I booked a business Lunch at the Nomad as I had not been there in a while, and after my interview with Daniel Humm and Will Guidara from Eleven Madison Park, I decided it was time to go back. Will and Daniel describe EMP as a special occasion type restaurant, while the Nomad is the place that you want to keep going back to for a fun vibe and absolutely tasty food.

This is a 10 minute version of the interview:

They are spot on, halfway through our meal I knew the Nomad would enter my NY list of spots I want to go back to again and again. The list is always a struggle as I always have limited time in NY and too many restaurants I love.

What we ate:

The meal started off with a steaming hot onion focaccia with rosemary that I struggled not to devour.

Will was having lunch at the restaurant so I asked for suggestions and we ordered everything he mentioned.

Carrot tartare: I love a good beef tartare but I would actually consider going vegetarian for this dish. The carrots were cut into ribbons and served with a quail egg yolk, sprouts and rye crackers.

Snow pea salad: this was one of the most delicate and light salads. The snow pea was chiffonade and tossed with pancetta, pecorino and mint.

Tortelli with English peas, smoked trout and horseradish: I know this sounds like the strangest combination. We didn’t order it, but it magically appeared in front of us, thankfully, as it was absolutely gorgeous.

Scallops: these were the most perfectly seared scallops with pan-seared morels, snap peas and a light and airy, almost foam-like (but in a good way) sauce made of vin jaune, aka yellow wine… which made me think of a lighter and fluffier sabayon. An absolutely stunning dish.

Salmon: once again, perfectly cooked, crunchy outside, but almost rare inside and served with roasted braised lettuce, radish and almonds.

Cookies and cream: this sounds like a simple dessert but it is actually very complex. They take an ice cream quenelle and dip it in liquid nitrogen, and then roll it in cookies and then somehow maybe dip it again to transform the whole thing into a frozen delicious combo of ice cream and cookie that you can pick up and eat like a truffle. We got four in our serving and I devoured one and tried to exercise some restraint but ended up eating the second one. So delicious. Sadly the picture can’t capture how good this was.

In sum: a perfect place for lunch. Great people watching and delicious food you want to eat again and again. I actually prefer it for lunch as the skylights flood the place with sunlight and happiness. People in LA should be very excited as they are meant to be opening a Nomad there by the end of the year… I just wish they were opening it in London instead.

The Nomad NYC

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