RM []
33 E. 60TH ST. (212) 319-3800
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RICK Moonen’s rm is the most tantalizing opening of the year. Already better than good, it is within hailing distance of being great. All it needs is attention to some ornery details, and determination not to get lazy after a strong start.
Moonen was long the executive chef at Oceana, which I thought sagged during his last few years there. Last spring, he left it to launch rm (the place insists on the annoying lower case). It delivers on its promise to showcase Moonen’s fabled command of seafood in its many-splendored complexions at gentler prices.
The dining millions have taken to the $55 prix fixe-only menu (compared to Oceana’s $68) in a setting luxe yet casual. The crowd is uptown cosmopolitan: lots of suits, gossiping girlfriends, the cheating pair next to us who smooch with impunity.
Aquamarine banquettes in the front room left over from the old Lure support you cozily for hours. New wall fabrics and curved wooden ceiling trim echo Oceana’s yacht-cabin ambience. For all the front room’s buzz, the back room is a barn – too bright and too square.
From diver scallops drenched in the mollusk’s elusive sweetness to rare walleye possessed of revelatory freshwater purity, Moonen’s catch gives nothing away to Oceana. Many entrees are slow-poached or steamed to preserve clarity of flavor.
Moonen, a partner who holds the title of “chef,” shares creative credit with “co-executive” chefs Anthony Amoroso and Matthew Accarino. The trio’s adventurous first courses are playfully conceived without going overboard.
Roast cod veloute arrived foamy on top, rich with pancetta and garlic – a fork-and-spoon pleasure. Spaghettini “Bolognese,” made not with meat but with lobster and a touch of tomato, looks clumsy but tastes grand – a palate-popping departure that Mario Batali might have dreamed up.
Moonen considers yellowtail tataki “the foie gras of fish,” the waiter advises. Though hardly as unctuous as liver, the fleshy slices over paper-thin avocado and cinnamon oil do well by nectarines one night, tangerines another.
Entrees at rm, unlike those at Oceana, are shorn of side elements. Supporting vegetables and shellfish are in the sauce or nage – a strategy that challenges subtly flavored fish to stand up for itself amidst potent, fragrant brews.
Most often, it works. Delicate walleye hails from Lake Geneva. It was worth the trip: Wrapped in toothsome potato skin, topped with bubbling truffle nage with pickled chanterelles, it tastes just out of the water and flatters all around it.
Butter-poached lobster, underdone but tender, recalled a similar dish at Oceana, and rm’s was better. Yet certain entrees missed just a beat. Pancetta-wrapped striped bass is more accurately bass-stuffed pancetta, so thick was the meat around rolls of overcooked fish.
“It’s almost a health-food dish,” the waiter advised about black daikon shallow-poached Atlantic cod. Too true: Even with dreamy oyster truffle jus, it left me hungry.
Pastry chef Pichet Ong’s desserts see to lingering munchies. I loved raspberry-lemon icebox “parfait” with verbena milk tea anglaise, a dreamy chocolate malt shake and the best rum raisin ice cream I’ve ever tasted.
A pattern of small glitches undercuts the joy. Service that’s gracious one night can be impersonal another. Half the entrees I tasted came to the table less than hot. I wanted to grab Moonen in his casual strolls through the dining room and march him into the kitchen.
Barely two months old, rm doesn’t measure up to Oceana’s poise, either in the kitchen or on the floor. But it comes excitingly close. I hope its early success will inspire Moonen & Co. to do even better.