Rouge et Blanc for Upscale Vietnamese Fusion at a Cozy Location in Soho

Saw a feature for Rouge et Blanc on Mike Colameco's Real Food show on PBS about a month ago and the food looked phenomenal and the plating was absolutely gorgeous.  The head chef used to work at Eleven Madison Park, and it shows.

Rouge et Blanc serves French-Vietnamese fusion cuisine, and the show featured a dish that I HAD to try....roasted bone marrow with baby octopus.  The bone marrow was sweet and acted like a jelly.  It's slathered with just a little plum sauce for some tartness.  You also get a scallion roll where you're supposed spread the yummy bone marrow.  There's also a fennel salad that was tart and cut through the richness of the bone marrow.  The octopus looked cool on top for presentation but went well with the marrow as well.

Another featured dish on the show, as well as our waitress' recommendation was the yellowtail sashimi with grapefruit and black truffles.  Wooow...Oh my Gah this dish was amazing and just exploded in your mouth.  The tart ponzu-esque sauce brought out the fish and truffles and the grapefruit was a nice surprise since it went so well.  Easily one of the best bites of food I've had this year!  It's a must order dish if you go there.

Off their "wee plates" menu we got the house cured salmon with basil oil, soy, shaved parm, and almonds.  Another super pretty dish that tasted solid, but the flavors were more familiar.  (Maybe the yellowtail was a tough act to follow...ha!).

We split an entree of skirt steak with a maitake mushroom ragout, sea urchin, veal just, and grilled sweet potatoes.  A pretty and yet super rustic dish.  The maitake mushrooms were great and grilled whole scallions made the dish super earthy.  As much as I love sea urchin, the dish didn't really need it.  You probably could've cut the cost of the dish by close to $10.

For dessert, we were talked into ordering the caramelized foie gras dessert.  Foie gras?? For dessert? Seriously?!  As weird as that sounded it actually went really really well with the pears and ice cream!  It kinda works the same way as bacon (savory) does in dessert since it goes with sweets.  Another surprising dish!

Rouge et Blanc is a great place for a date since they serve beautiful food in a cozy, romantic, yet unpretentious setting.  They actually also are open for lunch and serve banh mi sandwiches...am curious to see how those are and will stop by at sometime!

Rouge et Blanc

48 Macdougal St

New York, NY 1001

(212) 260-5757