Profile

This venue is closed.

Even before the recent renovation by the artist Izhar Patkin, Chez Es Saada’s subterranean dining room scored serious swank points: Just down a glamorous rose-petal-strewn stairway, you could find East Village swells sipping Moroccan-esque cocktails (like the Palmyra with vodka, lime juice and mint leaves) amid a belly dancer shaking her bejeweled stuff. But along with Patkin’s new splashes of color came a new menu, from Ido Ben Shmuel, that is, at last, up to the decadence of the décor: softshell crabs on a swirl of spicy North African pesto; a crisp, open-faced dumpling in a pool of hot broth; pomegranate-sweet short ribs nestled in creamy potatoes—even a clever use of tapioca pearls infused with garlic and salt, topped with charred tendrils of squid which makes the perfect companion for a French Whore (cognac, cointreau, sour cherry puree and champagne). — Matt Gross