Ringing in the New Year at Olives

Gilt City ran a special tasting menu with wine for two and since this was a couple of blocks down and seemed like a good value, I jumped on it. I'm so glad I did! Located in the lobby of the W Hotel at Union Square, I've always seen posh people lounging around in the bar area who seemed much fancier than the likes of me. We decided to swank it up for the night and celebrate New Years a bit early and avoid the chaos. We were sat at the special 'Chef's Table' which was at the counter overlooking the kitchen and handed our glasses of Prosecco.  The Chef's Table experience might not be for everyone, but boy was it a delight for us! It was dinner AND a show as we got to observe the hustle and bustle of the chefs preparing and plating meals. 

Bread Basket with Olives & Tapenades

The bread basket contained focaccia and crispbreads and was served with an assortment of, you guessed it, olives, as well as both green & black olive tapenade. I love olives so was delighted by this pre-meal treat.

Arugula Salad
toasted pistachio vinaigretted, shaved manchego

Liked the simplicity of this salad a lot and the blend of flavors. However, I did find it got a bit salty as I went.

Creamy Spinach Flatbread
parmesan, lardo

Yummy flatbread with lardo cut so thin it was completely transparent.

Baked Spinach Fazoletti
wild mushroom braise

The Fazoletti was good for the first few bites, but then got so salty that I couldn't continue. This is slightly concerning, since I believe this is the first dish I have ever eaten that I found too salty.

Grilled Sirloin Steak
truffle mashed potatoes, crispy shallot garlicky escargot butter

The Mr. didn't have a salt problem with his steak though and we really enjoyed the blend of flavors. This makes me hope that the salt problem was a fluke for them rather than the norm. Especially since by this time we were determined to come back to try some things on the menu that we kept seeing prepared before us over, and over, and over which looked positively amazing.

Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake
malt chocolate sorbet, manjari pudding, chocolate wafers

Sticky Date Cake
caramel braised pear, ginger ice milk, bourbon toffee sauce

And before we knew it it was time for dessert! They tasted every bit as good as they looked, which further strengthened our resolve to return for another visit.