Dinner at DGBG Kitchen & Bar

I know I promised a post on Hong Kong Disneyland but I had hundreds of pictures to sort and edit so I’ll just continue with my trip to New York City last November.

I’ve always wanted to try the food of Daniel Boulud so I checked the menus of all his 8 establishments in New York. DGBG Kitchen and Bar was one of the most affordable and it was the only one I could get a reservation at short notice.

We arrived at 8:00 almost an hour late for our reservation because of NYC traffic. The place was jam packed. We met our NY based HS classmate Bea there for dinner.

The ladies restroom had really interesting wallpaper. I probably stayed in there longer than I should have.

The restaurant was really, really dark. I’m surprised my pictures came out not bad considering I didn’t use flash and there was barely any ambient lighting. I really love the 20mm/F1.7 lens of my Panasonic GF3.

The restaurant had 14 varieties of house-made sausages. We wanted to try a lot of them but decided on the beaujolaise which had the following as ingredients – pork, mushrooms, onion, bacon & red wine and was served with lentils du puy. It was an interesting appetizer to share.

beaujolaise sausage $14

I tried a bit of La’s soup and was floored on how good it was. The first taste was a zing of tart flavors and immediately followed with the sweetness of the spaghetti squash all in a buttery smooth soup. The pumpernickel croutons, caraway cream and pumpkin seed oil added even more depth and complexity to the soup. It was really was on the best soups I’ve ever had.

butternut squash soup $9

For her main course La had the frisée salad with poached egg, chicken liver,duck confit, lardons, sourdough croutons.

frisee Lyonnaise $14

I’ve never had skate fish before so Bea gave me some to try. I was amazed that the texture was just like crab. The simple sauce made with brown butter, lemon and capers was just perfect with the fish.

grenobloise crusted skate $25

My burger was made of a 6 oz beef patty with confit pork belly, arugula, tomato-onion compote & morbier cheese on a peppered brioche bun with cornichon and mustard. Instead of fries I asked with a green salad.

The burger was absolutely delicious and decadent. It was definitely worth $17. The salad was a tad wilted though.

the Frenchie burger $17

We ordered the baked Alaska for my 10 year old niece to see and try. It turned out that the flames weren’t enough to evaporate the strong alcohol so she wasn’t able to try it at all.

baked Alaska $18