Fleur De Sel

a okay fine dine.
nothing special about them
just a typical french restaurant

R.I.P. Now closed.
«At the beginning of the month, Chef Cyril Renaud announced he would be shuttering his Michelin-​starred high end French restaurant Fleur de Sel on February 21. Citing the economy, Renaud said he’d rather focus his attention on his new, more affordable and casual Bar Breton. «
link:

Not that this matters, since tonight is closing night.
I had a chance to eat here on someone else’s dime. Otherwise, I would not be classy enough for this joint.
I have to say the food I had here was very nice, overall. The restaurant itself is lovely and very charming to be in. The atmosphere made me feel classier, just coming inside.
OK:
Goat cheese ravioli: Phenomenal.
Foie gras: So good I wanted to slap someone.
Main dish: Scallops. I love scallops usually, but I have to say these scallops were too salty and over-​flavored for my taste. I was frankly disappointed. However, the carrots they were served with were, for some reason, fantastic.
Dessert: Again, kinda bleh. I had black current cake. It was sort of too dry and came with a weird ice cream flavor that I didn’t get into.
Overall, some things I ate were delicious, and some only so-​so.
I can kind of see why they are closing, because it’s obviously quite pricey. But I could also see that if you happened to order all the right things on the menu, you might be having one of the best meals of your life here.

I had the honor of dining at Fleur De Sel before it’s imminent closing. We opted for the tasting menu and a bottle from the rhone valley. The entire experience was delectable. Started with bacalao (house amuse), to foie gras croquette, to potato crusted striped bass, to colorado lamb, to a cheese plate, and finally a yuzu flavored dessert. Oh oh oh! They ended it with petite fours of truffles and other things yummy.
Again, it was delectable. Mmmm hmmmmm :)

It was kind of sad going to Fleur de Sel last night. The couple next to us were regulars and were having a hard time with the idea that the restaurant was closing. And after having the tasting menu, we were sad too.

Love this restaurant for its small size (and its food, of course). Warm, cozy and comfortable. The sommelier is the best. Introduced some really good wines and was really friendly.
I’d forgotten what I had because the last time i went was about 6 months ago but visited twice. However, I can never forget its purrrrfect brittany crepes. it’s really the best crêpe i’d ever ever ever had. and im a big big crêpe lover. overall service is really good. ends the night with a take-​home bread for breakfast!

I heard through the grapevine that Fleur De Sel was closing… say it ain’t true! We had lunch during Restaurant Week and while the place was packed, we managed to get a corner table that was cozy and intimate.
We started with the butternut squash soup with coconut foam and truffle oil. I’m not a huge fan of foams in food, but the coconut foam provided a nice complement to the butternut soup; we had to refrain from licking the bowl when the soup was finished.
The braised veal breast was next… and it was stellar. Luscious, fall-​apart meat with a wonderful meaty flavor, it was like a pot roast but much more elegant and subtle.
We finished with the bread pudding, which has a delicious brown-​butter nuttiness that finished the meal perfectly. It is really too bad that Fleur De Sel is closing, we would recommend it anytime.

The food was interesting, creative and carefully prepared.
We went today at noon for restaurant week and we got this great corner seat. The food came out promptly and was quite delish!
The bread was served warm and I enjoyed them. My bf liked the bread at le cirque better.
We tried everything on the tasting menu:
The butternut squash soup was not especially different but the coconut foam was neat, and tasted really good with the soup.
The sardine salad thing was on the saltier side but rather different. I wished there was more green to go with the fishy part, but it was cool.
The duck was very very very good.
I also enjoyed the cod, but the duck – yummy!
Both were done with much more care than le cirque, our Friday night restaurant week dinner.
Dessert was a quick bread pudding with caramel icecream for me and sorbet for the bf. Both were quite good.
Initially, the serving sizes looked small, but by the end we were super full and satiated.
A great overall lunch, worth every penny, and we’d go back again.

