wd~50

50 Clinton Street, Lower East Side, NY

6.9

map & more

Neighborhood
Lower East Side

Cuisine
Experimental
Molecular Gastronomy

Nearby
Mercury Lounge
Pianos

212-477-2900

Official Website

By Andrew Steinthal
September 7, 2011

I’m just going to come right out and say it…we were not that impressed with wd~50. While it may be fun to eat an everything bagel that’s made of liquid nitrogen ice cream or an edible brown sugar egg shell, this just isn’t the kind of meal that satisfies us. It’s a place any dining enthusiast should try once for the experience, but this is closer to an abstract art installation than it is a go-to restaurant.

My biggest issue with wd~50 is that there seemed to be one taste or flavor in each dish that threw everything off. Licorice sauce in the Cobia fish. Coffee in the Thai snapper. Pumpernickel with the poached egg. It may look pretty on the plate, but that doesn’t mean it tastes good. Also, the crowd. Wow. I’ve never seen so many tourists outside of Times Square, and have never felt more out of place in a downtown restaurant, ever. To our left, we had a couple that decided it was OK to bring their infant to a $200 per person meal. The kid was hysterically crying for half of the dinner, and the parents looked shocked. “I can’t believe he didn’t like the sockeye salmon with root beer!” Idiots. To our right, a New Jersey couple kept trying to pick up conversation with us. Not interested, thank you very much. They found prey in a pair of Australians who were taking pictures of their food with a disposable camera. Apparently those still exist. Can’t wait to see those photos posted nowhere.

Some of you might read this review and say, “well you just don’t understand avant-guard molecular gastronomy.” Not true. Fancy words and elaborate kitchen instruments aside, it all comes down to how enjoyable these creations are to the taste buds. One of the best meals we had all year was at another molecular gastronomy temple, Meadowood in Napa. This corn & popcorn custard, is one of the craziest things we’ve ever seen, and it was also incredibly good. But at wd~50, not a single dish on the $140 tasting menu knocked our socks off. Was it was worth going for the experience? Absolutely. We can cross it off our list and die content. But we aren’t going back any time soon/ever.

Food Rundown:

Cobia
A Chinese inspired amuse bouche consisting of a piece of raw cobia (aka Black Kingfish) in a licorice sauce with fennel and Kombu (a Chinese seaweed). It was nice, but the licorice taste dominated, and we could barely sniff out the fish – which was the best part.

Everything Bagel, Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese
It’s cute, it really is . The irony here is that this play on an old-school LES staple is probably the best bagel and cream cheese that actually exists in this hood these days, aside from Russ & Daughters. It’s bagel flavored ice cream topped with poppy, sesame and onion seeds, smoked salmon threads and some crazy-thin strip of crispy cream cheese. We enjoyed it, but it’s definitely more for show than anything else. Metromix ran an in-depth look at how it’s made, in case you are curious.

Foie-lafel
I’m a huge fan of foie gras, but this is not how I want to eat it. Don’t get me wrong, this dish is really good and again, quite fun and entertaining. But even though the foie is stuffed inside toasted chick peas, it seems like a lay-up. There’s got to be a better way to showcase such a sizable amount of deliciousness than serving it with chopped lettuce and a toasted pita .

Poached Egg in the Shell
Caesar salad anyone? That’s what they were getting at here . Aside from the pumpernickel, this was a pretty awesome dish. The poached egg was delicious and went well with the Caesar dressing and bean sprouts. Also, as discussed earlier, the egg shell was edible, made of clay and brown sugar. Although it didn’t really taste like much, it added a nice crunchy texture.

King Oyster ‘Udon’
Wylie loves his textures and this one had plenty of it. When I first glanced at the menu, I thought this was going to be some kind of noodle dish with oysters and sweetbreads – which sounded quite interesting. However, the oysters referred to in this dish were actually oyster mushrooms, which the noodles were made out of. Creative and well executed . The best part was the banana molasses he used in the dish. Where’s Ben & Jerry’s on that flavor?

Tai Snapper
A nice small chunk of snapper with chopped up cucumber atop a delicious onion tart and a couple of slices of Asian pear. It all worked, except for the coffee sauce it was lathered in, which ruined the whole dish. Granted, I don’t drink coffee, so there’s a good chance some might disagree with me here. Either way, it seemed random and didn’t taste good.

Quail
Rare quail medallions served with some form of yogurt, confit turnip and nutmeg. Once again, I expected more. This dish was extremely disappointing. I’d never eaten quail that rare before, and have no desire to do so ever again.

Lamb Loin
Both the colors and the flavor in this dish were spot on. We thoroughly enjoyed the lamb, which was served with ‘red beans and rice,’ and squash.

Black Sesame Sorbet
Served with yuzu foam, mango and popcorn, this sorbet is clever, creative and a nice palate cleanser to bridge the gap between entree and dessert.

Apricot, Buckwheat, Rhubarb, Green Tea
Damn this dish was tart. Rhubarb fans will freak out over this, but if you don’t dig rhubarb, you won’t dig this. Again, it’s presented beautifully.

Soft Chocolate
This was my favorite dessert. I’m a sucker for soft chocolate mousse and love beet, which was splattered around the plate like paint and served with ricotta ice cream and long pepper.