Contra New York - Buy Reservations

This review is based on vegetarian items and I cannot speak for the non-vegetarian menu items at Contra. I would like to start this review by saying minus the food my experience here was positive. The staff is very knowledgeable about the food at Contra and their wines and the service was excellent. I way the food was presented also supports the Michelin star. The entire meal was an experience with different types of plates and utensils for each course. My only issue was the actual vegetarian food. We came here because my husband saw Contra on a timeout article speaking about top vegetarian places in NYC. Prior to our meal, we got bread. The bread was very good. They gave you the side of the bread and a middle piece. The end of the bread was very hard and therefore difficult to eat but it still tasted good. There is only one actual item listed on the menu that is vegetarian. It's cooked asparagus wrapped in a leaf with a sauce. The asparagus was cooked well. However, there was no flavor to it other than salt and it was very salty. I am someone who has a high sodium intake and yet even I found it salty. The waitress was very nice and explained they have 2 items on the menu that they can make vegetarian. The caviar and tofu without the caviar and the monkfish dish but with dumplings filled with squash and pumpkin with mushrooms. They also said they have an off menu item that's potatoes with radishes on top. We got all of these items. The tofu was VERY disappointing. First off, it's a cold dish, which may be my fault but I didn't know and it was more a tofu soup. The soup was also VERY sweet and yet had one or two elements of savory and the flavors just didn't mesh well. The potato dish was also disappointing. It tasted plain and didn't seem like something that should have come out of the kitchen of a Michelin star restaurant. The only dish that was decent was the dumpling dish. The dumplings were well flavored and tasted great. Unfortunately the sauce it came with was so salty it was hard to actually taste the dumplings. The mushrooms in the dish were well cooked but unfortunately they were also covered in the sauce making the dish difficult to eat. We came here to celebrate 6 months of being married and I couldn't have walked out more disappointed. The bill was over $200 and I don't think it was worth it at all. As a vegetarian I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. I only gave them 2 stars for the service and experience.

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had a good time at Contra with some friends as a sort of belated birthday dinner. We each picked a few items off the prix fixe menu and sampled around -- good food but definitely not filling (as expected, I guess). Flavors were light and highlighted the seafood in each dish well, but maybe I wasn't feeling it that day because I just don't have the strongest impression of the dishes. Favorites were the hiramasa and the soy tofu, but I did not like wagyu crudo :( 5/10, was still enjoyable but maybe just a one time experience. For a Michelin star restaurant, probably one of my least favorite so far. Would rather go somewhere else considering the price point.

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Really popular spot in Soho and great vibe and super awesome service.Went with the chef's choice tasting menu (4 savory and 1 sweet) and overall was pretty satisfied. Couple of clunkers in there (celery root, eel) but the waygu, monkfish and strawberry dessert (like a strawberry cloud) were amazing.Biggest issue was the kitchen got backed up and at times they were like 25 minutes between courses. Definitely too much for a five course tasting and also this place has one single-hole tiny bathroom for an entire restaurant of people. Could've been excellent and wound up mostly pretty good instead.

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