Compass
My compass lead me to the West Side or maybe it was Google Maps. Nevertheless, we arrived at Compass, a well established New American for a dinner with friends. Compass offers straight-forward continental items featuring fresh seasonal summer highlights with occasional bursts of creativity. The setting is sleek and spacious and not stuffy (unlike some competitors in the same price point.)
I was wowed by timely and attentive service. We were quickly greeted by a waitress. Within minutes the first course of our three course tasting menu was presented in unison by three servers. Same thing happened for the mains and dessert. Other service niceties included a unique bread basket of corn bread & biscuits with honey butter, a small amuse bouche of octopus salad between apps and entrees, a little plate of house made chocolates and strawberry marshmallows after dessert, and a bagged muffin for breakfast the next day. Just those little extras make it worth finding Compass.
Onto the food. The $35 price fixe menu is available all year. The menu changes seasonally.
We started with the marinated tomato salad with red and yellow tomatoes, goat cheese, petite herb salad, and raspberry vinaigrette.
The chilled sweet corn soup was a pureed soup. The waiter poured it table side. The smooth soup was enhanced by the small amount of Pickled Watermelon and confit shrimp.
We were off to a great start…. Our table tried all three entrees on the summer tasting menu.
- Roasted Hanger Steak with Creamy Polenta, Tomato Red Swiss Chard Gratin, Cipollini Onion, Red Wine Sauce.
- Bo-Bo Farms Organic Chicken with California Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Lemon Grass Chicken Jus
- Atlantic Salmon with Israeli Couscous, English Peas, Squash, Mascarpone Cheese, Serrano Ham.
Though the entrees featured hearty portions and desirable ingredients, we were less impressed by the dishes than the appetizers, desserts and service. It wasn’t that there weren’t well prepared… It wasn’t that they weren’t cooked to order…. they were just much less memorable.
Dessert were two appealing All American choices. The Cheesecake Parfait with Strawberry Salad, Graham Cracker Crumble was light airy and refreshing. The chocolate mousse was elegant and rich Caramel Popcorn and “Popcorn Sherbet” were creative accouterments.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – American
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Address/ phone: 208 West 70th Street (Amsterdam & West End Ave.), 212-875-8600