The Musket Room

"My favorite dish at The Musket Room was the breads and spreads. The house-made sourdough boule wasn’t much bigger than the water glasses and came pre-cut into four chunks. We slathered smaller pieces in briny anchovy butter sprinkled with flakey sea salt, whipped ricotta and olive oil; and chicken liver mousse. I sunk my teeth into the chewy crust. The croquettes capped our round of Musket Room appetizers. We used forked pieces to mop up the smoked saffron aioli, refusing the leave anything for the servers to take away. I expected potato, but rich bechamel oozed into my mouth (nearly burning me) and onto the plate. The Musket Room certainly didn’t skimp on that jamon Iberico sliced thin and folded on top. The two people I was with didn’t like The Musket Room’s Matsutake mushrooms with sunchokes and heirloom rice. I had jockeyed for it and felt bad that this was the dish I’d chosen to share with everyone came out cold and two-noted: earthy mushroom and overwhelming sour cream. At least the island of wild rice was swimming in the tangy sauce (I love sauce). I had hoped for more Matsutake, but wasn’t so lucky. The Musket Room’s duck was perfectly cooked. The seared crust was the best part, and the inside was succulent and juicy. It came with a classic cherry sauce, little dots of labne, and tiny chunks of white turnip. The server spooned an au jus over the duck at our table. After the miniscule entrees, the expected “sooo…anyone want to hit up dollar pizza after this?” half joke happened. To “fill up”, we ordered three spoonfuls of panna cotta. Excellent spoonfuls, but spoonfuls. The piped ruffle of chocolate panna cotta went perfectly with the charred banana puree. Garnishes-wise, I can do without eating gold, but thank goodness for the flaky sea salt. Still not full (because of course not) we ordered a slightly larger dessert (four spoonfuls instead of three): sweet potato with mousse, smoked molasses, and rum. I don’t particularly care for plating and food styling, but the pastry team at The Musket Room made the dish so pretty. A wide ribbon of meringue curled around puffs of airy light orange sweet potato mousse, and three or four circles of sweet potatoes prepared in some mysterious way (maybe cooked and slightly dehydrated?). Without the smoky molasses rum semifreddo on top, it tasted like a deconstructed sweet potato pie. With the semifreddo, it transformed into a sweet potato s’mores kinda deal. The Musket Room had amazing appetizers, and the desserts interesting, but the entrees were underwhelming"

"Overall, the tasting menu is excellent. The Kristal Caviar was out of this world and the star of the show. The squab and pork dishes were cooked perfectly. Cocktails were well-balanced and tasty. The jerk ice cream was an interesting twist."

"Divine, and most definitely one of the best meals I’ve had this year. The space is a bit modern rustic and has a lovely vibe to it and the service for the evening was exceptional. I went with the omnivore menu and every dish was a delight, with top notch ingredients and great flavor combinations. Stand outs included an amazing lamb tartare and a cauliflower foam with caviar. I definitely look forward to a return visit!"

"I can’t state this vehemently enough… Dining at The Musket Room was an absolutely phenomenal experience. I have been lucky enough to dine around the world and have had a few Michelin star experiences. This one was tops. This meal will be remembered fondly for the entirety of my life. My friend and I both enjoyed the Omnivore tasting menu and the wine pairing. The worry with a tasting menu is that you will be full before you finish, hungry when you leave, or that each dish couldn’t possibly be delicious. This tasting menu blew all of the preconceived notions of what a tasting menu should be out of the water. Each dish was a flavor sensation. It was the perfect amount of food for a full experience. And the wine pairing was absolutely outrageous — I was wildly impressed with each combination. The wines were so delicious that my friend and I asked for pictures of a few of the bottle labels to look for when we return home. Finally, our server Bobby made the entire experience memorable. He was attentive, friendly, casual, caring, funny, welcoming, informative. Bobby made us feel like we were his only table for the night, like we were in his living room, like we could be friends for life. I would visit 1000 more times to sit and chat with Bobby. We had friends show up at the tail end of our meal and he invited them to sit next to us, treated them to a glass of dessert wine, and gave them the cookie box that complemented our meal. I can’t imagine ever having better service than what we received from Bobby. I will be recommending The Musket Room to everyone I know, forever. I hope it is open for decades to come, I will be returning every time I am in NYC. I would give 6 out of 5 stars if I could, rate it an 11 out of 10. Fantastic."

"One of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had and definitely the best vegan dining experience I’ve had! I went for my birthday, and we got two vegan tasting menus, one with the wine pairing. Basically every dish was perfect, the only one that I thought was merely a 9/10 was the seaweed caviar because the avocado underneath tasted like a pretty standard guac mix, nothing special-although the seaweed caviar itself was amazing. The gazpacho was one of our favorites, a perfect amount of creaminess and fresh crisp and sweetness from the grape and cucumber(?) in the middle. The eggplant dish was also a fav contender because of the miso base that tasted basically like a rich tonkatsu broth, despite being vegan! The rice pudding was stellar as well, the red bean ice cream blending perfectly with the salty crispy rice puff and the fruits in the pudding. Textures and flavors melded exquisitely with every course, and would happily come back another time when the tasting menu changes. Needless to say the wine pairing was excellent as well, every note and interaction that our server described came across, and added so much characteristic to each dish. 10/10 restaurant if you’re looking for Michelin star fine dining at a respectable price point for the quality and experience."