Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote

The other night, Robyn, Diana, Greg, Nick P. and I met for dinner at the Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, the newest branch of bistro that originated from Paris. Read Nick Solares' coverage on SENY here.

There was a lot of dessert.

But we'll get to that later ;)

The menu offers but one entree, and that is steak. Steak that comes with fries, salad and bread. You are however, allowed to order your steak black & blue, rare, medium, or well-done. Robyn, Nick P, and I had it rare, Greg went with black & blue, and Diana, well-done. First comes the (butterless) bread...

...followed by the salad outfitted with walnuts and a mustard dressing.

The steaks is served in two portions. What you see above is the first serving. As soon as you've downed that place, the waitresses, dressed in French maid outfits, sweep by with another serving. Those golden fries came cold the first time around and then piping hot the second time. Talk about inconsistent. The strip cut comes doused in a sauce which Nick reports is "...a closely guarded secret. Heavy on the butter, it reportedly incorporates blanched chicken livers, mustard, and thyme." Nick offered more details on the steak in the post I linked above...but I'm here to tell you about dessert, heeeheee ^_^

First off, options are aplenty. APLENTY. Especially considering the fact that there's just one entree, heheh. Second, none of the desserts are particularly good or satisfying. Some are classic, some are fun, none are memorable, and one is completely drowned in Grand Marnier. Excessively so.

My favourite of the bunch? "Le Vacherin du Relais," pictured above, an alternating tower of crisp meringue and ice cream, all drenched in silky chocolate.

Creme Brulee - nothing extraordinary...simply forgettable

The Semifreddo must have been 80% Grand Marnier and 20% Semifreddo...I suppose these proportions could be a blessing for some...but skewed to such an extreme, I found it pretty inedible.

Six vanilla ice cream filled profiteroles come with a pour of the same chocolate sauce as the Vacherin du Relais. Swimmmmming in chocolate. Chilly two-bite numbers, it's hard to hate profiteroles, even poorly made ones, though thank god these were decent.

And chocolate cake two ways - classic and flourless.

Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
590 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 758-3989