My choice would be Toloache
251 West 50th St
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 581-1818

It's so yummy... wish I were eating there tonight!

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/45664195/

escargot has given you some good choices.people like Vice Versa and it would fit the bill.

Maybe you can have a fu-fu platter.

Hi everyone - thanks for all of your suggestions. Again, I apologize for what doesn't seem to make sense to you. I have thought about your responses and I have always known I am a fussy eater, but after looking at the menus here it is incredible to me how many entres I would never eat.

I don't eat veal, shell fish, pork, sausage, weiner schnitzel, spinach, sweetbreads, goat cheese, portabella mushrooms or any mushrooms. So a lot of menu items are eliminated.

I have looked at all of the menus of the restaurants you suggested and what looks the best to me and that excites me is Marseille's and Toloache's, although the latter appears to be a bit more informal than I was looking for.

My son will be moving to NYC so we will be having many opportunities to discover the culinary delights the city has to offer. I am going this weekend- will only be in the city for Saturday night dinner.

If anyone posts any other suggestions I will check out the menus. Thanks again. Perhaps now that I have listed many things I don't eat you can get a better idea of where I am coming from.

Well, I still have no idea where you're coming from, or even what you're after, and have given up on "fu-fu". I'm sure I'm not the only one here wondering just what you WOULD "like".

We made reservations at Marseilles last year. Once seated, we were overwhelmed by the huge, enormous, flower arrangement behind us. So overwhelmed that we asked to be moved. The menu offerings were appealing, along with our observation of what was being served all around us. But, we just could not tolerate all those flowers and their sickening fragrance(s), even from the new table. We left.

All in all, over all our trips to NYC, we've determined that it is nearly impossible to enjoy a "pre-theater" dining "experience". It's better to plan on a fabulous late lunch or post theater dinner.

Our favorite post theater dining destination is Chez Josephine, where the menu is French and Southern "comfort" food along with appealing "specials", and the live music is terrific. Our favorite amazing lunch destinations are Bouley and Jean Georges. Once in a while, we head for Rainbow Grill after a show, for dinner, or just cocktails.

There are any number of places along 9th Avenue and environs with wonderful food.

I happen to like Marseilles & don't
remember alot of flowers.
A more inexpensive choice of
restaurants might be www.NYCRG.com
or a host of restaurants that line
9th avenue as previously suggested.

I think I am of the same mind as Juldie and have expressed my weariness with current food style here and at Chowhound.

I would like food that looks like food. Not some exotic sculpture. These looks are easy to achieve and really add nothing to flavor. They were unique with Cuisine Minceur back in the 70's but now are ubiquitous and just to impress. All you need is some little forms to mold the various foods and some little squirt bottles. Yawn..

I like Melissa Kelly (Primo in Orlando) and chef's of her ilk that want very simple ingredients pulled together in simple ways. This is much too difficult for most kitchens to pull off and so the pile on of ingredients goes on.

Ingredients should be something that add to a flavor of a dish. Coulis of this, melange of that....spare me. Foams are thankfully kaput.

I love La Grenouille, a dinosaur of FFF. (fine french food). Balthazar can turn out (most of the time) classic dishes with little pretension. I love Bistro des Amis in the Village.

OTOH, Per Se in New York did not thrill me: take,for instance, Keller's mushroom cappuccino. I get the supposedly intellectual play on Starbucks but spare me the prose and the foam.

Cappuccino of forest mushrooms
was a thick, somewhat creamy mushroom soup presented in a cup topped with a cloud of mushroom-infused foam, and served with mushroom-flavored biscotti. This is just too dear for me.

The foo foo expression used in the title is one that has gained traction and it is merely a mispronunciation of frou frou, something overly frilly or overdone.

Honoria

So sausages are fou-fou?

Coo-er.

At last the truth comes out. Simply stated, the OP is a fussy eater! Forget all this "fu-fu" or "frous frous" or "frou frou" stuff!

djbooks - funny - we had that experience once with flowers at Le Madeleine - huge bouquet full of lilies - why do people use those aromatic lilies in public arrangements? We also had to ask to be moved - my face was literally next to an arrangement across from the bar and I could not breath - I did suggest to the manager in charge that they reconsider using aromatic flowers - there are so many options for gorgeous live flowers that do not overwhelm a room with their scent -
but last time we were there, the same arrangements sat - which is another reason we had requested the garden room - no lily arrangements yet to be seen in there !

