Bon Appétit meets Eric Sze in New York's Financial District, as he prepares to eat his way through the entire fine dining menu at Delmonico's Steakhouse. Joined by Ed Szymanski, chef at Dame and Lords in NYC, their appetites get put to the test in this lip-smacking food challenge.
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00:00I'm Eric Z of Area 6 and 1-1 and today we are outside of an American institution, Delmonico's.
00:05Delmonico's is known as a steakhouse, but really it's a restaurant restaurant.
00:09I'm gonna hit every single item on the menu.
00:11I brought my great friend, Chef Ed Cheminski of Dame and Lords.
00:15All right, let's get to it.
00:18I'm very, very excited.
00:20This also means we have to behave a little bit because it's so classy.
00:22If we're capable of doing that.
00:24Delmonico's, the first fine dining restaurant in America,
00:27has one of the biggest wine cellars in America, which you're a massive wine guy.
00:30Yeah, if the budget stretches to it, I'll try and get down there and sneak a few bottles.
00:34And they also invented a bunch of dishes like the Baked Alaska.
00:37Chicken a la King, Lobster Newberg, and Delmonico's Steak.
00:40There are some iffy claims.
00:41They maybe claim they invented a few more things than they really did,
00:44but either way, historic restaurant.
00:45Awesome to have a chance to eat everything all at once.
00:48Before we dive in, you gotta establish some ground rules.
00:51We need to order one of everything off the menu.
00:52We can only take one bite of everything.
00:54The order of which we frolic with these dishes, it's completely up to us.
00:59It's up to us.
00:59And at the very end, we're gonna give out awards to the best dishes.
01:02Let's do it.
01:03Round one, raw and cold.
01:04Let's go.
01:08First round.
01:08Okay.
01:09Raw and cold.
01:09Everything's here.
01:10I have a dirty martini here with gin and two blue cheese olives.
01:13Dry gin for me.
01:15Magnificent spread.
01:16I think it's enough.
01:17I think we start with the caviar.
01:18These are potato chips that they make in-house, cooked slowly, flattened.
01:21Really fancy.
01:22This is probably at least $25.
01:25This is an obscenely decadent thing.
01:27I'm just trying to get you full so you tap out before me.
01:30Yeah, it's like one bite but it doesn't specify how big the bite.
01:34Chin chin.
01:34Chin chin.
01:35Cheers, sir.
01:38That's really good caviar.
01:39I don't eat caviar a lot.
01:40That's some good caviar.
01:41If you did eat caviar a lot, you wouldn't say it on camera though.
01:44That would be obnoxious.
01:45We can only have one bite.
01:46I want another bite.
01:47What do you want to do next?
01:48Let's do the seafood plateau.
01:49Interesting name, seafood plateau.
01:50Fancy word for tower.
01:51On the bottom, these Kumamoto oysters.
01:53What sauce are you going with?
01:54Just a little lemon.
01:55I want to taste the oyster.
01:56I'm not even going to go with lemon.
01:57Okay.
01:58Cheers, sir.
01:59Salud.
02:02Super meaty.
02:03This is a hamachi tartare.
02:07Very fresh, delicious.
02:08Top tower prawns.
02:10Here's the thing, I love shrimp cocktail.
02:11I'm just not in that tax bracket to order it at restaurants.
02:14No, I'm not normally a cocktail sauce guy.
02:16I don't love this American affinity to put ketchup in everything but this is very good.
02:20So the shrimp is cooked in dashi with a lot of shallots, dill, and peppercorns.
02:24It's a very unique shrimp cocktail.
02:25And it's also straight.
02:27Why is that?
02:27You really stick a metal skewer in it when you cook it so it doesn't curl.
02:31Oh, okay.
02:32It's a lobster tail and lobster claw.
02:33They've very kindly separated the segments of the lobster tail.
02:41Should we have the claw?
02:42We should.
02:43Let's see.
02:44We should come here.
02:45Not on camera sometimes.
02:46I need more than one bite of everything.
02:47This is like the best way to start a meal.
02:48We already had these but we're gonna have to take another bite because we play by the rules.
