Restaurant Week at Aquavit

For the second leg of my restaurant week dining experience I went to dinner at Aquavit Café as part of a group of nine. Out of this group I knew a couple of people really well, a couple not at all, and one only through a cyber vendetta we held against each other during fantasy football season.

As I have mentioned previously , I was lukewarm about going to Aquavit Café because I felt weren’t getting any kind of deal on the food. I was somewhat disappointed that the website and the woman who I spoke to on the phone told me that the herring sampler would not be on the evening’s prix fixe. Still, I was excited about eating and hanging out with a lot of friends and to compare the food at Aquavit to the fare I had in Stockholm over the summer.

After meeting up with most of our party (one dinner companion was planning on joining us midway through), we were seated in the chic but relaxed café. Just like Tribeca Grill, the crowd at Aquavit for the night was relatively young, although the atmosphere in the latter was decidedly more hushed.

As we sat down in the comfortable swivel chairs, I was pleased to discover that despite what I had been told, the herring sampler was on the restaurant week prix fixe. Victory! (I’m still not sure why I was so hung up on pickled herring but I’m glad they had it). Most of our party had either the herring sampler or the butternut squash soup with one girl opting for the third option, the Boston lettuce salad and several of us ordered cocktails. I remember really enjoying my elderflower martini, as well as the lychee martini and thinking that the “Midnight Sun’ had too much grapefruit and that the cucumber martini seemed like a very manly drink but not was very drinkable. Two of us also had the wine pairing with our meals which at $15 for the three glasses (close to full) was a steal.

As for the herring...Three of the four samples we tried were excellent; the Vodka Lime herring with salmon roe being the consensus best in show with complex layers of fish flavor provided by the mild, sweetness of the herring coupled with the pop of the roe. The red onion sour cream herring was a bit too fishy for all of our tastes and one that we all decided we could have done without. The traditional pairing of a shot of aquavit and Carlsberg beer with the herring also really hit the spot. I cannot remember Carlsberg ever tasting as good as it did that night. The butternut squash soup with chorizo and yellowfoot chanterelles was also excellent, creamy and rich with nice smoky sausage flavor coming with every little bit of chorizo (I didn’t try the lettuce because the girl eating it was sitting very far away from me).

Most of the people at our table then ran into a problem—we were beginning to fill up and hadn’t been served our main courses. The soup seemed lighter than the herring but the portion was fairly generous. Each herring sample on the other hand was about three bites, combined with potatoes was enough to be a small main course.

I thought this occurrence was very curious. From what I had previously heard about Aquavit, the food was excellent but the portions served were miniscule.During our visit it was just the opposite.

The main course was a choice between Swedish meatballs or grilled salmon. The meatballs were tasty, rich and nicely subtle in flavor but also large and very plentiful. I think we each got seven or eight. Not one person at our table was able to finish this entrée. I think I was the closest, leaving one and a half meatballs on my plate and I did not for a second feel bad about not finishing my food in a restaurant, something I almost never do. The friend sitting next to me summed it up best when he stated “the marginal pleasure per bite versus the amount of effort put in tells me I should not be eating any more.”

The desserts were more along the lines of what I had expected -- unique twists on somewhat traditional desserts, served in smaller portions and presented beautifully. The chocolate cake was crispy soft and light all at the same time and not the overpowering chocolate bomb that many chocolate desserts tend to be. The goat cheese parfait was like a fromage blanc cheesecake cylinder filled with tangy sweet passion fruit curd that oozed out the middle, and a refreshing dollop of blueberry sorbet on top that helped cut the stickiness of the goat cheese on the palate.

Overall, the meal was a nice deal and the wine pairing that came with it was a complete bargain. However, I still can’t figure out why we were served so much food. Its one thing to leave a restaurant full but its another for not one person at the table to finish their entire meal. Its almost as if the people at Aquavit knew what they were typically criticized for and tried too hard to adjust for it during a week when they knew they might be attracting a lot of first time customers. I still thought the food was enjoyable and better than most of the Swedish café fare I had in Stockholm but I wish they would have used some restraint when piling meatballs on my plate. Overall B/B+ (Definitely want to try the main dining room at some point.)

People to bring: Although I cant speak to the main dining room, the café in my opinion would be a great place to meet for a drink and a snack, to bring a casual date (but not a first date) anyone who has even spent time in Sweden and enjoyed the food, or anyone looking to eat at a branch of one of New York’s better restaurants for a fraction of the price—the regular prix fixe with wine pairing should set you back 75-80 a person after tax and tip, which is not a bad price to pay for a nice meal in New York these days.