344 West 11th Street
We were having dinner with Jim and Laurie, and it was their turn to venture in to Manhattan from Westchester. First impressions are lasting, and we were optimistic that this was the case at Wallse, a pricey Austrian nouveau cuisine restaurant in the West Village. When we first walked in to the enchanting dining room with modern posters on white brick walls and lighting that was carefully selected to exemplify coziness, we were more than hopeful that the old adage would be accurate. Each bite of our appetizers of gently seared scallops in tomato-clam ragout was sublime, and we waited in anticipation for our entrées. And waited. And we finally did the unthinkable in a restaurant at this level---- we asked our server who assured us that our meals would be served in two minutes. The two minutes came and went, and when we asked our server again, he finally arranged for their arrival. One can expect a high correlation between the appropriate timing and pacing of the meal and the price-point. This was not the situation at Wallse. We decided to move on and enjoy our entrée. We also expected the server to know who had ordered which dish. Alas, we could have been at any upscale diner in Westchester.
Laurie ordered the signature dish of Wiener Schnitzel with potato cucumber salad and lingonberries which was a fried blob of veal that unceremoniously filled the plate. Laurie thought it was tasty, but the presentation was so poor that it left us wondering in which restaurant the pictures of the food on the website were taken. Both Jim and Ed ordered the pan seared brook trout. What was presented was an oversized piece of luke-warm salty fish that was plopped on the plate without garnishes or even vegetables. The vegetables were listed as an a la carte order. My $42 entrée of smoked squab with foie gras and truffled endive turned out to be so miniscule that a quick calculation clocked it in at about $7 a bite. That might have been acceptable had the chef been more careful with the salt.
The dessert chef must have been on the same page as the chef. Not only did the desserts lack the artistic creativity that one would expect here, they screamed out for taste.
Wallse has a way to go before it reaches the levels of similarly charging brethren. The best part of the meal was being seated next to Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife Isla Fisher which provided us with endless mealtime conversation and glances. It should be noted that the timing of their meal was perfect.
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