02:55It's a great shrimp.
02:55Just as good.
02:56Yeah.
02:56I actually really wanted a second one.
02:58And another oyster for you.
03:02Very good.
03:02Just as good as the first time.
03:04So the yellowtail is cured in kombu for a day and it's served with an avocado puree.
03:07And it's rolled in this crispy rice pearl.
03:09All right.
03:11Delicious.
03:12And very complex.
03:13Like you were pointing out, this is not just a steakhouse.
03:15This food is quite ambitious.
03:17Very strong across the board.
03:18It's kind of cheating to say the caviar because of course that's amazing.
03:22I think the crudo surprised me.
03:23I'm gonna say the caviar.
03:24Very strong start.
03:25I'm still very, very hungry.
03:27Yeah.
03:27I'm famished actually.
03:28Next up we have the appetizers.
03:33We got some champagne.
03:34We are drinking some Paul Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill 1986.
03:39I'm kidding.
03:39I wish we were.
03:40We're drinking some Bruno Payard champagne which will be very refreshing and delicious.
03:44Salud.
03:44Cheers.
03:45Cheers to us.
03:46Like a true gentleman at a fine steakhouse.
03:48We have our appetizers here.
03:50We're still pretty hungry.
03:51I say we go with the Caesar first.
03:53Apparently they paint every leaf in the kitchen with a dressing.
03:56So I feel bad for the guy on Garmentier who has to do that.
03:58It's safe to say there's so much seafood in this Caesar salad.
04:01It's a sea Caesar salad.
04:03Did you think of these last night?
04:07Little gem for Caesar salad is just so much better than romaine.
04:10Yeah.
04:11It needs to be something really crunchy and like romaine can be a little too leafy.
04:14This is a wedge salad which they claim to have invented here.
04:17You want a huge bite of this little tomato.
04:19Tomato.
04:20Tomato.
04:21I want everything in one bite.
04:25It's so hard to get a salad to have the textural sort of melody that this has.
04:30This might be one of the best wedge salads.
04:32The textural melody.
04:33What a phrase.
04:34We're picking up all day, okay?
04:35Burrata.
04:36Beautiful composed bite.
04:41That's a posh caprese salad.
04:42Bacon next.
04:43The bacon is sous-vide and then braised and it's glazed with a maple syrup dressing that's
04:48been emulsified with foie gras.
04:52The foie is great.
04:53The bacon itself is very fatty to begin with.
04:55This is just luxury.
04:56Crab cakes.
04:56Crab cake, yeah.
04:57This is the fanciest crab cake I've ever seen in my entire life.
05:01It's wrapped in, what is this, like the fanciest julienned potatoes.
05:05Starting to feel like we're having a real lunch now.
05:07It's like a hash brown wrapped outside.
05:10Kind of the ideal crab cake, really.
05:11Crab cake.
05:12Is this one bite?
05:16That's very good.
05:17That one's like, I would like to go back in for another bite of that now.
05:20That's very tasty.
05:21Crispy potato on the outside and then mustard coming through in that tartar sauce.
05:25Herbiness as well from the parsley oil and the parsley powder.
05:28That's really good.
05:28You really shouldn't be fooled by the presentation of this dish.
05:31Tastes like some grandma in Maryland made it for you.
05:33For me, this one's kind of easy.
05:35Like, I think the crab cake takes the cake, if you will.
05:37I gotta go with the wedge salad, man.
05:38Okay.
05:39That bite with the tomato, with the lettuce, and the blue cheese, and the onions.
05:44This round is done.
05:45Next round, steaks.
05:49We have the first three steaks here and there's a total of eight.
05:53All the steaks, they're based in dry-aged beef fat,
05:56a little bit of brown butter, and a little bit of rendered duck fat.
05:59Here we have the piece de resistance.
06:02Yeah, pièce de résistance.
06:05Okay, I'm not even gonna try.
06:06Vive la France.
06:07This is the centerpiece, the Delmonico.
06:08That's right.
06:09So it's essentially a ribeye that's wet-aged and seared to perfection,
06:12served with crispy shallots.
