Maison

We don't go out that often for French food, but we bought a Groupon to Maison, a brasserie in Midtown, and last weekend, decided to enjoy our multi-course French meal.

Brasserie Maison

Our Groupon included 2 glasses of house wine, 2 appetizers, and 2 main courses.  The meal started with a bread basket and an olive oil butter.

It was low light but the butter was kind of pink, even though it looks orange in this photo

This was, sadly, one of the better parts of the meal. Neither of us could pinpoint the added flavor that made the butter pink. A thought he tasted a bit of cream cheese and smoked salmon which made no sense, but it really did taste like it. M thought it was a little tomatoey. The waiter said it was just olive oil mixed in with the butter, but we've never known olive oil to turn butter pink or add additional flavors like the ones we thought we tasted.

We both chose white wine and each got a glass of chardonnay.

Wine!

The wine wasn't bad. Neither of us is a huge chardonnay fan, but we thought it was pretty good. It had a little sweetness to it and was crisp.

One of the appetizers was fried calamari, which came with a lemon and saffron aioli.

Fried calamari with aioli

The calamari was lukewarm at best. We were confused since we figured it was freshly fried so it should be nice and hot. The aioli was actually light considering what it was, but was nothing special. Maybe it was the lemon that gave it some freshness. The breading started falling off as we ate though, and the calamari towards the bottom was soggy, and that was really disappointing.  The calamari itself didn't have much flavor or seasoning on its own, which was also disappointing and made the aioli quite necessary.

We also got the goat cheese tart for an appetizer - a flaky crust topped with caramelized Spanish onions, marinated goat cheese and topped with cherry tomatoes, tossed in fresh cut basil and olive oil (according to the menu). It came with a mixed greens salad on the side.

Goat cheese and tomato tart with some greens

This was probably the best thing we ate during the meal, but even this was just okay. We've had cheese tarts in the past that have been better. The crust was a little hard and not nearly as flaky as the description led us to believe. The cheese was rich and flavorful, and the tomatoes were very fresh. The salad was just a mix of greens with some oil and vinegar mixed in.  The onions were fine, but despite the description, there was barely any basil.

For the main course, M chose the roasted chicken, which was accompanied by mashed potatoes, ratatouille and thyme jus.

Roasted chicken, potatoes, and vegetables - a classic brasserie dish

Flavor-wise this dish wasn't that bad. The ratatouille was flavorful and definitely the best part of the dish. The mashed potatoes were smooth and buttery, but were just "there." The chicken, while decently flavored, was very dry. It was difficult to cut, and even the jus, which we didn't get much thyme from, couldn't save it.  We had a pretty good French roasted chicken in November in Chicago (which we will write about someday), and this wasn't even close.  And that one was a takeout order!

A chose the moules provencale (fresh tomatoes, sweet garlic and basil).

Mussels

We don't go out for mussels very often in NYC, so our standard for mussels is Chez Leon in Brussels, Belgium (someplace we also haven't written about but hope to get to someday).  Although that is a somewhat touristy spot and not even the best mussels Brussels had to offer, they were so much more delicious than these mussels.  These were fine and passable, cooked decently well, with a decent tomato and onion sauce.  But they were nothing to rave about. The broth was also creamier than we expected.

The mussels came with crispy fries.  It tasted like lemon aioli for the dipping sauce but we heard one of the servers just call it mayo.

Fries and mayo

The fries were good.  One of the better parts of the meal because of their crispiness.  Not sure it's a good thing that fries and bread were the better parts of the meal (after the goat cheese tart). The aioli/mayo was a nice touch and reminded us of Amsterdam and Belgium with their fries. The fries weren't as good as what we had in Europe, but they were still tasty.

In addition to the food being mediocre, the experience was also not very pleasant, not all of which was the restaurant's fault.  The tables weren't that close together, but somehow A got kicked by the woman sitting next to M, who also never even tried to move her coat which was covering half of M's seat.  Then, halfway through the meal, we were boiling and drenched in sweat as if we just finished a cardio workout.  A lot of people looked warm.  When we left we realized why. There were apparently heaters in the banquette that were burning hot to the touch, so M's jacket felt like it had been laying on a space heater. Leaving the restaurant was a relief as the heat was becoming unbearable by the time we finished our main courses.  If you do go to Maison, we would recommend avoiding the tables with banquettes right by the window. Way. Too. Hot.

We weren't sure what to expect with this meal, but sadly it was only mediocre.