Kanopi The Restaurant — Restaurant in City of White Plains

Chef Anthony Gonҫalves has done it again! Every single time I dine at Kanopi I am delightfully surprised by his creative, original and delectable dishes that pay tribute to Portugal. Add to that a wait staff second to none in terms of knowledge, generosity and personality, and breathtaking, sweeping views from over 40 floors high in the sky, and you can clearly see why this is my favorite tasting menu in all of Westchester. I’ve had a more pleasurable dining experience at Kanopi than at some of the many Michelin rated restaurants I’ve visited in the New York City.

The last time I visited was in the summer so I was excited to sample the entirely new menu. I will admit that with my carb restricted diet, I am a sucker for good bread service that is worth the carb macros. We started with two types of broa, a kind of Portuguese corn bread that had fantastic density and flavor that really handled the bold flavor of the solar almeidnha olive oil. The purple broa was made with purple potatoes. It was beautiful in color and lighter in flavor. Both were grilled and the perfect warm greeting to start a fabulous meal.

The pan seared scallop with citrus-quince marmalade and mondega piri piri oil was the perfect texture, soft and succulent, with a nice crisp on the outside from the caramelized marmalade. The piri piri oil is such a fantastic addition to the dish, being a touch spicy, a little salty, but also both sweet and sour. It really brings a nice complexity to a dish that could’ve easily been relegated to the single note of sweetness from the marmalade.

The sea bass, marinated in an aguardente, soy, ginger and garlic marinade, was my date’s favorite dish. The fish was firm but flaked easily and really served the marinade well. The game changer, however, was the pureed fava beans with chourico! The chourico brought the spice to really liven up the dish, but was tempered by the earthiness of the fava bean puree, which added a very nice creamy, mouth feel juxtaposed against the texture of the fish.

My favorite of the night (by the way, very hard to decide on a favorite), was the grilled octopus. It was cooked to the perfect consistency. The gorgeous burnt-orange colored romesco sauce brought a rich, peppery smokiness. The unexpected pairing with dried, crispy pata negra was genius. The salt and light fat, similar to an impeccably crisped high-end bacon, gave the dish even more interest and intricacy.

The whole wheat creste di gallo pork and wild mushroom ragout was another surprise. Cooked in pork fat, without any pork in the dish, the pasta was surprisingly light for a ragout. The robust aroma and dense mushrooms gave the illusion of a hearty, heavy food but it wasn’t at all! Which is good, because there was still a beef dish and three more desserts to go!

I’ll skip to my two favorite desserts. One of the most unique combinations I’ve had for dessert was the queijo, a mini seia cheese cake floating in bath of pretty pink pineapple foam with chunks of pink pineapple and pecans hidden in the foam. It could have easily been too sweet, but the pineapple had a touch of tartness, and the richness of the cheese plus the nutty flavor of the pecans cut the sweetness, and made a really lovely multifaceted dessert. My favorite treat however, has to be the bolo de bolacha. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Fantastically rich and sweet, the caramel colored almond cream was fashioned into the shape of golden oreo cookie (it was even imprinted and ridged with a design similar to an oreo cookie). I had to stop myself from licking the plate to get every last molecule of deliciousness! It was paired with delta cafes coffee ice cream and cookies.

Clearly, I could go on and on about this phenomenal dining experience, but seeing how lengthy this is already I’ll stop here and suffice it to say this spot has one of my highest recommendations. I’ll be counting down the days until...

When you make a reservation to sit inside the Chef's kitchen at Kanopi you expect that Chef Goncalves would be there. You would think for $250 a person to sit in the kitchen ($100 more than anywhere else in the restaurant) you would meet the Chef, he would explain his creations and maybe even tell a little bit about what inspired each dish. What you don't expect is to pay $250 per person and be greeted by the Chef's wife who is not a Chef, but a real estate agent - making her apologies that the Chef is not there this evening. Um... Chef Goncalves wife, Andreia was very lovely and could not have been any nicer, but... this is not what I was paying for, not at all.

The restaurant had called us to confirm we were coming, how about letting us know the Chef would not be there? We should have been given this information and the option to cancel and reschedule for when the Chef would be there.

I will say before I go further that the staff is well-trained, poised, knowledgeable and professional.

Unfortunately, the service was the only good part of our experience. The food was underwhelming and disappointing for a restaurant at this level of fine dining.

At the start was bread with wakame infused butter which was definitely different and interesting. The hedgehog and maitake mushroom course was very good and the foie gras was sublime, cooked to perfection and paired wonderfully well with the sweet Portugese tomato jam brioche and apple, parsley salad.

The next course was a Caldeirada (Portugese fish stew) with scallops, uni and potatoes. The scallops were overdone, the uni seemed far to delicate for this preparation and was lost. All the components tasted the same, it was lackluster and tasted like tomato juice.

