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BLT Fish - New York’s newest fish joint

You’d think with the hundreds and hundreds of great restaurants in New York City we wouldn’t all be scrambling to be the first to try the new “it ” restaurant. The Three Tomatoes admit it. We too love the thrill of saying we’ve already been to the latest impossible to get reservations restaurant. But for The Three Tomatoes, that usually happens when we just luck out and try a new place before it gets reviewed and becomes the next “it” place. You know, that three seconds in time when you get your choice of tables and the maitre d’, chef, and wait staff fawn over you. Then they get the good reviews and now when you call for a reservation, say for example in two days, the best they offer you is a 5:30 PM or 10:00 PM, two weeks from now! Oh and by the way, they’d also like your credit card to hold the reservation and you still have to call them 24 hours in advance to reconfirm.

If The Three Tomatoes miss that narrow window from “just opened” to “it” buzz, we usually wait until the buzz has settled down , which in our experience means we not only get a reservation in the week we call and at a reasonable time somewhere in between 5:30 (we’re not old enough to eat that early) and 10:00 PM (we’re too old to eat that late.). And usually by then the pretentious waiters have been fired or have settled down, we won’t be standing 10 feet deep at the bar waiting “just a few minutes” for our table, nor will we be seated next to the “beautiful people” who never actually eat, and have moved on to the next “it” place. So normally we would have waited before trying to get into BLT Fish, NYC’s newest "it" fish joint on 17^th Street just West of Fifth. But in this case, the buzz was from coming from people who actually like great food, so The Three Tomatoes bit the bullet and booked a three-week advanced reservation. Was it worth the wait? You betcha!

BLT Fish does not stand for bacon, lettuce and tomato, but for chef Laurent Tourondel – (the “b” is for Bistro). BLT Fish is one of three BLT restaurants -- the other two are BLT Steak and BLT Prime (more about those later.) BLT Fish is located in a very downtown hip, newly renovated narrow three-story brick building. The first floor houses the “BLT Fish Shack” which does not take reservations (which as you may recall from previous emails violates one of the cardinal “Husband Friendly Restaurant” rules). It’s got small tables and a raw fish bar with every kind of clam and oyster you can dream of it. The second floor is for private parties (and we’ve heard great reviews). The third floor is the reservations only dining room. It’s a relatively small room (one reason reservations are scarce), with a skylight, natural brick walls and the kitchen in plain view. The staff is professional and attentive without being overbearing. Instead of starting you off with the typical bread basket, your waiter brings you a plate of Cheddar & Chive Biscuits (see their recipe in the side bar), which is served with sea-salted butter and maple syrup. The biscuits alone would be enough to bring us back! The menu includes a wonderful array of fish from around the world. Our favorites were a whole pink snapper from New Zealand baked to perfection in sea salt, incredibly flavorful giant sea scallops, and a Cantonese-style red snapper. And served with your after dinner espresso and cappuccino? Blue cotton candy. A very fun treat.

BLT Fish was our first “BLT” restaurant. So after our great experience there, we can’t tell you how disappointed we were at BLT Prime which recently opened in the old Union Pacific spot on East 20^th street. The ground floor features “tagged” aged beef in full view in a glass enclosed meat locker, which frankly reminded us of a morgue (maybe we’ve been watching too much CSI) next to a crowded bar scene. The house specialties are the prime aged beef, and the American Kobe steak ($72). Feeling a little too guilty to order a $72 steak, we went with the disappointing aged sirloins (nothing special), and we were more than a little annoyed at the slow and rather disjointed service. When you’re paying over 100 bucks a head for dinner, you deserve better. Would we give them a second chance? Not in a New York minute. And while we’ve heard good things about BLT Steak (57^th street), we’ll stick to a second try at BLT Fish.

BLT’s Cheddar & Chive Biscuits

Preparation