After having a wonderful meal at Park Avenue Spring, my friends and I vowed to return for all four seasons. My friend Jeff’s birthday was the perfect occasion to try out Park Avenue Summer, and so with admittedly high expectations we got our first taste of the new menu. Sometimes, when you find a great new restaurant, subsequent visits never measure up to that one magical first time. That was the case for me with Park Avenue Summer; although everything was pretty good, nothing was as good as the Spring menu. Above you can see the birthday boy with my favorite bite (literally) of the evening — a watermelon amuse topped with yogurt.

For a starter I had a baby beet salad which rested on a bed of yogurt. The beets were matched with ginger, thinly sliced cucumbers, and sesame seeds, giving the dish an almost clever, sushi-like finish. The dish was very good, but I say “almost clever” because it ended up feeling like a confused dish — the sweet earthiness off the beets were delicious but seemed out of place with everything else on the plate.

My entree was disappointing as well. Caprese ravioli is another clever idea, and done well I think I would have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately the pasta was not rolled thin enough, making the ravioli tough to cut into. Even worse, the ravioli was paired with what the menu calls a yellow tomato coulis but what tasted like a roasted pepper sauce. There’s nothing inherently wrong with such a sauce, but it completely overwhelmed the delicate tomato and mozzarella that made the ravioli “caprese” to begin with. It wasn’t even in the same league as the pasta I got at Park Avenue Spring; the beet and goat cheese tortelloni was one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten at any restaurant.

The side dishes for the table were hit and miss as well. Roasted corn risotto was very good, topped with what I think was a queso fresco. Orchard peach slaw was refreshing, but it was exactly what it sounds like, nothing more. Stuffed squash blossoms were way too salty to enjoy, but that’s the way I felt about the potato latkes I got at Park Avenue Spring.

Most disappointing for me was my dessert. I’m a big rice pudding fan from way back, and so ordering the toasted rice pudding with cherry sorbet was a no-brainer. It was good, a little overly sweet, but what it was missing most of all was some kind of textural and temperature variation. Everything was sweet, cold and soft; the dish would have greatly benefitted from either warming the rice pudding or adding, as my friend Matt suggested, a warm cake layer underneath it all.

I also have to say a word about our service that night. Our server was perhaps a little overeager, and made some strange mistakes. At one point he came over to fill our wine glasses, he poured a huge amount into one diner’s glass, asked another if she wanted wine (she didn’t) and then walked away without filling any of the other glasses. When we were considering a second bottle of wine he was nearby when we wondered aloud whether to get another bottle of the same (a delicious Riesling) or to get another wine. “The same!” he insisted. Of course we could have asked for another wine, but it was so unexpected none of us knew what to say.

Looking back, I realize how negative this whole thing sounds. I think it has more to do with the disappointment I felt with the meal after the first experience I had, back when it was Spring, than anything else. The food was good, well prepared and well thought out, but sometimes that’s not enough. Make no mistake, I want to return for Autumn. Perhaps this visit will temper my expectations a little and will ultimately free me up to enjoy my next visit.

Park Avenue Summer — 100 East 63rd Street

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