A plain-Jane décor (institutional carpets, a solid oak bar) feels utterly unchanged from 1979, as does the menu, which offers classic German dishes like tafelspitz (boiled veal and horseradish).
He says his players are like "nice sons in-law", and loves schnitzel, tafelspitz – a dish of boiled veal – and Great British Bake Off favourite sachertorte, as well as classical music.
The steak no longer overshadows the rest of the entrees, an inventive lineup that includes rainbow trout with walnut pesto, an Italian version of Peking duck, boiled veal with fruit mostardo, and branzino wrapped in seaweed.
The clear winners were the pulpo; razor clams à la plancha, with just lemon; tender boiled veal chuck with nothing more than pimentón and olive oil; and, perhaps best of all, lacón (the local cured and cooked ham) with chorizo and grelos (broccoli rabe, a Galician obsession) — a simply perfect combination.
It's a nice place to come for lardo with honey, boiled veal tongue with olives, or pisarei e fasö, tiny flour dumplings cooked with borlotti beans.
All you have to do is boil some veal broth and then stir in the strained blood and other fine ingredients like spices, booze, and fruit.
The chicken noodle soup was also good, and I had a hard time choosing an entree from choices including boiled beef flanken, veal goulash and stuffed Cornish hen.
Last week, through a lunch of food cooked in the bags -- beef cheeks, boiled beef, salmon, veal shank, artichokes, zucchini -- he kept popping up in the dining room with other experiments in plastic packages.
Zabar's has nothing on the street kitchens of thirteenth-century Paris, where "you could buy boiled and roast veal, beef, mutton, pork, lamb, kid, pigeon, capon, goose; spiced pasties filled with chopped pork, chicken or eel; tarts filled with soft cheese or egg, hot waffles and wafers, cakes, pancakes, simnels... hot mashed peas, garlic sauce, cheese of Champagne and Brie".
RECOMMENDED DISHES: Tyrolean wine soup with smoked trout crepe, oxtail consomme with dumplings, beef cheeks in Zweigelt sauce, potato-veal ravioli, boiled beef with horseradish sauce, palacsintak.
BEST DISHES: Borschts, potato pancakes, boiled beef with horseradish sauce, veal meatballs with dill sauce, stuffed cabbage, chicken cutlet, bigos, blintzes.
