Fred's @ Barneys New York

New York is not just about the great food, amazing shopping, incredible museums... it is also very entertaining when it comes to people watching. Some observations that I made about New York - there is dog poo EVERYWHERE, there seemed to be more tourists than locals, I actually saw a real person on the street wearing Lady Gaga shoes (you know the ones that are platform but don't have a heel, only under the ball of the foot?) and it seems that every one on the Upper East Side has a baby (and a nanny). Where we did most of our people watching though was at Fred's, a restaurant located on the top floor of Barneys New York - a very upmarket department store on Madison Avenue.

The hub and I would never have come to dine at Fred's on our way - for one thing, I hadn't heard of it and I wouldn't be searching inside a department store for food. However, we spent a few days in NYC with some friends, former NY natives that had recently relocated to London. They were kind enough to meet us in NYC to spend some time with us, and they were the ones that suggested Fred's.

Arriving at the restaurant, it is pretty nondescript in decor and presentation. It was nice with touches of red, and some wide windows affording views of Madison Avenue, but it wasn't particularly fancy or ostentatious. We arrived early and were seated promptly, and spent our time perusing the menu as the restaurant filled up around us. And boy, if the food weren't so good we would've been completely focussed on watching the people around us - and so that speaks volumes for the quality of the dishes! The restaurant quickly filled with what I think is the usual Fred's crowd... and how best to describe them but to ask you to envision long fur coats, eyebrows stretched back to temples and foreheads that don't move? These are ladies that lunch, New York style!! We were the only multicultral people in the restaurant, younger than everyone by about 20 years, and with features that we were born with!

Restaurant BEFORE it filled up with botox!

Aside from the people watching, Fred's is worth visiting for the food alone. Reasonably priced and hugely proportioned, our dishes were absolutely amazing. Take a look at the dishes we ordered:

Estelle's chicken soup $11

Spinach & goats cheese ravioli $24

Club salad $24.50 - this bowl was HUGE

Beef ragu pappardelle $23

Carrot & ginger soup $14

Robiola with truffle oil $24 - THE BEST!!!

As you can see, between the four of us, we definitely went to town ordering dishes. Not photographed was a big serving of chips as well. We didn't manage to finish everything but we did very well I thought. The best thing we ordered, hands down, was the robiola with truffle oil. Essentially like a very thin focaccia bread, it had in the middle this gorgeous cream cheese flavoured with truffle oil. You picked it up and ate it like a pizza (well, we did and we probably were considered plebs by the fancy pants New Yorkers around us!) and it was just so good that I went back for a second, and a third, and probably a fourth. Looking at these pictures again make me want to go back to New York just to eat that!

All the whilst we were dining at Fred's, our friends told us that it was the place to go for celeb spotting - that they had been a few times and every time had seen someone famous. It must have rung true, because as we were leaving the restaurant, who did we see but Vera Wang herself?!!!

Fred's - great for people watching, famous people spotting and the food is pretty good too. Would I come back if in New York again? For that robiola - absolutely!

thesuzchef x