people watching at metrazur

A friend and I had lunch on the East Mezzanine of Grand Central Terminal [not Station] at Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur.  With all the natural daylight shinning thruogh, the whole place lit up through the large windows.  This is the only restaurant of Charlie Palmer’s that I’ve ever eaten at even though he owns several throughout the US. 

I looovee this space!!  I love how it’s so open and if you get a table by the railing, you can look down at all the people [like me in the mornings] running for the escalators to the MET building, or for theMetroNorth trains!  And then there are all the tourists posing and taking pictures of the clock and the ceiling.  I know that an hour later, I will be the dumbass that’s running for those escalators trying to make it back to my cube. 

The menu is small and offers basic American fare – everything seems pretty simple and straight forward.  I did notice that even thought their website had a prix-fixe lunch menu- the menu the hostess gave us didn’t have the option on there.  I had to ask her about it before she would bring the menu over.  Our entree would have cost $19 each if it weren’t for the prix-fixe.  With the prix-fixe, three courses cost $20.12.

Aside from the 3 lunch courses, we ordered 8 littleneck clams which came with cocktail sauce, Tabasco and lemon.  These were some meaty clams- see how they’re almost spilling out of the shell?  It was great and went down smoothly without too much of a fishy taste/scent.  The shucker didn’t do the cleanest job though; I tasted/saw bits of shell in some of my clams. 

 

I got a salad of baby lettuce, tomato carpaccio, crisp fingerlings with sherry vinaigrette for my appetizer.  My companion got the soup of the day, which happened to be white bean.  The leaves to this salad were huge- it made the salad look all fluffy; I think it was one of the only times that a salad warranted a use for my knife!  I loved the potato chips [that is essentially what they are] on top! 

There is only one entree option, so the menu isn’t very broad but it was okay with me since it was my first time there.  It’s a wood grilled salmon [you can pick between salmon, chicken, or beef] with tomato paste, olive oil and served with the day’s market selection [which were mashed potatoes and string beans and carrots the day I went].  My friend got the beef sirloin.  There was a bit too much olive oil for my liking, but the tomato paste went well with the salmon.  The salmon had perfect grill marks [as you can see] and was not too over or underdone.  The mashed potatoes were remarkably soft and smooth.

I realllllllly wanted ice cream so I skipped the creme brulee and ordered vanilla ice cream.  The presentation was really nice and I loved the cookie curl on top!  I stole my friend’s since he ordered ice cream too after I got him craving it.  Cookies and ice cream- who can beat that?

If it’s a nice day and you have time to spare, go have lunch at Metrazur.  Ask for the prix-fixe menu!  It’s offered all year around.  It’s definitely too pricey for me to order off of the regular menu for lunch.  *sigh.  Midtown and its expensive lunches.