Pete Wells Has Mondo Mixed Feelings on the West Village's Farm-to-Table Restaurant Blenheim

Pete Wells finds radical inconsistencies across the board at Blenheim, the farm-to-table restaurant from Morten Sohlber and his wife Min Ye both. "The gap between the farm-to-table ethos and [chef Ryan] Tate's style is minor compared with the gulf between the restaurant Blenheim could be and the restaurant that currently sits at 283 West 12th Street." On it's good nights, Wells says he would rank the food as some of "most exciting and interesting I've eaten in the last year." But meals like those only happened some of the time.

The first time I had the roasted king mushrooms with spaetzle and sauerkraut, the mushroom stems had something like the flavor and texture of weisswurst. A German-inspired vegetarian main course with mushrooms standing in for sausages is a fantastic notion, and I couldn't wait to taste it again when I returned. But when I did, the stems were watery inside and rubbery outside, like a steamed hot dog wrapped in a balloon.

The restaurant needs honing and Wells for one hopes that happens. But for the time being, he (like Ryan Sutton) awards the restaurant one star.