For those of you who are not aware the upscale department store Neiman Marcus has a restaurant on the fourth floor. It features excellent views of Union Square and you also get a close up look at the wonderful stained glass ceiling in the building. I had been here before for afternoon tea which was again so so. However, today I went for lunch/brunch, since it was a Sunday. We ordered a Ahi Tuna Poke for a starter and Brioche French Toast, and Seared Scallops for the main.
The Poke was well done it came with a wakame salad and some carrots and dikon on the sides. The tuna tasted fresh and was nice and soft. The seasoning was rather surprising for, I though it was be more of a soy/sesame based flavor, but it was more spicy with what seamed like red pepper and paprika along with some other spices. There was a soy and sesame oil taste to it, but it felt like it was competing too much with the spiciness. It was not a bad dish, on the contrary it was quite tasty, the wakame salad was well done and the carrots and dikon were also good. When you look at the tuna alone it does seem too spicy, but when eaten with the other components of the dish it tastes better.
The seared scallops were so so. The last time I had scallops was in Tokyo at La Rochelle, the Iron Chef French’s resturant, so I had a good idea of what good scallops should taste like. The ones that were served however, were not. The scallops themselves seemed to lack the sweetness that the ones in Tokyo had. However, they were cooked very nicely, though the seasoning was a little strong on the pepper. The scallops were served with a sweet potato puree and some kind of green that I don’t quite remember. The sweet potato puree was well done, but the greens were too bitter for my pallet.
I was a little disappointed by the whole meal. For the price that we were paying I was expecting more. Its not to say the meal was terrible, but it was far from what I would have expected for the price of the food. It could be that I am biased right now, with all the great food that I had in Japan, but I somehow I think I’m more on the mark here. Rotunda is not as formal as the best places I went to in Tokyo, but the prices were similar. I feel that it is trying to be a fine dining restaurant, but since its in a department store its stuck in a weird position that makes the whole product so so. I give it a 3/5.
