Contra

Good service and good price. Quite interesting ingredients combination. I like the fact that all the dishes had depth in them. Portion is quite small. So bread is a good addition.

Contra is absolutely a unique dining experience. I feel like you have to be pretty hipster to enjoy though. Everything is local/​organic and much is plant based. I did the tasting menu and everything that came to me was like a magical piece of art. Flavors are subtle, and I even said to myself, «This is what these ingredients are meant to taste like.» Overall very natural, and fun to try.
Could also be a great date spot. See my post here:

Delicious and cute tasting menu. It’s cool that they have a set tasting menu and only offer that so it does away with the struggle of having to decide exactly what dishes you want. The portions aren’t that big and we also got the bread appetizer as well to be satisfied but not entirely full. I was already not that hungry from lunch but it definitely wasn’t enough to completely make my boyfriend full. The biggest downside would have to be how they stretch the time between courses to be so longg so you’re literally left there waiting for a while. Would have been better if there was a shorter waiting time in between courses.

With the same name as one of my favorite Nintendo video games growing up, I knew this place was gonna be good. And I didn’t have to punch in the cheat code… up down left right… (Sorry if you don’t get this reference). But if you do, then you KNOW what I’m talkin about! Anyways, let’s just cut to the chase! While we were in NYC, we went with a big group of friends for a birthday. This place did not disappoint as each dish that came out you knew the chefs had talent to make delicious food! I believe they recently were awarded with best new chefs in Food and Wine! kudos!
The restaurant has a tasting menu of a variety of small dishes that seemed to maintain its infusion of creativity while attacking all your taste buds. My favorites were the ceviche and mackerel (not fishy and just made me forget I was eating fish). The chicken dish was also out of this world. I don’t know what the chefs do to the food but please keep it up! It’s amazing. It’s like getting slapped in the face and liking it and wanting more! Definitely a place to go in NYC that is not pretentious and the quality of what you get at their price is well worth it! Oh and the service was beyond exceptional. 8 of us sat at the bar while also getting great interaction with the best bartender! Totally forgot her name but she made our experience drinking cocktails educational and fun! Doesn’t hurt that she takes pride in making the drinks while genuinely just a nice person! Made us all feel like we were just hanging out at a friends house. Highly recommend stopping by for a high class meal for decent price!
The Good:
— reasonable price for tasting menu
— chefs are amazingly and annoyingly talented!
— food orgasms in your mouth
— service awesome, particularly host and bartender.
— non pretentious which is a plus compared to other NYC establishments
— ambience is fantastic, nice décor
The Bad:
— no food orgasm for you if you don’t go
— would have liked even more courses! ;)
The Ugly:
— your face if you don’t go!

Maybe I’ve just read too many good reviews of the place or I kept comparing it to its outstanding sister restaurant Wildair, but Contra left me slightly underwhelmed, so this is a 3.5 rounded up to a 4.
To start, yes, the restaurant is popular and busy, but we were seated more than 30 minutes after our reservation, despite being 10 minutes early. On top of the 40 minute wait, each dish took quite a long time to come out of the kitchen, which surprised us a bit. At one point we thought… Come on, you are making the same six dishes all week long… how long should this take?
Wait aside, the dishes are creative and inventive, yes, but none of them hit home as «wow». I won’t bother listing the dishes since you won’t be able to decide anyway, but portion sizes are definitely on the smaller side, which means you have room for the bread and cheese additions — both of which are musts.
$ 3 for a small hunk of bread and $ 8 for three smaller slices of cheese and some honey, yes, but you are also getting a 6-​course tasting for $ 67 so there is nothing to complain about. The hot sourdough is absolutely amazing (crunchier and more body than what you get next door at Wildair, which is also fantastic), and the cheese slices are tangy and creamy and served with some mindblowing floral honey. Just do it.
Certainly not a perfect restaurant, but the value of the food, freshness of the ingredients, creativity in the pairing, and the bread and cheese definitely win Contra some brownie points. Still, I’d rather try my luck walking into Wildair.

Great experience overall, but with drinks please budget $ 120+ pp.
Inventive cuisine for the foodies, nice little cozy place, accomodating the dietary restrictions of our party. Everything was very good (scallops, mackerel, chicken).
However charging $ 3 for the bread is quite insulting, and not sitting parties that are not complete infuriates me. I am removing 1 star for this in an effort to change these nasty NYC behaviors … sorry … But definitely check it out.

Yes, it’s good value for the 5 courses you get but honestly the tastiest thing we ate was the bread (that they charge you $ 6 extra for). I’d actually go back just to eat 3 loaves of that bread. We re-​upped our bread order multiple times and the 4 of us fought over the pieces.

We came in without an reservation thinking we’ll just grab their 3-​course dinner at the bar, but the manager was very accommodating and not only put together tables for us, but checked up on us frequently, explained the food, etc.
And the food.
Scallops, prepared sashimi style in sauce, very tasty — 4.5
Potatoes, topped with some beautifully fragrant greens to cut the creaminess, which was promptly devoured — 4.5
Hot sour dough bread and butter, extra charge and absolutely worth it, so much I was tempted to ask if I could buy 3 more to go — 5
Cod was the best dish of the night, tenderly prepared and drenched in a aromatic celery sauce — 5
Cheese plate — cheese, served with wild flower honey that is absolutely awe inspiring — 5
Dessert 1 and 2, I heard from my friends they were absolutely delicious, but having recently cut out refined sugars from my diet… you’ll have to try it for yourself.
And did I mention fantastic value? At $ 67 for a 6 course pre-​fixe, this is an great deal at a rustically chic restaurant serving up some very well made food. Look forward to coming back.

