resto - 111 EAST 29TH (BETWEEN PARK & LEX) 212.685.5585

New York Magazine April 11, 2008 Skip the diner shortstack this weekend and grab a late-night meal at one of these top restaurants.
Moura April, 2008 New York No.1 in the Belgian restaurant! (translated)
TimeOut NY April 16–22, 2008 Eat Out Awards 2008 Critics' Choice Chef Ryan Skeen remembers a time not long ago when New York was awash in moules frites, when the food of Belgium—not Spain or Japan—seemed poised to become the next hot restaurant trend (it was a blip, we now know). On a sleepy block in the no-man’s-land above Gramercy Park, he’s trying to jump-start a revival. Skeen is the Mario Batali of low-country Europe, a champion of hearty Belgian classics updated for the 21st-century palate (beef-cheek carbonnade, shellfish waterzooi) with a weakness for pork, pork and more pork—see his pig’s-ear salad, deviled egg on pork toast and late-night-menu tête de cochon. Here’s to a second coming of homemade mayo and monk-brewed beer.
Imbibe - March/April 2008 Meanwhile, Resto in NYC is all-Belgian,with dishes like beef cheek carbonnade à la flamande and housemade boudin blanc to enjoy with 50 Belgian brews, and even a chocolate menu featuring the country’s famous sweets. But Resto nods to the city that never sleeps with the cheekily named souhaits ridicules (or ridiculous wishes) late-night menu, which offers respite from the usual 2 a.m. choices with pig's ear frisée salad and Belgian waffles.
New York Magazine - March 10, 2008 Best of New York 2008: Gramercy Park & Murray Hill Best Grilled Cheese Best Classic Hamburger New and Very Noteworthy Restaurant
Page Six Magazine - March 2, 2008 "How was the food? Amazing. Ami chose a creative twist on eggs Benedict. The egg and hollandaise sauce were served on a waffle (filled with finely chopped bacon) instead of an English Muffin. I started with a decilious egg-white frittata, filled with finely cut artichokes..."
London Times - February, 2008 "Most fashion restaurants are a flash in the pan. But once in a while, a new arrival acquires neighbourhood-classic status overnight. It simply opens for business and folks realise what they've been missing all along: staff that can wear black and still smile; a chef more concerned with culinary quality than column inches; and a calmly designer space committed to serving the community... late into the night. That's the story with Resto..."
New York Times - January 13, 2008 "Resto calls itself Belgian, and it flies that flag in the requisite ways. There’s beer, more than 75 kinds, on tap and in bottles. There are fries, which pop up everywhere, even at the bottom of a steel pot, sopping up the juices from a tender hunk of beef cheek marinated and braised in beer. And there are mussels with various broths."
Food & Wine - January, 2008 "...Consider it the evolution of bistro food, with great beer, too: Authentic Belgian restaurants are opening all over. NYC's Resto serves bitterballen (fried meatballs)..."
New York Magazine - December 30, 2007 "The latest venue for chic gastropub dining. Lamb ribs are the hot dish in beef-eater circles, and these are the best in town."
New York Times - December 26, 2007 "...The 10 Best New Restaurants: RESTO: Head to this nouveau Belgian newcomer for deviled eggs on fried pork jowl, audaciously fatty lamb ribs and scores of fine beers. - By FRANK BRUNI"
Food & Wine - November 1, 2007 "...my favorite new burger and beer spot, Resto..." (F&W Blog: Mouthing Off)
New York Magazine - December 10, 2007 "...this rambunctious hot spot is actually an excuse for chef Ryan Skeen to indulge his deepest porcine fantasies, including a nearly lethal tête de cochon sandwich and a variety of house-made sausages. He also fancies cooking “large format” meats like imposing côtes de boeuf and curried poulardes with a boutique Pennsylvania-farm pedigree. It's just the sort of lusty fare large parties can roll up their sleeves and dig into, while working their way through the 65-selection Belgian-beer list."
Food & Wine - September 5, 2007 "...Before heading out to the Open, I stopped at Resto, the excellent Belgian restaurant in Manhattan's East 20s, and loaded up on the little fried meatballs known as bitter ballen, as well as pork toasts (as good as they sound) and what I think are the best frites in the city, especially because they're served with a sublimely tangy lime pickle mayonnaise, all paired with some pretty wonderful Belgian beer..." (F&W Blog: Mouthing Off)
New York Times - August 22, 2007 "...the Belgians make a lot of beers that defy categorization. We gathered 23 that may not have a whole lot in common except that they are excellent summer quenchers. Though colors range from a warm gold to copper, all are on the pale side of the spectrum. Some have a provocative spiciness, while others are a mite hoppy, or even a bit sour. Many will not be easy to find. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Matt Anci, beverage manager of Resto, a new Belgian restaurant in New York..."
