Blue Ribbon

97 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012
212.274.0404
www.blueribbonrestaurants.com

With little knowledge of the NYC restaurant scene, I've come to rely on what I've read in 'Heat' as my guide in my exploration of the city through the food it offers.  The book talks about Blue Ribbon Brasserie as a place that renowned NYC chefs go late night and sit at the front round table to talk shop.  Blue Ribbon's reputation already precedes it so it was an easy choice for trying a new restaurant.

To start, we tried a contrast of oysters ordering 6 raw oysters and their fried oyster appetizer. The raw oysters were fresh and smooth but nothing out of the ordinary from any fine restaurant serving oysters in the City. I expected the fried oysters to provide much more of a wow factor (maybe hoping for the same thing that I found at Pearl) but while the batter was light and not too overbearing the accompanying sauce and spices had an off-putting weave of asian flavors (very much like a light fish sauce) which did not seem to complement the oysters. For my entree, I ordered lamb sweetbreads which the thymus gland of an animal. The sweetbreads were sauteed in a mushroom sauce (I think) and served with mushrooms, arugula and carrots. They were perfectly cooked and the creaminess of the sauce really toned any gaminess from the sweetbreads.  My dining companions ordered the whole steam flounder served with scallions, leek, carrots and ginger and the Paella Bazquez. The flounder was light, simple and in a broth reminiscent of an Asian preparation for whole fish. The paella was completely normal, unfortunately. It was done well but for a place such as Blue Ribbon, the standards should be higher.  We ended the meal by splitting a banana split.  Ice cream, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  Do I really have to write about that?