06:14And in terms of sauces, we have the blue cheese sauce,
06:16the black garlic butter is seasoned with white shoyu.
06:19We have their take on the op-kwav, which is Sichuan peppercorn sauce.
06:23And here we have the jus.
06:26Takes a whole day to just boil down and the second day to season it
06:29with shallots and a little bit of soy sauce.
06:31This is the spicy kosho butter.
06:33It's got pickled peppers inside and balanced with a teriyaki glaze.
06:37We are drinking a bottle of Christophe Rumier Mucini from 1993, my birth year.
06:42My birth year too.
06:43There you go.
06:44Congrats.
06:44Well, it's just fermented grapes to me.
06:48These are all of my favorite wines that I could never afford to drink,
06:51so I'm pretending that they're in our glass.
06:53I think it would be a crime if we didn't start with the Delmonico.
06:55Yeah, oh, I agree.
06:56This looks like a nice medium rare.
06:58I want this spinalis camp here.
07:00Some people return ribeyes for being too fatty, but they're just wrong.
07:03For me, this is the best part of the animal.
07:05This like little bit up top here.
07:07I'm going to fold a little bit of these fried shallots
07:10because somebody worked very, very hard for these fried shallots.
07:15Come on.
07:15So good you would name a restaurant after it, perhaps.
07:18That's delicious.
07:18That's peak ribeye.
07:19I mean, it's not diet, it's very simple.
07:21The lore is the Delmonico steak sort of means butcher's cut
07:26and was at a certain point in time, whatever cut they had on hand,
07:30they needed to sell that day and they would market it as the house steak.
07:32Same way that modern steak houses would call it a butcher's cut
07:35or a chef's cut, something like that.
07:37And they called it the Delmonico's cut.
07:38The restaurant was so popular throughout the 19th century
07:40that other restaurants started imitating this
07:42and would put a Delmonico steak on their menu,
07:44even though they had no tie to the Delmonico family.
07:46And eventually like throughout the course of history,
07:49it settled on being this cut,
07:50the wet aged boneless ribeye from the chuck end.
07:54Next on, we're going to try the Delmonico sans spinalis dorsi.
07:58Just the eye of the Delmonico.
08:00The Delmonico is a ribeye, right?
08:01And a ribeye is comprised of the eye and also the spinalis dorsi.
08:04If you want a leaner cut, but you don't want the filet mignon,
08:07this is your cut.
08:08Filet mignon for people with a little more character.
08:10I'm going to do the spicy kosher butter.
08:12Okay, I'll do the black garlic one then.
08:14All right.
08:16I'm not going to waste.
08:19Wow.
08:20I'm not going to say I prefer it over the regular Delmonico,
08:23but I will say that it took me by surprise.
08:25I mean, the cook was just perfect.
08:26It's absolutely perfect.
08:28Dry aged ribeye, dry aged for 30 plus days.
08:31Even though this is the same cut as the Delmonico,
08:35different farm, different preparation too.
08:37Different product.
08:38One bite only thing means I got to go for this one.
08:40You picked the right one.
08:41Yeah.
08:41Look how juicy it is.
08:42Look, you can see the fat dripping off this.
08:44This is just like a competitive eating challenge.
08:47I'm going to dip it in the au poivre.
08:49I'm going to do the chalet jus.
08:50You can tell whoever's making these sauces knows what they're doing.
08:54Very good flavor and much more intensity.
08:57Anyone who wants to study in dry versus wet aging,
08:59it's very obvious to me from this.
09:00This tastes like funk and blue cheese and aged beef.
09:03This tastes fresh.
09:04It's delicious, but it tastes like fresher beef.
09:06It's very tender and that's part of what the wet aging process does.
09:09Without developing the funk, it tenderizes the meat.
09:12Dry aging does both.
09:13That is the first three steaks.
09:14We have five more to go.
09:16We're not done.
09:16We're just going to clear these.
09:18We are still in the steaks.
09:19I think the steaks are a little bit higher this round.
09:21We are drinking some Chateau Margaux 1982.
