The National
557 Lexington Ave., Midtown, NY
Restaurants get after us online all the time. They try and lure us in for a review by telling us how great they are over and over again, most with wreckless disregard and absolutely zero tact. Restaurants that agressively hustle to get people like us in the door to write about them generally suck. That’s a fact. How it’s possible that Olio Pizza’s digital marketing team can continue to pitch us on coming back for brunch after we destroyed the place worse than any other spot in the last year is beyond me. Be smart people, practice good internet. On the flip side, if you’re smart about how you go about your business, we take notice. The National didn’t once ask us to come to their restaurant, but they successfully got on our radar via twitter, re-tweeting some of our tweets and @immaculateinfat‘ing us about random funny sh*t. We’re glad they did too, becuase this restaurant, and whoever is running their twitter game, is awesome.
Midtown isn’t an easy place to find a normal place to eat. If you’re not wearing a suit or carrying an AMEX black card, chances are you feel like an alien when you try and take a step up from Cafe Metro. Lately though, an influx of cool has started to sneak its way into this corporate wasteland. Momofuku’s Má Pêche seems to get better every month (and deserves a re-review), Ippudo is en route and Geoffrey Zakarian has reinvented himself with a new Midtown mini-empire including an impressive Times Square showing in The Lambs Club and now The National as well.
The National is essentially Midtown’s Five Points. A seasonal restaurant and brasserie with solid eats at prices that aren’t cheap, but aren’t abusive. It’s money for lunch, dinner and even weekday breakfast, something that isn’t easy to locate in the mid 50′s. The service was tremendous; we felt both well taken care of and well informed. Plus the food is all rock solid. We enjoyed everything we ate, but legitimately lost our minds for a minute over the pork chop. God damn is it good.
True, if The National was downtown, it would be one of many solid bistro/cafe style joints. But being that it’s not, it sticks out. Midtown East was in desperate need of a good Neighborhood Hang, thank you Geoffrey Zakarian for making it happen.
Food Rundown
Ribs
An appetizer order of three soft, tasty ribs in a sweet pomegranate BBQ sauce. For $10, this is definitely a solid starter option.
Duck Frisee Salad
Shredded duck, a warm poached egg, bacon lardons, cranberries and pecans over a big bed of mixed greens. A hearty salad that can be ordered as a starter to share or main. Do it.
Stuffed Tempura Squash Blossoms
If this special is on the menu, order it. A fried tempura of squash with bufala mozzarella, basil and raddicchio. It tastes as good as it looks.
Pork Chop
This is the one dish we totally freaked out over. The pork chop is ridiculous. Our waiter said this was the best dish on the menu, and he was correct. Served with broccolini and cheese grits in a great candied garlic sauce, this chop is moist and juicy, just the way we like it. We’ll be back for more, that’s for sure.
Roasted Chicken
Nothing too crazy here. The chicken was well cooked and presented accordingly with heirloom lemon potato, chanterelle and natural jus. We cleaned our plate, but there are better things on this menu.
Burger
An excellent burger, but be forewarned that there’s a lot going on here. Pickles, house sauce, bibb lettuce, tomatoes, spicy jalapenos and bacon make this a delightful mess to eat. There’s so much going on, sometimes it’s hard to taste the meat. The basket of fries that comes with the burger are good too.
Crispy Brussels Sprouts
We’ve tried to avoid ordering sprouts recently as they’re getting a bit played out, but we were really happy with this batch as these were some of the best we’ve had in recent memory. These crunchy nuggets of goodness were served with pancetta and whole mustard. Definitely order these as a side.
Chocolate Malted
I’d be doing a disservice to you all if I didn’t mention how much joy this dessert brought me personally. The almost gummy combination of cocoa nibs, malt gelato and devils food cake was just right. End your meal on a high note and get malted.
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