One if by land, Two if by Sea Restaurant

We went to One if by land, Two if by Sea during New York restaurant week (they are actually offering this until Labor Day), so it was a three course pre-fixe dinner for $35. It was an elegant setting and the staff was very nice. The appetizers were good, not great, but the entrée and desserts were superb…cooked to perfection. It was well worth the money.

Here’s what we ordered (from the restaurant week menu):
Appetizers
Tomato Gazpacho (Soup)
Crab, avocado, lemon basil oil
Although, in many Tomato Gazpacho recipes paprika is added, we did not expect this soup to be as spicy as it was. The spiciness really took away from the other flavors of the soup. We liked the small chunks of crab meat in soup though. Overall, it was decent, not great.

Mushroom Tart
Wild mushroom, baby zucchini, amaranth, salsa verde
We would not order this again. It was extremely salty. The mushroom was minced very finely and placed on top of a small piece of pastry. The zucchini was on the side. We tasted nothing but loads of salt on this! Stay away from it.

Entrée
Grilled Bavette Steak
Pearl onions, confit tomato, roasted radish
Three of us were at dinner; we each ordered our steaks to be cooked differently. However, when it came, the redness was the same all around. We were going to send it back until we took a bit to try it first. It was tender and flavorful! Maybe I do like my steak medium-rare…I never knew that! The steak was already nicely sliced and ready to eat. Would come back just for this!

Desserts
We ordered one of each from the restaurant week menu. We loved all three, but the cheesecake was the favorite among the group.
Nutella Cake
Olive oil semifreddo, popcorn ice cream, chocolate coated popcorn

Blueberry Composition
Rosemary gel, yuzu curd, blueberry tapioca, blueberry sorbet and rosemary chip
This was our least favorite because the smell and taste of rosemary was very strong (may not be a bad thing if you love rosemary!).

Mascarpone Cheesecake
Black currant foam, black currant streusel, pineapple
Very soft cheesecake, unlike regular cheesecake where there’s a stiffer consistency. Overall, yummy!

This restaurant is gorgeous, the waiters were nice (they even gave us a complimentary soup), but if it wasn’t for restaurant week, we might not come back again. The regular menu is extremely expensive (you can spend upwards of $250+ for 2 people). The other downside was that the portions are relatively small. We’ll go back again for next year’s restaurant week!

Address: 17 Barrow St, New York, NY 10014 (Btwn 7th Ave S & W 4th St)
www.oneifbyland.com

Total Yummy Points: 8
(Lost some points with the appetizers!)