When I entered the vaunted Restaurant Daniel on NYC's Upper East Side, I knew I was in for one of my best dining experiences of the year. I'd carefully chosen French chef Daniel Boulud's flagship fine dining establishment months in advance. The two-star Michelin restaurant offers history, excellence, and elegance in a Neo-Classical space.
Daniel is in the former Mayfair Regent Hotel at 65th Street and Park Avenue. It was once home to Le Cirque, an influential French restaurant where Boulud served as executive chef from 1986 to 1992. While at Le Cirque, he earned his first of six James Beard Awards and a four-star review from The New York Times. In 1988, Food & Wine magazine named him one of the country's top new chefs in its first installment of the annual series.
Chef Boulud left Le Cirque to open his eponymous restaurant in 1993. When Le Cirque relocated to a different NYC hotel in 1996, Daniel Boulud could move his fledgling restaurant to the space where he had previously experienced so much success. Thirty-one years after he opened Daniel, his namesake restaurant continues to provide a world-class experience for those who dine there. Today, the kitchen is led by French chef Eddy LeRoux and Bronx-born pastry chef Shaun Velez.
Table of Contents
My Experience
I arrived at the entrance of Daniel Restaurant at 5 p.m. on a Friday in mid-March, as the doors were opening for the evening. Guests walk through a small lounge and past the attractive Art Deco-inspired bar on their way to the host stand. These spaces once served as the lobby for the Mayfair Hotel, built in the 1920s.
I was greeted and promptly shown to my table there, which offered a broad view of the dining room. The walls, coffered ceilings, and Corinthian columns are white, while a purple carpet and paintings by James Rosenquist provide pops of color. The artists whose work adorns the walls are rotated every few months. Stylish Bernardaud chandeliers light the space.
Menus
Like Le Bernardin, where I dined the year before, Daniel offers a prix-fixe menu that balances the opportunity to taste multiple dishes with cost. The four-course prix-fixe menu is currently $188. For this price, you can choose a first and second course, an entree, and dessert. There's a seven-course tasting menu for $275 if you want to go all out. Optional wine pairings are $175 or $245. Both the four and seven-course menus are available for vegetarians. Guests dining in the lounge can order a la carte in addition to the prix-fixe and tasting menus.
As I've alluded to already, I felt the prix-fixe menu struck a balance between experience and affordability, so that's the one I chose. I appreciated the clarity of the menu, with guests choosing one dish from each of the three pages and a separate dessert menu for later. The size of menu text was large and easy to read, an approach I wish more fine-dining restaurants followed. Now, without further delay, I present dinner at Daniel Restaurant in NYC.
Prix-Fixe Menu
About 20 minutes after I was seated, the amuse-bouche arrived: a trio of mushroom bites. A few minutes later, a gentleman offered a selection of three breads: mini baguettes, pumpkin seed rolls, and Parmesan bread. I chose the latter two, with the soft cheesy bread being my favorite.
I'd debated ordering a single cocktail or glass of wine until my waiter, Jhonatan, offered the option of a half-glass of white wine to go with my first course, followed by a glass of red wine recommended by the sommelier for the second and third courses. I appreciated the novel approach and accepted it.
First Course
The first pour was a half-glass of Chablis Premier Cru by Domaine Barat, a French Chardonnay from Burgundy. It paired nicely with the California spot prawn "sashimi" I ordered. The prawns were served with winter squash, dulse seaweed, pumpkin chutney, and a coconut red cider reduction.
Additional options for the first course included a foie gras terrine, Lousiana frog legs, winter chicory salad, Long Island fluke, and a parsnip-celeriac veloute with black truffle. Caviar service is also available for a supplemental charge of $385 to $485.
Second Course
Next, the sommelier stopped by to present his pick for my second and third courses: a 2021 Newfound Grenache from Placida, a California Certified Organic vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. For my second course, I'd chosen a signature dish at Daniel: upstate New York foie gras flambeed tableside with Cointreau, a French orange liqueur. There's an $18 supplemental charge, but I appreciate a good show.
When the time came, Jhonatan wheeled over a small cart with a portable stove. First, he showed me the sizeable portion of foie gras in the black Staub cast iron pan. The goose liver had already been seared in the kitchen and was awaiting the final touches by my table.
