Restaurant Review: A Chef’s Mini-Empire in the Evelyn Hotel | The New Yorker

"Situated in the Evelyn Hotel’s former ladies’ lounge, I found Benno to be unabashed, capital-“F” Fine Dining set inside an immaculately preserved Beaux Arts–era building where Gatsby-esque patrons at the bar only amplified the formality. Jonathan Benno — a chef’s chef with tenures at the French Laundry, Gramercy Tavern, Craft, Per Se, and Lincoln Ristorante — runs a prix-fixe menu that, to me, often felt weighed down by pomp and fussy presentation: spindly housemade grissini seasoned with Calabrian chili and herbes de Provence; a canapé of duck liver and smoked-eel terrine atop black-olive purée, sprinkled with caramelized cocoa nibs and served with a shooter of lukewarm butternut-squash consommé that tasted as sweet as Italian-soda syrup; and even a lovely green garganelli in a veal-and-porcini ragù plated in U.F.O.-shaped dishes with nowhere to rest your silverware. Still, the less ambitious dishes shone: I would almost go back just for the simple coddled egg cooled with a dollop of black-truffle mousseline and garnished with tiny fingerling potatoes, pioppini mushrooms, and leeks; the brodetto for two had perfectly cooked mussels, clams, and beautiful rhombuses of squid; and dessert was a high point — a flaky miniature babka with coffee-cardamom gelato and an al-dente baked apple with granola and tart-apple sorbet. Even so, I felt exhausted by the ceremony (the tableside coffee service, complete with a waiter weighing grounds and lecturing on pour-over mechanics, made me roll my eyes). (Benno tasting menu $95–$145.)" - Hannah Goldfield