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We're all for surf and turf—the city's best steakhouses and seafood restaurants offer up plenty of great land-meets-sea options—but this one takes things to the next level: Meet The Chobster.
The Franken-creation is the brainchild of executive chef Romain Paumier and chef-restaurateur Daniel Boulud, who this spring added a new concept—Maison Barnes, “celebrating French art de vivre” at 100 East 63rd Street—to his extensive restaurant roster, which includes Daniel, Bar Boulud, Le Pavillion and Café Boulud, with which Maison Barnes shares an address.
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A reinvention of the 19th-century Poularde Homardine, the culinary spectacle pairs a roasted Sasso chicken with lobster, topped with sauce Nantua and spring rice. The kitchen infuses the bird with lobster essence, flambéing it with cognac, and finishing things off with a rich sauce of lobster bisque, chicken jus, and crème fraîche. The whole shebang is presented tableside, dressed up with a robotic brass lobster head, tail and claws (she's giving Zendaya-on-the-Dune-promo-tour vibes), before it's returned to the kitchen for carving and, uh, shelling? The surreal meal can be yours for around $250 a pop.
The stuffed chicken is just one of the luxe French offerings at the uptown dining room, which also adds some tableside theatricality to a Loup en Croûte with Sauce Choron (a.k.a. sea bass in puff pastry with tomato hollandaise). The à la carte menu pays homage to the classics with a nod to seasonality: think white asparagus with sauce mousseline and hazelnuts; venison-and-juniper terrine with pear-gin chutney; and poached Dover sole with button mushrooms and seaweed butter rice.
And the setting is similarly fancy and French, evoking Paris's Gilded Age with interior details from designer Stéphanie de Ricou, including jewel-toned banquettes, hand-painted tropical murals, garden trellis-lined walls and richly painted ceilings inspired by the French capital's Grand Palais. Check out the sumptuous space, as well as The Chobster creation, below:
