Next

I had the pleasure of dining at Next a couple of weeks ago, and I would truly describe it as a pleasure…as well as a complete indulgence in cream and butter. For those who aren’t familiar with the meal or would like to see what we ate, someone from Metromix had a wonderful little photo essay which you can find here: Photo Essay. I tried to take photos, but I found that I was enjoying the dining experience too much to stop, as well as enjoying the wine pairing quite a bit.

Let me first start by saying that the service was fantastic. I was so eager to eat at the restaurant that I arrived 25 minutes early. The staff immediately seated me and poured, what seemed like, an endless glass of sparkling wine. The meal was long and I could describe each course in great detail, but I will simply give you my favorite highlights.

Although the appetizer included a quail egg with an anchovy served on top, a leek wrapped mushroom, a cracker with pork rillettes, a little piece of toast (very soft and delicious) with a foie gras filling and jam, and last, but certainly not least, a truffle topped egg custard in an egg shell. I think I could have eaten a whole bowl full of the egg custard. Well, perhaps if you put truffle on just about anything, I could eat a whole bowl full of it.

We were served a turtle consommé, but I press fast forward to bring you to the filet de sole daumond. Although my dinner date was a tad disappointed that he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to suck the crawfish head as the chefs created a beautiful crawfish mousse that we could easily spoon out and shovel into our gaping maws, we each cleaned our plates of the sole and crawfish served three ways with the side of freshly baked sourdough bread. The next dish was an underwhelming sous vide chicken, so I bring you to my favorite dish of the evening—pressed duck with a potato gratin. The duck was perfectly prepared using an antique duck press, and halfway through the course, we were not only brought a fresh little sourdough roll to sop up all of the goodness, but also a gravy boat filled with the savory duck sauce. Each potato in the gratin was a thin slice of creamy heaven. If the meal ended here, I would have been more than satisfied.

We both enjoyed the ice cream “bombe” for dessert. I realize that the preparation was probably anything but simple, but it seemed like a simple and refreshing way to finish the meal—coffee flavored ice-cream in a cocoa shell. But wait! There’s more! Just when we thought that our pants couldn’t expand anymore, we were served three “candy” treats which included a beet “gummy bear”, a pistachio nougat and a salted caramel square.

Although it was hard to obtain tickets to eat at Next, I will definitely try for a seat at the next round.