A brief update from my dinner last week at Gwen. I think it was well worth the visit and I hope to return to try a more basic meal a la carte to focus on the dry-aged steak options. As a party of 2, we opted for the 5-course pre-fixe so we could try more of the menu as first-timers.
Charcuterie plate and bread. The bread (served with French butter) and the duck charcuterie were amazing. I liked the thin cuts compared to Chi Spacca.
Corn agnolotti. Yum. Amazing crunchy texture combined with sweet velvet fillings. Exceptional and better than at Spago. Favorite dish of the night.
Halibut (i think). Perfectly cooked and the fresh tomato sauce below screamed summer time.
NY Strip with duck fat potatoes and squash. Also perfectly cooked, but you can tell this is an ordinary cut of meat. This is the real downfall of the $85 5-course menu. For the money the amount of food was good, but this was definitely missing some wow factor. The bearnaise sauce helped. Perhaps by design, but it makes me want to come back with a group of four and get the dry-aged ribeye.
Duck fat potatoes were super crispy and flavorful without becoming heavy, and I loved the vinegar sauce to go with it. Squash with yogurt had a middle eastern flair to it.
The knives we chose for our steak.
Churro / mexican chocolate ice cream / flan. All excellent in their own right. Of particular note was the texture of the ice cream and the eggy-ness of the flan (which I prefer over more creamy flans).
Caramels to take home as a birthday gift.
For me, this was plenty of food. Service is pretty warm and no pushing of supplements or higher cuts of meat. Our server handled wine duties fine as we ordered just a rose to carry us through the meal. We did bring a bottle of Brunello but opted not to open it given the diversity of food with the 5-course meal. The somm was only mildly helpful and never saw him again after the initial consultation and him dropping off the bottle we ordered off the list. We only ordered rose because of the charcuterie dish, but the wine didn’t arrive until after, when whites would have paired better with the fish and pasta. The two cocktails we tried (can’t remember their names) were excellent.
I think the move for next time is cocktails, one appetizer, a dry-aged steak + red wine.