Last Saturday night, in NYC, we had dinner at Asiate. This restaurant, which also happens to be in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, was very good but not amazing.

The view is to die for, just like the view from the rooms of the hotel. The menu is appealing, offering a nice range of dishes. The prices are not horrible, especially for NYC. It’s not like an amazing value place, but it doesn’t feel like a rip-off either.

The wine list is a bit more on the expensive side, offering very little in terms of reasonably-priced or value wines. That was a bit off-putting. They did have some amazing vintages (at amazing prices), which always amuses me. We had a 2001 Le Pupille Safreddi, an excellent wine, but it was expensively prices like all the others.

The food was good but not exceptional by any means. In fact, although it’s only been a week, I only remember a couple of blog-worthy dishes. David had the Wagyu steak, which looked and tasted marvelous. One or two appetizers were also excellent. A middle-of-the-meal, palate-cleansing black truffle souffle was outstanding. The rest of the meal, including most entrees, was just a wash.

Service was very good. The atmosphere / ambiance were also very nice. Overall, it was a nice place, but probably not worth going back to. There are plenty of other places to splurge on food in the City, so we’ll try something else next time.