Minetta Tavern

For my birthday, I didn’t want many things (actually, who am I kidding…I made a big list right here). One of the items on my wishlist was a dinner at Minetta Tavern, the new Keith McNally restaurant that has been talked about for quite some time. I made a reservation for three for a family birthday celebration (having the same birthday as David is quite easy for my parents because they only have one date to remember, one cake to buy, and one birthday dinner to take us out to). The restaurant:

I’m not exactly sure why David posed for the picture, but he was insistent that I take a picture of him holding his hand out.

So one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Minetta Tavern was for their Black Label burger. Not only am I a huge fan of burgers, I am also a huge fan of Keith McNally (my mom is also a big fan of Balthazar and we took her there the previous weekend for a huge feast). Keith McNally also received a three star review from Frank Bruni the previous week, so I knew the food was definitely not going to disappoint.

We started off with some bread and butter:

Balthazar has some great bread and Minetta Tavern was no different. In addition to the chewy bread, the butter was creamy, rich, and flavored to your liking with the salt on the side. I went through a lot of bread while I was waiting for my burger.

My black label burger:

And the medium rare interior:

The burger was absolutely amazing; it’s a secret blend of beef created by Pat Le Frieda topped with caramelized onions on a brioche bun from Balthazar. The actual meat and the caramelized onions were amazing, but I was so incredibly disappointed by the brioche bun. It might’ve been because my bun had a big air bubble in it so there wasn’t as much bread, but I felt like the bun was way too flimsy for the meat. I would’ve preferred the bun to be a little more substantial (although I can see why they use a brioche bun so the meat is definitely not overshadowed). It’s also probably the most expensive burger I’ve ever eaten (at $26, it’s not what you typically pay for a burger), but it’s delicious and worth trying at least once. The fries were really crispy (possibly too crispy) but I happily ate all of them.

David was going back and forth on the lamb or the steak, but decided to go with the lamb with a minty Bearnaise sauce:

David thoroughly enjoyed the lamb (as did I) and the Bernaise sauce was so good I wanted to eat it by the spoonful, but that might not be considered healthy.

We also ordered a side of mushrooms:

The mushrooms were cooked with thyme and butter and had a nutty flavor that David and I really enjoyed. I don’t know what the different type of mushrooms were served, but we liked all of them.

We decided to get dessert (even though we couldn’t finish the lamb) and went with the almond cake:

The dessert was the only dish I wasn’t crazy about – it was a little too dry and we should’ve ordered it a la mode. The chocolate souffle for two looked amazing, but I didn’t want to sit around for 20 minutes because I don’t think I could’ve eaten it if I had waited for my food to digest.

I really enjoyed Minetta Tavern’s food and atmosphere and will definitely be back for their steak for two VERY soon.