In the Magazine

Adam Platt on La Silhouette and La Petite Maison; Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld Announce the Nook at Red Rooster Harlem

La Silhouette.
La Silhouette. Photo: Danny Kim

In this week’s New York, Adam Platt checks out a pair of French newcomers. At La Silhouette, our critic finds “vanished, reaffirming pleasures,” including non-tattooed waiters and classic fare like a torchon of foie gras as “smooth as proverbial silk.” Platt finds much to love on the rest of the menu as well, proclaiming the restaurant “haute cuisine restaurant for our new, post-haute cuisine era” and awarding two stars. Unfortunately, French Riviera import La Petite Maison doesn’t fare as well. In the “echoing, mostly vacant subterranean dining room” diners are overcharged for dishes like “gummy” risotto and a “stringy” chateaubriand, inspiring our critic to drop a zero-star review.

Meanwhile, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld have the story on several restaurant openings. There’s the Nook, a new take-out kiosk inside Red Rooster Harlem, Thelewala, an NYU-area challenger to nearby Kati Roll Company, Monument Lane, a West Village “neighborhood tavern,” and Rucola, a vegetable-centric Northern Italian restaurant coming to Boerum Hill.

If you happen to have a taste for shad roe without the budget for it, consider its cheaper cousin, flounder roe, which deftly dresses up a late-season citrus salad. If you haven’t planned your Easter menu, the Robs suggest ordering a half-lamb from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, who will throw in the the head, heart, liver, and testicles for especially adventurous carnivores. And in other barnyard matters, some select New York chefs have lately been cooking with hay. Try the hay-smoked bread at Vandaag, or the hay-roasted veal chop at Manzo.

Adam Platt on La Silhouette and La Petite Maison; Rob Patronite and Robin