Top Business Dining at Matt Lambert’s Musket Room

“There are many restaurants we visit during our lives. Some however become memorable.” Huffington Post contributor Anurag Harsh recommends his “absolute favourite restaurants in New York” to take “your clients, business partners or significant others to.” They include Auckland native Matt Lambert’s The Musket Room in Nolita.

“Lambert appears to be on a mission to debunk some stereotypes and defy a few expectations about his homeland. For a chef raised in a country famous for its wild, rugged terrain and obsession with rugby, his contemporary cuisine is surprisingly subtle, thoughtful and at times even quite delicate, and if you come here expecting to find lamb on the menu, you’ll probably be disappointed,” Harsh writes.

“It is obvious that this is a kitchen with a mastery of all the modern culinary techniques. Don’t go thinking this is all about presentation though, because the dishes really do deliver on flavour and are ridiculously easy to eat.

“Nothing demonstrates the ability here more than the succulent New Zealand venison accompanied by ‘flavours of gin’, which are dots of juniper meringue, fennel, and a licorice-infused sauce. Even that antipodean classic, the pavlova, is given a new lease of life by not so much being deconstructed as being reinvented, as a subtle and delicious delicacy made with passion fruit.

“The warm and inviting room fits seamlessly into the neighbourhood and comes with a [six-metre] walnut timbered bar and lime-washed exposed brick walls.”

The Musket Room received a highly coveted Michelin Star, just four months after opening in May of 2013. Lambert co-owns the restaurant with wife, Barbara and Jennifer Vitagliano.

Lambert completed his degree at Whitireia Community Polytechnic.

Original article by Anurag Harsh, The Huffington Post, September 20, 2017.