For nearly 35 years, I’ve been a connoisseur of gourmet restaurants in cities, towns, and especially, in Casino Hotels around the world. This past weekend, I learned what NYC’s two closest “Casinos”, Resorts World and Empire City had to offer in gourmet dining. My two reviews follow. First, “Pinch” at Empire City.
Pinch
Pinch is Empire City’s new American gourmet room with a touch of European flare. Finding it is an adventure. Empire has signs for Pinch all over the Casino floor, but none of those signs tell you where it is located. Even if you know it is on the second floor, an adventure still awaits. If you go up the old set of escalators (directly across the casino floor from the snack bar) you will easily find Empire Terrace and Nonno’s Trattoria, but not Pinch. To get to Pinch from there, you walk to the left of Nonno’s, down an unmarked hallway, through a set of open doors and into the NEW second floor. Keep going straight past the two lane bowling alley (honest, it’s really there!) and you’ll find Pinch. It’s located just above the new Valet parking entrance, which resembles an airport terminal drop off area. Anyway, back to Pinch. We arrived at Pinch around 7pm on a Saturday evening w/o a reservation since we didn’t know how long it would take us to find it. Upon entering, the hostess was overjoyed and greeted us as if we had some celebrity status and showed us to a table that viewed the open kitchen. Technically, the few booths on the side with self service beer dispensers would probably be the coveted tables, if the dispensers were working. Since none of those dining at those booths were partaking in serving themselves beer, I can only assume that they still don’t have them working. Enough rambling… on to Pinch! Decor: Bright, and Red, VERY VERY Bright and VERY VERY Red. This place looks like a bunch of college buddies got together and designed it. 99 beers on tap, sitting in barrels above the open kitchen. Beer samplings of a few beers presented together. Beer pairing options with each menu selection. This place is supposedly about the beer. I’m not sure then, why most of the diners on Saturday evening were enjoying wine rather than beer. When we were seated we were given each a food menu and one Ipad for the table which listed the beverages. You could read as much detail as you would like about each beer, each wine, each cocktail (many made with beer of course). That Ipad proved very entertaining because despite having a plethora of staff, it took nearly 15 minutes before anyone approached out table. Even more entertaining was watching the Pinch Burger leave the open kitchen on its plate, watching it fall over, and watching it return to the kitchen for reconstructive repair. This happened repeatedly. I’m not sure why they don’t just bring the various components of it to the table and construct it table-side. Once they got going, the service was really good, but they just don’t quite have their act together. Drinks, for instance, seemed to be placed on a large plate on the bar and servers then take the drinks to various tables around the restaurant, much like cocktail servers would in a casino. I’ll go back to those college buddies. Dining here feels like you are being tended to by a bunch of close college buddies. Unfortunately, each buddy is only allowed to do a single task, so if the buddy who handles the task you need to have taken care of isn’t around, you are out of luck. The exception is the waiter who makes sure each plate is presented to each guest at the table at precisely the same moment. That shows class. On to the kitchen. The kitchen staff are fantastic! My soup of the day, Broccoli puree was delicious. My dining partner had the flounder ceviche which was equally delicious. My entree was the salmon, perfectly grilled and served with “seasonal vegetables” which consisted of potatoes, asparagus, and bacon. Strange that I never knew bacon was a vegetable before, but the waiter told me about the bacon when I ordered the dish.. The salmon appeared to be in a small quantity of a very light butter sauce with a slight bacon flavor. It worked, surprisingly well. My dining partner had scallops in clam chowder which were perfectly cooked and delicious. Dessert was a disappointment. The traditional tarte tatin was served with creme fraiche but the waiter said ice cream could be substituted. Not sure why since the tarte is sweet and the creme fraiche offsets the sweetness. The tarte was an overcooked mushy mess and the creme fraiche had the consistency of sour creme, which is probably what it was since creme fraiche should look like whipped creme and just taste like sour creme. The key lime pie in a glass didn’t seem to be going over too well at the adjacent table, but the creme brulee at the same table seemed well liked. Bread is served upon request. Every utensil is changed between courses whether you used them or not. If you don’t like the background music don’t worry, it’s heavy metal one minute, hip hop the next, and so on and so on. With chefs this good, Pinch has potential. But a lot of components need to come together if this place is to survive. Set aside some time, drop in, grab a beer, grab a burger and give this place a shot. Now to the bigger question. Why did they name it “Pinch
When we arrived at Genting Palace we were greeted pleasantly and shown to a lovely table adjacent to a window that overlooks the outdoor terrace and racetrack. Immediately after handing us the menus and wine list, the server removed all the chopsticks from the table, and replaced them with knives forks, and spoons. I found this more than a little annoying. They predetermined that Asian clients eat with chopsticks and non Asians eat with utensils? It would have been polite to ask rather than assume. Hot towels arrive, a nice touch. When making the reservation we were told that the restaurant serves champagne by the glass. It turns out, they do not. So we ordered a bottle of Prosecco. It arrives and the waiter begins to open it. He is removing the metal wire that holds the cork in place while pointing the bottle at the glass window. I’m envisioning the cork flying out of the bottle and shattering the window. Luckily, it didn’t happen. Prosecco served. We order. Honey Barbecued pork ribs and a scallop appetizer and crab soup. All were excellent. But one of our party was holding a pork rib in their hand and enjoying it when the waiter came over and cleared the table of every plate leaving no place to put the barbecued rib! Clean plates arrive, but the dirty used utensils remained on the table for use with the next course. At this point, after the ribs, it would have made sense to get another hot towel, but none arrived. The main courses arrive: Chicken with basil, Scallops with Ginger, and a daily special, cube steak asparagus all to be eaten with the same dirty utensils that were used for the appetizers. All the entrees were excellent as was the house fried rice which was exceptional. Desserts? A weird tasteless (IMO) dry round green jello like thing that kept trying to bounce off the plate and off the table. A tasty plate of white squares with two types of sauce (strawberry and mango?} and a few raspberries, and coconut gelato. The deserts were accompanied by fresh fruit (strawberry, blueberries, and raspberries) which were to me, the best part of the desserts. Room is amazingly sedate and quite lovely. Despite the serious service slip ups, the staff was gracious. Remember, the food is primarily Cantonese, so the flavors are subtle.
crippybob 