<< previous review   next review >>

reviews

“Market Table”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	West Village	Moderate	Great

ig and I started with the house cured salmon gravlax-thin and silky sheets piled onto slices of rich, dark slices of pumpernickel bread and served atop a lively salad of frisee and sliced hard-boiled eggs ($10). We couldn't resist the short rib gnocchi, which was so generous it might as well be an entrée. For $12 you're treated to a shallow bowl filled with surprisingly light marshmallow-sized gnocchi dunked in a nutty and tangy Parmesan broth stocked with swirling ribbons of escarole and luscious hunks of melting short ribs. It's a wonderfully homey fall dish that makes you crave the slight chill of autumn air. Unfortunately, with temps hitting 90s lately, the food and the climate are not necessarily in unison, but no matter, the dish is divine.

Mikey's pan-roasted chicken ($17 for half a chicken) follows the Red Cat/Little Owl formula-crispy crunchy golden skin, like a suit of edible armor shielding moist juicy meat-served over roasted sweet potatoes tossed with a nutty hazelnut brown butter. Substitute turkey for the chicken and you've got a Pilgrim's feast. To the chicken, we added a side of hush puppies ($7) the size of plums, served with sweet clover honey butter that melts on contact with the just fried puppies and will have you happily licking your fingers for some time during dinner.

Price hails from Baltimore, and his Maryland crabcake sandwich ($19) does his home state proud. The sandwich, which contains a generous pan-fried pancake fashioned from a gargantuan amounts of lump crabmeat, is swiped with a tomato-caper aioli, has only one flaw: its roll. It's way too big for the crab cake. Gimme something a little thinner and smaller, maybe even an English muffin or a homemade flatbread pita, to bring the bread-to-crab ratio down a bit. Right now its 3-to-1, and for the delicate nature of this filling, I think it needs to be 1-to-1. His seafood pan roast has no ratio issues. It's reminiscent of bouillabaisse and eats like the contents of a fisherman's net have been emptied into a pan-a thick fillet of bass, a couple of fat caramelized scallops, some sweet shrimp and a clutch of plump mussels bobbing in a shallow tomato broth seasoned with fennel and swimming with Sardinian fregola (think cous cous on steroids).  You get a wedge of warm toasted garlicky bread with it, so don't be shy. That broth is too good to leave behind. Slurp, mop, sop-but get it all.

At night, Market Table fills up to capacity, and the buzz of co ... [more, click below]

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  

 Make a reservation

<< previous review   next review >>

Posted: October 8, 2007

Other restaurants in West Village :
+ Jefferson-- Closed   + La Palapa Rockola   + Sumile   + Babbo   + Tasca   + AOC Bedford   + Home   + The Spotted Pig   + Barbuto   + Numero 26   + Mas   + August   + Alta   + Cru   + Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed   + Employees Only   + Lassi   + Metropol--Closed   + Turks and Frogs   + Bellavitae   + Yumcha-- CLOSED   + Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO   + Perry Street   + Home   + Ditch Plains   + The Little Owl   + Cafe Condesa   + Cafe Cluny   + Gusto   + The Waverly Inn   + Morandi   + P*ONG   + Perilla   + Soto   + Market Table   + Centro Vinoteca   + Barfry   + Dell'Anima   + Bar Blanc   + Smith's   + Commerce   + Elettaria   + Bar Q   + Cabrito   + 10 Downing   + Minetta Tavern   + Braeburn   + Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Joseph Leonard   + Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Kin Shop   + Monument Lane   + Wong   + Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak   + Ristorante Rafele   + Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe   

Share ! Post a comment