A nice cozy place and by cozy~ definitely not for a big parties
More of a type of place for twos and fours. I came for lunch and staff was immediately attentive =) Had a butternut squash soup, blue cod, and banana bread pudding w/​ice cream. Perfect amount served! Don’t expect big dishes. I was satisfied and not yet full ~ but satisfied.
Dishes weren’t anything but the expected; but prepared perfectly =D
**side note** Restaurant week prices are more like it .this place is a bit pricy on a regular day.

Um. Yeah. It’s fine. I paid $ 24 for three bites of tasty food and a poorly cooked duck breast.
Sardine napoleon: super delicious pureed sardines with crispy homemade crackers and tiny bits of arugula «salad» on top. It was like YUMMY YUMM– oh hey, where did it go? Gone. It was two bites of food.
Duck breast with veal ravioli: the potato purée was smooth and flavorful. Great sauce and decent ravioli atop. The duck breast was really hard to chew and dry.
Prune bread pudding with caramel ice cream: good stuff. I typically don’t like bread pudding. Something about old bread mixed with a bunch of cream. But this one was great. Soft inside with a nice crusty top and good prune flavor. Ice cream was fantastic. This one was an okay portion. But I went back to the office after and ate some lemon pie. Hungry still cause I didn’t eat my Duck Breast of Dried-​up Overcookedness.
$ 24 is all they’re going to get from me. The rest of my cash is going elsewhere. Good thing about Restaurant Week– the cheap test drive.

Came because of the one Michelin star and was pleased by the plating and the chef’s own art that adorned the walls. Though it has been a while since I dined here, I recall the bass being nice.
Dessert gave a pretty decent meal a very flat punctuation mark. While the carrot cake was passable, it was passable in a way that a vending machine Little Debbie cake does its job to quell hunger while waiting for a train.

Came in the summer. The restaurant was soooo warm it was unbearable. Wasn’t entirely impressed by the meal. Had the typical fish dish which I recall to be pretty bland. Bleah~
Appetizer and dessert weren’t exactly memorable either.

Things that I liked about fleur de sel:
— simple menu, 2 people can get sample everything
— good ingredients, put together nicely
— friendly staff
— quiet
— wine list looked impressive (only got a half-​bottle)
— we stayed for over 2 hours
Things to improve:
— the food is pretty good but not up there (when compared to other high-​end french places)
— initial seating was only so-​so despite an empty restaurant on labor day

Imagine a place where you can actually hear a conversation clearly or even a conversation across the room! This restaurant is quiet, not fussy, and the food is simply wonderful. For someone like me who likes simple food that is prepared well, Fleur De Sel is a welcome respite into simplicity done well.
We got the tasting menu, paired with wine. Every course from start to finish was lovely, simply done French food. It was expensive but memorable. Save it for a lunch or dinner on your company. ;)

I’m debating between giving this place 3 vs. 4 stars.
Reasons to give it 4 stars:
–I have 5 words for you: Artichoke and Foie Gras Ravioli. ‘Nuf said.
–Very nice ambience; tiny place w/​nice chairs.
–Nice amuse bouche, and delicious complimentary truffles with dessert.
–Even though it was a fancy restaurant that another Unilocaler said is «full of old people», there was a multi-​generation family there during our dinner, including a baby, and the atmosphere was such that no one seemed to mind that the mom was walking around with her baby, entertaining him by letting him touch the artistic artwork on the wall, rocking him in the stroller, etc.
–The creamy part of my peanut nougatine and banana ice-​cream dessert
Reasons to give it 3 stars:
–My lamb entrée was okay, but not great.
–The braised lamb crêpe that came w/​my lamb entrée that I heard another Unilocaler rave about was good, but not great [maybe my expectations were too high coming in]
–the cake-​y part of the peanut nougatine and banana ice-​cream dessert
The former outnumber the latter, but still, I didn’t feel like I could give 4 stars to a place where I didn’t go crazy over my entrée. I do recommend it for a romantic dinner [this wasn’t, though] or taking the parents!

