bar americain

new york, ny

website

one of bobby flay's many manhattan restaurants. not a huge fan of his foodtv shows - i'm more of a paula deen and alton brown kind of girl. derek and i enjoy watching throwdown on foodtv, but we usually root for the other team. that said, the food at bar americain is pretty good. i had a hard time labelling it because even though the style is southwestern comfort food, the prices are not very comforting. this is a fanchy white-tablecloth place, which is probably why it was barely half-full when we walked in at 7 pm on sunday without rezzies.

although our steaks were very good, the highlights for me are the sides. BEST fries ever (thanks to y&a for the rec). super crispy, not too potato-ey, and served with a smoked red pepper mayonnaise. amazing. also BEST cornbread ever. buttery, crispy, and with a unique seasoning i couldn't identify. it's served in the bread basket with dinner rolls that remind me of grade school cafeteria rolls (but in a good way). basically - if you want some cheap comfort food, come in here, order fries, ask for the bread basket, and hope they don't kick you out. customer service here tends to be on the snooty side.