09:25For this mini round, we should focus on going leanest to most fatty.
09:30We're going to start with the filet mignon.
09:31How big of a bite do you want?
09:32I can take a big bite of filet.
09:33You would order the filet if you wanted a lean cut of beef.
09:37Traditionally, old school restaurants,
09:39you would serve the fatty beef without a lot of sauce
09:42or with a lean sauce like an au jus or something like that.
09:44You'd serve the lean cut of beef with a rich sauce.
09:47Serve this in a cream sauce or something with fat emulsified into the sauce.
09:52Nowadays, they finish cattle with so much corn at the end of their life
09:56that even the filet mignon can be pretty rich.
09:58Okay.
09:59If it's very dry, I'm not going to be able to eat this whole thing in one bite.
10:02They say you should be able to cut filet mignon with a spoon.
10:04Let's see. Shall we?
10:05Yeah.
10:06Yeah, yeah.
10:07There you go.
10:07Yeah.
10:08There you see.
10:08That's good.
10:14That is a really good filet steak.
10:15I'm not just saying that because the staff are all looking at me.
10:18Also very well seasoned.
10:20Also very well seasoned.
10:21The flaky salt on top is great.
10:22Incredibly tender, but perfectly charred and well-cooked too.
10:25If you overcook or undercook a filet, no good.
10:27Next up, New York strip.
10:28And mind you, all of these steaks are dry-aged except for the wagyu.
10:32The muscle that we call the New York strip is the same as the eye of the ribeye.
10:37It's just from further back on the calf.
10:39So it should be tender and fatty and delicious.
10:46Oh yeah.
10:47That's very good.
10:48I actually might prefer New York strips over ribeye.
10:50I know it's the same muscle.
10:51Well, same muscle, but different part of the muscle.
10:53Exactly. So further down.
10:55A5 Miyazaki wagyu.
10:56Wagyu means 和牛, which means Japanese cow.
11:00Miyazaki is where they produced it.
11:02A5 is the ranking of the cow.
11:04This steak actually takes a little bit longer to cook because they have to cook it slowly
11:08to A, not overcook it and B, render out most of the fat.
11:12Or else you'll just be eating like a cube of tallow.
11:14Very price cut, very expensive, hence the miniature portion.
11:17But we won't fault them for that.
11:19I'm eyeing this piece.
11:20They said you could have 34 ounces of steak, so that's 10 of these.
11:24First of all, I said 34 ounces of steak, not A5 Miyazaki, okay?
11:30This is like the fourth shot of whiskey at two in the morning at the bar.
11:33You know it's about a day, but it feels so right at the time.
11:35It's just like clocking my arteries as it goes down.
11:37Each bite is like somebody shooting a water gun of beef fat in your palate.
11:43I think I have to go for a jog right now.
11:45This is like exercise in refinement.
11:47It's very delicate.
11:48In the flavor profile, it's just fat and beef, whereas this tastes like smoke and char and
11:53peppers and there's like all this sauce that's sitting on the bottom of the plate too.
11:56It's a real privilege to be able to do this side by side because you wouldn't frequently
11:59have a chance to do that.
12:00All right, we've had six steaks.
12:02We've got two to go.
12:02We have Cote d'Ivoire and a porterhouse.
12:04And in our glass, they very generously poured us Domaine de la Romanée Conti La Tache from
12:091990.
12:10I think we might have to break the rule of the porterhouse because the magic of the porterhouse
12:15is the two different muscles on both sides of the bone.
12:18You have the filet on one side and you have the strip on the other side.
12:20This is the New York strip, right?
12:22Mm-hmm.
12:22And then we will take the filet.
12:24And this is very difficult technically to cook the two muscles to the same temperature.
12:29New York strip, filet mignon.
12:35I'm not sure how you can top that because the New York strip is leaner.
12:38The filet mignon is obviously a little bit more tender.
12:41So when you're biting down, there's that contrast of squishy and tender.
12:45It just constantly is flowing through.
12:48And every bite of the New York strip actually gushes a little bit of juice.
12:51So your palate is always lubricated.
