TravelRibbon

I just returned from a rather wet weekend in New York City (I live in Boston so the weather wasn't a big shock). The purpose was to attend a friend's baby shower in Queens, but since I had not been to NYC in a long time, I decided to make a weekend of it. I did not go to a Broadway show, though.

I took Bolt Bus down and back. The trip down was quite long due to traffic. I left on the 2:00 p.m. bus and got there around 7:30 p.m. Ugghh. I had dinner reservations at 7:30 p.m, had to cancel , but wound up eating there (more below).

I read a few trip reports from this year and last year and found 2 restaurants that intrigued me: Nougatine at Jean Georges and Marseille. I thought I'd give them both a try and made reservations via OpenTable.

The Nougatine reservation was for Friday night. As I stated earlier, I had to cancel because the bus was so late in getting in to the city. I was supposed to arrive at 6:15 p.m. and ideally should have had enough time to make the 7:30 reservation. Oh well. I checked into the hotel and changed out of my travel outfit. I took a cab to the restaurant. I was able to sit at the bar and eat.

I ordered the appetizer of Tuna Tartare, avocado, spicy radish, and ginger marinade. It was quite good. In hind sight, I should have stopped at that selection. I ordered the Crunchy baked free range chicken and was not impressed. It was way too salty for my taste. I only finished half of it because of the saltiness as well as the fact I was getting full.

The baby shower was Saturday so I was busy with that for most of the day. My dinner reservation at Marseille was at 6:00 p.m. that evening. I left the baby shower in plenty of time, or so I thought, to get back to the City in time. Well, I didn't count on taking the A train that was a local one instead of an express (the express was canceled that weekend due to construction). Ugggh.

I wound up being about 15 minutes late to the restaurant, but they sat me anyway. This restaurant was cool. The atmosphere was fun, but not too loud. I ordered the prix fixe menu for $35. I started with the risotto with fresh green peas (the first of the season, I was told), then onto steak frites (quite yummy and I'm not a big steak eater), and finally a dark chocolate pot de creme. Ahh. . . I was in bliss. The dinner from the night before had been redeemed, in my opinion. I ordered a coffee to cut the richness of the pot de creme. For a drink, I ordered the Elderflower spritzer (non alcoholic).

I left the restaurant very full and walked back to the hotel in a steady rain.

Took the 11:00 a.m. Bolt bus back to Boston and arrived at the scheduled time of 3:15 p.m.

TR

yk

Thanks for the report. Friday afternoon/evening traffic into the city is the worst! I'm not surprised the trip took so much longer.

I ate at Nougatine last month, and also didn't quite enjoy the crunchy baked chicken. Mine wasn't too salty, but the chicken was dry.

mclaurie

Well I'll also say I've never been impressed with either Nougatine or Jean Georges but thought I was in the minority. I often read how the prix fixe there is the best deal in town. Not as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad you liked Marseille. I have been consistently surprised and impressed with how tasty the food is there, even simple things. What hotel did you stay at? How would you rate the Bolt Bus experience?

TravelRibbon

Hi,

Thanks for your responses.

@yk: I believe your trip report was one of the ones I read that mentioned Nougatine.

@mclaurie: I stayed at the Paramount Hotel on West 46th. I found it via Expedia. I have to say that I was impressed with the decor of the lobby. The room, though, reminded me a lot of European hotel rooms - small (at least mine was small). The bathroom was small, but had a red tile wall (where the shower head was located) and I liked that touch of color.

Bolt bus was fine. It dropped us off at 34th and 8th (near Tick Tock Diner) and that's where it loaded as well. The drivers were nice and got us to our destination as fast as they could. It's always a bit chaotic loading the bus, but overall a good experience. I did not have a computer so I can't report on their wi-fi capabilities.

TR

smetz

TravelRibbon, I drove up from Baltimore this weekend, and a usual 3.5 hour drive took a little over 5 hours due to the weather! At least your stress level was probably better than mine since someone else did the driving. Also we stayed near my son who lives in Astoria & had to use the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which has got to be the worst road I've ever driven on.

Glad to hear you liked Marseille, we've been there several times & always enjoyed it. They used to have a salad of arugula & proscuitto with a truffle vinegarette that was absolutely my favorite. I think they dropped it from the menu though.

About a month or two ago, a group of us had dinner at a French place in the East Village called The Flea Market, recommended here by Aduchamp, and loved it.

owlwoman

We just spent this past Sat in the city for a very wet night too (rescheduled from the weekend of the snowstorm). I think we were soaked more than dry.

Glad you enjoyed Marseille, it's one of my favs and always seems to be consistent. We tried Seasonal for dinner, it's upscale Austrian food, very good, but prefer Blue Gans.