Trestle on Tenth, Chelsea

 

 

field greens with tender herbs and shallot vinaigrette
pan-roasted scallops with chanterelle mushrooms, artichoke and potato dumpling
espresso pots de crème

Funny Nurse and I have been a bit lax in our pursuit of restaurants lately, so we thought we would counter with Trestle on Tenth, in the blizzard no less.  I find myself at a loss for writing anything funny or even critical, because it wasn't really that memorable either way.  It's the restaurant with Ash, from Top Chef's season 6 (the most recent one), as the sous chef.  Sure enough he was there, making googly eyes at FN.  First of all, we walked in and the maître d’ had stuffed his face with something and had to chew a few bites before talking to us.  Then later into the meal our waiter changed into a woman, and at some point the busboy spilled some of FN's jus.  He also kept putting the plate on the table wrong (which by the way, who cares?) and coming back later to flip it 180 degrees.  Weird.  Admittedly, I ordered a boring salad, but sometimes that's all you want (ignore the fact that a blizzard was raging outside).  It was a little too bitter for me, and I don't think the menu mentioned fennel.  (Confirmed: it didn’t.)  I tasted no shallots.  Actually, it felt like nothing but fennel, and there was nothing salty or sweet to counter the bitterness.  My scallops were fine, I guess, but it's not hard to make a butter and white wine sauce.  It just didn't feel elevated.  I guess we chose Trestle on Tenth because the menu seemed inventive a few months back, so I can only assume that it has changed to more comfort food recently?  Anyway, not horribly memorable, but fine.  Just hoping for something more exciting.