Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Balthazar, New York

Balthazar is a classic New York restaurant - an institution I suppose. It's trendy, it's busy, it's hard to get into and if you look hard enough you may spot a celebrity or two chowing down.



I hadn't actually this put legendary NY French Bistro on my wishlist (an entire A4 page of placs to eat) although it had been on my "mental wishlist" for years.  I guess I thought there was no way two daggy gals from Sydney would get a table here (I was wearing Crocs {yes I know what you're thinking but they are comfortable for walking in}, jeans from Target and a top from god knows where) so why bother. Miss M and I literally stumbled across the restaurant whilst out strolling around SoHo one morning.  As it was a weekday the place was busy, but not as packed as it would be for weekend brunch so we managed to get a table in the corner of this vast and beautifully shabby dining room.


The dining room of Balthaza is HUGE  - a vast gold painted room that is a bit shabby and a bit "distressed". There is loads of dark wood, an old style bar at one end and tables for as far as the eye can see. Downstairs in the lady's loo there is a bathroom attendant who hands you a handtowel, offers you some handcream (or whatever else you'd like - some perfume perhaps or dental floss). To return the favour you put a dollar or two in her tip jar.  I've never been to a "real" French bistro in France, but I imagine this is what it would be like. I'm in LOVE!


As this is our second breakfast for the morning we keep things light. I'm really here just to experience the place and Miss M has her eyes peeled for any celebrites that might be hiding (there were none).  The food we ordered was really pretty straight forward and simple, afterall we weren't hear to eat our own body weight in French food.

I start off with a glass of Pink Grapefruit Juice.  It's a pretty standard glass of juice, but it's juice that I'm drinking in Balthazar in NEW YORK BABY so that automatically makes it the best juice I've ever had. EVER!


I'm quite smitten with the idea that this established New York restaruant serves a humble Soft Boiled (Organic) Egg with Toast Soilders ($4.00) so I decide this is the breakfast dish for me.


Miss M's eyes had lit up at the sight of the large cabinet overflowing with freshly baked bread so she opts for a basket of bread (un-toasted please) with jam.


We finished things up with a simple bowl of fruit salad, which was acutally really nice considering all the junk food, fried food, fatty food, sweet food, too much food I'd been eating thus far.


I really enjoyed our simple breakfast at Balthazar. It felt "so New York" eating there - watching the regulars catch up over coffee and a newspaper was one of the (eating) highlights of my trip.

Balthazar on Urbanspoon

19 comments:

  1. i wanna experience 'new york' too >-<

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! What a great surprise to walk in to :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have to say, the first time I went to NYC, I couldn't wait to go to Balthazar because everyone raved on about it. But what a let down, I didn't love it at all! I guess I thought it was, ok. It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't amazing. Glad you had a better time!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like it Miss Piggy, I love the look of the bread piled high and the bread basket looks perfect...great work once again!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh I've heard so much about this place! Thanks for taking us with you Miss Piggy! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really didn't get the Balthazar hype when I was there. I didn't think it was anything special in terms of food, ambiance or service. I'm not really sure why there is such hype?

    Give me Penelope any day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh baby I'm going to toast myself some bread for breakfast tomorrow. Breakfast was by far my favourite meal when I was in L.A.! Away from all the richness of pancake parlours of course, bread + fruit is always a winner for me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. *placed on the New york place* whenever that is :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Re. "I was wearing Crocs {yes I know what you're thinking but they are comfortable for walking in".

    I'm a big boofy bloke and I own three pairs of Crocs. I got a black pair, a purple pair and a blue pair and I wear them all the time.

    I even took them on a trekking trip to Mt. Everest in Nepal 2010 as they are very light, excellent to shower in (especially in third world country conditions) and provide better protection than rubber thongs.

    I'd have no problems going to a fancy place wearing Crocs. In fact I spent a whole day (last Saturday) at the Belgian Beer Cafe in Kingston A.C.T. drinking Hoegaarden "witbier" at $15 a glass while wearing my Crocs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Shabby and distressed is totally the new black! Not sure I can forgive you for crocs ;) but you did do a lot of walking so maybe

    ReplyDelete
  11. lol.... nice crocs discussion going on here.

    love the look of this place.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The food looks simple but quality produce. Just to sit there and drink in the surrounds would of been awesome. Shame no celebrities spotted for Miss M.

    ReplyDelete
  13. love Bon maman jam, got a few jars at home :) it's great how the ceilings are so high and so many people in there for breakfast!

    ReplyDelete
  14. oh gosh, and nothing beats WHITE butter! <3

    ReplyDelete
  15. This wasn't on my (2) page list when we were in NY but I still wanted to go. Didn't make it sadly. Next time!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Food looks as good as anything you can get in Sydney but I bet the experience made it totally worth it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Balthazar didn't make it on my list :( I love that you got in with crocs though! I went to a bar in my slippers once :p

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm with you on ordering the soldiers, they're not on menus much now a days and there's a nice quaintness that comes with dipping toasty fingers into a soft boiled egg :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Beautifully simple food you've chosen there, but the interiors of the place are almost other-worldly!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving your comment!

You Might Also Like:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Free Blog Template by June Lily