Le Veau d'Or — Restaurant in New York

Oldest French Bistro to the city has reopened and scooped a table for 1 for dinner. Only 55 seatings on the upper east side so reservation comes in handy.

Three courses: appetizer, entree, and dessert with complimentary salad, bread and butter, and a mini dessert. “The menu is colored yet the color doesn’t mean anything, just for decor”, quoted directly from the server. I did a bit research since I have been studying Italian (from food) and not too much French.

Drink: Cucumber mule with ginger and cucumber Very refreshing drink: spicy from the ginger, reminiscent of the ginger ale without the sweetness; crispy freshness from the cucumber, without being too vegetable/green forward. I had to order this because I ordered a quiet heavy appetizer and entree.

French baguette Crusty outside, airy inside, elastic dough texture gives a bounce on the teeth and on the tongue, great with slightly salted butter.

Seeded sourdough A denser bread, with occasionally large air holes. Good crust, and a less chewy texture inside. A very sour (in a nice way) forward bread, produces a more complex flavor when eaten with butter.

Appetizer Tripes a la mode It is a Normandy region dish of tripes, the cow stomach, and it is a dish of comfort, especially for the fall/winter. The dish is 95% tripes and 5% carrots and onions, and is sweet (70%) and savory (30%). The sweetness comes from the onion and carrot and maybe some tomato/wine reduction, and the savory comes from the aromatic herb sprinkles on top. The flavor accompanies a very soft but still a bit elastic texture, typical from the tripes. The cooked-down tripes has all the fat and collagen rendered and naturally thickens the sauce, which I used for dipping the unfinished baguette and sourdough, both resulted in excellent tastes.

Entree

Duck Magret aux Cerises BLOWS MY WORLD! For those of you that knew my trip to Gramercy Tavern and Francie know how I was so disappointed for their chewy ducks, but the 🦆 here is amazing! Even with my high expectations!

I believe the name of the dish actually means the duck comes from the duck that were producing foie gas, so super fatty duck I assume. The breast meat is sooooo tender, even when cut through you see silver tendon but you don’t taste it AT ALL. The breast skin has a honey-ish peppercorn crust, leaves a tickling sensation to the tongue long after the sweetness of the honey vanishes. There is the perfect layer of crusted skin, duck fat, and breast meat. I will forever kiss-goodbye the my old impression that NYC doesn’t have a good duck breast.

The accompanied components cannot be ignored too, particularly the turnip (I guess). The currents and the golden berries add tang and sweetness, yet the turnip is bursting, like literally, in buttery flavor. It is almost for me a soup dumpling in a vegetable form. As soon as my teeth cracks the surface, it is like the whole turnip explodes and leaves me this buttery juice to drink. Fantastic!

Salad 🥗 Boston lettuce with salty, citrusy vinaigrette. Tongue re-starter.

Dessert Melon Soup With cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, coconut cream panna cotta, topped with cantaloupe sorbet, sprinkled with mint. I was suspicious about this one but it turned out to be very nice, refreshing to the roof. I love that the sorbet almost has an elasticity similar to an ice cream. The panna cotta, oh yummy, so creamy and delicious: it is not firm like a rubber, but soft and creamy almost like a mousse.

Old fashioned decor, nice service, over-the-roof taste. The whole room is consistently filled with browned butter aroma. Rumors has it that it is gonna open sometime soon for lunch at the end of October, definitely...

I wanted to like Le Veau d’Or. I really did. I took a table for lunch as dinner seatings were fully booked. The staff were lovely and my table type request had been taken into consideration. I already knew the Lyonnaise inspired restaurant had the potential to be a noisy venue, which it became during my time there. This was mainly due to one table’s occupants talking and laughing at excessively pointless volumes. Why do people think this is appropriate behaviour in close quarter shared settings? If you can’t employ your indoor voice, then go pretend you’re more important elsewhere. The wait staff were friendly and knowledgeable, but not necessarily about French cuisine outside of the menu. The Assiette Bouchon was very good. Each constituent part comprising the dish was a fine example of what it was purporting to be, but the Pâté en Croûte, although tasty, had size wise, lost its Lyonnaise heritage. Too small. The mains were the under performers. Way over salted generally, particularly the side of fries. I rarely see fries go unfinished, particularly at $14 + tax, + 20% tip. The confit wasn’t very confit like. The skin and fat were sadly under finished. Again with the over-salting. It was like no one was paying attention to the seasoning in the kitchen. Mind you, I’ve been to many a French restaurant (in France) which are equally amiss, so maybe it was actually an intentional touch of authenticity. The farci, I was told, by my own personal Frenchie, tasted ever so slightly burnt. Yay. The desserts were good, although again I would recommend a visit to Lyon to gauge the proper proportions of a true Ile Flottante. It’s not that this one needed a telescope to see it, but the plentiful crème anglaise suggested a larger Ile could easily be fitted in its stead. The chocolate mouse was excellent. The baguette was very good. The wine was excellent. The waiter narrowed the choices down nicely. At $200/person inc, not an inexpensive meal. I admit I expected better from such an acclaimed...

Le Veau d’Or is a masterclass in dysfunction masquerading as charm.

The evening started with a misleading and borderline absurd pricing tactic: a guest ordered a martini and was casually asked how many olives they’d like. Only upon receiving the check did we learn they charge per olive, bringing the drink to $38—with no disclosure. It’s a petty, deceptive practice that immediately set the tone for what followed.

Service was disorganized and unreliable. Our server spent several minutes describing a large serving of fries she promised would accompany the meal. They never came. When they finally arrived - after the main courses were finished - they were irrelevant and removed from the bill. A small error, but indicative of a broader lack of attention and follow-through.

Several starters were poorly prepared, with quality and execution well below what should be acceptable at any price point.

After asking for the check, we were brought a bottle of sparkling water we hadn’t ordered. When we objected, the staff explained that the check had already been processed and the water cost had been split across three of four bills. We declined. The revised check took an unreasonably long time to arrive and, when it did, came without itemization. Upon requesting an itemized version, the manager wordlessly dropped it on the table. A second manager, when told about the experience, responded with nothing more than, “I’m confused and sorry to hear,” before walking away.

The dismissiveness and rudeness of the management were striking. There was no apology, no interest in resolving the situation - just contempt for the idea that a guest might expect basic transparency or courtesy.

The dining room is cramped, the noise level unpleasant, and the food entirely forgettable.

This was, without exaggeration, the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in years. Other reviews describe similar treatment. The issue isn’t one night or one table- it’s systemic.

Proceed with caution, or...