New York City: David Burke Townhouse (January 2011)

My spouse and I ate Sunday brunch at David Burke Townhouse in mid-January 2011 after staying at the nearby Waldorf-Astoria. As its name suggests, the restaurant is in a townhouse, so the space is narrow but long and requires stepping down several steps to the bar/ancillary dining area and then another several steps to the main dining area. The dining room is a bit crowded; there isn’t much space between the tables for privacy. Our menu choices follow.

For appetizers, we ordered the pretzel crusted crabcake (with tomato orange chutney and poppy seed honey) and DB's pastrami salmon (with buckwheat blinis, horseradish crème fraiche, endive and orange mostarda). For main dishes, we ordered handmade cannelloni & braised short ribs (with wild mushrooms, mushroom chips, and truffle mousse) and “tongue in cheek” (braised beef cheek and veal tongue). We finished with the famous and cutesy DB's cheesecake lollipop tree (with bubblegum whipped cream and raspberries) for dessert. The food was good, but the close quarters would prevent us from returning; however, we might try Fishtail or David Burke’s Kitchen next time instead.