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“Cercle Rouge”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	French	Tribeca	Moderate	Good

o. We ordered a basket of bread just to sop up that sauce. It’s incredible.

Entrees come in the mix-n-match format, a la BLT and Craft, etc. I am not a big fan of this format. Both Jamie and I like the chef to figure out what we should eat. So we made our choices from a section of already assembled meals. We chose the Certified Angus Steak Frites ($23) and the Pan Seared Skate Fish with Artichoke Puree and Lemon Butter Sauce, plus two sides—haricot verts ($6) and creamed spinach ($7)— that we felt would give us an idea of the strength of this chef’s bistro skills.

The haricot verts were gorgeous—delicate, thin, bright green, and lightly sprinkled with sea salt. They were perfectly cooked to dente, so that they burst in your mouth with a snap. The creamed spinach, however, was bitter and murky and I could barely get through my first bite. The skate was even worse. We actually pushed it aside because it was about to turn rancid. It was so salty, acidic and intensely fishy that it tasted unsafe. Skate is a tough fish; it turns fast and it stinks. That was when we asked for the menu again. We wanted one more thing to try and we had remembered reading that Frank Bruni had loved the wings. So we put in our order and while we waited for our wings, dug into the steak—a tender, very well seasoned, if slightly dry slab with glorious crispy fries. Just as we picked the last fry from the plate, our wings arrived. Insert Chicken Wing Aria. There were four fat ones-—the meat pulled down to the end of the bone into a blow-pop shaped lollipop. The wings are tempura battered and deep-fried so the juicy meat is wrapped in a crunchy robe of breading before being smothered in an atomic hot sauce. I dipped my wing in the thick, cold blue cheese dressing (love that it is cold! It is the right counterpoint to all the heat coming off those wings) and there I found personal enlightenment via the chicken wing. I felt like Steve Carrell in the 40 Year Old Virgin. I was ready to sing “Age of Aquarius.” While I contained myself and did not break into song, we did finish every last winged morsel on that plate. I can just imagine the waitstaff looking at us in our corner table and thinking: “Those girls started their meal with Kirs and caviar and now look at them: Dunking wings into blue cheese dressing and wiping red hot sauce off their cheeks, tearing meat from bones. What a pair.” Indeed. We were in h ... [more, click below]

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Posted: October 16, 2005

Other restaurants in Tribeca :
+ Lunchbox Food Company--Closed   + 66: THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED   + Ola-- Closed   + Bouley   + Dominic   + Landmarc   + Pace-- Closed   + EN Japanese Brasserie   + Centrico   + Cercle Rouge   + The Harrison   + Turks & Frogs Tribeca   + Devin Tavern   + Dani-- Closed Now   + Bacaro/Smith & Mills   + The Harrison   + Matsugen, By Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Forge   + Macao Trading Company   + Harbour   + Review text tbd...   + Mehtaphor   + Brushstroke   + Jung Sik   

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