Craft

This past week my mom, brother and I went to Craft in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan (map). The restaurant, owned by the famous Tom Colicchio, is an amazingly cool space with modern hanging lights and a large leather wall. The menu lists our a wide range of meets, side dishes, salads, pasta, seafood and more and is served family style, meant to be shared with the table. We ordered a wide variety of dishes each better than the next! We started off with cocktails and two side dishes. My brother ordered the Crispy Bacon, recommended by our waiter, while I went with the Roasted Tokyo Turnips. The Crispy Bacon was four big slices of bacon, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, I never knew bacon could be so large. The bacon was sauteed in orange marmalade and my brother loved it. The turnips were very tasty and a great dish to share.
Before our entrees were served we were greeted with a shot-like portion of fava bean panna cotta puree. Thankfully I had mentioned to the waiter that I'm a vegetarian when we ordered our side dishes because they gave me the non-bacon garnished fava bean puree. :)
Our entrees included the Roasted Baby Carrots, Asparagus, Roasted Beets with tarragon, Gratin Potatoes, Mezzaluna Pasta (moon-shaped pasta) and the Braised Beef Short Rib.
It was too hard to pass up dessert since everything else we tasted was so fabulous we knew that dessert would not disappoint. My brother had a single scoop of vanilla ice cream while my mom and I shared the Warm Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting, candied walnuts and Rhubarb sorbet.

The service was amazing, our waiter was very friendly and made wonderful suggestions. Just like at Bouley the hospitality continued until we left the door, as we left we were each presented with individually wrapped homemade chocolate chip muffins.
Craft is a restaurant where you are encouraged to sit as long as you'd like, enjoy your company, the food and the wine. You may want to make your reservations via Open Table a few days in advance.

Salt

Salt is an intimate Soho restaurant serving seasonal American cuisine to patrons seated at communal tables. The stark white tables and accents are the perfect contrast to the exposed brick walls and the wood beams on the ceiling. The menu is designed to allow diners to customize their dinners by selecting a protein plus two sides or they can play it safe by ordering a pre-designed "chef's entree." Protein options include Salmon, Grilled Dorade Royale, Duck Breast and Hangar Steak. As a vegetarian I was more impressed with the sides which included Braised Leeks, Braised Brussel Sprouts, Sauteed Eggplant, Braised Fennel, Wilted Spinach, Baby Root Vegetables, Yukon Gold Potato Puree and Parsnip Puree.
Instead of ordering a protein and two sides from the menu I ordered three sides and an appetizer- the Braised Brussel Sprouts, Parsnip Puree and the Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Mushroom, Truffle Essence. FYI: The brussel sprouts were probably the best brussel sprouts I've ever had.
Located at 5 MacDougal St (near King St)
Besides dinner, Salt now serves lunch Monday-Friday and weekend brunch starting at noon.
Reservations can be made on OpenTable.com

Tart

After an afternoon of shopping at The Grove in LA I met up with a group of friends for dinner at Tart- located at 115 S. Fairfax Ave, attached to The Farmer's Daughter Hotel. We sat in the courtyard section of the restaurant which was decorated with strung Christmas lights.
The restaurant serves freshly baked American Fusion dishes including Tart Fries- french fries made from French, Sweet, and Purple potatoes, served with a three different dipping sauces; Fried Green Tomatoes served with a toasted corn salsa; and amazing organic salads like the Roasted Beets Salad- red and gold beets, mixed greens, goat cheese, and a lemon vinaigrette; big entrees of fish, meat, sandwiches and more. (Tart is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.)
A couple weeks ago on The Hills Heidi Montag had lunch at Tart with her mom, which was included in YumSugar's Episode Eight The Hills Food Quiz- part of question number 5.