Culinary adventure at Minibar

April 1, 10:17 AMDC Restaurant ExaminerLisa Shapiro

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Bagels & Lox, Photo by Lindsay Silverstein

Minibar (at Café Atlántico) is distinctive for a number of reasons. First, it is a restaurant within a restaurant, located on the 2nd floor inside Café Atlántico, but with its own kitchen and staff.  Unique to Minibar, diners do not order their dinner, the elaborate twenty-seven course menu is created in advance by Chef José Andrés and prepared right in front of you by two Minibar Chefs.

Also, Minibar only has six seats and two seatings per night. Reservations are difficult to obtain, in that potential diners must call at precisely 10:00 am thirty days in advance.  Every course was an experience in flavor, presentation, or both. Our two-hour journey with several “Munchies”, basically single bite dishes. The "Pisco Sour" was a key lime cocktail served in a miniature martini glass, complete with tart meringue on top. It was deliciously refreshing and definitely one of my favorites of the evening.

The Olive Oil "Bon-Bon" and the carbonated "Mojito" are essentially large raindrops of liquid held together on your plate through some wizardry of fluid dynamics. The Olive Oil bon bon's thin candied shell was filled with pure olive oil. The bon bon was served a top of course salt which provided a stark contrast in texture in comparison to silky mooth olive oil (Photo on left by Lindsay Silverstein). The Mojitos are slurped down and as it touches the top of your pallet, it bursts and the sensation is an explosion that leaves a hint of mint on your tongue.

Beautifully presented, the "Bagels and Lox" was brightly colored salmon roe with cream cheese wrapped   in a thin pastry cone – one paper thin crunch followed immediately with a burst of brine (pictured  above). Another remarkable presentation was the yogurt-filled steamed brioche bun topped with caviar and lemon "air" which resembled an Asian steamed bun. Next was the Boneless Chicken Wing, which was one of my favorites. It was delicious but lacked the same creativity as some of the other courses. Afterwards was the “Dragon’s Breath” popcorn which was the most novel - a little ball of caramelized curry popcorn dipped into liquid nitrogen. As the chef places the popcorn on the counter, he says, "Look at each other".  As we put it into our mouth, we all burst into laughter as streams of "smoke" drift from our noses.

This portion of our dinner concluded with my first favorite dish of the night, the Cotton Candy Eel.  A small portion of shiso-spiced eel, similar to what you might find served with sushi, placed on top of a cucumber and lettuce leaf, wrapped in cotton candy and then seasoned with soy powder (see photo on right, by Lindsay Silverstein).  If it doesn’t sound appetizing … well that is  part of the marvel of Minibar, ingredients are combined together in a most unusual way and assemble something truly divine.

The next portion of our dinner were courses with a focus on "Flavors & Textures". My favorites were the "Caesar salad", "Guacamole", Smoked Oysters with Apples and Juniper, and the Salmon-pineapple Ravioli with quinoa. The organized Caesar salad was artisticly presented, wrapped in two bite  size rolls. One was topped with a small bright yellow quail egg yolk and the other with shredded Parmesan (photo on left by Lindsay Silverstein).

The Smoked Oysters with Apples and Juniper was interesting in terms of flavor. You could hardly recognize the taste of the oyster as the tiny juniper berry and apple masks the salty marine taste of the oyster. Another one of my favorite courses was the Salmon-pineapple "Ravioli" with Quinoa. Although I don't care for Salmon, this was very mild tasting.  The sweetness of the pineapple was an interesting and delicious combination. The symmetrically presentated raviolis were vividly orange in color with a stark contrasting streak of serrano chili paste.

Of the "Desserts" served, my favorite was the "Thai" frozen yogurt. The two chefs, Brad and Ryan said that I would need a long list to note all the ingredients that went into it, such as ginger, cayenne pepper, grapefruit, peanuts, curry, coconut, lime, zest, and the list goes on. A noteworthy dessert was the White Chocolate, Black Olive and Mango Box, party due to the presentation  The mango "box" was orange yet almost transparent. The mango and the creamy chocolate were a delicious combination and it is quite unusual to find black olives in a dessert. 

I didn't have many complaints. One minor complaint is that because you are sitting at the bar and facing the kitchen, it was difficult for the staff to take away the plates since they have to reach around you or over your back. Overall, this truly was one of the best and most memorable dining experiences of my life. It's extremely expensive and quite difficult to obtain a reservation, but in my humble opinion, it's worth every dollar and every minute of your time. I'd be interested in returning to Minibar for another adventure in a year or two once I knew that some of courses on the menu had changed. Next time, I might spring for the wine pairings just to see how it helps to bring out some of the flavors of the dishes.