Yep, this is pricey (not Per Se pricey but Babbo pricey). It does draw a slightly older crowd who cares less about whether there will be a celebrity sighting (there won’t) and more about the wine list (which is very extensive and can easily enthrall a wino for a good half hour).
I’m not sure this is the right place for a first date. But this is definitely a good place for a small business dinner with people you want to impress in an understated way. In the center of the dining room, there is one of the most gorgeous wood table made from what seems to be one block of wood, with strategically placed holes where the carafes of wines are held while the wines open up. The waitstaff is around just enough to make you feel like you’re being looked after without hovering over. Yes, people are dressed nicely but again in an understated manner. It’s one of the very few restaurants in New York where you can actually have a conversation and be heard without having to shout.
We had a 6 course prix fix menu. Sizes are tiny as expected in an establishment like this one. But each dish had been calibrated in such a way to deliver the most impact. The wine we had was fantastic as it should be.
It is a little hidden away restaurant in the middle of nowhere and you sort of have to be looking for it, in order to find it. And no, it’s not the kind of place you go to often or that you even become a regular at. But it’s the kind of restaurant that doesn’t do any marketing and still manages to always be full, even with its small portions and high prices.

We came here for restaurant week and got pretty much the same thing except the dessert from the 3-​course menu priced at $ 24.07.
We started with the Gavlax Salmon which was scrumptious; the ginger, cilantro and other herbs complemented the salmon very well.
However, the best thing we had were the braised lamb crepes. The skin of the crêpe was crunchy and the underlying foam that ensconced the lentils — just magnificent.
The granny apple desert I had was decent. Maybe it was just my mood, but I didn’t enjoy the apple as much as the ice cream.
Unfortunately the service wasn’t as good as our meal went on; I think they knew we were only there for restaurant week and figured we weren’t shelling out the money for extras (wine, extra courses, etc) so our service slowed down.

Elegant, cozy, pricey — these are the words I’d use to describe this gem in the Flatiron District.
I’d like to start by bragging: we found street parking half a block away from the restaurant. Beat that! We parked at the meter on Broadway between 19^th and 20^th Street. How did I do it, you ask? I never stopped believing! 7 quarters to park on the street? Sign me up!
The place is definitely small, and the tables are very close to one another. My dinner companion and I got a corner table in the back. The restaurant had that unmistakable «first date» ambiance. The dim lights, the pillows, the quiet conversations. .. everything was just right.
We opted for the tasting menu with no wine pairing, which set us back $ 89 per person. A 7-​course meal included a great selection of fish, shell fish, meat and sumptuous dessert. Diners have a choice of 2 dishes for every course. My favorite courses were sea bass fillet and venison in beet sauce, both of which were delicious and flavorful.
The restaurant was also willing to accommodate my aversion to shellfish, and they gladly substituted the shellfish course with artichoke ravioli which were fantastic. My caramelized pear and crème fraîche dessert was good, but the chocolate cake with ice cream was much better.
If I had to find something wrong with Fleur De Sel, I would complain about our waiter. She seemed very unhappy when we pointed out HER mistake. Much like your computer, the tasting menu at this restaurant operates in binary code: 1 or 0 vs. choice 1 vs. choice 2. Although my friend had definitely ordered Choice 2, the waitress brought her Choice 1 and was very unhappy when we pointed it out. That was AFTER I had already told her that I did not order monk fish. Seems like it should have been easier.
Oh yeah, most people were really dressed up. Lots of men in sports coats and women in cocktail dresses. We were definitely under-​dressed, but they served us nonetheless. What a country!
I would gladly come back, but I would dress up and hope I get a different waitress.

Amazingly cute interior and great service, but very under-​whelming food.
The interior is tiny and just very adorable — like you stumbled into the seven dwarves’ hut. Okay, so it’s much more elegant than a hut, but everything about the place is just very dainty and miniature.
The food is far from amazing though. Actually, it was very bland. I don’t mind small portions, but I do mind food that isn’t great. That’s too bad, considering the service was very friendly and efficient.
Also, I think they close fairly early for dinner by NY standards.

Their menu changes upon the season so you always get different menus.
This place is a bit small — you can hear everybody’s conversation.
But I really like this place since everything was so delicious — I would highly recommend this place if you don’t mind the ever changing menu.