Butter : Go for the food, not the service!

After visiting the original Butter on Lafayette St. a few times for drinks, I longed to try this place for dinner. Finally, this year for restaurant week I made it there! The Lafayette St. location is now closed, so we visited the new midtown location.

We arrived 20 minutes early for our reservation and the hostess told us that our table wasn't ready, and we were encouraged to go to the bar to order drinks. We were assured that when the table became available, that we would be "found". While standing at the bar, I looked around and saw at least 4 free tables available for parties of 2. Very strange to say the least, since we didn't see any groups of 2 waiting at the front of the restaurant to be seated.

Calamansi - absolut vodka, fresh watermelon ice cubes, torn mint leaves, calamansi lime juice

We proceeded to order a round of drinks, and figured that once we returned to the hostess area with our drinks that we would be seated. I ordered the Calamansi, which had ice cubes made of watermelon in it, which was pretty unique and refreshing! The drink had a mixture of vodka, the specialty watermelon ice cubes, mint leaves, and lime juice. It was a very good drink, and not too sour, which was perfect since I hate when restaurants overload the drink with lime juice.

We walked back to the couches near the hostess stand to wait to be seated. While we were waiting, we kept seeing groups being seated before us, we checked our watches and saw its was 10 minutes past our reservation time. My boyfriend went up to the hostess stand to check in on the status of our table and she claimed she called us and couldn't find us and that our table had been ready for some time! We were sitting right in front of her the whole time! We were the only ones sitting there. The hostesses kept looking over at us, but clearly did not remember us from just a few minutes earlier as promised. 

Finally, the hostess sat us and plopped a set of menus on the table. She did not include any restaurant week menus, wine list, or drink menus. We came for restaurant week, and planned to only order off that menu. We sat at the table waiting for a server to come over with the menus we needed, and another 10 minutes went by before anyone came over to us. Finally, the waiter came over, and we asked for the restaurant week menu and drink menu. We proceeded to watch him walk around the dining room helping other tables for another 10 minutes before coming over, but he didn't remember to bring us the menus! He laughed and said "oh, I forgot to get you your menus..". After about 20 minutes of waiting, we finally received the menus we wanted all along. One would think that by the lack in service, this place was packed, but it wasn't! 

Delicious Bread with Herb Butter and Regular Butter

While previewing the menus, the bus boy brought us two types of bread and two types of butter. My favorite were the rolls with a croissant-like texture that were slightly salted on top. MMMazing! The butter was equally as amazing, which it should be considering the name of the restaurant. The bus boy we learned from our experience throughout the night was the most attentive person on staff and came over to clean our table, fill our water glasses, and offer us more bread on a regular basis.

Soup of the Day - Chilled Cucumber Soup with Melon and Black Pepper 

The soup of the day was a chilled cucumber soup with melon and black pepper. It was very light, refreshing and flavorful. I almost felt like I was at the spa while eating this soup because of the amazing cucumber flavor. This is a soup I definitely would want to have again in this lifetime.

House Made Veal Bacon, Spicy Cabbage Salad

For the other starter, we ordered the house made veal bacon, which was cut very thick like a filet, versus a slab of bacon. We were both hoping for a crispy piece of bacon and were disappointed.  The whole grain mustard that was spread all over the bacon was a little overwhelming for this dish, and my boyfriend and we did not think it was a great accompaniment for the bacon. We were hoping for a more savory pairing instead of the spicy tart flavor of the mustard. We enjoyed the spicy cabbage that came with the bacon, but it wasn't anything special. This dish was our least favorite of the night, which is surprising since we both love bacon!

Fish of the Day - Grilled Hake, Lady Cream Peas, Cuban Oregano

For one of our entrees we ordered the fish of the day, which was the grilled hake. I have had hake once before and loved it, so I was very happy to see this on the menu since it is not very common. Hake is a white flaky fish that is very light in flavor and not too fishy. It was accompanied by white beans in a lemony creamy sauce and topped with fresh scallions. The hake was cooked perfectly with a slightly crispy layer with the fish being tender and full of flavor. The lemony cream sauce that the beans were in was so delicious and made dipping the fish into it very enjoyable. The scallions were a nice touch to each bite because of their crispy texture and bitter flavor.

Braised and Grilled Creekstone Farms Beef Short Ribs, Gypsy and Poblano Peppers 

For our other main course we ordered the braised short ribs that were served over quinoa . The texture of the short rib was amazing! It broke apart so easily with just a fork and melted in your mouth. The hot peppers that were on top of it gave it a nice spicy taste that off set the sweet and savory sauce that it was covered in. What a lovely combo! This was our favorite dish!

Chilled Lacinato Kale, Toasted Garlic, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

We decided to order a side along with our prix fix restaurant week menu, but the wrong side came to the table. We had ordered the grits, and we received kale. Oops! Luckily, the waiter said we could keep the kale, and that they would bring us the grits in a few minutes. The kale was the freshest kale either of us had ever tasted. It was extremely earthy and every bite was breathtaking. There were pieces of toasted garlic in it, and it was covered in olive oil. If I could have this salad everyday, I'd be very happy. This is one mistake I am very happy they made :)

Geechie Boy South Carolina Yellow Corn Grits

The grits were equally as phenomenal as the kale, as they were like eating dessert. The grits tasted as if corn bread had been broken into crumbs and soaked with milk, just like a liquid corn bread of some sorts.They were so creamy, cheesy, and mmm mmm good. I'd skip dessert any day for some more of these grits.

Dark Chocolate Cake, Pasilla Chili Sugar, Whipped Creme Fraiche

After we were done eating our meals, we waited an exceptionally long time for dessert, at least a half hour. While waiting we witnessed the hostesses packing up for the night and going home. We didn't feel right about this, and almost wanted to leave the restaurant as well since we didn't feel welcome anymore.
Finally, we received our desserts which were very delicious, but not worth the wait. The first dessert was a dark chocolate cake that had chili sugar on top of it, giving it a salty taste. I have always been fond of a salty and sweet taste together, so this was quite delicious. Definitely my favorite dessert out of the two.

Damson Plum Tart, Toasted Almonds, Lemon Sorbet

For the second dessert, we had a plum tart that was served with toasted almonds and lemon sorbet. This dessert was much less heavy than the chocolate cake and very tart and sweet all at once. I loved the sour, sweet taste of the sorbet with the tart flavor of the pie with the crunchy almonds. All the textures and flavors combined very nicely. 

We enjoyed this meal a lot, but only because of the amazing food! I definitely would return for the food, but certainly not for the service. You could tell that Alex Guarnaschelli was not in the restaurant the night that we were there, because of the lack of service that we received.  One would expect much more from a celebrity chef. Do not go here if you expect to be treated with care and respect, only go here if you want good food!