Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

There's a cute little neighborhood of Manhattan where I've never traversed, but discovered one night en route to a French restaurant called Bistro Vendome.  The restaurant is in Sutton Place (let me guess your reaction: "where the heck is Sutton Place?!") right under the 59th Street Bridge.  It was dark and romantic inside; the restaurant was a sort of crazy configuration of split level - a few tables on the ground floor, a few tables up some steps, and a bigger space down some steps.  The different levels gave the eatery some charm, but must make it very difficult for wait staff to maneuver.  Many of the diners were a few generations older than us, meaning they spoke to the staff in fluent French and were probably dignitaries or ambassadors or some such thing.  It was very cute to people-watch. Alex had a duck leg confit and I had a big ol' vat of Normande mussels.  The duck leg was perched  on a plate almost like it was seductively beckon...

Are you recovering from a very indulgent Valentine's Day/President's Day Weekend?  I sure am. This weekend, we tried out a restaurant right under Alex's office building called Le Relais de Venise: L'Entrecote.  I've always walked by, seeing a chic French bistro and thinking it'd be completely over our budget.  I was quite wrong! This restaurant's schtick is that they serve only one thing: steak frites.  You get a salad, sliced steak, and french fries for a fixed price of $28.75.  The salad of mixed greens and walnuts has a quirky, unusual, and very delicious mustard dressing.  For the main course, you can choose your steak blue, rare, medium, or well-done.  The first serving comes with a heaping pile of shoestring fries and the steak covered in a secret sauce.  Once you finish your plate, they bring you a second serving of both.   Funnily enough, the reason this blog post has no photos is that...the steak sauce is extremely not ...