Canteen

Smoked trout salad
Cold vegetable soup
White bass with wax beans , red onion, artichokes vinaigrette
Beef filet with polenta and chanterelles
Chocolate mousse
Raspberry hazel nut tart

Once again just superb. We got on waiting list for last night cause we are so sad they are closing,,,,,,,

**Review of their brunch ONLY**
Whenever I am getting ready to review a highly publicized restaurant like Canteen, an unexplainable force urges me to it give a lower rating. As of Mar 2007, 88 Yelpers gave Canteen 5 Stars, so what's the point of another 5 star rating? However, when I look back at their quality dishes and the good service, I have to admit that it was a 5 Star brunch.

THE WAIT: My unscientific guess is that Canteen hype has cooled down a bit when comparing to spring of 2006 when it was THE hottest thing on Yelp. In Mar 2007, at 11:30 on a Saturday morning, we (party of 2) waited only 5 minutes for a table. Good thing is, they let you wait at the spacious hotel lobby next door, where you could play 'spin to choose a tourist destination.' With that said, don't send me a hate mail if you end up waiting an hour for a table.

SERVICE: I don't know about the tables, but counter service was great. Our waitress was moving very quickly, yet, she was friendly and attentive to our needs.

FOOD: Excellent. Chef Dennis Leary was there, at 11:30 am on Saturday, doing the main cooking. I felt like I got a good deal, enjoying Veal Tenderloin dish ($12.50), which is more of a dinner dish, at the brunch price. Their three poached eggs ($7.75) were excellently executed. The sausage was slightly burned, but it was very tasty. If you are a big eater, you might complain about their portion size.

PRICE: 2 people, no drinks, walked out with $25 on the table. It was perhaps not as cheap as Sally's (http://www.yelp.com/biz/8QaTaO7mMOHa_5au5MMHZQ?hrid=NaWR-AyQDyOeukDz_t1zew), but on par with other brunch options like Pork Store Cafe, Elite Cafe, Tangerine, and Universal Cafe.

SEATS:
Tiny restaurant.
2 --- Tables for four adults (pull up a chair for the fifth person)
2 --- Tables for two adults.
7 --- Counter seats.
Best seats? Counter --- watch the kitchen in action.

Canteen has been my recommendation for a brunch spot near Union Square for a long time. After a long while since our last visit, it was nice to return and see it still be strong choice.

The old caveats exist. Its a small space, the booths are cramped and
small, and its inevitable that you'll have a wait of some sort.

The brunch menu is largely the same as my prior visit a few years ago, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, I was hoping to find a new hit dish. On the other, the choices they've kept are popular.

Eggs Benedict - my first time having this. Canteen does eggs well.
Period. Whether you want them soft boiled, poached, scambled or
whatever, the eggs here are consistently the best prepared I've had.
This was no different. Creamy and delicious with hollandaise sauce.
Its an absolute classic preparation. No fancy over the top lobster,
prime rib, or tex mex version here. Just plain good.

Chupacabra - I've had this before and its good. Very fresh
ingredients and again perfectly scrambled eggs.

Coffee Cake - first time. Great coffee cakes. Light and fluffy.
Worlds better than the chain Hobbee's.

Brioche - wow. I didn't even know what these were. Soft and light
and great for dipping in the dishes.

Canteen is still a great brunch spot. Sure, its a tad pricey, service
can be a bit uninspired, but the food is quite good. If this type of
cuisine is your thing, you deserve to come here. Just make sure to
try some sort of egg dish and splurge for the brioche or coffee cake.

Canteen accepts credit cards, including American Express.

Brunch Review:

I always expect long lines for Sat brunch, and especially at a restaurant that seats just 6 parties at a time, I prepared myself for starvation. We arrived at 1:30ish and were seated just 20 min later (still riding the good brunch karma wave).

I felt a little discriminated by the waiter who played favorites with the gay guy next to me; he showered him with free brioche rolls and served him first :(

The brunch menu is pretty sparse, but like dinner, everything was light and well prepared. I thought the Rockfish Hash (poached egg + fish) was a little too mild in flavor. The French Toast was also delicate - eggy and crisp, topped with an amazing sweet cream cheese and drenched in fresh blueberry sauce.

Brunch = 3 stars, but because of dinner, I'm keeping it at 4 overall. While this is still significantly better than Stacks, for contemporary brunch, I don't think this tops my list. I'd recommend going for dinner and loading up on complimentary fresh-baked brioche rolls, or better yet, bring the gay best friend along.

tres words to best describe..."boutique fine dining"....genuine specialty restaurant.....dwarfish 'n' scarce seating...reservation mandatory....judging from layout....sizing fit for counter burger joint and stools...possible in past life?...breath of new life into charming cozy bistro?....back to review....cordial and hospitable...warmhearted service....passing limited selection menu....selection slim picking....skate, veal and chicken main course option.....pondering over choices....and more guests being seated...noticing faster pace and quicker step of staff....busier by the minute from six pm weekend opening....

target poussin..i like poussin....self "expensive idiot" unknowing of such poussin word....what the poussin!...que es poussin?....poussin like a glass of pinot grigio!.....surrender and question....what is a poussin?....chicken!....why gotta be all fancy and call a chicken a poussin?....

side tracked....back to review...ordering of poussin chicken....pair select appetizers....."perfection" the one....perfection in cooking art....crisp of pork belly outer....sweet soft juicy center...mixture sweet to sour in harmony perfection....second, prawns execution....snap and chew....cooking perfection...compliments of lentil to bring starch...noticing various forms of shrimp and bean combination in various places....main of poussin....crisp outer skin delicious....although white...soft tender sweet juicy poultry...all perfect cooked individual masterpieces.....

