Robert, the Wright and Sandwiched@food

Robert Caplin for The New York Times
The Wright at the Guggenheim is striking.
By SAM SIFTON
Published: March 31, 2010

Visitors to Manhattan museums have three new places to eat. None threaten the position of The Modern, Danny Meyer’s elegant dining room at the Museum of Modern Art, at the pinnacle of culture-dining in New York; they sit atop metaphorical foothills or, in one case, well below grade.
That last is ROBERT, Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle (59th Street), Midtown, (212) 299-7730, robertnyc.com, though physically it’s on the ninth floor. The restaurant is run by Ark, the outfit responsible for the risible Gonzalez y Gonzalez downtown, among many others.

In a spare and remarkably uncomfortable dining room that at night you can see glowing from the sidewalks of Columbus Circle, Robert offers corporate food of the most anodyne variety: tasteless tomato sauces over gummy pastas ($15 to $26), rubbery scallops ($25), wooden chicken ($21), a pan-roasted breast of Pekin duck that might have been created out of tofu or modeling clay ($28).

There is a marvelous view, however, and a pleasant if awkward bar space, directly in front of the elevators that whisk you up from the lobby. Sit on a sofa there, looking out onto Central Park to the north, or down into luxe apartments across Broadway to the east, and drink cocktails. Refuse all offers of sustenance besides.

THE WRIGHT, Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (88th Street), (212) 427-5690, www.thewrightrestaurant.com, which Restaurant Associates opened in the basement of the Guggenheim at the end of 2009, is a far better bet. (And for those six people interested, it’s an excellent way to sample the sort of cooking served in the corporate dining rooms of The New York Times, whose kitchens are also run by R.A.)

The restaurant is striking, an homage to its namesake, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the museum: a white-on-white swoosh along the south side of the building, with a Pantone-like installation of powder-coated aluminum planks by the artist Liam Gillick providing color. It is elegant. If it’s still around, George Jetson might take Jane there for their 10th anniversary dinner.

Marinated yellowtail with ginger oil is a good place to start, with sweet white onions, apple and cucumber ($14); it is a nice lead-in to crisp striped bass with fennel, potatoes, baby calamari and a smoky paprika sauce ($29). And a simply seared scallop with sweet shrimp, lump crab meat and a sea-urchin sauce ($16) sets a person up nicely for an aged sirloin ($34). For dessert: dark chocolate soufflé.

Finally, at the Whitney, Danny Meyer has expanded his art-house holdings with SANDWICHED, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue (75th Street), (212) 570-3600, whitney.org/visit/cafe, a pop-up cafe in the museum’s lower level. With a menu created by chefs from Mr. Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, Sandwiched is meant to serve visitors while the museum’s permanent dining space undergoes renovation. (It should last through fall.)

And so there is an excellent Bombay pita panino created by Floyd Cardoz at Tabla, with roasted eggplant, tomato and mozzarella, dressed in a kind of coconut-cilantro chutney ($9.25); and a chewy applewood-smoked turkey sandwich on ciabatta from Kenny Callaghan at Blue Smoke, with pickled onion and jalapeño mayonnaise ($9.75). There is a smoked-salmon number ($11.95), another of ham and cheese ($9.75). There is tuna ($9.50), even a peanut butter and jelly ($5.50) for children and the childlike. Eat that and go visit the Lorraine O’Grady diptychs upstairs at the biennial show. Beats a schlep to the coffee shop for floppy grilled cheese.

@Source from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/dining/reviews/31dinbriefs.html