Off the Menu
A kimchi tasting menu at Raon, Ernie O’Malley’s hides an Irish speakeasy and more restaurant news.
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Opening
Madam Ji Ki Shaadi
Indian weddings are famously lavish affairs with food, dance and flower-filled festivities stretching over days. At this uncommon entry to the growing lineup of Indian restaurants, whose name means “Madam Ji is getting married,” you only need to set aside several hours, even after the seasonal dessert in an elaborate simulated wedding feast menu ($65) has been cleared. (Seating is at 7:30 and 8 p.m. with an à la carte menu from 5 to 7 p.m.) Chipotle paneer, chicken tikka kebabs, truffle harvest kofta, coconut shrimp curry, slow-cooked goat royale and mithai, sweets offered as a “wedding favor” to take home in a gift bag, are served in rooms elaborately decorated according to symbolic wedding colors. The owner, Abishek Sharma, is a chef, restaurateur and caterer whose portfolio also includes the restaurants Swagat and Badshah.
154 Bleecker Street (Thompson Street), madamjinyc.com.
Raon
There have been menus of pizza tastings, truffle tastings and taco tastings. This restaurant with a $255 10-course tasting menu is another example, featuring an array of kimchis. Most courses involve kimchi, with dishes like crab and oi (cucumber) kimchi, tuna and caviar with baek (white) kimchi, seafood terrine with radish kimchi, and foie gras mandu with aged kimchi jam. The food is a personal interpretation by the chef, Soogil Lim, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Sasook Youn; they’re also the owners of the East Village restaurant Soogil. A coordinated wine pairing is also available ($195).
207 East 59th Street, raonnyc.com.
Ernie O’Malley’s
The timing couldn’t be better. Opening a homage to Ireland a couple of weeks before St. Patrick’s Day, like putting turkey dinners on the menu in early November, should attract a dedicated audience. What had been Jack Diamond’s is now a pub named for a figure in the Irish Republican Army, its green walls adorned with memorabilia collected by Joe Byrne, an owner and Dublin native, in partnership with Clyde McKenzie. The whiskies are abundant and the food leans Irish. In back, entered through a bookcase, is a speakeasy component, a bar with music and entertainment.
140 East 27th Street, 646-398-8157, ernieomalleys.com.
Café D’Anvers
Odysseus has hit home port, so to speak, with the long awaited arrival of gas to fuel the kitchen. After a hampered opening about a year ago, and with some financial help from the nearby East Harlem community, the chef Johan Halsberghe is now serving the full menu at this homage to his native Belgium (Anvers is French for Antwerp). Moules frites, carbonnades à la Flamande, shrimp croquettes, waffles and chocolate mousse to wash down with Trappist brews are on the menu. In addition, there’s a to-go window, a “freitkot,” dispensing frites, sausages, veal croquettes, burgers and chocolate mousse.
1567 Lexington Avenue (100th Street), 917-723-3005, cafedanversnyc.com.
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