WD50 Molecular Gastronomy or Flavorless Food?

Dinner for four yesterday at WD50, after the obligatory bad table that I get at every restaurant, I am now tired of complaining and we just sit down in a corner booth, totally isolated near a wait station.

The food should be the main reason to go there though and we soon order; the appetizers are nice, very imaginative and taste good, but have some serious issues. The pictures are from the restaurant menu.



The aerated foie gras has a nice mousse like texture even though it looks more like a sponge, the accompaniments though are all wrong; beets? a cornichon? We need a sweet jammy like flavor to complement it, a thicker piece of brioche to spread it on, and instead we get a charcuterie platter accompaniment.



The cold fried chicken is actually my favorite appetizer, but it is mainly due to the fantastic drop of tabasco honey that adds a little bit of flavor to the crunchy texture of the chicken.



I like the corned duck, nice presentation but is is mainly a charcuterie item with decent mustard.



The eggs benedict are everyone's favorite, the yolk is vibrant, the hollandaise sauce is enclosed in English muffin crumbs and deep fried. Delicious all around. The evening's winner!

We also had a peekytoe crabroll that was very good. No picture is available.

On to the mains:



The above dish is a Cod, peas-n-coconut, nori, carrot dashi, visually, it is dramatic and magnificient, taste wise, I am still looking... the cod is flavorless, the only evidence of peas is some green color, I taste no coconut, the carrots have their flavor steamed out of them and the nori pasta is just weird. We ate it but really more out of hunger.




Venison chop, freeze dried polenta, fennel, asian pear; the venison was very well prepared but I can get a good medium rare venison chop anywhere, thefreeze dried polenta had no flavor or texture and I have made better fennel salad in my sleep, how about a little olive oil? maybe some acidity? Nothing in this dish has any flavor save the chop.



Duck breast, apple, cheddar, kimchee-cous cous: again, a well prepared slice of duck breast, and again, that's not why we're at WD50. The kimchee broth doesn't pair well, the Israeli couscous is swimming in the broth and cannot absorb it, the duck apart, the flavors are beyond boring.

The fourth dish was a Parsnip tart, quinoa, hazelnuts, bok choy (no picture), I like the bok choy but I can steam/boil/saute baby bok choy anywhere, the parsnip was bland, the tart crust was a crisp slice of something boring but at least the quinoa and hazelnuts provided a nice contrast in texture.

On to the desserts:



Licorice custard, sake sorbet, bartlett pear: is not much better, a hint of liquorice but the sake sorbet has no consistency or taste of sake



Milk chocolate, black bean, plantain, soy, peanut: is slightly better but that's because of the chocolate flavor.

A third dessert of Grapefruit curd, campari, hibiscus, sorrel was more intriguing because the grapefruit was distinguishable and the flavors were actually a little bolder than usual.

We put a check mark on WD50 and promise ourselves never to set foot in the place again. Maybe we are used to bolder flavors but I don't think that's the reason we dislike it so much. Rather, it is the lack of any flavor per se that made it such a waste. The chef Wylie Dufresne has interesting techniques and a flair for the dramatic, now if he could only combine those with some flavorful food, and add contrasting textures we may have something.

The meal cost $450 with tax, tip and an $87 bottle of wine (one of the cheaper on the list.