DB Bistro Moderne, Midtown West

During Cassie’s visit, we had brunch at Daniel Boulud’s DB Bistro Moderne with Alice, one her close friends from Taiwan who also happened to be in NYC for work.

DB Bistro offers a modern, masculine space with clean lines and chrome finishes. I really wanted to like this place, but it seemed caught somewhere between an approachable bistro and an upscale restaurant. It also doesn’t help that it’s in Midtown, and I got all grumpy as I was dodging people around the Times Square area. Ugh.DB Bistro has a prix fixe brunch menu with two courses for $26. However, we decided to order a la carte, which had a number of vegetarian options for me to choose from. Our waiter brought out warm bread as soon as we had ordered our entrees. The black olive baguette was very good, especially with a little bit of butter.

Alice ordered the Coq au Vin ($29), which included bacon, pearl onions, farfalle pasta. I assume it’s homemade pasta. Don’t know much about preparing Coq au Vin, nor can I remember the last time I’ve had it. Nicely plated, and Alice seemed to enjoy it. Cassie ordered The Original DB Burger, a $32 monster of a burger. Sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs, foie gras and black truffle. Served on a Parmesan bun with pomme frites on the side. I don’t mind if someone around me wants to order a burger. It’s all about personal food choices, and I realize that vegetarianism or even flexitarianism isn’t for everyone. That said, man, this was an intense burger. A meat eater’s dream, perhaps? It was too rich for Cassie, and she even gave up on the bun. The pomme frites were great though. Quality potatoes, nice and crispy, very addictive. However, they were most likely fried in some kind of animal fat, which would make them not truly vegetarian.

I ordered the Poached Eggs “En Cocotte” ($19) with creamy spinach and oyster mushrooms topped with toasted bread crumbs. The eggs were perfectly poached. The mushrooms were flavorful and the breadcrumbs were nice. Unfortunately, the spinach wasn’t creamy at all, just some sad wilted spinach sitting in green water. When I was done with my meal, I had more bread and also helped Cassie finish her pomme frites. Overall, a decent brunch experience, especially if you want to catch up over a meal. You do have to brave the Midtown crowds to get here though. The service was good. My entree was a fairly tasty little dish (minus the spinach), but for this price tag, it just seemed somewhat underwhelming. Probably won’t be back, especially as there is an abundance of brunch options in NYC.