15 John Street
New York, NY 10038
p: 212.285.8585
f. 212.791.3280
http://leshalles.net/
The coworkers and I choose Les Halle as our Restaurant Week pick of the winter season. Well, actually I choose it, in case any of them decide to post a comment, I will take all credit. The menu featured appetizer choice of Asparagus Soup, Mushroom Puff Pastry and a Crab cake. The entree choices were Skate in a Lemon Butter Sauce, Braised beef in tomato sauce, and a duck sausage on sauerkraut. And the dessert finale was between a coffee creme brule and pecan pie. Some had a fancy french name, but I am going to eliminate the “oh you fancy huh” names.
The best way is to just get to the disappointing experience. Yes, I said disappointing. My meal was the crab cake, duck sausage and creme brule. First problem, the service was slow! It took a good amount of time to bring out the appetizers, it actually left us all staring at the bread basket and wanting more. The apps themselves were okay at best. I have definitely had better crab cakes. After more waiting we finally got our entrees. They messed up my coworker’s skate and brought out the duck sausage. What made this worse, nothing was done to bring out the correct dish, until we had to mention it to the waiter himself! Apparently the table runners and the waiters do not communicate. As for the entrees, none of us were impressed at all. One person even said the sauerkraut was sweet. The duck sausage, was not amazing, and that was the best way to put it.
From there once we done with our entrees, we had to wait for another 10 minutes for our desserts to come out. I am all for fresh dessert, but really? On restaurant week, normally places know how to fly food out! Especially at lunch time. The desserts were okay, possibly the best part of the meal. Not all was bad, I must commend the water guy, he was on top of it and made sure I never had an empty glass of water. You might think there is some sarcasm tied into the comment, but those who know me, I always like a full glass of water and making me wait for water is possibly the easiest way to tick me off.
One person at our table said “You would think that during restaurant week, they would put out a menu that would entice you to come back, this menu does not.” Well I have to agree with that comment. I do have to mention, that have been to Les Halle on another occasion, and I really enjoyed the food. I would say go and enjoy the regular menu, restaurant week or not! To close, what would Bourdain say of such an experience?