Avant Garden — Restaurant in New York

I’ll preface this review by stating I came here last night on New Year’s Eve for the first time, pre fixe menu, paying $125 per person. I’m not sure if it’s better during normal business hours but I felt necessary to leave a review after what transpired last night. I’ll also quickly say that I have been in the food service industry, and I understand what a hard night NYE can be. The food was excellent, that was the one saving grace of last night. If the food had been bad I probably would have walked out.

I’ll start out by saying it was a cold, rainy night in NYC and we arrived 10 minutes early for our 9pm reservation. We arrived to a pretty empty house with tables all set, only to be told that they weren’t ready for 9pm reservations and that we would have to wait, either on the stairwell, or outside in the rain. After a little pushback we were then seated. Shortly thereafter a line of customers arrived for the 9pm slot where it seemed no one was trying to seat anybody, with the manager, the only other waiter there, and the bartender, all talking behind the bar, without so much as a thought to help seat the 30 people arriving.

Clearly understaffed for a packed NYE, the bartender was making maybe 1 drink every 5 minutes. I heard the waiters have to apologize to numerous tables for how long drinks were taking to arrive, culminating in the bartender getting into an argument with a table of customers in a very awkward confrontation for all around. (I am not a big drinker, I was not one who complained or needed apologizing for how long my drinks took to arrive).

Only two floor waiters with a prefixed menu. One waiter was excellent and did all he could…but ultimately lost in a storm of mismanagement. The other waiter? Beyond useless…seemed like his first time on the job. Was constantly standing behind the bar chatting with the bartender when drinks, water, and plenty of other needs from tables went unmet. At one point they turned the AC on, directly blowing on my fiancé and I…December 31st, rainy night in NYC…and when we asked this manbun waiter if he could turn it off, he said yes, but proceeded to stand behind the bar doing nothing about it. It took having to ask the other waiter if something could be done, who then proceeded to turn off the AC and turn on the ceiling fans.

I’ve ranted long enough so I’ll try to sum up here by saying it starts at the top. The manager was nowhere to be seen the entire night. The directives given to staff from the top seemed asinine, from not seating people, to turning on the AC, to not being on the floor to manage the restaurant during one of your busiest nights of the year. We sat down at 9, and by 11:30 had not been served desert. On NYE, people making a 9pm reservation expect to be out of dinner to see the ball drop. The pace of the night goes to management as well. I’ll put some blame on the prefixed menu, maybe it was just too much to execute for them. But when you hold a prefixed menu and make customers prepay a price comparable to a Michelin star restaurant, and that’s the service you put out? If ever a night where the customer is always right, the night you make them pay that much for a prefixed menu is the one. Willing to give one more chance on a normal night only due to food quality, but that felt like a dinner out of the twilight zone, tremendously...

Avant Garden is a hidden gem. The waitress was so friendly, welcoming and accommodating. The kitchen bar seating is super fun because you see the cooks prepare everything. They are a bit shy don't expect them to start chatting with you.

The wine selection is good. The Lucien Reymond Sancerre by the glass is very light and crisp. It pairs nicely with everything.

My favorite dish was the Avocado. The textures and tastes were incredible. The sticky white rice with crispiness on the outside was so good. I'm not sure how they cook that, probably with some soy sauce glaze, sugar and oil but it's really nice! On top, was an avocado dome, with pickled carrot creamy paste dressing (on the avocado), topped with micro greens and crispy seaweed. The miso, soy sauce "dots" aka the sauce on the plate were very flavorful, and the peppers had a nice kick to them. The plating was really nice, and the flavors were excellent individually and together as one bite, with all the sauces/dressings.

I also ordered 2 toasts: roasted beets and sunchoke. I preferred and recommend the sunchoke over the beet one. I enjoyed the way they cut the toast in little triangle slices that are easy to pick up and eat with your hands, or your fork and knife. Made easy to share as well.

The beets toast was good but it's a bit earthy and the bread was softer through-and-through compared with the sunchoke, which is crispy on the outside (toasted) and soft on the inside 'layer' of the slide of bread (la mie du pain, as they describe in French).

