Winter Restaurant Week 2017 - lunch #1

Heck, yeah, I'm excited for Restaurant Week to be back!  Time to try new restaurants! Eat three courses!  Make new friends!  Oh, well, I'm not so sure about the new friends part.  I did have a nice conversation with the bartender/host/waiter at yesterday's restaurant, though. Maybe we're friends now...

In the interest of trying different cuisines, I picked an Austrian restaurant for my first lunch:  Freud.  Plus, hello, who doesn't need a little Freud in their life right about now? The world is turned upside down and maybe a little psychotherapy is just the ticket. Along with some lingonberries.  I went down to the Village, just north of Soho, to try Freud and their Restaurant Week lunch menu.

The restaurant is very pleasant - spare in design, with nice wood and a lovely chrome bar. It wasn't full, so I had my pick of tables.  I chose a cozy two-top; when I looked up, I saw a huge mural that looked like something out of dream therapy!  I don't know if it was supposed to be flowers, or abstract, or what, but it was vaguely unsettling and lovely at the same time.  I'll put a photo of it below and you decide.

For my first course, I chose the curried butternut squash soup.  It also had fresno chilies in it, I think, along with a tasty brown butter crouton on top.  I thought the soup was delicious, though by the end, it was a little spicy for me. But the curry and the squash were so warming and delicious, they paired together beautifully.  At first I thought the bowl was perhaps a little, uh, petite, but the soup was very rich and creamy, and not heavy in the least.  It was a very nice starter.

I went back and forth over what I wanted for my main course.  I couldn't decide between the spaetzle and the wiener schnitzel.  I've wanted to try both at other restaurants, but haven't yet.  I finally settled on the wiener schnitzel.  It was the lingonberries that sealed the deal. The schnitzel itself was enormous, with a very yummy and well-seasoned breading.  It also came with a cucumber/yogurt salad, potato salad, some mixed greens and the lingonberries.  It was an extremely filling, and tasty lunch, hitting all the sweet/sour/salty/bitter notes.

Dessert had two choices, tiramisu or apple strudel.  Obviously, I was not going to order tiramisu at an Austrian restaurant. They have sacher torte on their regular menu, so I was a bit disappointed not to be able to try that, but the apple strudel was quite tasty.  The puff pasty maybe was a tad well-done on the bottom, but the apple filling was delicious, not too sweet and nicely studded with cinnamon and raisins.  It came on top of a lovely vanilla sauce and alongside some fresh whipped cream.  I was pretty full by this time, though, so I didn't really finish.  Well, I didn't finish the strudel.  I did finish the whipped cream.  I am a whipped cream fan from way back.

I enjoyed my lunch at Freud - it's not really a workday lunch place, though.  They weren't in any hurry, which was nice, but I was there quite a while.  I got a lot of reading done. I'm fortunate that I can take a lengthy lunch break and not get in too much trouble at work over it.  I guess they figure it's only a few times a year; when it's NOT Restaurant Week, I generally eat at my desk, which isn't good for you either.  But I would definitely go back to Freud and would love to try some of the dishes on their regular menu, especially the spaetzle and the sacher torte.  I'm really looking forward to my upcoming restaurant adventures - stay tuned!

from Freud's website