Tribeca

Tribeca review at-a-glance

Awards: 2 Michelin Stars

Rating: 55/100

Verdict: Please don’t go to Tribeca. Most of the time service is not a differentiator at a Michelin starred restaurant. Given the price, you almost always get capable service. Once in a while, it actually makes a difference in a positive way with servers having genuine enthusiasm and charm that helps communicate the kitchen’s vision. Rarely though, does service distract from the experience. Sadly, my meal at Tribeca was one of those rare times. The food was mostly fine but issues with the bill as well as strange service during the meal marred what would have otherwise been a perfectly fine meal. I highly recommend you spend your dollars elsewhere.

Price I Paid: €225

Would I revisit: No

Date Visited: December 2022

Value: 10/20

Tribeca restaurant background

In lieu of the usual information on the chef background and menus offered (there are many, reflecting the kitchen focusing on way too many different things), I am going to use this space to focus on something that rarely warrants more than a passing sentence in my reviews - service. Bread was removed without asking. The co-owner made multiple off-hand comments about taking photos of the food. The pacing was uneven and wine was not always poured timely. Mostly though, the service was just awkward with staff running around the room like robots without personality or charm which I presume is because the maître d' so thoroughly drilled a set of rules into them that there was no room left for personal expression. While the poor service during the meal would have merely been a distraction, how a disagreement on the bill was handled made sure it spoiled the entire lunch.

At the start of the meal, I asked if I could share a wine pairing with one of my dining companions as I was interested in trying the wines but was driving. This was greeted with a happy yes, they could do a half glass for each of us. They stuck to this throughout the meal but when it came time to pay, we were charged for two full wine pairings. When we brought this up with the co-owner who runs the FOH (and is the one we asked about sharing a pairing), she curtly replied yes we could share a pairing at the start of the meal but she only meant that they were capable of pouring half glasses and obviously there would be no difference in price for doing this.

Despite many attempts to get the maître d' to understand our perspective, there was no reasoning with her.

• US: Why was no aperitif poured with the amuse bouches even though it was included in the pairing? Her:You must have said you didn’t want it.

• Us: Why did you give half glasses to the other person if we weren’t sharing the pairing and I was the one driving? Her: We assumed he didn’t want full glasses either.

• Us: Why would it cost the same for half the wine? Her: The cost of the wine does not drive the cost of the pairing, having to put down an extra glass does.

• She even went as far as to say that had only one of the three of us ordered the wine pairing, they would have been happy to fill the glass fully and top it up as we shared it around the table.

The charge on the bill was not really the issue as this could have been due to a language barrier or miscommunication but rather how it was handled. Instead of at least apologizing or even correcting the bill, we were talked down to and treated like we were trying to steal from the restaurant. Eventually, they did offer to take the cost of the unserved aperitifs off the bill which we told them to leave as a gratuity for the staff. I doubt they did.

In the end, they knew we were leaving unhappy. While most restaurants would try to correct this (the lunch cost €700 after all), the owner at Tribeca did not care. Instead, they went as far as to find me on Instagram (I had never interacted with them on Instagram but did post a story during the lunch) and block me so I could not tag them in any posts. That speaks volumes about the restaurant and its ownership. Spend your money elsewhere.

What I ate at Tribeca

While it is difficult to separate my thoughts on the food from the service at Tribeca I will do my best. Lunch kicked off with a flurry of snacks which from left to right were flavored with liver parfait, beets and beignet, seabuckthorn and romaine, and a roe buck tartar with capers and sweet onion. I have to give the kitchen credit, this was a pretty impressive set of bites to start which made me think we were in for a promising meal. That said, at the same time I enjoyed these bites there was the first inkling that something might be off with the service - the crisp holding the liver parfait was too delicate and cracked when I picked it up. When the staff returned, I made a joke about it breaking. Rather than trying to brush up the crumbs, the sever merely glared at me and the resulting mess stayed on the table for the entire meal.

The first proper course was Gillardeau oyster with beef tartar and oscietra caviar with some wasabi crunches sprinkled on top. Oyster, caviar, and beef go very well together so this dish worked ok but there was a tad too much going on. The wasbai crunches added a nice textural component but not much heat. Sticking with the luxury theme, the second course was a lobster tail with salsify, potatoes and mushroom. Fine cook on the lobster which had reasonable flavor (from Brenton). It was interesting the kitchen decided to pair the lobster with so many earthy flavors which worked well enough but didn’t jump off the plate.

The main fish course was turbot with a neck of beef, autumn truffle, and onion. I usually love this surf and turf style where fish is paired with a meat sauce but the execution was not quite flawless here. The sauce was well done and added a good depth of flavor with the dish but the turbot was a tad over. The truffles looked nice for the presentation but did not add a ton of complexity or flavor with their aroma being quite weak. Given Périgord’s were in season, the choice of autumn truffles was disappointing given their limited flavor. This was presumably a concession to the menu price but did not exactly fit with its luxury theme. The first of two meat courses was roebuck with parsnip, dates, and cabbage. I like when deer pops up on Michelin menus this time of the year and the kitchen cooked it well enough, pairing the meat with a glossy reduction flavored with the deer parts. The quality of the sauce is key to a dish like this and while this had good flavor, it was not quite at the level of the very best sauce work you see. Good but unmemorable.

The main course was A4 wagyu from Kagoshima with potatoes, onion and lemon. While the beef here was every bit as good as expected, there was a bit too much going on with the plate. Wagyu is usually best served simply as not much is needed to show off such a premium product. A bit of sauce and something to cut the richness is all that is really needed. While Tribeca had the sauce down and capably cut through the fattiness with onion, I am not sure the addition of roe was a smart choice - its flavor distracted from the rest of the dish. On a more positive note, I did like how they used various members of the allium family rather than just sticking with one.

The solitary dessert was dame blanche with souffle, Manjari chocolate, and vanilla. A dame blanche is essentially just a French version of a hot fudge sundae with a fancier-sounding name and the kitchen did not do much to really elevate the dish. The chocolate sauce had a nice bitterness but was served surprisingly cold. I am not sure if this was intentional or a mistake but it would have been better with some temperature contrast. As if acknowledging the main plate was too simple, the Tribeca kitchen gussied things up a bit with a souffle on the side which was capable but could have used more lift. If you are going to serve such a basic dessert, it has to be transcendent (think the chocolate torte at L'Ambroisie). This wasn’t.