).

We were led to a large round table on the second floor of the small but tastefully decorated restaurant. First up: the wine. We decided to do a bottle of red and a bottle of white; I chose the white, a Sauvignon Blanc from Cloudy Bay in New Zealand. The partner on our team, GdT, chose the red-- first a Malbec that they had run out of, and finally a Cab as a replacement. I only drank the white, which was refreshing and delicious.

While we were in the process of ordering, the bread arrived. This was a standout bread course. Chunky slices of white peasant bread with a chewy crust and a stretchy interior were expertly complemented by the sweet butter with--get this-- a salted top. That's right; the ramekin of butter came with little flakes of sea salt on top. I also tried the bread with some of the olive oil on the table, which was very high quality and redolent of rosemary. Yes, I just used the word "redolent."

Delicious bread, and you can sort of see the salt flakes on the butter

We were well occupied with the bread, but our appetizers emerged promptly. It was hard to get pictures of all the food of nine people, so here's what I managed to get:

The foie gras appetizer-- JL enjoyed this dish

GdT ordered the goat cheese profiteroles. These looked very interesting, and he said they were quite good.

BS ordered the Caesar salad. He was too far away for me to get the full download, but he only ate part of the salad, so I assume it wasn't irresistibly spectacular.

Other people in our crew ordered the calimari, which was pronounced "not that great." Apparently, the calimari at the Olive Garden is better (eek!). We also had one order of onion soup, which was thoroughly enjoyed.

After the apps came the entrees. We had a large amount of food descend on our table at once. The summary:

JL had the steak, deemed very good. I tried a fry or two, and they were excellent.

The burger-- one of Landmarc's signatures. RT said it was good but not the best he's had.

The salmon, on a bed of what looks like ratatouille. GdT polished this off and gave it enthusiastic approval.

My own dish-- a chopped salad with hearts of palm, beets, cucumbers, and frisee. I opted out of the celery here (a recurring theme), attempting to substitute asparagus but coming up short once again. This was the dinner portion, and it was HUGE. I tried to eat as much as I could, but I left a large pile of cucumbers behind. It was a high-quality and very good salad.

Several people ordered the lamb chops-- a huge portion, garnering unanimous raves.

The pork chop. Didn't hear how this was, but I also didn't hear any complaints, if that counts.

A side: mashed chick peas, which were warm (somewhat surprising, for some reason). They tasted just like mashed chick peas, which is a good thing, if you like chick peas. And I do.

A side of creamed spinach (very creamy). There was also some sauteed spinach, which I didn't try.

We were all stuffed at this point, but Landmarc has some special desserts, so we pressed on. We ordered two dessert samplers for the table, which brought us two of each of their signature desserts, presented as follows:

From front to back: Creme brulee, chocolate mousse with whipped cream, lemon tart with whipped cream, tiramisu, nutella eclair, blueberry crumble.

Landmarc offers all these desserts in the small sizes seen here, each for $4, or you can get the sampler for $16. Overall, I was really impressed with these-- not only because of the innovative small sizes. The creme brulee was seriously good-- I had a good chunk of the delicious caramelized crust. The chocolate mousse was okay. The tiramisu was slightly disappointing; it tasted very refrigerated and was a bit crusted and sticky rather than creamy, if you know what I mean. The nutella eclair was really good, but the filling was very mild-- more chocolately than nutella-y. I didn't get a chance to taste the blueberry crumble before it disappeared, as it was one of the first to go. The lemon tart was the surprise standout of the bunch-- tart, sweet, smooth, and delicious.

If you go to Landmarc, definitely get the desserts. And the sides. And the food. Everything was good, and I left completely overstuffed. It should be noted that the service was really professional as well-- very friendly and competent, and they didn't rush us or make us feel unwelcome even after we lingered far longer than all the other tables in the restaurant. Landmarc is definitely a solid four Offset Spatula place.


Landmarc Tribeca (there's also a location in the Time Warner Center)
179 W. Broadway, between Leonard and Worth streets
212-343-3883