Wallsé

"Offers a $60 three-course dinner with options like smoked trout crepes, crisp cod strudel or bavette steak with bone marrow, and chilled melon soup." - Robert Sietsema

"In the midst of modern New York, Wallsé evokes a sense of place and a reverence for history." - MICHELIN Guide

"In the midst of modern New York, Wallsé evokes a sense of place and a reverence for history. However, those who may think Austrian food is all Wiener schnitzel and apple strudel should think again, because this cuisine is itself made up of a host of influences, stretching from Italy all the way to the Balkans. Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner and his kitchen also demonstrate how cuisines can evolve to respect contemporary tastes without compromising their integrity. There are plenty of classics, including quark spaetzle with succulent, tender rabbit, on offer, but there are also lighter dishes, like cod with squash and chanterelles.This two-roomed restaurant exudes romance, so if you’re here on a date, don't skip dessert and share a Sachertorte." - Michelin Inspector

"Wallsé’s Easter lunch and dinner includes dishes like spring pea soup with lobster ravioli, white asparagus with ham, parsley crusted lamb, and schnitzel among selections. Finish off the meal with Austrian desserts like apple strudel or sachertorte. It’s $95 per person." - Melissa McCart

"An easy bonhomie pervaded the barroom as a friend and I were seated at a corner banquette, with a pair of priests close enough that we could make out their conversation (in German). Later, some neighborhood types drifted in and sat down to a formal caviar service ($110), furnished with crepes called palatschinken rather than blini. By 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, the place was filling up. This is one of the neighborhood restaurants where patrons still dine late, and by the time we left an hour later, Wallsé was thronged. We went for caviar, too, though this time tiny heaps of it topping three stumpy palatschinken ($29) filled with smoked trout, served with a hazelnut-strewn endive salad slicked with a sharp sherry vinaigrette. Appetizers, one of three courses, also listed a beet salad, foie gras terrine with pear sorbet, and beef tartare with rye crisp and more caviar. We swooped toward the second section of the menu, which consisted of medium-size dishes, including a rabbit spaetzle ($30). Though the flavor was muted by excessive creaminess, the dish was as stomach-soothing as a hot water bottle. Then the entrees arrived. As opposed to the practice in many modern restaurants, where the mains are of modest size and come unsided, at Wallse they’re giant plates of food that could serve as an entire meal — which is fortunate, because they are expensive, too. The wiener schnitzel ($44), of course, is the centerpiece. It consists of two veal cutlets, pounded into abject tenderness and cooked so they achieve a perfect medium brown. Gutenbrunner knows not to fuck with the formula: Following convention, the schnitzel comes with a potato salad; a sharp cucumber salad; and a ramekin of lingonberry jelly, used sparingly to apply sweetness. The colors and composition of the plate are so pleasing I hesitated to dig in. The venison stew wasn’t as good ($46). Yes, it contains generous hunks of deer in a midnight-brown gravy, but the hunks themselves are excessively fibrous and nearly flavorless. The gravy, however, is fabulous, tasting more of the hedge-hopping garden destroyer than the meat. The softball-size potato dumpling that comes alongside is perfect: Ask for two dumplings and gravy and skip the venison and you’ll have a fine meal. The wine list is loads of fun (a deep collection from Austrian vintners from reasonably priced bottles to wildly expensive ones), but better still are the cocktails. Reading the list can be alarming — one features pilsner, apricot jam, and schnapps — but the ones we had were fantastic: mild, and not too sweet. I loved the tomate ($19), with tomato water and pepper-infused vodka, colored a ghostly white. Austria’s desserts are perhaps more famous than its savory dishes, and they’re famous worldwide. As you might expect, there’s apple strudel, sachertorte, and black forest cake, but we selected the more obscure Salzburger nockerl ($15), a soufflé dusted with powdered sugar and underpinned with huckleberry syrup; the presentation is supposed to represent the hills that surround Salzburg. It proved the perfect conclusion to our meal, and one that was utterly satisfying, leaving a coating of powdered sugar on our lips as we nodded goodbye to the priests." - Robert Sietsema