Café Gray. (http://www.cafegray.com/) The wife and I ate at Café Gray on September 19th for a very special occasion. I stress that it was a special occasion because of the cost of the meal. We usually don’t have meals in the $200 per person range, but we wanted a memorable dinner. We opted for the dinner prix fixe with the accompanying wine selection. The dinner was $105 per person with the wine another $50 per person. The four courses consisted of:
· Seared fois gras and sautéed quail with sweet and sour tomatillo and ramps
· Indian summer ragout consisting of a rice flour crepe stuffed with carrots, beets and artichokes
· Chilled grape soup with an ice wine granite
· Pear and hazelnut soufflé with poire Williams ice cream.
All four courses were well prepared, but the seared fois gras course and the soufflé course was absolutely stunning. My wife likes to rate restaurant foods on her “wow” factor. These two courses were definitely “wows”. The fois gras appeared to be sautéed in duck fat which gave it a wonderfully richer taste than fois gras sautéed in oil. The quail was grilled perfectly and the tomatillo/ramp mixture was tender, well seasoned and complimented the the fois gras and quail. Dots of a fig sauces were placed around the edge of the plate and gave the dish a bit of sweetness that always accentuates the taste quail and fois gras. The wine selection for this course was a 2004 Mas De Daumas Gassa, “Vin de Pays” from Herault, France. The crispness, hint of tropical flavors, and long finish were a perfect match.
The next course, summer ragout, was good but I didn’t feel that it was up to the same standard as the previous course. The “wow” factor was missing. The course was basically a vegetarian dosa (Indian pancake) stuffed with perfectly roasted beets, carrots and artichoke hearts, in a very lightly curried sauce. Unfortunately, I didn’t make notes of the wine that was served with this course or the final course. The wines were served by the glass so the bottle didn’t remain at the table.
The grape soup course was interesting, but also lacked the “wow” factor. The soup had five or six extremely thin slices of grapes floating in it with a small portion of ice wine granite in the center. There was also a small crispy tuile among the grape slices. The soup was not overly sweet as I expected, but was only slightly sweet.
The final course, the soufflé was a definite “wow”. The hot, still steaming soufflé was presented along with the ice cream on long rectangular plate. A small container of with a hot pear/caramel sauce accompanied the dessert. Fantastic!!!. The combination of pear and hazelnut was the perfect touch. We also ordered coffee with the meal (for an additional $4.00 per person).
The service was absolutely outstanding. The wait staff was always in the background but not obtrusive. Water glasses were always kept full. Dinner ware was changed at the appropriate times. The servers were very helpful when I asked them if I could get Chef Kunz to autograph my copy of “The Elements of Taste”.
The restaurant must have costs a large fortune to design and furnish. The open kitchen extends completely across the back of the restaurant with the grill/sauté stations at one end, the garde manger station in the middle and the pastry station at the other end.
In the end, the meal was excellent but not worth the price. I stopped by a couple of days later and noticed that the prix fixe lunch only cost $46 and consisted of the same courses except for the chilled grape soup. $46 is a bargain for the meal, and $105 is just too much.

Café Gray is located in the Time Warner Center at 10 Columbus Circle, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10019. The telephone number is 212-823-6338. Reservations are recommended and accepted 28 days in advance.