Cafe Ze

About once a month I need a last minute reservation.  Unless someone has a place in mind or a place on my list has a table, I'll start by flipping through my Blackboard Eats coupons and then look at Savored.com's discounts.  I needed a place somewhat near Grand Central, another NYC neighborhood that is light on good restaurants.  So for $10, I took Savored.com's opening at a charming, French inspired cafe called Cafe Ze.

Cafe Ze is one of the most charming restaurants in NYC's.  The location was previously a flower shop, and paying homage to its past, Cafe Ze uses fresh flowers to decorate the restaurant.  There is a large, beautiful spring flower bouquet at the entrance and bright yellow daffodils on the larger tables.  Cafe Ze's exposed brick and light tones make you feel a continent away from the dark, crowded, fast paced NYC grind. 

Despite showing up to Cafe Ze 30 minutes past our reservation time (I did call to let the restaurant know we were running about a half an hour behind), the restaurant still honored our Savored.com discount (technically the restaurant does not have to honor the discount if you are over 15 minutes late).  We dined late on a Wednesday night and only a few other tables were occupied.  The hostess let us pick our table and the servers were attentive throughout the meal.  Now on to the important part, our feast!

What to Eat:

We ordered family style and enjoyed every dish the servers put on our table.  We started with the Caprese Tart, which consisted of a doughy pizza crust with gooey fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes and arugula (I was so excited when the Caprese Tart arrived that I had finished most of it before I remembered to take a picture).  Because we were starving when we arrived, we kind of shoveled in the Caprese Tart.  I would go back to Cafe Ze to order the Caprese Tart and make sure to savor each bite.

Next we moved on to the Long Island Duck Breast.  The Long Island Duck Breast was very lightly coated in a shallot emulsion.  The thinly sliced pieces of medium rare duck melted in my mouth.  Cafe Ze's duck ranks up there in my top 5 favorite duck dishes.  I asked the server to substitute the bean cassoulet for the wild mushroom bread pudding.  The layered mushroom pudding featured a thin layer of melted cheese on top of buttery layers of bread and mushrooms.  I don't even like mushrooms but I LOVED Cafe Ze's wild mushroom bread pudding.  You can also order the bread pudding as an extra side dish. 

The Fruit de Mer was also a hit.  The bowl was overflowing with calamari, shrimp and clams.  Cafe Ze serves the tomato based seafood stew with buttery toast slices and a few pan roasted artichokes.  At the bottom of the stew, we found a nice surprise, a large piece of white fish!  Tip: make sure to ask your server for extra slices of toast for the seafood stew.



Need a fantastic French inspired restaurant midtown (far) east? I promise it's worth the hike,

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