12:53I feel like my body temperature has risen like five degrees in the last few minutes
12:57throughout the steak course.
12:58I would imagine-
12:59That's a Cote de Bouf all right.
13:00I would imagine you flip over a dictionary, you look up Cote de Bouf, and this photo pops up.
13:05Yeah.
13:06Cote de Bouf is a ribeye, too.
13:07This is Australian Wagyu.
13:10The beef is delicious.
13:11It's not as fatty as that Japanese Wagyu we just had.
13:14Because imagine a 36-ounce portion of that.
13:16Eric, you said 34 ounces.
13:18Please take it away.
13:19Eat the whole thing.
13:20At 11 a.m. today, I could have put this away.
13:22Okay.
13:22For sure.
13:23All right.
13:23And have space for sides and dessert.
13:25On that note, which slice would you like me to serve you?
13:28Actually, I think we should start with the bone.
13:29Okay.
13:30We should share this bone.
13:31Okay.
13:32It's the most romantic thing I've ever done.
13:35That's really good.
13:36So fatty, it's glistening.
13:38The meat is pretty raw towards the top, but it's the best kind of beef.
13:43All right.
13:43Let's get a slice, too.
13:47The cook is definitely different.
13:48It's notably less cooked than some of the other steaks.
13:50My assumption here is that's to showcase the fattiness of the Australian Wagyu versus the
13:54domestic beef.
13:55You can see the shine on the product.
13:57And again, beautifully rested, nothing on the plate beneath it.
14:00So out of the eight steaks, which I know seems like a century ago, which one was your favorite?
14:06The most surprising to me was the fillet.
14:07That was really a lot better than I thought it would be.
14:10It's hard to beat that versus Delmonico.
14:11There's a reason the restaurant's named after that.
14:13I gotta say, my number one steak, fried ribeye, is something about dry aging a piece of ribeye
14:19where that funk completely comes through when it's perfectly cooked.
14:22The fat in the center between the longitimus and the spinalis is rendered just enough where
14:27it's edible and it's not a chewy flab of bullshit fat.
14:30They achieved it.
14:31They achieved it.
14:32That's it for the steaks.
14:33Coming up next are the sides.
14:37Eric, how you feeling?
14:38I feel like I could use another two steaks.
14:41I am not staked out.
14:42Canned cooked fries.
14:43Chips.
14:43Of course, the Brit says chips.
14:45And this is a spicy mustard aioli.
14:47You know we're in a fancy place if they serve them in like a posh little basket.
14:51British chip shops serve them in newspapers, not in Kansas no more.
14:54Contrast.
14:57Very good.
14:57Good chips.
14:58Well seasoned.
14:58Nice and crunchy.
14:59He's not going to stop calling it chips.
15:00Let's move on.
15:01Grilled asparagus.
15:06This asparagus is, to me, incredible.
15:08That's great, yeah.
15:09It checks all the boxes of what I'm looking for in a summer barbecue, right?
15:12It has a char flavor.
15:13It's tender.
15:14It's fresh.
15:14A little bit of olive oil to garnish.
15:17Broccoli wrap.
15:19It's really tasty.
15:20Well cooked.
15:21The Aleppo pepper on top's a nice hit of spice.
15:23Very bitter vegetable.
15:24So it worked well to cut the foil of some of the richer meat dishes we just ate.
15:27Very tasty.
15:28Pomme purée.
15:28It's potato and a lot of butter.
15:30You're going to do a quenelle?
15:31No.
15:32Not exactly the best.
15:34We're getting there, right?
15:35You got it, sir.
15:36Just as Jean-Robuchon intended.
15:38Now it feels rude to eat it.
15:40Giving me a piece of art.
15:43Very good.
15:44Good technique happening in that kitchen.
15:46Wild mushrooms.
15:47We had a crazy night last night.
15:49That was an underrated joke.
15:52All right.
15:54That tastes like three-cup mushrooms from Taiwan.
15:56The sesame flavor here is quite strong too.
15:58It's fun to have a side that's non-conventional.
16:01Yeah, I would order that.
