Overrated French and Italian

Balthazar is the most highly rated restaurant in New York on urbanspoon.com so I thought it was worth a shot.  I went there for breakfast and was not that impressed.  The service was mediocre and the pastry casing for the scrambled eggs with mushrooms and asparagus was so dry I needed a steak knife to cut through it.

Scrambled eggs, mushrooms and asparagus in puff pastry

I was much more impressed with the gourmet grocery store Dean & Deluca.  Photos of some of their wonderful stations are below.  I had a Doughnut Planet jelly doughnut which was pretty good.

Sandwiches to go

Poultry products

Breads

Doughnut Planet jelly doughnut

After visits to the Guggenheim and the Met I had a yummy snack (at the Met) of root bear and apple and caramel muffin.

Root beer and apple and caramel muffin

By the time SP and I got to La Mela in Little Italy I was famished.  I’d walked through Central Park and shopped up a storm at FAO Schwarz, Tiffany’s and Saks.  We ordered their 5-course set menu.  The courses were (1) mozarella and tomato, (2) mixed hot antipasti (stuffed mushrooms, fried mozarella, asparagus with mozarella and roasted capsiums, (3) mixed pasta (tomato rigatoni, tortellini with creamy sauce and gnocci with mozarella), (4) meat dish (veal, prawns and chicken) and (5) mixed desserts (cheesecake, tiramisu, icecream and fruit).  Photos below but disappointingly average.

Mozarella and tomatoes

Mixed hot antipasti

Mixed pasta

Meat dish

Mixed dessert

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