The Carabineiro Mozambique was just odd and far too much on the plate for a course that is part of a multi-course menu. The sauce had an off-putting taste and smell I am sure it was a mix of spices that I may not have ever had in this way, but I was not able to eat it.

The next course they brought was one shrimp laying on top of its open shell. Arroz De Gambas. Andreia brought over some spicy oil drops and suggested we put a drop or two on the shrimp. The texture of my shrimp was soft, almost mushy (for lack of a better word) it took me by surprise. The spicy oil added both heat and flavor that I enjoyed.

The Ravioli A Gema De Ovo was awful, it was so salty it was impossible to eat. I did something I don't recall ever doing, I spit food out into my napkin.

The Quail and sausage were very plain. The quail was cooked well, but I found it dry and lacking flavor. Again, at this level of dining - I expected more finesse and not just grilled quail on a plate with a piece of sausage. The homemade sausage, Alheira, was good and quite tasty.

Now we come to the dish that for me was the worst. Carne Alentejana: pork, clams and potatoes. First, the dish was not hot it was room temperature. The clams were okay, but the pork was terrible, big hunks of pork cut into cubes, the cubes were very tough and some of my pork was rare. Another course I did not eat after the initial taste.

So now we come to the end, the dessert. I was so hoping the dessert would be better, I mean really? Its hard to have bad dessert, but again I was wrong. The dessert: warm chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, cherries and black truffles was an awful combination. Too much chocolate, the cherries were so sour and the truffles (who doesn't love truffles) did not compliment or add to this dessert - it was just all off trying too hard for temperature, texture and taste.

While I appreciated the cool parting gifts: olive oil, Porto, tuna, tomato jam... It could not take away the awful taste in my mouth, nor the fact that the Chef was a no-show. $625. later (with tip) for this...

Husband and I finally dined here a little over a week ago for an early birthday dinner for me and the entire experience was nothing short of sublime. Although I was tempted by the views from the window-side tables, I wanted the Kitchen Table experience, and it was an excellent choice. We drove down from Dutchess County (fyi, whoever designed the Taconic Parkway should be fired, but I digress). The complimentary valet parking made our arrival easy. We were directed to the elevator and from the moment we got off on the floor of the restaurant, we were greeted immediately, and the entire staff was incredibly attentive, polite, and welcoming. The main dining areas are nicely decorated and subtly sophisticated. The chef’s table experience was phenomenal. We got very personal attention from the chef and staff members, and enjoyed watching (and inhaling the aromas from) both the main kitchen and pastry side during our meal. The service was excellent and attentive without being overbearing. Water and wine were poured promptly, the pacing of the courses was perfect, and the explanation for the dishes and wine were appreciated. We decided to get the wine pairing, and the pours were both generous and excellently paired with the courses. It was a lot of wine so by the 4th or 5th glass, I was really feeling it and enjoying myself, to say the least. The food was outstanding across the board. I love seafood so I was quite happy with the 7 fish offerings. We started out with 3 different breads, all different and all delicious, and I’m pretty sure I ate the roasted yeast butter on its own, and then uni and yellowtail, which are 2 of my favorites. It feels kind of dismissive to say “all of the courses were delicious,” but they really were. The black cod, iberico pork shoulder with fava been puree, and the prime dry aged rib eye were probably my favorite courses. I wish I had more room since the chef offered us additional rib eye, but I was pretty much at capacity and we still had dessert. The meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The iberico pork dish was crispy, salty, full of umami flavor, and it paired perfectly with the grassy, herbaceous, and silky fava bean puree. There was only one course that I wasn’t as enthusiastic about, the bacalhau a bras carmelle. Each course was so good that I couldn’t wait to see if the next would top it. Each course was a few bites, leading up to the larger beef at the end. Of the 3 dessert courses, the first 2 were my favorite. The first was “pear” which was a contrast of textures and temperatures. It was really outstanding and the cold bits in the dessert were a nice, light contrast to the heavy meal we had just finished. The next was a tart/cold dessert with sweet potato shavings and biscuit-like crackers (my dearest apologies to the pastry chef, I cannot describe it any better). It was all so different and worked well together. Again, the contrast in textures/temperature/flavors worked so well together. By the last dessert course, I was fairly stuffed and couldn’t finish. Again, there was a savory component (lettuce) that was (and I’m guessing here) caramelized so it was sweet and I ate both pieces. There was a custard as well and the crust was so flaky, and I was sorry that I couldn’t eat more of it. 3 ½ hours later, we waddled out quite satisfied and happy. Next time, we’d skip the wine pairing because it was simply too much but I can’t wait to visit here again and try new dishes. I don’t think I can accurately convey how delicious our food was or what a great...