Restaurant Review: Wild Cherry – The New York Times

This week, I reviewed Wild Cherry in the West Village inside the historic Cherry Lane Theater. Unless you’ve been lucky enough to book one of the 12 tables, you stand behind a velvet rope. Inside, the mood is forever midnight. It can be confusing to dine at Wild Cherry, where so much goes into the cooking without quite adding up. Almost farcically swollen kielbasa proved to be empty spectacle. Red beans and rice was really just a side dish scaled up. The best ideas here are old ideas. Bright Caesar salad dressed moments before arrival. Hot chipolatas — baby pork sausages — chased with cold, clean gulps of oysters. People have a compulsion these days to hunt down the best in everything. Early word put the Wild Cherry burger in that class. This burger is slightly aloof — and must the fries be ordered separately? They’re the ones that deserve the love, especially as presented in an otherwise unmemorable plate of chicken thighs where the fries are drenched in au poivre. There are glimmers of happy madness: little lollipop frogs legs, each golden shell hoarding a cache of parsley butter. Desserts bring drama, but mostly just visual. Every detail of the decor and ambiance, you feel transported elsewhere. The food doesn’t quite live up to that promise. You can read my full review on the New York Times.