New York Times - August 12, 2007 "Resto's version of Belgium is neither clichéd nor isolationist. Asian seasonings flicker in a few dishes, giving this giddy fat-fest nuances that take it to a higher level. Lamb ribs, for example, are coated in cardamom and Indonesian red palm sugar, among other ingredients. A yogurt sauce beneath them has cilantro in addition to pickled tomatoes.."
New York Magazine - July 30, 2007 "Perfectly proportioned, smartly accessorized, and devilishly concocted from a mix of beef cheek, hanger steak, and fatback, this is the burger of the year."
New York Magazine - July 30, 2007 "Born of the owner's love of Belgian beers, Resto is a gastropub in form, a pork fiend's ultimate fantasy in spirit, and a casual, comfortable neighborhood restaurant in sum. While it is possible to partake of such salubrious fare as fluffy egg-white frittatas at brunch or wild striped bass with artichoke barigoule at dinner, the tendency is toward the magnificently meaty: Think double-cooked pork with Belgian-endive vinaigrette, or deviled eggs on rafts of fried pork jowls, or fatty lamb ribs seasoned with yogurt and pickled tomato. But think especially of the sumptuous burger, fortified with fatback and deposited on a soft, squishy bun with mayo, pickles, and melted cheese."
New York Times - June 13, 2007 Fat, Glorious Fat, Moves to the Center Of the Plate "...the new restaurant Resto, where some genius - and I am most certainly not being facetious - decided that deviled eggs aren't sufficiently rich on their own. No, they need amplification, and of course they need meat, so they're placed on rectangles of pork jowl. One more thing: these rectangles are deep-fried. At a certain point, I suppose, there's no turning back." - By FRANK BRUNI
TimeOut New York - June 7–13, 2007 "...From the Dutch end of the spectrum comes a tidy bowl of succulent meatballs: breaded fried orbs of ground veal and Gruyère with mustard aioli. From the French, there's a fine bacon-heavy frisée aux lardons and an oversize cast-iron crock of carbonnade, an exceptional rendition of the classic dish featuring caramelized beef cheeks slow-cooked in dark beer..."
New York Times - May 23, 2007 "...But Resto's version of Belgium is neither clichéd nor isolationist. Asian seasonings flicker in a few dishes, giving this giddy fat fest nuances that take it to a higher level. Those lamb ribs, for example, are coated in cardamom and Indonesian red palm sugar, among other ingredients. A yogurt sauce beneath them has cilantro in addition to pickled tomatoes..."
New York Magazine - May 14, 2007 "...With an American owner and chef and a refined Manhattan approach to food, Resto is Belgian in the same way that Momofuku Noodle Bar is Japanese or the Spotted Pig is English—which is to say, not slavishly but interpretively. And like those two restaurants, Resto achieves that rarest of combinations: expectations- exceeding, thoughtfully executed food in the sort of unpretentious surroundings that define the best kind of neighborhood restaurant..."
New York Magazine - April 30, 2007 "Tête de Cochon is ... something like a cross between a bánh mì, a BLT, and a St. Louis pig snoot sandwich — crisp and succulent bits of curry-braised pig's-head brushed with a mix of maple syrup and Banyuls vinegar and served with pickled veggies and homemade mayo on toasted brioche." Resto's Tête de Cochon Is Our Sandwich of the Week
New York Magazine - April 16, 2007 "When you think of Belgian food, you think of mussels, fries, waffles, and chocolate—all of which will appear in profusion at Resto, opening this Wednesday. But owner Christian Pappanicholas, onetime manager at 'inoteca and Otto, sees no reason to stop there. Inspired by Belgium's diverse food culture and its three-star restaurants, he hired chef Ryan Skeen, a veteran of Café Boulud and San Francisco's Elisabeth Daniel, to show its sophisticated side. Hence, charred sepia with grapefruit and bitter almond, spiced lamb ribs with yogurt and pickled tomato, and housemade sausages using meats from local farms. Skeen doesn't neglect classic comfort food, either: There's eggs Benedict with Liège waffles at brunch and beef-cheek carbonnade at dinner, and he tops his burger with Chimay cheese. If it's Chimay beer you're after, it's on the list, along with 61 other Belgian varieties."
Urban Daddy - April 10, 2007 "...And for an up-close look at that hanging sausage, you can snag a spot at the four-person marble table inside the kitchen. As cooks buzz about, Skeen will pair wines with a tasting menu that's always changing. If you ask nicely, he might even whip you up some hefty Liege waffles..."
Grub Street - April 2007 "The menu ... is ambitious: Aside from 60 Belgian beers, there are spiced lamb ribs and beef-cheek carbonnade along with other promising signs such as a frisée salad made with guanciale (the Roman jowl bacon more commonly seen in carbonara) and a fluke with sunchokes, caper berry, and beurre noisette. Add to that the dessert tasting menu of up to sixteen different kinds of Belgian chocolate and we're sold. The place is pretty cool-looking, too."