NoMad: One Michelin Star

NoMad: A One Michelin Star Resturant

NoMad is owned and operated by the famous chef Daniel Humm, if that name didn't ring a bell then "Eleven Madison Park" should.  Daniel Humm is the Executive Chef and owner of these two restaurants. Eleven Madison Park was ranked as the #1 restaurant on the 50 best list for many years.  NoMad is an abbreviated way of saying "North of Madison Park."  This would be because NoMad is quite literally just north of the original restaurant that's located in Madison Square Park in New York City. NoMad opened in 2012 as apart of the NoMad Hotel, but I won't get into the hotel details, however, it is utterly beautiful.  If you're interested in more information about the hotel, restaurant, or reservations click here.

I had my experience at NoMad during a day trip to New York where I ate at multiple restaurants, so as a result, I didn't order a ton of food.  The menu is organized into sections labeled as; Snacks, Appetizers, Mains, and Burgers.  I decided to go with two snacks; the "Carrot" and "Black Truffle."  They also gave me a flatbread with apples and roasted celery root.  Now let's get into the review! 

Celery Root Bread

On the house, the first food brought to my table was this incredible bread.  Flavored with sweet apples and super flavorful roasted celery root, mixed with the soft, airy, and slightly salty bread, it was perfectly balanced.  In fact so good that I may or may not have eaten most of the loaf of bread.  The perfect sweet and salty balance kept you coming back for more.  The apples added a nice textural balance from the soft bread with just a slight crunch. 

Black Truffle

The menu description called this a "tarte" and the base of the dish was super thin and crisp- so texturally it was a tarte.  However, the shape reminded me more of a flatbread.  Another thing I noticed about the texture was that as it sat it never got soggy.  The tarte remained the same amount of crispiness from the first bite to the last despite the heavier mascarpone topping.  To further about that, the toppings on the brittle tarte, were creme fraiche, and the mascarpone cheese, along with the star of the show- shaved black truffles.  The flavors were perfectly balanced with the natural truffle flavor that can be described as umami.  The slight acidity and creamy aspects from the creme fraiche and mascarpone made for an incredible dish.  They also had a fantastic deal happening (weird to use the word "deal" when speaking about fine dining), where you could add white truffles at market value.  If you're unsure about what this means, let me explain.  White truffles are bought by the restaurant at market value, and then they add on their food cost in order to make a profit.  NoMad does not profit off of these white truffles- they sell them to you at the same price that they paid.  In this case, 4 grams of white truffle was coming in at $33.  However, I declined this offer but thought I should let you know about the great opportunity there.  

Carrot

This dish was my least favorite of the lunch I had at NoMad, but let me explain why.  I'll start with a little bit of background of why this dish is always on the menu, and probably always will be.  At Eleven Madison Park, they have a famous carrot tartare that is served tableside as apart of a theatrical aspect to the dining experience.  The two restaurants will never serve the same dish, so  NoMad made a spin on the carrot tartare with this.  They sous-vide the carrots at a low temperature for a long period of time, making them super tender.  This aspect of the dish was very flavorful, perfectly seasoned, along with the light crunch of sunflower seeds.  They also hit the mark on the creamy aspect of the tartare by topping it with a quail egg, that added a certain richness.   So what didn't I like?  The menu does mention that there's horseradish in the dish however there was just so much of it, it was masking the other flavors.  Also, the spice of the horseradish was overwhelming on the taste buds and made every other bite taste like horseradish as well.  If it wasn't for that I would say that the dish was executed very well.   I found an interesting video from Chef Daniel Humm about the dish on Youtube, if you're interested: click here.

The service was also very personalized, and I wish I could remember my servers name as she was very attentive, willing to answer any and all questions, including detailed descriptions of menu items.  She was also able to aid me in deciding what to order, based on how much I was looking to eat. 

In terms of the dining room setting and overall ambiance; the dining room was beautiful everything was white with red accents and even though that sounds very formal it was still warm and homey.  I was sat in a back section near a beautiful fireplace, (pictures below) but the dining room as a whole was pretty astounding and well decorated but didn't feel cluttered.  I do also know from outside knowledge that they have a popular bar area, however, I didn't get to see this as I went at lunchtime.  

Another fun aspect I got to see while dining was the coffee service at NoMad.  A surprise to any of you that know me- I didn't order a coffee!  However, not to worry, the table next to me did.  They poured the coffee table side out of what appeared to be like an antique percolator?  Don't quote me on that but I thought it was very interesting and cool to watch.

Lastly, I found this short video that shows some great glamour shots of dishes from Eleven Madison Park as well as NoMad that I thought some of you might like to view.  Click Here! (Also if you look closely at about one minute and 15 seconds in, there's a glimpse at the coffee service I was talking about.)  I also decided to share this with you all because I know my photos aren't great as they were taken in a low light setting, and I'm hoping the video will give you some better perspectives.  

Overall, I would definitely recommend NoMad to all of you, especially if you're looking to try some of the wonderful creations of Chef Daniel Humm but at a lesser cost, or even just without the pressure of a tasting menu.  As usual, thank you so much for reading and be sure to subscribe for email updates!  I'll be coming out with a whole new section for my blog of Michelin Starred Restaurants!  I have about 3 more already lined up including restaurants from famous chefs like Grant Achatz, and Joel Robuchon!

From my kitchen to yours,
MallaryMade