Fishtail

I am a huge fan of the David Burke restaurant in Bloomingdales but it tends to be chaotic, crowded and rushed.  In the mood for a tranquil brunch, we decided to try David Burke's Fishtail restaurant, a short walk from Bloomingdales.  I had enjoyed dinner there a year ago and had been intrigued by the seafood centric brunch menu.

Fishtail's white interior and spacious booths is tranquil and invites diners to enjoy a leisurely brunch.  Shortly after ordering, the busboy brought over a beautiful breadbasket, including a few crudites, like carrots and red grapes.  Since both bread rolls in the basket had olives in them, I asked the busboy if there were any alternatives.  He informed me he would double check and if he could find a different type of roll, he would heat it up and bring it promptly.  The busboy quickly returned and I happily munched on my warm brioche bread roll while we waited for our appetizer.

After devouring our appetizer, we patiently waited for our entree.  And waited.  And asked the server about our food.  And waited some more.  After about an hour wait for eggs and a burger, the manager came over to profusely apologize for the delay.  A party upstairs had overwhelmed the kitchen.  As an apology, the manager comp'ed our meal, and sent over an appetizer and a few glasses of wine.  The server offered us drinks and desserts if we had time after we shopped.  We didn't have to ask the staff to comp the bill, the seasoned manager knew it was the right thing to do.  I have panned many restaurants lately for bad service.  At Fishtail, unlike many restaurants, the manager acknowledged that Fishtail dropped the ball and wanted to make it right.  And they did.  The funny thing about good service is that it isn't that difficult.  Patrons understand mistakes happen.  But it's how a restaurant chooses to fix the mistake that will determine how the patron feels about the restaurant.

Wine by the glass

What to eat:

The presentation of each dish at Fishtail is creative and resembles a work of art.  Start with the Pretzel Crusted Crabcake.  Fishtail's crabcake is entirely void of bread crumb filling, a problem too many crabcakes suffer from.  The crabcake is topped with pretzel sticks and a delicious tomato marmalade.  The pretzel sticks are a nice crunchy contrast to the soft crab puree.  Also, the plate is drizzled with a slightly sweet sesame oil.  I would love to get my hands on a bottle of that oil.

For an entree, if you are in the mood for eggs, pick the Lobster Scramble.  The eggs are scrambled with scallions and roasted tomatoes.  More importantly, the eggs are filled with many chunks of succulent lobster and topped with a large dollop of creme fraiche. After eating the Lobster Scramble at Fishtail, it will be hard to go back to eating an egg scramble without large chunks of lobster in it.

Because our meal took too long, we couldn't stay for dessert.  But for those in need of a sweet treat to end the meal, Fishtail has a bowl of homemade Peanut Brittle by the entrance.  Fishtail has cleverly constructed paper cones so that you can take the brittle to go.

Need to escape the chaos of Bloomingdales with a classy brunch? Take the two block walk to Fishtail,

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