Pierre Loti Wine Bar 53 Irving Place, New York, NY 10079 gave me mixed signals. When I asked for wine recommendations, our waiter didn’t seem to want to make suggestions. On the flip side, my friend, Sheryl, dropped and broke her phone and our waiter came over with a flashlight to help us find the missing piece. I love that they sell flights of wine (3 for $15 or 4 for $18, 2 oz pour each) so you can try more, but I don’t like the little glasses they come in. The regular glasses they have are way better and that definitely changes the experience.

flight of white wine

We started with the Turkish Meze sampler, which was quite good, particularly the Hummus and Smoked Eggplant. The Haydari (thick Turkish yogurt with dill) was pretty good too. Only the Ezme fell short, so it would’ve been really enjoyable if it had just been served with the right bread, any flatbread. A light multi-grain bread is just not appropriate.

Hummus, Haydari, Smoked Eggplant Salad, Ezme mutli grain bread

For our cheese plate, I have no complaints. I chose Morbier, a safe one I already know I like, and two new ones that our now favorites. The Saint Maure (France) is a pasteurized goat milk cheese with a vegtable ash. The Kefalograviera (Greece) is a pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese, semi soft and aged for 90 days. They served it with better bread, a denser raisin bread that was toasted lightly. The plate also inlcuded a few dried apricots and a light fig jam.

Morbier, Saint Maure, Morbier

But, (you knew that was coming right) the Arugula and Beet Salad was terrible. The beets were watery and tasteless. The salad wasn’t really dressed or seasoned. The Shrimp Casserole was acceptable but not something I’d order again. The shrimp were cooked correctly but the flavors were boring, tomaotoes, onions, mushrooms, with some cheese on top, but the dish was watery too.

The whole place is super dark, as you can probably tell from these poor attempts at photos, and lined with mostly couples. The meal cost $52 for each of us (including tax and tip) which is a bit more than I think the experience was worth.

posted by jessica at 09:26 AM Filed under Restaurants, Wine, Wine Bar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.