The modern American restaurant Greenwich Project is helmed by Picholine alum Carmine Di Giovanni, Greenwich strives to blend a high-concept bar scene with equally ambitious food.
The restaurant is warmly-lit, romantic townhouse setting. The polished ground floor gleams in red brick and white tile, burnt-orange banquettes and timbered ceiling. The bar was bustling from the after-work crowd.
We started our dinner with really great, potent cocktails ($14 each) Kentucky Dynasty (left) and Rye, Roots & Roses (right). The Kentucky Dynasty was a smoky bourbon based cocktail with Cocchi Bianco and Lapsang Souchong tea and the Rye, Roots & Roses was a rose infused rye, sweetened with maple syrup and house “root” bitters. On the latter drink, it’s not too rosy or floral; all you get is a rose end note.
The house made scallion, black pepper biscuit arrived with a black pepper butter. The biscuit was warm, fluffy and it was very tasty. Smear it with the black pepper butter, it’s divine and we would definitely would eat a basket full of them.
The Odd Couple ($18) is a small bowl of sweetbreads, escargot, bacon, and roasted garlic foam. It sounds unusual on paper and in real life, it’s not bad. Maybe a bit too heavy handed on the smoky, porky bacon but otherwise we liked it.
The hand cut taglioni ($20) and fideo squid ink pasta ($16) were generally good plates of noodles. The taglioni was heavier than what we’ve anticipated, as it’s creamy and bacon-y. It’s unfortunate we could not taste much of the delicate uni. Otherwise, this pasta tasted fine.
The fideo squid ink pasta with head-on prawns and pimenton aioli fared out better than the taglioni. The pasta wasn’t weighed down with excess fats and the ocean-y flavor of the squid ink just shined. The huge, sweet prawns were cooked beautifully.
The pork belly, Korean slaw, poached quail egg, herb oil sauce and Korean pepper sauce was a good prelude to our main (the chef sent out this dish to us). While the pork belly could be a bit crisper, the spicy, acidic flavors of the colorful dots of sauces cut the fattiness of the pork.
The Dayboat halibut was our favorite dish of the evening. The flavors and all of the components of this dish was simply delicious and cooked perfectly. The halibut was delicately seared and wonderfully juicy. The farro risotto was creamy and robust. The squash, kale and bits of pomegranate arils rounded out the earthy flavors of the farro.
The side of cauliflower, pine nuts, basil, and raisins ($9) was well done. Sweet, not too soft cauliflower mixed with plump sweet raisins and a sprinkling of pine nuts.
We finished our meal with the Elvis, a dessert concoction of brûléed banana, peanut butter ice cream, raspberry sauce, banana tuile. We appreciated the efforts of the kitchen to reinterpret the classic dessert flavors but it didn’t work out too well. The banana brûlée didn’t have enough of that crystallized sugar crust to be a brûlée but liked the bit of cinnamon in the banana mashed base. The raspberry sauce did liven up the dish. The peanut butter was probably the best part of the dessert, as it’s creamy and had a good peanut butter flavor.
Overall, this restaurant is pretty and the staff at the front of the house is friendly and professional. The cocktails are fantastic but the food while not bad, needs some fine tuning.
To view more photos of this visit, please CLICK HERE or view the gallery below:
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Greenwich Project
Website
47 W 8th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 253-9333
