Senderens

Duck
Senderens is a restaurant with a great story behind it.  The chef,  Alain Senderens, had a restaurant with a 3 star rating from the Michelin guide.  The Michelin guide is big in France.  A star from Michelin is an acknowledgment of the chef.  Michelin came to NYC about a year ago with little fan fare.  Anyway, Alain, decided to give it all up.  He closed the restaurant, changing the menu and lowered the prices.  He basically said, screw the 3 star rating.  I believe he got it back when he reopened but it is a good buck the system story.

Senderens is located on the small square around Madeline.  2 stories.  Downstairs is called the Salon, a little louder and happening, upstairs is a tad more subdued.  There are only 2 locations in the restaurant that can accomodate parties of 5 or more and they are in private rooms upstairs.  So, we were honored with a private room last night.  Wasn’t expecting it because it is nice to be part of the ambiance but it gave us an opportunity to take pictures of the food.  I need a serious lesson on my camera but it is an attempt.

You can order bottles of wine but everything on the menu is paired with a glass of wine which is a nice touch.  We went with it.  They kick off the meal with a shot of duck consomme with a celery creme over the top.  I swear, it tasted like a fantastic bowl of New England clam chowder.  Who would have thought?  Truly delicious. 

Next course, we were all over the place.  Fred had crayfish.  Deep fried crispy crayfish with a dippingMine
sauce.  Out of this world.  Tasty, crunchy, not oily and full of flavor.  Emily and Josh had the vegetable ravioli.  Lots of vegetables with a layer of pasta in between and shaved Parmesan over the top.  The vegetables were so fresh and green Vegetables
that as you cut into the dish, everything started turning green.  Light, and delicious.  Jessica had the chanterelles with sliced calamari that had been cut like pasta and tiny clams.  A take on pasta with clam sauce.  There was a zing of a spicy oil and a foam finished off the dish.  The calamari was incredible and cut like butter.  I probably ordered the best.  Tiny chanterelle mushrooms that had been sauteed with loads of butter to create a brown sauce with a whole soft boiled egg on top that oozed when you broke in to it.  Truly divine.

For dinner, we were also all over the place which was nice because we all got to taste.  Jessica had the sole which came looking like a big round mashed potato.  The fish was incorporated into the potato that made for an interesting flavor and texture.  Emily had the duck.  Crispy leg andSole
thigh with beets.  Fred Pork
had baby fed lamb.  Josh and I went with the roast suckling pig.  3 slices of pork with crispy skin over a cylinder of sauteed onions and pieces of pork with tiny cubes of mango around the plate.  On the side they served thinly sliced carrots, like pasta, with a butter sauce.

The food was really good.  Innovative and tasty.  We got a huge thumbs up from the people we had met earlier at Fred’s cocktail party on the bridge near the museum Orsay.  An event for   Fred to meet all the entrepreneurs in Paris.  Everyone said that we would love Senderens and it was a great pick.  I couldn’t agree more.

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Comments (Archived):

  1. Marc Vermut

    Hi there, found my way here through a link from Fred. Liked the descriptions, sounds tasty.

    If you’re looking to get a sense of how to take great pics of food, check out the images on http://www.tastespotting.com. It’s a total graphical perusal of good food and the shots (user-submitted) are typically strong and inviting.