NYCReview
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Red Paper Clip
Walk into Red Paper Clip, and you’ll feel like you’ve arrived embarrassingly early to a dinner party. Or maybe a 48-hour pop-up where the organizers pulled an all-nighter just to get the walls painted, and didn’t have time to worry about things like hanging art or printing menus. It’s not what you might expect from a West Village tasting menu spot run by chefs who worked at Blue Hill At Stone Barns, and considering it’ll set you back $95 per person before drinks, the boring space makes you think, “Well, the food better be good.”
It is good, and at moments, it’s great. But overall, Red Paper Clip isn’t consistently impressive enough to justify the high price tag with so little fanfare.
photo credit: Andrew Bui
The tasting menu at Red Paper Clip changes seasonally, but you can expect whatever six dishes that come out of the kitchen to be full of surprises. Like a bridesmaid’s toast or the TV show Lost, you’ll end up wishing it was more coherent, but the high points make the whole ride worth it. Dinner will involve usual tasting menu suspects like caviar with oysters and slow-cooked short rib, but it’s the potatoes in both of these courses that are the unexpected showstoppers. About halfway through the two-hour dinner, the best dish of the night arrives - an everything brioche with creamy egg yolks, trout lox, and trout roe. All of the layers dissolve when you bite into it, and function like a prescription-strength remedy for Russ & Daughters withdrawal. At this point in the meal, it doesn’t matter if you’re in a bare-walled pop-up or the courtyard at The Cloisters, because this phenomenal breakfast sandwich will have your undivided attention.
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Not all of the dishes at Red Paper Clip work as well as the short rib or brioche, mostly because they prioritize creativity over flavor. There’s celtuce served with a cup of celtuce leaf tea, which means one-sixth of your expensive meal is basically a palate cleanser. Then comes the soup dumpling agnolotti, which is like the underperforming offspring of two famous parents. And the lobster three ways - butter-poached, fried, and cooked with rice - is original, but you’re left wanting more meat and less pretense.
With the optional wine pairing, dinner at Red Paper Clip comes out to more than $200 per person. And while that price point puts it firmly in special occasion territory, there’s nothing special enough to warrant celebrating an anniversary or promotion here. But if you seek out unique dining experiences that are all about the food, then the trout lox brioche is fanfare enough on its own.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Oysters, Potato, And Caviar
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Celtuce
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Everything Brioche
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Soup Dumpling Agnolotti
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Lobster Three Ways
photo credit: Andrew Bui
Short Rib
photo credit: Andrew Bui