One if by Land Two if by Sea

17 Barrow St

Restaurant Week stop #2. With friends in town for the week, Sir Fancy Pants and I invited them to join us for our second Restaurant Week destination. One if by Land Two if by Sea, located in Greenwich Village, is an upscale American restaurant perfect for a romantic evening out. Given the friends were in town to get married, we found the venue rather fitting.

The four of us arrived just in time for our 7:30 dinner reservations and after checking in coats, were led upstairs to a small seating area overlooking the chandelier laden dining room below. To get started we ordered a bottle of Forest Glen sauvignon blanc priced at $48. For my meal I ordered the following: Butternut Squash Soup as an appetizer; Saffron Orzo (sans duck confit) for my entrée; and the Key Lime Cheesecake for dessert.

The soup was amazing. I was very impressed with One if by Land’s version topped with fennel foam. The addition of huckleberries provided a nice, semi-sweet touch to the classic soup as well. For the main dish, the saffron orzo mixed with peas and pea shoot salad was very good, cooked just right to allow the texture of the rice to perform the way it should, soft without being mushy. The key lime cheesecake was very good but on the tangy side. The honey tuile tropical sorbet it came with balanced out the tartness.

The Milk Chocolate Fondant, a salty sweet chocolate cake served with maple ice cream which Sir Fancy Pants ordered for dessert, was pretty amazing. Had I not wanted to order something different from him, I would have ordered it myself.

While I liked my entrée very much, I could not help feeling cheated at the dish and portion size compared to that of my companions. Given that it was Restaurant Week, I literally had one option to choose from; whereas, my carnivorous friends had three. Of course, I could have ordered off the main menu anyway and paid more, but that would defeat the purpose of the visit. I specifically made reservations to One If By Land because it was Restaurant Week.

HERE IS A SUGGESTION FOR RESTAURANTS WANTING TO CATER TO VEGETARIANS DURING RESTAURANT WEEK: LET US ORDER OUR MAIN DISH OFF THE REGULAR MENU, INSTEAD OF CREATING A LESS THAN AVERAGE DISH AND THINKING IT WILL SUFFICE. Vegetarians get this crap nearly everywhere we go. Steakhouses and chain restaurants are the worst. When you cut out our options down to one meager meal that you normally wouldn’t serve anyway, it is even more insulting and leaves a bad taste in our mouth. It would not be the first time I have been to a restaurant and had only one option to choose from, and unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last.

I will give the restaurant credit for the atmosphere; it was incredible and a live piano player located at the entrance of the restaurant played music throughout the evening. The manager gave us $60 worth of gift cards before we left, which could be customary at the establishment to draw in business.

OVERALL:
Décor: ++
Ambiance: +++
Service: ++
Menu: FAIL

DAMAGE ~ $240, or $60/pp
VERDICT: Go