The best way for a restaurant to win me over is through its ambiance. Trust me, the quality of the food is important – a very close second – but I want to feel a combination of comfort and escape when I’m eating. The biggest factors for me are noise levels and lighting. Bistro Lamazou, located in Kips Bay, wins on all fronts: the food is a marvelous array of Tunisian specialties, the atmosphere is festive yet not loud, and at night the entire place is lit with soft red and yellow lights. If we all get our own personal Heaven, mine won’t be unlike this.
Besides its full menu of Mediterranean delights, Lamazou is also a great place for wine and cheese. We started our evening with a Tunisian La Vielle Cave, a beautiful 2008 red, which made a great accompaniment to our cheese platter.
Owner Nancy Lamazou – who should be considered for Best Restaurateur In The World – gave us, as her guests, the best her namesake restaurant had to offer, with a delicious, naturally spicy morbier cheese, a one year-aged pecorino made from sheep’s milk, and a smoky sardo made from cow’s milk. At the center of the plate was a sweet paste made from the quince, an apple-like fruit.
The cuisine of the Mediterranean – be it Turkish, Moroccan, Tunisian, Greek, or Lebanese – is neck and neck with Indian as my favorite food. It boasts exotic flavors and unique taste combinations often combined with familiar favorites. This is best seen in the chicken pastilla, which is a pocket of phyllo dough stuffed with chicken, almonds, and alfalfa sprouts, seasoned with cinnamon and honey. It sounds like a bizarre, unpalatable blend, but trust me – it works incredibly well. We enjoyed this and their daily Tunisian brick special, another stuffed item, with a 2006 Lussac, a terrific wine that had a great, almost floral bouquet (no pun intended) to it.
For the main courses, we enjoyed a slow-braised beef served in a tagine, a clay dish. The meat was so tender it could be cut with a fork, in a delicious sauce (with a hint of mint) and apricots, dates, and walnuts thrown into the mix.
Our second entrée was seafood couscous, featuring salmon, mussels, clam, scallops, and a savory and lightly sweet gravy. At the bottom of the dish was a medley of hearty root vegetables. It’s a big dish, so either bring a date or come extra hungry!
With dessert, Nancy was at her convivial best – we told her we couldn’t decide among three of the items, and she said, “Why not have all three?” So we did. The Tahitian vanilla crème brulee was a delight, and the profiteroles were served with one of the best chocolate sauces I’ve ever had, but the exotic fruit salad won. A delicious serving of berries and other fruits, the centerpiece is the quartered rinds of a blood orange with a tart blood orange sorbet shaped like the fruit.
All around us, we saw people laughing, enjoying wine with their family-sized meals, couples enjoying a sweet moment, all set beneath a gorgeous backdrop of red and yellow lights. It was a perfect moment, topped with an anise liqueur and knowing this was a place that puts heart and soul into its meals. Bistro Lamazou is a romantic, happy place – we’ll be back. Soon.
Photos by Chelsea Herman
Bistro Lamazou
344 Third Avenue
212-481-8550