16:02Yeah?
16:02Let's do the hash brown.
16:03It's cooked with a lot of butter, a lot of duck fat, and a lot of potatoes.
16:07It looks very daunting and it's served with a dollop of creme fraiche.
16:10It has a shallot jam on the bottom.
16:12I want them to show my kitchen team how to do quenelles.
16:14That's a very nice shape and creamy on the inside.
16:19Oh yeah.
16:19The shallot jam.
16:20That's light sweetness.
16:22And it's just a hint of it.
16:23It really brings everything together.
16:24That's great.
16:24It's delicious.
16:25Right?
16:26I would order this hash brown every single time.
16:28Yeah, that's really good.
16:29I have a winner for this round.
16:30But you haven't tried the spinach yet.
16:32It's spinach, bro.
16:33It's green.
16:34All right, let's eat it.
16:35That's good.
16:36Really good.
16:36That's fantastic.
16:37Initially, we turned our noses up at this.
16:40But now after tasting it, you would order this, right?
16:42I would definitely order this.
16:43If I have to pick one, I'd say the hash brown.
16:46There we go.
16:46We can finally agree on something.
16:47We've had our sides.
16:49Let's go to our entrees.
16:50Let's do it.
16:52We have our entrees.
16:54These are the entrees that are not steak.
16:56Let's get the stuff that they didn't invent out the way first.
17:00Lamb chops.
17:01And on the side here, it's homemade yogurt that's been hung for about a day or so.
17:05And it's combined with a caramel so that it's like a caramelized yogurt.
17:09There's pistachio powder in these lamb chops.
17:11Unfortunately, my dining companion has a severe allergy to nuts.
17:16This will kill me.
17:17So I will do the honors and dip it in the yogurt.
17:20Yogurt, as you might say.
17:25That's fantastic.
17:26Impeccable cook.
17:27And the caramel actually really does come through.
17:29Yogurt tends to like overpower and be a little bit too rich sometimes,
17:31especially paired with lamb.
17:32But this just cuts it.
17:34It retains that tang perfectly.
17:35Shall we do the wild mushroom risotto?
17:37Let's do it.
17:38Looks like a pretty classic risotto to me.
17:42Mushroomy, truffle-y.
17:44Sweet too.
17:44That's good.
17:45Let's do the pasta next.
17:48That's good.
17:49Toddler came.
17:49He, she doesn't really want steak.
17:52You get a bowl of this.
17:53This is good, comforting.
17:54Nothing wrong with it.
17:55Some salmon.
17:56Let's do it.
17:58Fantastic cook on it.
17:59Dover sole.
18:04It's like a Sunday breakfast.
18:05It's buttery.
18:06Yeah, the brown butter just, it shines.
18:08It's swimming in a pool of it.
18:10But then it never gets too much, right?
18:12Because it's still so meaty.
18:13Chicken a la king.
18:14So they invented this dish.
18:16Little shell pasta.
18:17Looks like bacon, little asparagus.
18:19Bacon.
18:20Little peas.
18:21Yeah.
18:21This is like a school lunch.
18:23Very fancy TV dinner.
18:24Yeah, exactly.
18:25In my opinion.
18:29It's delicious.
18:31Brilliantly executed chicken dish, if I may say so.
18:34This very much goes by everything you can buy in a can.
18:37Yes, yes.
18:37Except for the chicken.
18:38That's maybe, you might be onto something there.
18:39That might be where all this, canned mushrooms, canned tomatoes, canned asparagus, canned peas.
18:43We are on to the final entree.
18:45The Lobster Newberg.
18:46The lore is that it was a fisherman called Wenberg who invented it.
18:52Brought it to Delmonico's, but they got into a massive fight.
18:54The owners renamed it Lobster Newberg.
18:57Very chef-y presentation again.
18:59Served with a side of caramelized gnocchis.
19:05That's a dish worthy of the name.
19:07It's like a steamed lobster plus lobster sashimi in one.
19:10With a nice creamy sauce.
19:11That's like a creamy, tomato-driven spicy sauce.
19:14You want to try some of these gnocchis?
