Romera Takes a Hint, Offers $125 Five Course Menu

The Doctor can take a hint. After a series of tepid reviews and complaints from the general public and the food world community about the levels of pretension and astronomical prices, two month-old restaurant Dream Hotel basement restaurant Romera is offering a shorter and cheaper menu.

Steve Cuozzo reports today that in addition to offering the original 11-course $245 menu, Romera now has a $125 five-course menu option. And just as importantly, they've truncated the stream of the questionable flavored savory waters that once accompanied each course. There will now be three waters that arrive near the end of the meal.

This is great news for both the diners who are curious to try chef Miguel Sánchez Romera's creative cuisine and for the workers and owners of the restaurant, who may be able to steer the place out of Deathwatch territory with this new move. The menu price still exceeds that of many of the restaurant's peers, but it's a move in the correct direction. As Cuozzo notes, "Romera’s menu, refreshingly original in a city more culinarily timid than it pretends to be, deserves a wider audience. Astronomic prices do 'neurogastronomic' dishes no favors, no matter how labor-intensive they are."

· Romera to offer scaled-down $125 dinner menu [NYP]
· All Coverage of Romera [~ENY~]