Cookshop Recently?

[egit]

Hello All --

I'm going to cookshop on Sunday evening. I did a quick search on this board and didn't see much traffic recently. There were a lot of gripes about service about a year ago (or more), but not much in the way of opinions on their current menu.

Are there any must haves or must NOT haves?

Also, how small are the "snacks" relative to the "starters?" Is the following progression sensible or would this be too much per person:

1 snack
1 starter or salad
1 entree
1 dessert

Thanks!

[sea97horse]

I was there last month, for lunch, and had quite nice service. I had a wonderful dandelion salad with lardons and a fried egg to start, and then an absolutely fantastic hamburger, which was so enormous that even I coudn't finish it. There were three of us, and we were all more than happy with our dishes, and the two courses apiece certainly left no one hungry!

[RGR]

We had dinner at Cookshop a few months ago. Despite all the high praise the food has gotten, I wasn't impressed with everything we had. My main course was such a disappointment that I've kind of erased it from memory, and dessert seems to have gone that route as well. (I should note that before we went, we looked at the menu on the restaurant's website. There was a duck main course listed that sounded delicious, and I intended to order it. However, it turned out not to be on the menu, which added to my disappointment.) The only dish that stood out was the onion soup starter -- a very different version from any we've had previously, i.e., almost like an onion porridge, which I liked. Portions in all cases were quite generous.

Service got the job done but lacked any hint of cordiality. I found seating to be rather cramped. One thing I definitely was not prepared for was the very high noise level,. which bordered on uncomfortable -- at least, for me. But, then, high noise levels in restaurants are one of my peeves. Btw, it was a Sunday evening, and the place was jammed.

[Blumie]

I have not been back since my last dinner at Cookshop in the fall. The place was packed, and while our waiter really was trying his best, he was overwhelmed. (It's not that he didn't know what he was doing, but rather that he had too many tables, all of them packed.) And the food that was coming out of the kitchen just was not worth it. So I'm not rushing back for dinner, but I would go back for their Sunday brunch.

[Lucia]

I haven't been to dinner at Cookshop since soon after it opened since I wasn't impressed with my meal there. However, it's definitely a worthy destination for brunch.

[orthorunner]

We had an experience much like RGR; we went a few months ago on a weekend evening and were somewhat disappointed given some rave reviews I'd seen. We started off with some salads of some sort which were good, but we made a mistake with deviled eggs; they weren't bad, but nothing better than I've had at other times. Looking at the menu I was very excited with the options for entrees, but it seemed as though they do not take advantage of the potential and so the dishes fall a little flat. My SO had the porchetta and it was fine but nothing special, and I had rabbit stew or something which was not too great. I must say that the desserts were good; I had a chocolate and peanut butter dessert which somewhat redeemed the night. However, I hope that the OP had a different experience tonight, and please post if so!

[egit]

Thanks for your responses.

I had and enjoyable time at Cookshop. We split an appetizer and a salad, we each had an entree and split one dessert. We ordered the lolla rossa salad with button mushrooms. The dressing was the most interesting part of it, being a brown butter vinaigrette. The butter gave the whole salad a nutty sweetness that really worked. It also had fried parsnip chips which sounded more interesting than they actually were. We also split the grilled calamari appetizer, which was good but not outstanding.

Of the entrees, one was particularly good and the other was somewhat disappointing. I ordered the wild striped bass, which was particularly good while the wahoo was not. The wahoo was overcooked and the sauce, made of chiogga beets, bacon and apples, felt too heavy and wintry for the fish. The wild striped bass, on the other hand was perfect.

For dessert we split the lemon ricotta cheesecake, which was very nice.

The service was competent, if a little informal. To be honest though, I prefer a little less formality anyway. One of the weird little quirks that I think I read about elsewhere is their propensity to try to clear dishes too quickly. We were eating at an unhurried pace, and the busboy came by to ask if we were finished at least twice before we actually were. Not a big deal, but it felt like they wanted the table back. We had an early dinner (6PM) and they probably had an 8PM reservation on it.

Sound level was fine for me. I didn't think of it while I was there. But I can imagine that it would get quite loud with all of those hard surfaces.

[mrmrl]

ok, I'm replying to a post older than my pre-schooler... but whatever. That's how strongly i feel. I went to Cookshop with my wife for our anniversary. That MAY have been leaked to the maitre'd when I requested a more secluded table than the one originally presented. Not a problem--we were re-seated with a grin. The waiter was even friendlier, if that's possible.
Can't tell you about haves/must NOT haves--- we were happy with everything.
My wife had a snack--deviled eggs with smoked trout. smokey indeed, and delish.
I had a lobster salad with avocado and a rojas sauce--the sauce was quite spicy but evened out by the mellow and very fresh tasting lobster. granted, there were 2 pieces of lobster in the salad... but it was a small salad before the entree.

My entree was the strip steak. quite tender... undercooked to medium rare but I wasn't bothered. it was a salty, juicy carnivore's dream. My wife, the lover of lamb, got a lamb-mixed grill. lamb sausage and chop--mixed with a garam masala-like seasoning. It tasted like an Indian restaurant's mixed grill... with jasmine rice. Quite tasty.

As I knew dessert was looming, I only ate half--if that--of my steak and roasted veg. Good thing. The strawberry 'sundae,' with roasted strawberries, and red wine reduction came with what I thought tasted like key lime pie ice cream. I'd go back to Cookshop just for dessert! We also got a complimentary taste of their Cookshop candybar. Beautifully and festively presented like a work of art, it was 2 chocolate covered rectangles on sticks, with a peanut buttery and rich ganache interior. Wifey and I shared both. good thing, b/c we wouldn't have managed much more. Then we waddled home, happy, and still in love after 15 years. the end.

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Cookshop
156 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011