Unpopular opinion here: Eleven Madison Park is an enjoyable meal and experience

by ChezCooper

8 Comments

  1. ChezCooper

    Fourth time dining here in the last 15 months. Always a great time. Different seasons have different strengths. Best meal was October 2024 when they did the greatest hits retrospective. This spring season the food was not the best they’ve served — but still enjoyable. 

    Highlights: mushroom soba, the dessert course of fresh strawberries with cream and mochi, and the bread — which has earned its place as one of the best bread courses in fine dining. Spring morel butter with their classic laminated bread. 

    Other courses include a study of celtuce, including a savory celtuce cocktail. Their beats with tonburi course was the worst tonburi dish they’ve produced in a long time. Asparagus main was good — not great. The peas dish was pretty but not a standout. 

    Service: better than any other restaurant in New York City. The ending of house made vermouth and pretzels is the perfect way to finish a meal. 

    Great wine list as always. 

  2. Shanedugg

    Agreed. March 2023 meal there was amazing. The Yukon potato with black truffle is a dish I often remember. I loved that amazing bread and butter too. I would happily return any time.

  3. The theme in this sub certainly seems to be people looking to shit on popular restaurants for various reasons.

    Glad you enjoyed it.

  4. BertieMary0

    Interesting take. What didn’t you like about it?

  5. MagicalQaz

    Its just hard to nail down whats good in a manner that works for enough people, some folks that go to these places and sharing their experiences here could legitimately burn water and have no concept of what some of these things are actually supposed to taste like while others have spent 10-15 years actually working in these restaurants or grown up eating in these places – places like EMP, being as good a restaurant as it used to be, can definitely be extremely polarizing for sure.

    I’d personally conclude with popular opinion here – that recent trips have not been enjoyable, but obviously we’re all going to come to these things from different places and with different preferences + restaurants are so random sometimes – back in the day when Per Se was really floundering foodwise if Sarah or Sam weren’t managing the floor, the experience would really really suck but when they were there it was enough to make up for the food

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