Tom: Sunday Dinner

Last night my husband and I had a quiet dinner in the half-empty dining room at Colicchio & Sons, Tom Colicchio's new restaurant housed in the old Craftsteak space and inspired by his widely popular dinner series, Tom: Tuesday Dinner. While the ambiance screams upscale steakhouse (not altogether surprising as few changes were made to Craftsteak's decor), Colicchio & Sons' menu is thoughtful and each dish we ordered was prepared with refined elegance. Our favorite items included lightly crisped squid, roasted pumpkin batons, succulent lamb wrapped with spicy merquez sausage, and smooth malted milk ice cream. Our least favorite items were a hair found underneath a piece of sturgeon (the manager was extremely accommodating and offered to send out a new dish or take the full cost off the bill, and also brought a complimentary dessert), the greasy artichokes that accompanied the hamachi appetizer, and the sour apple granita- an unnecessary addition to a dessert that was delicious without it.

The artichokes in the olive oil poached hamachi with artichokes and verjus were too oily and took away from the overall taste of the dish

Cavalo nero was neatly packaged in tubes of squid, and placed atop squid ink risotto. Spicy tomato, cacao nibs, crispy squid and micro greens added layers of flavor

The roasted sturgeon and pumpkin were perfectly cooked

The hair that ruined the sturgeon- look to the middle of the plate

The lamb loin with merquez sausage and lentils was a juicy favorite

Our complimentary dessert- warm powdered sugar beignets with bourbon panna cotta and sour apple granita (which added a fresh element but seemed out of place on the plate)

A moist banana-pecan upside-down cake with rum caramel, banana sorbet and the most delicious malted milk ice cream I have ever tasted

To end the night- two pieces of chocolate covered peanut brittle to go

*Apologies for the poor quality of these pictures - the dishes were nicely composed and these pictures do not capture the true presentation.