Jerusalem bagel was good, and so was the pasta. The 76 layers wagyu steak skewer was mediocre and didn’t taste that good. The beef short ribs was heavy and good and so was the chocolate tart.
Overall an ok experience but it was pretty pricy.
Definitely skip the cabbage though, it tasted like nothing.
It was a pretty good meal, but I wasn’t wow-ed. Everything was super expensive for what it is, especially the tiny portions of veggies for over $20. My fave dish of the night was actually the pistachio pesto pasta, it was fresh and rich all at the same time. Shrimp was okay, and short rib was very fatty/cloying and the sauce make it worse, it didn’t cut through the fat at all.
ZERO STAR REVIEW
My partner and I went to Shmone two days ago. We are both serious food people and have eaten at many of the top restaurants in New York City and abroad. A 4.2 Google rating normally would not convince us, but the dining room is always packed, and it has a Michelin star.
We were too naive.
It was a hot day, and we wanted something light, so we ordered several dishes. A few stood out, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
The $29 spot prawn carpaccio was described to us as “live” and “comes in every day.” Who would say no to sweet, crunchy, fresh prawns like that?
What arrived was a gooey, fishy substance drowned in olive oil, with uneven salt and zest scattered on top. Nothing about it tasted fresh. The olive oil was heavy, thick, spicy, and completely lacking any clean fruit aroma. It covered every delicate quality the prawn carpaccio should have had.
It is almost funny that something that used to swim in the ocean ended up drowning in a gallon of olive oil. The amount of sea salt was the only reminder that we were eating seafood.
And the salt level? Enough to cure a ham.
At a certain point, it was not even simply “too salty” anymore. There was so much salt that the dish became bitter.
The $38 calamari was even more confusing.
You should have seen my face when it was dropped on the table. It looked exactly like a five-year-old’s school art project: two pieces of calamari, charred almost black, sitting in a bowl of beet-colored liquid.
Forgive me for calling it a sauce. I simply do not know what that thing was. Watery, chunky, sour beet vinegar would be a closer description.
The calamari itself had been cut multiple times, clearly to tenderize it and help it curl beautifully during cooking into a cylinder. In theory, that should make it a perfect vehicle for sauce and flavor.
Unfortunately, those seemed to be the two things the kitchen had run out of.
Instead, the cylinder trapped chunky sea salt inside, the way rigatoni traps sauce. Pure genius. They made a Swiss roll out of calamari and salt.
My partner was bothered by the bitterness of the charred tentacle. I was less bothered only because the spot prawn had already lowered the standard so much.
You can buy two fresh calamari at Citarella for less than $10 retail. If a restaurant is charging $38 for this dish, the least it can do is try harder.
The $37 chicken thigh was the most shocking dish of the night.
Marvelous. Simply divine.
Those are words I learned from HBO advertisements quoting Time Magazine about whatever show they are promoting. I think I am putting them to better use here.
I actually laughed when the plate arrived: one sad chicken thigh sitting in cloudy soup.
For $37, you can get a very good half chicken in New York. With just one leg, Shmone has officially surpassed Daniel Boulud in pricing ambition.
So it must be out of this world, right?
It was. Just in the wrong direction.
I imagine this is how they torture sinners down there
Flavorless, empty, overcooked, and cheap-tasting. The only thing echoing in my mouth was an unpleasant sourness, the kind you get from poorly handled or poorly butchered meat.
If you take a cheap frozen chicken thigh and boil it in two gallons of water for eight hours, you might be able to recreate this dish.
I could not help thinking they took the waste from making chicken stock, refurbished it as “slow-cooked chicken thigh overnight,” and put it on the menu with a $37 price tag.
I spat out the first bite and went silent for the rest of dinner.
When you experience something beyond your understanding, your brain simply shuts down.
The dinner came to around $100 per person.
Pretty cheap for a night out in NYC
For a restaurant group this large, and for a restaurant holding a Michelin star, there should be more decency toward customers. Make as much money as you want, but please do not become a tumor in the New York food scene.
People work hard to afford life in this city. We are more than happy to spend money at restaurants that care.
But please, have some integrity.