Wow, Juldie, after that last list of "won't eats", I strongly suggest you stop talking about "ingenuity in food preparation". You've tied the hands of most chefs too tight to expect a lot. You gave one exact entree and I countered with half a dozen from various places that seem VERY much like it, but once you eliminate all the things you won't eat including such standard staples of any creative cooking, even mushrooms, and I suspect once you see the list of ingredients of most dishes, many other things you won't eat as well, I really can't figure out exactly what it is you want.

I honestly thought that most menus would have a couple choices for you, but perhaps not.

You mentioned that talk radio show in Boston and everyone seemed to know just what they meant, so you didn't understand the confusion amongst us. Are you honestly saying that the cuisine they were talking about so clearly eliminated all goat cheese, mushrooms, veal, shellfish, pork and pork products, etc., etc.?? I find that hard to imagine.

It was one thing to say "hold the sheep's milk and sweetbreads" and quite another to say "hold the pork, shellfish, veal, mushrooms, goat cheese, etc."

I stand by my suggestion - Bond 45. They have something for everyone. Take a look at the menu. There antipasto/veggie bar is amazing, the pasta is very good for a non-Italian restaurant, and their filet of sole almondine is terrific. And, they will get you in and out on time for pre-theater. I understand the no pork or shellfish, many of my Kosher friends don't eat that either.

I've never heard of "fu-fu" (that sounds like you want Chinese food), but as others have explained above, the correct term is "frou-frou."

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou

With all of your dietary restrictions, I suggest you stick to a steakhouse. That way you can get a plain T-bone with a baked potato, or perhaps a plain roasted chicken, which sounds like what you want.

Try Becco on restaurant row. 355 West 46th... Can't beat if for Price Fixed pre-theater Italian. I have eaten here and recommended this restaurant many times. Have not yet been disappointed.

Well, I'm going to stick up for Juldie in this sense: I eat shellfish and some fish but no meat of any kind, so most restaurant menus are, for me, quite abbreviated, some more than others. I usually leave it to chance, figuring that surely there will be SOMETHING I can eat, but it also makes sense to research the question up front. It's not fair to label someone impossible to please because they restrict their diet, for whatever reason.

On the other hand... if one is a picky eater, it does not make sense to also place limitations on the way the food is plated, or the way it's described on the menu, because doing so makes it pretty darn impossible to find a restaurant while traveling.

Good luck, Juldie! (And please, it really is "frou-frou".)

Laura with all due respect the Becco fixed price is three pastas. On any given night if you eliminate any of the three than might have pork (Italian sausage), mushrooms -- almost bound to be in one of them), shellfish, veal, and goat cheese, you may easily be getting a single pasta left, and hardly anything that the poster is going to classify as "exciting and innovative". Meanwhile we're not sure what other herbs or other items might eliminate choices as well.

I don't object to the restrictions and certainly understand the "no pork" rule. But saying you're looking for innovative preparations and "exciting" menus and as NewbE points out even restricting how it is placed on the plate, really doesn't lead to that many offerings for "exciting and innovative" cuisine. Yet, the suggestions of steak and baked potato sure don't sound like what the poster wants either.

Maybe it's time to go ethnic. Consider if you will eat Morrocan (no pork there, and I don't think mushrooms either), or Chinese, or Vietnamese. And don't turn your nose up at a good steak, but I would go for the home fries, not the baked potato. Preuvian chicken is great, but I don't know of a place near the theater district. Is there soul food in the theater district? DB Bistro Moderne is not too far away, and makes at least a few things you will eat, but may have a bit of frou. And there is always standard Italian, pizza, chicken Parmesan, pastas, lasgna, etc. You won't starve!

It's too bad you are only sticking w/ the theater district. There are several restaurants where you could probably find something, including Cookshop or the Red Cat. These aren't too far from the theaters (in Chelsea) and they are both wonderful.

Juldie, there's a self proclaimed "fussy eater" in my group of friends. What works best for us is to have a wonderful meal at lunch. Not only are prices lower, but the "offending" ingredients are often not there , in order to make it cheaper. I find that most lunch menus will also have some great sandwiches and other more straightforward food.
Pre theater dinners , in particular, are also so often limited in their choices so that a meal can be quicker. And, and others have suggested, getting out of the neighborhood will be easier for you to find something you like

HonoriaGlossop - you expressed my thoughts perfectly; I agree with everything you said. bugswife1 - Bond 45 looks terrific. djkbooks - Chez Josephine looks like a great time.

Below are 2 examples of menu (appetizer)items that are totally frou-frou in my opinion.

Aumonière d'Oeuf Poché à la Truffe
Beggar's Purse of Poached Truffled Egg

Blini au Tartare de Saumon et Caviar
Potato Blini, Salmon Tartar and Caviar