Alinea was quite good but frankly for a 3 Michelin star restaurant it was not impressive. The food lacked the unique taste ingenuity of Eleven Madison Park, the Restaurant at Meadowoods or Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fair. At the same time it lacked the superb culinary perfection of perennial classics found at Per Se, Daniel and Jean George. Sure trying to find your twig shaped food in a nest of twigs, sucking down an apple leather ballon of helium, discovering the briquets in your tabletop bonfire are pieces of Weygu beef or devouring an abstract painting for dessert are fun gimmicks. But gimmicks don’t tickle the pallet. The most of the wines in the standard pairing were excellent. But it wasn’t by any means an impressive pairing. They would have been impressive on their own and they did nothing to the culinary experience. With that manny somoliers you’d figure they could get a little more creative. From a food stand point if definitely downgrade it one star but I guess the presentation is what pulls it through.
Cicchetti has only been around for about 6 months and sports no Michelin stars or major awards but he food is delicious. The smoked whitefish, the burger, the scrambled egg bruschetta and the French toast were all delectable. We went back twice in as many days after our first visit.