Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay’s restaurant located near Rockefeller Center is one of those overpriced eateries that are made popular because of the owner and the location. Unfortunately the food doesn’t speak for itself as it sat silently on my plate begging to be loved, and I sadly just couldn’t love the food the way I wanted to. Like my past loves, the food simply wasn’t that great.
I mostly enjoyed their dark and stormy cocktail customarily served in a copper mug. I had their version in a tall, slim glass. I did the tasting of all three seafood cocktails, which included the Shrimp-Tomatillo, Crab-Coconut, and Lobster-Avocado. I wrote about the power of plating in a previous post. At Bar Americain, the food looks better than it taste. The seafood cocktails are beautiful. It is art on a plate, but when you taste it, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. The chefs at Bar Americain need to be as innovative with the preparing of the food as they are with the plating.
I ordered their fried chicken which came with collard greens, black eye peas and a salt and pepper biscuit. The menu says the fried chicken is a “secret recipe,” I’m totally fine with them keeping the recipe a secret! What’s no secret is the food has little flavor and the $35.00 fried chicken was underdone. I had better fried chicken for less than $3.00 at the local Kennedy’s near 176th Street on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The greens had too much vinegar and the biscuit was bland at Bar Americain. None of it was worth the money. You are paying for the location and the name when you eat there.
For dessert I had an apple tart with cinnamon ice cream. The tart’s crust was like hard candy. I couldn’t cut it with a fork and knife. The cinnamon ice cream is really good; rich and creamy, not too sweet with the perfect touch of cinnamon flavor. The apple tart just didn’t work for me, specifically because of the tart’s inedible crust. It looks like they removed this dessert from their menu since my last visit to the restaurant.
My meal was mostly unpalatable, but I still managed to rake-up a $130.00 bill. I didn’t beat myself up too much about the bill; lesson learned. This goes to show that you can still find poorly cooked foods at higher end restaurants. Save your money and your time by skipping this restaurant all together.
Bar Americain
152 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
(212) 265-9700
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