Living all the way downtown has some great perks: access to fun people, a quaint neighborhood feeling, and some especially old buildings. However, when it comes to finding a great French restaurant down here, it’s slim pickins’. Recently I re-discovered my old stomping grounds (the Upper East Side) in an effort to find some delish French food with the scene I thought I had left behind forever (older men, ugh, I can’t stay away). Orsay is tucked into a relatively quiet corner of the east 70’s on Lexington Ave, which to me is a world and a half away from where I would normally spend a Thursday evening. In fact, even when I lived on East 66th I would walk by Orsay all the time, not knowing that I was passing up one of the best gems in the neighbohood.
I walked in with Ashley on a normal Thursday night for a quick dinner before heading to my friend Josh’s book launch event. We shared a couple glasses of Sancerre, and ordered a few appetizers to share. We started with Orsay’s house salad, which we were shocked to absolutely love. The veggies in the salad weren’t particularly unusual, but the dressing was literally the perfect mixture of oil, tangy vinegar, herbs, and salt. Simple? Yes. Easy to find? No… the salad was a standout.
We then moved on to a delicate smoked sea scallop timbale dish that left Ashley craving far more seafood. The scallops were soft and fresh, and accented with just the right amount of crunchy and tart green apple. Ashley ordered more fish, and when I looked into my glass of Sancerre, it seemed to be suggesting that I do the same. So I did. Between the two of us, we ordered house seabass which comes crusted in parmesan cheese and is accompanied by a smooth fennel puree. Ashley’s halibut special (pictured below) was cooked to perfection and had a soft, buttery texture that she loved.
I almost licked my plate, and honestly had to keep battling Ashley’s fork away from my eating zone. We ended our meal with a classic creme brulee, and a peach melba sundae that was the size of a small child (yes, I ate most of it, no judgments please). The only thing I was left wishing for at the end of the meal was an Orsay location closer to my downtown bachelorette pad.
