Eleven Madison Park

Profile

The restless brain trust that runs the world’s (and therefore the city’s) official No. 1 restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, has instituted significant if not radical changes to its famously cavernous dining room, which after several months of renovation looks sleeker but also a bit more generic than it did before. When I crept in not long ago for a preliminary taste of the new menu and a stiff drink, I was a little sad to see that the woodsy, slightly idiosyncratic bar area had been replaced by the kind of sleek, gray-toned furniture you usually find in the lobby bars of grand, recently constructed international hotels, although there was nothing wrong at all with the stately procession of snacks we tasted from Daniel Humm’s minimalist, crisply edited new menu, which included tiny canisters of foie gras spread with the faintest scrim of caramel, curls of peach-colored lobster tail plated with chanterelle mushrooms and a half-moon of perfectly constructed potato tart, and a fiendishly delicious wintertime cheese-course creation that combines the warming pleasures of stodgy bread pudding, classically light cheese soufflé, and a faintly boozy, New Age beer fondue in a single bite. — Adam Platt

Weddings

This 1920s Art Deco building boasts two private-party enclaves overlooking the main dining room (up to 110 guests), which features terrazzo floors and original light fixtures. The Madison Square Park vista, as seen through the nine-foot windows, is just as memorable as chef Daniel Humm’s elevated French fare ($135 per guest).

Ideal Meal

Oyster, sturgeon sabayon with chives, scallops with caviar and pear, lobster with leeks, roasted duck. 

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (8/28/06)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Pig (2007)
• Best Brunch for In-Law Introductions (2007)

Featured In

• Adam Platt’s Where to Eat 2014 (1/6/13)
• Adam Platt’s Where to Eat 2013 (12/31/12)
• Adam Platt's Where to Eat 2011 (1/3/11)
• The Individual Coffee Roasters You’ll Find at Union Square Hospitality Group’s Restaurants (11/30/09)
• Where to Eat 2008 (1/7/08)
• Our Picks for Diet-Be-Damned Dishes (12/24/07)
• Coming to Your Kitchen Table: Ceramics by Jono Pandolfi (3/5/07)
• 101 Best New York Restaurants for 2006 (1/9/06)

Recipes at Eleven Madison Park

• Copy of Strawberry Gazpacho (2010)
• Glazed Black Mission Figs With Fall Spices (2007)
• Grilled Kielbasa Roll With Cardamom Coleslaw and Whole-Grain Mustard Aïoli (2005)
• Chocolate-Covered Banana–Crème Fraîche Ice-Cream Bar (2003)