Sunchoke has pickled pear, which are quite unique and a bit crunchy. Adds some texture, with acidity from the olive purée (and the fact that the pear is pickled), pistachios (which I couldn't taste so much) and microgreens that supposedly were baby mint, but tasted nothing like mint. $17

Roasted Beets had hummus, date, sumac, chickpea, cucumber tzatziki. The hummus and crispy chickpeas paired together well in terms of texture. The tzatziki added creaminess and the dates were very subtle. The cripsy chips on top were very good (a nice addition for texture). I couldn't really taste the acidity that usually comes with sumac. Good ingredients pairing but I think the hummus (chickpeas) and beets overpower the whole toast, making it soggier than wanted and a bit too un-wow-ing to the taster. Still good, but maybe not for $17 a toast.

The restaurant is small and intimate. The ambiance is dark and not too loud (I actually wish the lights were a bit brighter so I could see the beautiful food and plating better). The staff is very friendly, especially the woman with bangs (sorry I don't know her name). It's a bit pricy, I have to say. For veggies, it is expensive, even though the restaurant and ingredients are elevated produce is fresh and good quality.

I recommend sitting at the bar counter. It's a nice experience. Finally, I paid cash, and did notice that the waiter didn't make the cash adjustment, giving me back change for the total bill (it would be for a credit card). That's fine because I adjusted the tip amount, but it's a small detail that customers expect to not have to mention or be ignored when we're making an effort to pay cash to help the restaurant...

I'd recommend and would go back, but...

4.5 stars, but rounded up to 5 because so many dishes were a delight that it made the misses much easier to handle. Here's a rundown of what we ordered:

Hen of the Woods (Mushroom Puree, mushroom granulate, another ingredient I didn't catch). It didn't reach the heights of the later dishes but it was very enjoyable and both the presentation and the combination of flavors was not something I had seen before with mushrooms. Artichoke Toast (Spinach, Artichoke Puree, Black Truffle Vinaigrette, Jicama, Cashew). Very good! My dining companion didn't love this dish, but I thought it provided an interesting mix of textures and flavors that weren't present elsewhere on the menu and served as a good appetizer for what we ate later. Especially loved the way that the crunch of this dish contrasted with the creaminess of the later dishes. Paella (alasparra rice. merguez royal trumpet. almonds. red pepper) cream. A huge surprise! Doesn't really capture the usual mix of flavors of paella but every component was so good that we didn't end up complaining. The red pepper cream was a delight and paired excellently with everything on this dish, and the vegetable on top (I think it was artichoke?) was prepared so skillfully that it alone put many vegetable dishes at nice restaurants to shame. Scorched Cauliflower (Garlic, fried capers, cauliflower puree). My dining companion's favorite dish. Incredible how much flavor they managed to extract from cauliflower and had me looking up cauliflower puree recipes on the way home! House made spaghetti (house made pasta. carbonara. smoked mushroom. spring onion) -- I LOVED this, and my dining companion did too. Amazingly rich and creamy given that it's vegan, and honestly it beats a lot of carbonara dishes I've had at nice restaurants on any terms you could name. It's really hard to find a useful substitute for meat in this type of dish but the onions actually managed to serve as very good substitutes -- not something I would have thought before trying.

Apple Tart Sponge Cake (OK, not great): Not the exact name of the dish. The only miss on the menu -- the apple contrasted really poorly with the rest of the cake and it was not worth the price at all. Basically this item loses the restaurant a quarter star on its now,. Tiramisu & Chocolate Mousse Cake: Amazing, wonderful, delicious. I would describe them in more details but I was too busy wolfing them down to describe them in any sort of subtle detail.

This was an insane amount of food for two people but the quality was so high across the board that finishing ended up being a breeze. Service was a bit confused -- the size of the space makes it hard to have the number of workers needed to provide the most personal service for the number of diners they have -- but it was still friendly and servers were generally knowledgable. Price was very high but it's very easy to spend this much elsewhere without leaving the very positive impression this day. Overall, highly...