$forty-three per person dining....sip of wine at most....come if enjoy cooking perfection sampling at best....small portion coursing...from dinner had.....three poussin nugget-sized chicken piece meal for self......two prawns 'n' two pork belly cubes to share amongst four......three pieces equals entree 'n' two pieces equals appetizer?

(See pics)

Familiarity is not what becomes a habit, but what naturally matches you and your body agrees, everything fits and you know you found the perfect spot.

The amazing creation from Leary is unmatchable with anything. It's simply taking your attention in full force. The food is sublime and you tune out the world while you are taking in every bite, a creation of Food God.

This time I had the popular blueberry French toast with the sweet cream cheese. Not the usual French toast as it had crispy edges and I could not pinpoint the kind of bread it was but it looked and tasted like brioche. The bread happily laid on a rich bed of blueberry sauce. And the sweet cream cheese was an excellent compliment to bring out the taste. I don't know how he did it.

If there's Michelangelo The Creation of Adam, then there's Leary The Creation of Food who brought all these natural ingredients to fruition.

The vibe was as usual bustling with music that makes you tap your feet. It's always fast service and never more than 15 minute wait even for such a small venue and so many patrons.

It's plate licking good that I can easily finish and yearn for more.

It's liberating.

I've been curious about Canteen, but have been discouraged by the wait. Tonight I noticed that Canteen was half full. Since it was a half hour into the 6pm dinner seating, the server said we can either jump to the entree course now or return at 7:30pm for the next seating. We decided to eat now before the restaurant gets crowded. The place is tiny but cozy (at least when it wasn't full), with around 4 booths and bar seating. We took the booth in the back corner next to the bookshelf. Service was friendly. Our server said they might still be able to get us a starter, but we weren't hungry so we skipped the starters. Our meal started with complimentary amuse-bouche of cantelope juice with grapes, as well as delicious, hot, and fluffy rolls (although slightly blackened on top) with butter.

The menu changes daily, and is prix fixe only on certain nights. For entrees, my boyfriend tried the pork, and I tried the skate (other ala carte options for the night were a vegetarian gratin or lamb). My skate arrived piping hot. The entree portions were smaller than I expected for $27, but I enjoyed the skate at first. It was my first time eating skate, which I only knew was a type of fish. The skate was very moist and soft, and was served with crunchy greens and a creamy artichoke dip. I liked the flavor of the skate more than the pork, which was tender but slightly bland (but the lentils were good). However when I got to the other end of the fish, the meat was translucent, pink, viscous and wet. I asked the server if it's supposed to be pink, and she said yes so I finished the rest of it, which might've been a mistake. Now I have an upset stomach, I wonder if the pink skate was the culprit. I just read online that skate is like a stingray and is usually cooked until it's opaque and white ...

Our server miscalculated our bill. We were about to pay the total, before realizing that they calculated a 13% tax - either an honest mistake or they thought we were tourists who didn't know any better! Also note that despite the high prices, their bathroom is the tiny shared one in the adjacent art school dorm. I didn't think the entrees were worth the price, but I did like the panna cotta dessert. Served with raspberries and mint, the panna cotta was perfect. I'm not sure if they'd let me return just to have dessert, or if panna cotta is ever served during brunch time.

For me, it's pretty much imperative that breakfast food have nutritional value. Some people find that limiting since you're basically choosing from omelettes and eggs benny all the time.

But at Canteen, I can just throw that philosophy out the window and order the blueberry french toast with the pile of cream cheesy fluff on the top. My god, it's so good I forget whatever else we had ordered.

Came here for a quick breakfast before leaving the city. The restaurant is TINY and we had to wait for a table so be advised - make reservations!

I ordered my all time favorite - an Eggs Benedict ($10.95). Nothing too out of the ordinary, I got 2 poached eggs on top of ham + english muffin. Dish also comes with potatoes on the side. I would say one unique aspect of this dish is that the english muffins seems to have been grilled for a more crispy texture. But all in all, I was a little underwhelmed and a bit turned off by the amount of hollidanse sauce - WAY too much. The dish was drowned in sauce!

BF ordered the Smoked Salmon Omelet ($8.95). His dish came with a side of sauteed green beans + toast. Omelet was delicious! The saltiness of the smoked salmon went well with the creamy cream cheese. A bit heavy - but small portioned. Definitely not enough for him!

Service was super slow - looked like only 2 servers for the entire restaurant (to serve, seat, clean, host). It took over an hour to do breakfast - and we wanted to get out of the city quick! On a positive note, the decor was super cute (books, retro tables/lights) and their coffee is DELISH! And though the servers were slow, they were very nice. When we pointed out to them that they forgot to bring out toast for the salmon omelet, they graciously took a few dollars off our tab without us even having to ask!

Already a huge fan of Dennis Leary's lunch spot The Sentinel, I've known I had to try Canteen for awhile (for most it's probably the other way around since the Sentinel is far more recent). Perfect opportunity arose earlier this week when we were looking for a fun place to eat before seeing a show at the Curran. Apparently there are two seatings (one at 6pm and another at 8:30pm) and on Tuesdays the menu is a pre-fixe. Ev-er-y-thing was delicious. The appetizer was a watermelon and mint salad, the entree pork tenderloin, and dessert was a butterscotch pudding.

Warning: the "restrooms" are actually next door in what seems like a freshman dorm floor for the Academy of Art, but I have to admit it was pretty entertaining checking out awkward teenagers come in with their loads of laundry and seeing all the nametags on the doors.