Upon pouring the Contreau into the pan, the waiter tilted it until it caught fire. I was delighted by the action. When dining alone, I'll take excitement any way I can get it. The waiter only took a few minutes to expertly flambee the dish and present it to me on the plate, garnished with care cara orange licorice and braised black radishes. I pounced on the tender, sauced liver and enjoyed every warm, decadent bite. It was one of the best, if not the best, foie gras preparations I've ever experienced.
See also: Mexican Food at Cosme
Other second-course options on Daniel's seasonal prix-fixe menu included Provence white asparagus, Brittany Dover sole, Maine sea scallops, Hampton Bay day boat monkfish, and North Sea cod. Two risotto and egg dishes with Perigord black truffle were available for a supplemental charge of $80.
Third Course
It wasn't more than five or ten minutes before my entree arrived: Ohio veal tenderloin "Orloff" with aged Comte soubise, winter vegetables, and sauce Perigueux. Aged Comte is a semi-hard French cheese, and soubise is an onion-based white sauce. Sauce Perigueux is also French and traditionally made with Madeira, a Portuguese fortified wine, and black truffles, a specialty of the Perigord region in southwestern France. I appreciated the composition of this colorful dish before sinking my knife into the veal. The generous amount of cheese added richness.
I was happy with my choice, though everything else on the third page of the menu at Restaurant Daniel in NYC was appealing. There was wild Atlantic turbot, red wine-braised Pennsylvania duck, Manchester Farms quail, Elysian Fields Farm lamb, and High Plains bison "tournedos" with winter black truffle ($22 supplemental charge).
Fourth Course
We're now a little more than one hour into my dining experience at Daniel, and it's time to turn our attention toward dessert, my favorite course (especially in Michelin-star restaurants). On November 20, 2023, pastry chef Shaun Velez received La Liste's Pastry Chef of the Year 2024 Award. La Liste is a France-based guide and mobile app that analyzes publications, guidebooks, and online customer reviews to rank the top 1,000 restaurants in the world.
The dessert menu had six dishes, and I would've liked to have tried them all. While that wasn't a realistic option, I did receive a surprise gift from the kitchen in the form of an extra dessert. Before my pick came out, I was presented with Madagascar: vanilla sabayon with guava diplomate, lime-almond biscuit, and a kiwi, passion fruit, and lychee fruit salad. It's finished with a dust of crushed Jordan almonds. It was colorful, complex, and yet another way to demonstrate their stellar hospitality.
Hot on the heels of the first dessert, I received the one I ordered. The Maracaibo, named after a city in Venezuela, is a Venezuelan dark chocolate mousse with dandelion honey creme legere, flaxseed financier, and gavotte. Creme Legere is whipped cream mixed into the pastry cream and used as a filling. Gavotte is a brand of thin, crispy French cookies.
Related: Lysee, a NYC Pastry Boutique
The bites of chocolate mousse and cream were heavenly. And there was more. A basket of fresh-baked mini madeleines was placed on the table, followed by petit fours. I was in pastry heaven, and nothing went to waste. The treatment continued when another surprise arrived in the form of chocolate sticks. I picked out milk chocolate with sea salt and white chocolate with spices. At some point during dessert, I'd ordered a decaf cappuccino, a sign that I didn't want the meal to end.
The check was delivered with a pair of mini caneles (French pastries) as another gift. My dinner at Daniel lasted about an hour and 45 minutes from when I entered to when I shuffled out, completely content.
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How Much Did All This Cost?
If you're wondering what dinner at Restaurant Daniel in New York City, a two-star Michelin restaurant, cost me, here's the receipt:
- $188 for the four-course prix fixe menu
- $18 foie gras supplement
- $13 for a half-glass of Barat Chablis Vaillons
- $43 for a full glass of Newfound Pacida Grenache
- $10 decaf cappuccino
The food cost $206, and the drinks were $66 for a subtotal of $272. Including $24 in tax, the bill was $296. I tipped 20% ($55) for the professional service and incredible food, so the total cost was $351. Typing this out, I realize I should've tipped more in appreciation of the extra dessert (a $25 value).
Visit Restaurant Daniel in NYC
Address: 60 East 65th Street, New York, NY, United States
Website: danielnyc.com
Reservations: I recommend making reservations for the dining room. Reservations are available via Resy. The bar and lounge are first come, first serve.
Dress Code: Formal. Jackets are "strongly suggested" for men, and "shorts, sandals, athletic wear, and distressed jeans are not allowed."