19:15Let's do it.
19:19I don't normally order lobster when I go out.
19:21Same thing as shrimp cocktail.
19:23Just not in that tax bracket.
19:24Sure.
19:25But I would save up just to order this.
19:27Yeah, this is really good.
19:28It's delicious.
19:28What are your favorites of this round?
19:30No question.
19:31The lobster.
19:31Lobster.
19:32I think you're right, yeah.
19:33This has the delicate layers and the variety of texture paired with the gnocchi.
19:37It's a perfect lobster dish in my opinion.
19:39We are finally ready for the grand finale.
19:42Desserts.
19:45How are you feeling?
19:46My meat sweats are hitting now.
19:48It's a delayed hit, but I am feeling it.
19:50You look a little glazed over, but these should reinvigorate us.
19:54I'm ready for a nap.
19:54Some frozen things.
19:55A little sugar high wouldn't hurt right now.
19:58How are you feeling?
19:58I'm ready to go for a jog.
19:59Mango sorbet, raspberry sorbet.
20:02All of this is made in-house.
20:03Under love.
20:05Delicious.
20:05Tastes like raspberries.
20:07Come on.
20:08It's good.
20:08It's refreshing.
20:09And then some mango.
20:11One of the best mango sorbets I've had.
20:13Delicious.
20:13Typically mango in the States is a little bit too artificial.
20:16This one you can taste, it's the real deal.
20:17Ice cream's next.
20:18Vanilla and chocolate?
20:19Yeah.
20:21Sweeter than most vanillas you'll find in your store-bought ice creams.
20:24Not in a bad way.
20:25Yeah.
20:26In a, that's very refreshing after 45 ounces of sleep.
20:30Exactly.
20:30Chocolate?
20:33It's like they took milk chocolate and turned it into ice cream.
20:36You have the hazelnut one, let me know how it is.
20:37I won't have that one either.
20:38That's why it's near you, because of the nuts.
20:40Again, super smooth.
20:42Just crazy decadent.
20:45That's good.
20:46That's my favorite.
20:46Am I missing out on something?
20:47That's my favorite!
20:49You want to try this cheesecake?
20:50Yuzu and blueberry and sesame.
20:54Nice and light.
20:55Not a huge portion, which I appreciate.
20:57I don't know if it's light, buddy.
20:58It's just overtaking my mouth.
21:00But, as all cheesecakes should, very yuzu forward.
21:03Coconut cream pie.
21:04Shall we try the ice cream first?
21:05Yeah.
21:06Passion fruit.
21:07Cuts like a passion fruit ice cream.
21:10Tart and tangy.
21:11Let's go for it.
21:12All right.
21:14And you need a passion fruit ice cream.
21:16That acidity really brings it over the top.
21:17That's a fantastic dessert.
21:19Chocolate cake.
21:20It's a vanilla ice cream.
21:21Shall we dig in?
21:22Yeah.
21:25Come on.
21:26That's a great chocolate cake.
21:27Come on!
21:28What is in this chocolate cake?
21:29It's not just a chocolate cake.
21:31A blackcurrant liqueur in this cake.
21:33So it gives it that nuttiness without bringing too much alcohol into your palate.
21:38It is creamy.
21:39It's very, very creamy.
21:40But paired with that vanilla ice cream, even though it's more cream, it blends together.
21:43But you have the best for last.
21:45You have this baked Alaskan for any of you.
21:47And it's the only dish we've had that is served on the Delmonico's plate.
21:51Also invented here.
21:52Walnut cake, apricot jam, meringue around the outside set on fire.
21:56They pour black rum all over it and then everything lights on fire.
21:59And it's super showy.
22:00Everybody in the dining room is very jealous that you got one.
22:02This one will kill me because of the walnuts.
22:04But you will dig in.
22:04You can eat both of them.
22:05You can eat my bite.
22:06You have the cake and you have the gelato and then you have the meringue.
22:12How is it?
22:12It's good.
22:13You look happy.
22:14The banana and the apricot melds together.
22:16And then you have this sort of sponginess,
22:18but also a little bit of ice crystal-y texture from the gelato.
