NYC Restaurant Week 2022

Restaurant week is the BEST. Who doesn't love an excuse to go out and eat really good food at a fixed price?! I started going to restaurant week in New Haven and enjoyed the opportunity to try out new restaurants and eat at nicer places I wouldn't normally go. This year was my first New York City restaurant week and if you know me, you'll know that I was very excited.

The task of choosing where to eat was definitely more daunting in New York than it was in New Haven. The sheer number of options in the city was overwhelming and it was hard to know where to begin. I eventually just went on the NYC Restaurant Week website and randomly found some menus that looked good. For restaurant week dinner, the menus are usually three courses for either $39 or $59 depending on the restaurant. Making a reservation is key for restaurant week, as good restaurants often fill up with people eager to get in on the deals.

Here are the places I went for NYC restaurant week 2022:

Bar Boulud - Upper West Side

3 courses - $59

Located right across from Lincoln Center, Bar Boulud is a French bistro serving traditional French food and wines. I had never been here before, (and neither had my friend Shaun), but I hadn't had French food in a while and I liked the look of the restaurant week menu. Bar Boulud is a nicer restaurant than I usually dine at, making it a good choice for restaurant week.

For the appetizer I ordered the potato broccoli soup. This soup might have been my favorite course. It was so creamy with dollops of marscapone, crunchy croutons, and drizzled olive oil. It felt warming and hearty, while still leaving room for the next courses.

For my main I had the branzino, which was served atop a bed of sauteed spinach and garnished with capers and herbs. The highlight of this dish was the Buddha's hand lemon sauce drizzled around the edge and with the spinach. The sauce was citrusy but not overpowering and complemented the fish perfectly. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I was soaking this sauce up with bread at the end.

For dessert I unsurprisingly had the tarte au chocolat. If there is chocolate on the menu, I will almost always order it. This single serving chocolate tart was first of all beautiful, served with a crispy chocolate cookie on top. I LOVE chocolate mousse, so I really enjoyed the dollop on top of the dark chocolate ganache. It came with hazelnut ice cream and overall, was a wonderfully rich dessert that wasn't too sweet.

Socarrat Paella Bar - Chelsea

3 courses - $39

With locations in Chelsea, Nolita, and Midtown East, Socarrat is a paella bar serving traditional Spanish tapas and different kinds of paella. As our waiter told us, the name "Socarrat" refers to the crispy rice that forms at the bottom of the paella pan. I went here with my friend Abe and we shared all our dishes.

One of our appetizers was the gambas al ajillo. I had to include this video of the shrimp sizzling in a beautiful amount of oil and garlic. I mean, with oil and garlic it's hard to go wrong. We were definitely sopping up this oil with our bread. I did make the mistake of biting into one of those peppers you see and immediately regretted it - my mouth was on FIRE. Be careful!

Our other appetizer was the champiñones a la plancha - an assortment of grilled mushrooms atop a cauliflower puree. This was really yummy and savory, a good balance to all the seafood we ordered.

At Socarrat you and the other person have to agree on what paella to get as it comes in a large pan of 2 servings (don't come here with an odd number of people). Abe and I decided on the paella arroz negro for something a bit different. The rice was made with squid ink, giving it a black color. It came with an assortment of seafood, piquillo peppers, and fava beans. My favorite part was the socarrat (crispy rice) at the bottom of the pan - one of the waiters came by and used a spoon to loosen the bits so we could eat them which was amazing!

Finally for dessert, we both got an order of the churros con chocolate which tasted exactly how it looks (sugary doughy goodness). Even though we were both stuffed from the paella, dessert stomach always exists, especially for churros :)

Baar Baar - East Village

3 courses - $39

My final restaurant week dinner was at Baar Baar in the East Village with my girlfriends Heidi and Rocel. Baar Baar serves contemporary Indian food. The flavors are a great mix of classic Indian flavors that you'd normally see but with a twist.

I started with the fried cauliflower which was satisfyingly crispy and accompanied by a delicious tomato peanut sauce with chili. Everything at this meal had a bit of a kick to it which I loved. My ideal spice warms up your mouth without being so spicy that you lose out on flavor. Baar Baar definitely achieved that! In the background you can also see Rocel's appetizer which was the smoked pork belly with pickled carrot - a melt in your mouth bite that had the perfect balance of fatty and acidic. Heidi's chicken ghee roast also had that super tender texture.

For my main I got the achari salmon that came atop a bed of couscous. Salmon can easily be too dry, but this was perfectly cooked and soft. Heidi got the paneer pinwheel atop a red pepper chutney, which tasted a bit like a lasagna roll up. Rocel got the beef short rib curry with roasted carrot and turnip (also very tender). The mains also came with sides so we loaded up on saffron rice, garlic naan (SO BUTTERY), and black dairy dal (tasted like Christmas - I think there was nutmeg in it).

For dessert, Heidi got the carrot cake that came with phirni mousse and saffron & pistachio ice cream. The cake was very soft - I think melt-in-your-mouth was the theme of the night. Rocel and I both got the chocolate brownie that came with chai chocolate ganache and vanilla ice cream. It was very soft for a brownie - the texture of the brownie practically melded with the ganache and the ice cream in a wonderful way.

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Overall, NYC Restaurant Week was super fun! I had a great time trying out these new restaurants and eating some amazing food. Yes, I spent a lot of money these past couple weeks on dining out 😂 But hey, when in NYC!

I'm already looking forward to the next restaurant week 😄