NYC Dinner #2: Fig & Olive Midtown

After a long day of walking, sightseeing, and exploring, I was glad that we didn’t have to go far for dinner. We had made a reservation at the Midtown location of the Fig & Olive. We picked the restaurant because we liked the creative menu. At the time, we didn’t realize that there were multiple locations in the city. This location was right across the street from our hotel.

One of the things that appealed to my wife and me was the prix fixe option on the menu. We tend to like that approach as long as the options look appealing. It’s sort of like a pseudo-tasting menu, only with more flexibility for individual preferences.

For our dinner at Fig & Olive, my wife started with the house salad. Sorry if that doesn’t sound too exciting. But the list of ingredients in the salad were very appealing – fig, apple, manchego cheese, gorgonzola, tomato, walnut, olives, romaine and other greens, scallion, and fig balsamic vinegar. It was an excellent salad.

My meal started with a mushroom croquette. It was made with cremini mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, a béchamel sauce, and was dressed with a truffle olive oil aioli. The crust was very buttery and flakey. The mushrooms were excellent, and the whole dish was quite rich.

For an entrée, Linda choose tuna Provençale. The menu said the tuna would be seared. Linda expressed a preference for it to be cooked to medium. They did a nice job of accommodating her preference. The plate included some potatoes and roasted cherry tomatoes. On the side was a small serving of a roasted eggplant caviar.

My entrée was an individual serving of paella del mar. I thought it was delicious. There was a nice variety of fish and seafood on the plate, including shrimp, mussels, scallops plus vegetables – peas, red bell peppers and artichokes.

For dessert Linda ordered chocolate pot de crème. I ordered a dessert crostini with cherry, mascarpone, pistachios, on shortbread.

While we enjoyed each of the restaurants we ate at in New York, Fig & Olive was definitely the most creative. I would recommend it.