Welcome to ‘Eleven Madison Park’. The dinner menu.

The first amuse-bouche, Cheddar: Savory Black and White Cookie with Apple. We begin with a savory cookie, and as you will see later, the meal ends with a sweet cookie that looks precisely the same.

Widow's Hole Oysters: Hot and Cold ith Apple and Black Chestnuts. We have two different oysters here, one hot and one cold.

Pickled Mackerel

Beets with Apple and Trout Roe

Whitefish Potato Salad

Pickled Cucumbers with Black Rye and Salmon

Smoked Sturgeon

Caviar

Bread to go with the sturgeon

Turnip: Variation in its Own Broth. A dish just made out of turnips.

You get french type of bread. There was a selection of flavored butters also.

You will be fooled, but this is not a dessert! It's a foie gras in pate form. Definitely interesting presentation taking on the popular concept of making a dish look like something else to take you by surprise.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras: Seared with Brussels Sprouts and Smoked Eel. You get a choice between the two different foie gras – my dinner partner had the one above and I had this one, but we each tried a bit of both. No surprises here: just very well cooked foie gras!

Here is our waiter preparing the Lobster Newberg for us right by the table. While preparing us he told us an amusing story as to how Lobster Newberg got its name!

Lobster Newberg: With Baby Mushrooms and Lettuce. Delicious lobster. The sauce is poured at the table so that's why the sauce doesn't cover all the area it ideally would were it made in the kitchen.

The cooks come to the table to show us the pig's bladder that next course, the Celery Root, is cooked in.

Celery Root: Braised with Black Truffle. Another vegetable themed dish, this time we have celery instead of turnip.

Here we are shown our duck that will come back plated very soon! This is, according to San Pellegrino's listing, the signature dish of Eleven Madison Park.

Finger Lakes Duck: Dry-Aged with Pear, Mushroom, and Duck Jus. Very well made duck! I believe I have forgotten to ask how exactly it was cooked, but we can clearly see that we have very good red color throughout and only just the outer skin is crispy.

Cato Corner Cheese: With Roasted Carnival Squash, Mustard, and Bitter Green Salad. In the next picture you see the bread sticks that I got to scoop out the cheese. I don't think it worked too well, the cheese wasn't thick enough to properly grab on to the breadstick, and the bread stick's shape and texture didn't also allow for proper adhesion of cheese. I had to help myself out with the spoon. This course also came with a ‘bitter salad’, which indeed was just a very standard bitter salad. For me, it didn't fit at all, was too contrasting with the cheese, and just felt not at the right level for a three star restaurant. My least favourite course of the night.

Cato Corner Cheese

Botrytis: Hermann J. Wiemer, Rieslig Noble Select, Josef Vineyard, Seneca Lake, New York 2011. Sorbet with Bitter Almonad and Ginger Crumble. Botrytis is a type of fungus also called ‘noble rot’, which gives sweet wines like Sauternes, or in this case a Riesling, it's distinctive sweet taste. Even though it's relatively simple, I enjoyed the dessert. In the base taste of the botrytis, it reminded me of Fat Duck's dish called similarly ‘Botrytytis Cinerea’, but this is no match for the precision and artisanship of Fat Duck. Have a look at my Fat Duck post to see just what kind of detail we have there.

Maple: Bourbon Barrel Aged with Milk and Shaved Ice. Here we have shaved ice with bourbon, maple syrup and milk. Tasty and refreshing

Pretzel: Chocolate Covered with Sea Salt. A well presented pretzel, that is all!

Chocolate: Sweet Black and White Cookie with Apple Molasses. The closing of the meal with a sweet version of the opener.

The chocolate cookies were to be enjoyed with this lightly flavored apple brandy.

You get takeaway cornflakes for the morning after.