22:23And everything just homogenizes in your mouth.
22:26I'm impressed by the restaurant.
22:27I'm also impressed by us because it seems like we're doing okay.
22:30I think the chocolate cake is the winner for me.
22:32I might have to go with the baked Alaska.
22:34But it's unfair.
22:35I can't make the executive decision.
22:37It's famous for a reason.
22:38So we're gonna clear the table and we're gonna be back.
22:40I'm gonna figure out our awards.
22:44We've had a bite of everything on the menu.
22:46We feel okay.
22:47We're still alive.
22:47Yeah, we feel good.
22:48We can actually have another dinner after.
22:50We have to decide our awards.
22:52So we have the star, which is the best dish overall.
22:55Every time you're coming here, you're ordering this.
22:57The second is the return.
22:58You've been here before.
22:59You know what the star dish is.
23:01But what is something that you will keep getting?
23:02The third one is the repeat.
23:04You come here once a week.
23:06What are you getting that other people are not?
23:07I think your doctor's advice is to not come here once a week.
23:11Doctors be damned!
23:12If you ignore that, then...
23:13Yes.
23:13Okay.
23:14What is something that you tried, you're so blown away,
23:16defeated all your expectations,
23:18that one dish that took you by surprise?
23:20Darmonico's Steakhouse,
23:23known as the first American fine dining restaurant.
23:25Low-key, it's a potato restaurant.
23:27Some of the best dishes we've had have been potato-focused.
23:29That hash brown and that crab cake.
23:31That crab cake I see, it's better than most other crab cakes.
23:34That's the kind of thing I would come and eat once a week.
23:36If I was sitting at the bar by myself
23:38and crushing that crab cake, it'd be a good sight.
23:41I would not be ashamed of it.
23:42I think he has a point.
23:43The repeat is the crab cake.
23:44I could not agree more.
23:45The shoestring fries wrapped around the crab cake itself
23:49and the presentation, right?
23:50I'm curious to hear about your return
23:52because the lobster Neuberger is fantastic.
23:54It probably is one of the best bites today.
23:56That was the thing that I said,
23:57well, that's the best version of that.
23:59This is the place to get it.
24:00So the return is the lobster Neuberger.
24:02I couldn't come here and not have that.
24:03What is your start?
24:04Maybe it's the law.
24:05Maybe it's where we're sitting.
24:06Maybe it's the walls around us.
24:08But if I'm coming here one time in my life,
24:11I'm ordering a Darmonico's steak.
24:12I don't think you can come to Darmonico's and not do that.
24:15It may not be the greatest steak you've ever had.
24:17It may not be the most complex cut.
24:18We may prefer dry aging to wet aging,
24:20but there's steak houses around the country
24:23that have a Darmonico's steak on their menu
24:24and we're sitting in the place that it was invented.
24:27If you're coming here once, that's what I'm getting.
24:29I'm voting for the hash brown.
24:30This is where the exercise is a little tricky
24:32because you really need both of those things.
24:34I get your allure.
24:35I get the entire atmosphere.
24:36You're at Darmonico.
24:37It's the name steak, name steak.
24:39But man, we're chefs, man.
24:41You want the hash brown?
24:42That hash brown was fantastic.
24:43It was.
24:44Where are you?
24:45I've ever had it.
24:46We're skipping a lot of things here.
24:47Remember those appetizers?
24:49Wasn't just the crab cake that was great.
24:51Like the shrimp were really well cooked.
24:52The lobster, the caviar was great.
24:56We had a lot of good food today.
24:57Hey, I don't think that's the right answer.
24:58You pick yours.
24:59Rock, paper, scissors.
25:00Okay.
25:01Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.
25:02Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.
25:04As luck will have it, the star is the Darmonico's steak,
25:06but order the hash browns.
25:08There you have it.
25:08That is one of everything at Darmonico's Steakhouse.
25:11Carnivore's dream.
25:12That was a huge meal.
25:13I wonder what the bill was.
25:14I'll put my card down first.
25:15You pay me back with that later.