Gotham Bar and Grill has been a part of the fine dining scene in New York since 1984 and the restaurant is still fully booked seven days a week. To be interesting and attract all sorts of clientele, from the regulars to the tourists year after year is an impressive achievement, especially in a tough restaurant climate such as Manhattan.

Alfred Portale became the Chef and a Partner of the restaurant the year after it opened and he is still in charge of cooking to the many hundreds of guests each week. Chef Portale has really succeeded in his style of offering the guests dishes with intense flavours which apply to everyone. His food communicates directly to you and skips most of the excesses without being too simple. Alfred Portale is an expert when it comes to deliver what the guests really request. His American cuisine which originally was contemporary is today a bit more classic with familiar dishes like yellowfin tuna tartare with Japanese cucumber, shiso leaf and sweet miso, or the seafood salad with scallops, squid, Japanese octopus, lobster & avocado and lemon vinaigrette.

Chef Alfred Portale was born in Buffalo, but his first restaurant job was at Le Tournesol in San Francisco. Alfred’s cuisine is not only classics which have been served year after year, there are several new dishes offered on a regular basis just as is the case with all great restaurants which manage to evolve and keep on being interesting to the guests. French cooking techniques are used frequently and it is not a big surprise that Chef Alfred’s biggest influences come from Michel Guérard and Jean & Pierre Troisgros. Today Gotham Bar and Grill has become a famous restaurant and well-deserved and a branch in Miami is opened as well called Gotham Steak. Alfred Portale is doing a great job, and he works with a great team such as the Chef de Cuisine Adam Longworth who knows the cuisine inside out and performs an impeccable job in the kitchen.

You know what to expect when you dine at Gotham Bar and Grill. What you see on the menu is what you will have, like the 28 days dry aged New York steak or the grilled rack of lamb. There are Japanese touches on the menu as well, such as the miso marinated black cod and influences from other countries too, which makes it so typical of the multicultural American cuisine. Gotham Bar and Grill is one of those places which do not take any risks – you know you are in for a great evening and mostly that is fine enough.

Written by Andy