Cafe Renaissance — Restaurant in New York

Earlier this week a friend asked me to drive in to Brooklyn and check out this new restaurant called REN located on McDonald Ave. downstairs in the World Spa building. Our Captain Mark was most informative about the style of food and the ideas that chef Ronen had when creating the menu and dishes for REN. You see this isn't a restaurant with a set menu. Rather its a dining experience where you need to be open minded to try new things. The menu changes every few weeks, so that dish you liked last visit won't be on the menu the next.

They also have an amazing selection of wines, whiskeys, bourbons etc and a extremely talented bartender. I started off with something called the Mahane Yehuda which was believe it or not spicy.

We started off with our appetizers which consisted of the Lamb Bolognese Raviolo with morel mushroom stock and celery creme, the Shiitake Risotto with shiitake sauce black truffle mushroom basket, the Chicken Caesar with lettuce caesar vinaigrette, baby chicken breast, capers, Thai basil, toasts and almond parmasean (insane right?), Rye Beats & Fennel which is a demi-sec beets, beet ribbons, fennel seeds, pistachio white winter truffle and the Tom Yom Soup with tomato, ravioli rice noodles, beans, chili interest and fresh grilled Halibut.

We were two grown middle age guys, and we were demolishing this Caesar salad. It had a grilled Cornish hen breast underneath and they use the whole heart of the romaine not just the leaves like in other restaurants. The almond parmasean was amazing!Now the Tom Yom Soup which was poured on top of the ravioli rice noodles table side enabled the ravioli to loosen up a little. The fresh grilled Halibut on top was mouth watering and had some really nice grilled smokey flavor. Really love the soup. The Shiitake Risotto was next. This dish was delicious. The risotto perfectly cooked and the thinly cut shiitake layered on top of the risotto like scales on a fish were a delight. Lastly the Lamb Bolognese Raviolo was so soft and velvety underneath the celery creme and the morel mushroom stock.

Now we were ready for the main. First came the Aged Duck Long Island which consists of a 14 day dry aged duck breast with tart apple creme, apple confit and pickled mustard seeds accompanied with grill bok choy and a sweetened duck jus. The duck had an amazing sear on the outside and was soft and bursting with flavor on the inside. I have never had aged duck but you can bet that I am going to ask for this next time. The Tomahawk Ribeye is a 35 ox 6 week dry aged ribeye, with these amazing Jerusalem artichoke chips and rock salt served and sliced table side. The waiter wheeled in a cart with this perfectly cooked Tomahawk on it. It was sliced table side by one of the staff and then laid out beautifully on a platter. It was cooked to perfection. Then we were shown by the wait staff who were wearing gloves of course, that we needed to crush the Jerusalem artichoke chips and sprinkle them on top of the steak. I have never tasted meat cooked with butter, however that I what I assume it would taste like. It was buttery soft with the perfect amount of salt and pepper and the artichoke chips added a depth a flavor that I didn't expect. Needless to say I was having an amazing time.

Chef Ronen and his sous chef Israel who is also a pastry master. We started with the Lemon Tart which is a lemon cake with lemon patisserie with lemon confit which is rendered with sugar and olive oil, rimmed the top with a mint cookie and dollap of lemon patisserie cream and little mint leaves. This dessert was so fresh and delicious. I immediately felt my palate cleaned and brightened with them lemon goodness. Finally we had the Ferrero Rocher with chocolate biscuit topped with chocolate creme and chocolate praline dusted with a rich coco powder accompanied with a essence of popcorn sauce sweetened with vanilla and soy which cuts the richness and adds a dimension and topped with chocolate tuiles shaped as leaves. This was a meal to remember. From the ambiance to the staff to the food five...

I was visiting Brooklyn from out of state and was looking for a really good kosher dairy restaurant. While doing a google search this came up. When I walked in, I asked the man running the coffee bar in the front if I needed to be seated or can I just seat myself. He didn't speak English so well and told me to ask the lady on the phone in front of me and proceeded to call out to her. She had her back to me and just turned her head and said "what do you need"? She said this a bit abrasively. I said that this was my first time here and do I sit myself or do I wait to be seated? She replied "Just sit anywhere". I then found a table. Right behind me a couple came in with their baby and sat down. Right away they brought them water and bread but completely ignored me. Finally, I was given water and asked for bread. The waiter said ""Yea its coming". I waited and no bread came. I asked another waiter if I can please have bread. Finally after a bit they brought me a bread basket. At this point, the couple who came in after me already placed their order. While I was looking at the menu, I called my waiter over because I just wanted to know about a certain pasta dish. It looked really good but I just wanted to know what was in it (cream sauce, etc). It was an innocent question. The waiter seemed really annoyed and answered me abruptly. I then placed my order. I ordered the sauteed artichokes as a starter followed by the ravioli and sauteed spinach as a side. No one came by at all to ask how I was doing or to fill my water. Everyone else was getting attended to literally. I was completely ignored. I couldn't finish my meal so I flagged someone down to wrap it to go. That took awhile. Meanwhile my original waiter never even came by. I had to flag the same waiter who wrapped my order for the check. On the check they automatically added the tip which for me I didn't like. So just to give you a heads up. I was a well dressed orthodox women. I was not a "Karen". I was polite and nice to the waitstaff. When I was leaving, the same front desk lady (maybe the Manager) was still on the phone. She appeared unprofessional in her appearance and in her manner (which was abrasive). She was on the phone the whole time and when I asked someone if they could please tell me how to get to the subway (I had taken an Uber there from my original location) he replied "I have no idea but the lady can help you" (he was referring to the Manager who was on the phone). He called out to her to help me but she didn't even turn to me.

This is my first and last time I will dine at this restaurant. Some people want to eat and others want to dine. If I wanted to eat, I would go to the local kosher pizza shop. I wanted to sit down and have a nice experience. This is not the place for that. BTW: It was after the busy lunch rush around 2pm. Was not crowded at all so we can't use that as an excuse.

Just because I am dining alone does not mean I should be treated like a second class...

Came for my daughters birthday. Called a week ago to check if they have the glittery light up candle and birthday music, they said yes, sure we do. Arrived today with high hopes and left with too many disappointments. Arrived just after opening, so was fairly empty. Yet we were given a table (for 4) literally right on top of another family. It was way too close, so he let us switch to a less desirable location but not colliding with another family….ok. Brought menus, one was not working, another one was all sticky and grimy. Strike 2. Then one daughter went with our coats to the coat closet, but said it’s really dirty there (!) so back came all coats, to the chair backs, one coat got real dirty in the back! Then the food: omelette was nothing special and tasteless, but hey! No salt shaker on the table! Waiting for waiter to bring salt, food gets cold meantime… strike 4! Chef halloumi salad finally arrives after at least 25 minutes, I start eating and , hey, it’s not halloumi cheese, it’s mozzarella cheese! I don’t eat mozzarella so I go searching for a manager. She tells me, sorry you’re right but most people don’t know and don’t care. Says they don’t have halloumi cheese for a while now and should really update the menu…Says she’ll remove it from the invoice, but no, she did not! Blah blah, useless lazy woman. Strike 6! Still trying to be happy for the birthday girl, but becoming really annoyed. The worst part was, I keep telling the manager and waiter that were waiting for the birthday song and candle, waiting too long, finally out….no glittery candle, just a teeny tiny 1 inch wax candle stuck into the cake ($12 a slice cheese cake btw), and the waiter himself starts singing happy birthday…….. was so pathetic, and such a let-down, as much as I hate negative reviews and almost never have, I’m doing it now, so people do not arrive with false...