Colicchio & Sons

Colicchio & Sons
85 10th Ave
New York
212-400-6699

Colicchio & Sons is owned by Tom Colicchio, who is a judge on Top Chef. If you watch Top Chef, he is all about SEASONING!! If a contestant doesn't season his or her dish, he will rip them to shreds at judge's table. He can be tough on contestants but if a contestant earns Tom's respect, he isn't that tough of a judge. For example in the last season, he actually asked Paul-who won Top Chef, if his fish was undercooked!! WTF was that? Though Paul didn't win the challenge, it was clear Paul had earned Tom's respect and Tom was going easy on Paul.

Anyways, I was invited to a private dinner at Colicchio & Sons. The three course dinner gave us two choices for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. I didn't have to pay so I didn't know the price of the dinner. But from looking at the menu, the sirlion was $46 but for some reason the seared tuna wasn't on the menu.


Seared tuna, yukon gold potatoes, and a leek vinaigrette. This was very fresh, but the tuna could have been seared a little longer. There is a difference between seared tuna and sashimi. The menu said seared tuna. I don't expect seared tuna to be like sashimi, I want the tuna to be seared and provide some texture. The potatoes were small potato chips, where were crunchy and pretty good. The vinaigrette added a nice balance to the dish.

30 day, dry-aged sirloin, butterball potatoes, spring onion and roasted mushrooms. I asked for this steak to be medium rare but this steak was rare. I expect a restaurant that is owned by Tom Colicchio to be able to cook a steak to the customer's desired doneness. Now, maybe I got the wrong plate, most people at this dinner ordered the steak. But, that doesn't get the restaurant off the hook. They screwed up, somewhere. The steak was good, but not great and not worth the menu price of $46. If I had paid for this steak, I would have been very unhappy!!

Service was very good. The servers were nice and friendly. But, the fact that my steak was either undercooked or I was given the wrong steak didn't sit well with me.

I'm not big on celebrity chefs and I rarely go to their restaurants, I had no choice for this dinner. I didn't get a good impression of Colicchio & Sons and if I was a judge on Top Chef, this restaurant would have been eliminated.