Wilfrid Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 Alex Stupak's seafood restaurant in The Manner, a glam new Thompson street hotel. Reservations look fairly open; on a snowy Sunday in February, business was very quiet. Maybe six tables got filled and one or two couples at the bar, and it's not a small restaurant. The first thing to note is a very rare NYC experience. The check was so low that I thought they must have omitted a bunch of stuff. No, it was missing the dessert wine, but I decided to take that as a comp. So two other glasses of wine, two appetizers, an enormous entree, espresso: $128. The pricing and portioning are both curious. Pricing. From the raw bar, shrimp cocktail, $28. From the appetizer section, tuna tartare, $29. The entree, mackerel, cheapest at $22. Portioning. The shrimp cocktail (eight large pieces) shareable by two people. The tartare, credible as a single portion, but could be shared. The mackerel, easily enough for three (not two, three) people, especially if a side is ordered. I have a lot of mackerel in the fridge this morning. The food is good and inventive. The meal starts spectacularly with house made butters -- bouillabaisse, anchovy and sea-salted -- served at room temperature. The latter is important because I discovered I could dunk the shrimp in them. That complimented the first-rate romesco and aioli sauces that came with the shrimp. I rarely order tuna tartare, but was curious about the "gilda" dressing, and indeed it came mixed with the anchovies, peppers and olives you would expect to find on a gilda pintxo. Spicy. Garnished with devilled quails eggs. Swordfish steak frites, au poivre has looked pretty in the pictures I've seen (one disadvantage of the restaurant being so quiet is that I couldn't snoop on what other tables were eating). It's $68, which is more than three times the price of the beer-battered mackerel with tartare sauce. The mackerel came in a basket, three massive bricks of it. There was a bucket of tartare sauce on the side. It's impossible to eat from the basket as the pieces of fish rear above its rim. A server noticed and delivered a plate. The batter is notably crunchy. Not life-changing but fine and as I have repeatedly said, absurdly under-priced. Orange wine with that, a Semillon from Chateau Lestignac. The room is spanking new, comfortable, banquettes and cushions, a large central bar. My server was charming; service overall was friendly, but honestly they had nothing to do other than chat with customers and each other. A sunny Saturday might be different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweatshorts Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I think they read your post -- the fish and chips is already up to $32 (which seems way more reasonable for that much fried fish). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilfrid Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 Hopefully they'll serve it on a plate too. Happy to have contributed to rising prices. 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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