How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
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Restaurant-quality food in an NYU dining hall? Impossible, you say — and, sadly, impossible it is. The lure of last night's Restaurant Night at Rubin had a much stronger effect on me than the food itself.
Walking into the dining hall, my dining group and I were kindly greeted by a hostess as she escorted us away behind a curtain wall separating the "restaurant" from the everyday eating area. As I looked around Rubin, I was excited and impressed. Small candles on perfectly simple tables illuminated the dim room. The waiters were dressed to the nines in classic black and white suits. The water glasses were already filled and chilled.
Unfortunately, our slick seating was negated by the fact that the best part of the meal was the roll and butter (real butter, not margarine!). The menu offered a choice of one appetizer, entree and dessert, all of which I ordered without really knowing which option to choose. The first course consisted of a dry crepe filled with spinach and mushrooms. I followed it with New York strip steak and potatoes and topped it all off with a bland custard pastry dessert that I could neither pronounce nor spell. On paper, the food sounded amazing and five star-worthy, but the image in my mind strongly contrasted with what was placed in front of me. The dishes looked like pieces of art — yet failed to please my stomach.
Quite honestly, I would have been happier just eating at Rubin's regular dining hall than eating at this "restaurant." At least in the hall you can get as much as you want of whatever you want. Plus they didn't even have my must-have dessert: ice cream. A piece of cake at the dessert bar would have been more appetizing than whatever pastry I ate.
At least the effort was there. The food was served quickly and the service was friendly. Way to go, team! Without you, I would've contemplated a dine-and-dash.
1 out of 5 stars
