Market Table

2/17/2008
West Village: 54 Carmine (and Bedford) - (212) 255-2100
Price: Mid-Range
Rating (1-10): 7

The quick and dirty:
Market Table offers a sophisticated yet comfy and unstuffy atmosphere with the food to match. The point of this place isn’t to hit you over the head with dazzlingly complicated cooking, décor, or service; instead Market Table makes small twists on the food here and there, but stays simple and refined – and the return is high quality. It’s not food to impress; it’s food done right, and that should impress.

The menu is small and the dishes are straightforward – a carefully selected handful of ingredients in each dish, cooked to maximize their own essence. This is a sophisticated and challenging kind of cooking that lets food be itself.

I had the seared halibut on a bed of home fries and rock shrimp (interesting combo – despite what I say in the paragraph above, I’m not sure yet how they tie) and caramelized onion. It tasted good - crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside - but as fish at restaurants often does, it left me feeling like I could have prepared the dish at home. There was no special sauce, no special spice, just good salt and pepper seasoning. The bed it sat on was oversalted and the peculiar rock shrimp/potato combo was in the end not much different from good home fries at brunch. But in retrospect, I blame my selection, not the restaurant. It’s just not what I wanted but it’s exactly what I ordered, save the extra salt. If I had to do it again, I’d get the blood orange salad appetizer and the burger, the strip steak or the braised lamb shank.

The service was fine and friendly, but nothing extraordinary. At the same time, this is meant to be a casual atmosphere, so as long as the plates are cleared, the cups are filled, the bread is there, and the server can answer some questions on the menu, I’m cool with that.


Full Review:
Market Table, a combo effort of chefs of the Mermaid Inn and the Little Owl, offers a sophisticated yet comfy and unstuffy atmosphere with the food to match. The place isn’t woefully original – the interior feels familiar, feels like it has been done before. The theme is a small grocery/deli connected to the restaurant, I suppose, so that you can see and buy what they use. Big deal. I think Blue Hill, in the same neighborhood, sourcing from a farm upstate is a much cooler concept.

But there’s something to be said of a place that doesn’t try too hard to be something it’s not, and likewise to make its food something it’s not. The point of this place isn’t to hit you over the head with dazzlingly complicated cooking, décor, or service; instead Market Table makes small twists on the food here and there, but stays simple and refined, close to the style of its owners – and the return is high quality. It’s not food to impress; it’s food done right, and that should impress.

The menu is small (7 entrees) and I had no problem with that – the last thing I want is a place that claims to do steak, sushi, burritos, and falafel. Besides, if the menu was any longer, it would only have made it more stressful to choose from all the delicious sounding plates.

The dishes are similar to the Little Owl’s in their simplicity – a carefully selected handful of ingredients in each dish, cooked to maximize their own essence. In my mind, this is the most sophisticated and challenging kind of cooking – the kind that lets food be itself. It shows discipline and a real understanding of taste. It’s often easier to mask the core ingredients of a dish with 12 additional vegetables, some bright yellow mango and 47 spicy spices – think Emeril Live. If you make the food sufficiently unrecognizable and the flavors sufficiently confusing, then you might get the benefit of the doubt that it’s actually good. Thankfully, Market Table does not lean on that crutch.

I had the seared halibut. Below it sat home fries and rock shrimp (interesting combo – despite what I say in the paragraph above, I’m not sure yet how they tie) and caramelized onion. It tasted good - crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside - but as fish at restaurants often does, it left me feeling like I could have prepared the dish at home. There was no special sauce, no special spice, just good salt and pepper seasoning. The bed it sat on was oversalted and the peculiar rock shrimp/potato combo was in the end not much different from good home fries at brunch. But in retrospect, I blame my selection, not the restaurant. It’s just not what I wanted but it’s exactly what I ordered, save the extra salt.

I have no doubt that given another chance, I’d do a better job ordering something I really want and that Market Table would deliver a very nice meal. Based on my surveillance of other tables, I would get the blood orange salad appetizer and the burger, the strip steak or the braised lamb shank. Maybe I’ll just get all of them.

The service was fine and friendly, but nothing extraordinary. It’s a missed opportunity for a restaurant when its service doesn’t add a little character to the place. At the same time, this is meant to be a casual atmosphere, so as long as the plates are cleared, the cups are filled, the bread is there, and the server can answer some questions on the menu, well I’m cool with that.

The West Village has become riddled with a slew of regrettable, cheap restaurants and bars of the tourist-trap, Caliente Cab Co variety. Of course, there’s still a laundry list of great places, from low to high price. But it never hurts to see one more for the good guys.