If you are a foodie or in any other way interested in the world of gastronomy, then you’ll likely have heard of Eleven Madison Park. The restaurant is somehow iconic, having maintained its 3 Michelin stars since 2012 and having been named No. 1 on the 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017.
Why Eleven Madison Park?
I became fascinated with fine dining in 2015, when the first season of Netflix’s „Chef’s Table“ was released. I loved watching Massimo Bottura elevate traditional Italian dishes to an unprecendeted level of sophistication and I sat there in astonishment as chef Grant Achatz fought tongue cancer and loss of taste while still leading his Chicago based Michelin starred restaurant Alinea. In short: I am as obsessed with chefs as others are with Marvel heroes or sports icons.
Having watched numerous of food documentaries in the past years, I have compiled a list of restaurants that I want to visit. Bottura’s „L’Osteria Francescana“ in Modena, René Redzepi’s „Noma“ in Copenhagen or Virgilio Martinez’s and Pía León’s „Central“ in Lima are high up on my list – and so is „Eleven Madison Park“.
Reservations (and controversy)
A few years ago, a reservation at EMP would have been as hard to get as an unreleased first draft of a new Harry Potter novel. Nowadays, however, you go online, book your table and that’s it. And there are reasons for that. During the pandemic, head chef Daniel Humm announced that he would give up on meat and dairy in his kitchen and instead follow a plant-based approach to New American cuisine. There was a bit of an outrage about it, but it had been successfully done before. After all, Alain Passard went vegetarian at „L’Arpège“ in Paris and still maintained his three stars. (The restaurant has since gone back to serving meat but in smaller quantities.)
The bigger outrage, however, came after the vegan menu had been installed. Veganism is frequently applauded for being sustainable and eco-friendly – and nobody can argue with that. Sadly, at EMP the transition to a vegan menu was accompanied by problems and controversy: more and more employees came forward calling the new approach „farm to trash“. One worker, for instance, explained that he was sent out to buy bell peppers of a certain length. Of those bell peppers, only a certain part was used and every bell pepper that was slightly too long or too short was simply thrown away. In addition to that, employees complained about 80 hour weeks, unpaid overtime and low wages – while the restaurant was still following a guest-friendly and marketing-effective no-tip-policy.
The restaurant has certainly been under pressure ever since and the online reviews are mixed. More than a few people even expected it to lose its 3-Michelin-star status (it didn’t). In order to deal with the criticism, the no-tip-policy was abandoned and Eleven Madison Truck was launched to distribute food made of leftovers to food-insecure neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx. I cannot really tell whether these are acutal solutions or rather publicity stunts but I decided to go ahead with the reservation anyway. As at Atomix, I opted for the reduced bar tasting menu but skipped the drinks pairing this time.
The Restaurant
For fine dining standards, EMP is a huge restaurant. The main dining hall with its high ceilings and its intricate decor is impressive and somehow even a bit daunting. I was fairly glad, that I had a spot in the bar area, which was to the dining hall’s right and which felt a bit more homely. It had lower ceilings, the light was slightly dimmed and everything seemed a bit more relaxed. I still appreciated that the two rooms were not entirely separated, allowing me to get a glimpse of what the dining experience in the actual hall would have been like.
(If you are more interested in Eleven Madison Park, then I recommend the very underrated Netflix show „7 Days Out“, which has an episode on the restaurant‘s reopening after a large-scale renovation process.)
Staff & Service
Dining at Atomix was a very intimate and relaxed experience; EMP was something else. Although everyone was extremely friendly, they were also quite reserved. I got the usual „Where are you visiting us from?“ and „How do you like New York?“ but little else (apart from a short chat with an Italian member of staff on the quality of NY pizza and on restaurant recommendations). This might also have to do with the fact that there were tons of people working there and nearly every dish was served by a different waiter. I particularly disliked that waiters would sometimes take empty plates away without asking me whether I enjoyed it. This somehow gave me the feeling that my feedback was not welcome and it made everything feel a bit rushed.
Before dessert, however, a member of staff came up to me and asked whether I wanted to do „something fun“. I was a bit confused but yeah, why not? She then asked me to follow her and led the way to the kitchen showing me the different work stations and explaining how everything works. I wonder whether they do this to counteract the past years‘ criticism but I have to admit, it was very cool to catch a glimpse of behind the scenes action. Apparently, they try to get as many people back there as possible without disrupting service and I guess as a single diner (or luncher in this case) I was the least offensive backstage guest that day.
Food
As said: EMP follows a plant based approach. I am not opposed to this at all but I went in expecting very subtle flavours and lots of culinary elegance. When the first pre-course – a tea made from sumach, lemongrass and ginger – was served, I instantly understood that I was wrong. The tea or broth was extremely heavy and dense, almost tasting like an Asian-style beef broth. I was only served a little cup of it, but I would have gladly taken more.
Flavour density and umami focus were the recurring themes throughout the fall-inspired 6 course menu. Ingredients such as seaweed, mushroom and truffel were liberally used to produce flavour. Two things surprised me the most about the menu: Number one, every single dish was extremely hearty and salty and there was not so much variation. Number two, there were no (or hardly any) crunchy elements, which are so popular in German fine dining at the moment and in various food related tv shows („Damn it, I forgot the crunch!“ – every The Taste contestant ever). I asked myself whether this was a good or a bad thing and in the end I decided it was good. Because the textures in nearly every dish were more on the soft, soupy, stewy side, the taste lingered extremely long. I liked it! If I had to describe the Eleven Madison Park overall flavour profile, I would compare it to a bag of good crisps: It’s salty, it’s umami and it makes you want more.
I couldn’t help but compare EMP to Nürnberg’s Essigbrätlein, a 2 Michelin star restaurant also focused on vegetables. When I went there, I liked the food but I sometimes had the feeling that they were overthinking it. As we Germans say, it was very „kopflastig“. Dishes would for instance include local asparagus in four or five different textures. I could always appreciate the effort, research and product quality of every single dish, but I did not want to lick every single bowl clean. At EMP, I certainly did. BUT: By not limiting themselves to local ingredients and a „brutal regional“ approach (as Essigbrätlein does), EMP does make it a lot easier for themselves. They can use things like Tonburi seeds (a seed from the Japanese summer cyprus Kochia Scoparia, which is known as „land caviar“ and does indeed taste and feel a lot like actual caviar) to surprise their guests and to boost flavours. As my fine dining friend Klaus very fittingly said, when I told him about my experience at Eleven Madison Park: „It’s the old Reinheitsgebot vs. no Reinheitsgebot story.“
Price
The bar tasting (without drinks pairing) was $190. I had a glass of Crémant, a glass of Garnacha and a sweet potato Manhattan on top, which brought the bill up to about $250. While this did not include tax and gratuity, it did include a little gift bag with a glass of their pumpkin and sesame granola. First restaurant I ever left with a gift bag but apparently it is not too uncommon here.
Would I go again? Yes, and I even thought shortly about booking the actual full on dining experience since reservations are easy to get (don’t worry, I didn’t). However, the overall experience at Atomix was better – the food was more creative and less focused on individual star ingredients such as land caviar and the service was a bit more my style. Plus, it’s cheaper.
Couch Potato Chronicles 