Food, service, wine, atmosphere.
Perfect.

As a «tasting menu» place; for the quality, ingenuity, and flavor insanity of the cooking you are getting at Contra… there is no better value ANYWHERE!
These guys are kitchen artists!
On 1÷9÷16, I wrote a long review about Wildair, Contra’s «little sister,» restaurant, basically claiming it to be the best place I’ve been, period, in a long time… then I came to Contra… I think I like it better!
I’m lifting this from my Wildair review, because I feel it sums up Contra exactly the same way:
«The food – Inventive, full flavor, excitement to your mouth, and brain!»
I like the atmosphere better at Contra, though that is splitting hairs…
If you like Food as Art… Just go!

We had a really amazing dinner here. Everything was fantastic — food, service, atmosphere, etc. It’s definitely not at the level of some of the extremely high end tasting menus in the city, but for the price you’re paying here, that shouldn’t be the expectation — it’s less than half of the price of places that I would say are comparable quality-​wise, and an even smaller fraction of the highest end places.
Here’s how I’d rank the courses we got:
1) Scallop, broccoli, bread sauce
2) Gouda, toast, Asian pear, fennel
3) Vanilla parfait, tangerine
4) Pork shoulder, squash, tardivo
5) Potato, walnut, mint
6) Bread
7) Raspberry ice cream (we weren’t sure if this was ice cream, but it was awesome)
8) Cookie with crème fraîche and trout roe
9) Banana, peanuts, dried cherries
10) Tilefish, celery root, seaweed
The only thing that we didn’t absolutely love was the tilefish. Everything else was really great, and we were very full at the end. (We had sort of kicked around the idea of getting the chocolate tart next door at Wildair afterwards if we still had room, but we were stuffed.)
Just a really great experience. I would highly recommend.

fairly small, narrow space but laid back and casual. They have a pre fixe menu for $ 67. The wine pairing is an extra $ 55. Most people get the bread which is an extra $ 3 (and plenty enough to share between 2 people) The cheese is $ 8 and served right before dessert.
My guest and i had the wine pairing and bread. it’s definitely enough food as long as you’re not absolutely starving. The courses came out pretty fast (as did the wine) We made fun of the wine labels; mostly because it had questionable designs on them, (one had 2 mice, and the other looked liked an image of a burglar). The wine itself DID pair well with the food but I wouldn’t drink ½ of them on its own. 2 of them had a very smokey flavor; 1 was super floral, 1 was overly sweet (the second to last dessert wine pairing). The rest were pretty good; i’d say my favorite was a white I think was from france but I don’t remember the name :(
As for the food; everything was tasty. No complaints. But nothing was stellar either. Out of everything, my favorite was actually the complimentary bite we had before the meal started. I don’t remember what it was but I could’ve probably had a cookie tray full of it.
here’s the menu for jan 2016:
–Scallop, broccoli, bread sauce (2^nd favorite item. fresh scallop, interesting flavors)
–Collards, potato, mussel (fyi — more like mussel flavor, no actual pieces of mussel)
–Monkfish, brussel spouts, seaweed (good, but i’ve had better fish)
–Pork shoulder, squash, hazelnut (no complaints, nice touch with the hazelnut)
–Vanilla parfait, tangerine curd (YUM and light)
–Banana ice cream, chocolate cremeux, caramel (its like a ice cream sandwich!)
overall, a pretty good meal. I’d only come back if i really wanted to try something new on their seasonal menu.

Came here on a special occasion and it didn’t disappoint! The only option at Contra is the tasting menu — but truly everything is delicious and there were a few dishes with unique ingredients as well on the night I came. I usually don’t like at least one thing on a tasting menu, but I finished everything at Contra with gusto.
Particular highlights were:
— crab and uni with kohlrabi (German turnip) and sabayon (mixture of white wine, egg yolks, sugar); there was a thin, pale oval-​shaped slice of root vegetable over the crab and uni that made the dish look like a jelly fish/​sea creature of sorts. In this way, the dish was a visual representation of what it tasted like, which was cool!
— a cold/​semi-​frozen yogurt sprinkled with amaranth and buckwheat, which added a slightly sweet crunch to the refreshing yogurt.
— the skate was paired nicely with a complimentary glass of white wine.
— a cut of beef that was cooked perfectly; the meat was evenly pink-​red throughout.
The service was great, just attentive enough and very courteous and friendly. Also great that they don’t overbook the restaurant so you feel like you have some space and quiet to talk. 5 stars for a tasting menu that won me over with every dish and nice service.

The idea that NYC is littered with great tasting menus scintillates the eager London foodie. This place came with raving reviews — both from friends and from the press. Sadly, It doesn’t deliver. The food was good, well cooked and executed but the service was rather matter of fact, bordering on cold (this coming from England — Yipes!)
Whilst the food is well presented, and well cooked, it shows a lack of ingenuity and almost a laziness of thought. The best dish of the evening was the start of tomatoes with a small dash of a tomato purée and an aguachile sauce. Beautiful, elegant and refreshing after a day’s worth of battling the city.
However the rest of the menu was boring. Veal covered in radicchio (or they called it Treviso here) was done sous vide and tasted good, but the excessive bitterness of the leaves almost drew attention away from a well cooked piece of meat. If you’re going to sous vide, take the time then to ensure that the rest of the dish is balanced at least. My dinner companions did not end up finishing their course as the leaves were just too bitter.
Dessert presented its own challenges here with a home made vanilla ice cream and blackberries. Somewhat interesting were the tapioca pearls that were buried in the dessert, again pleasant but somewhat meh. I mean, isn’t a tasting menu supposed to showcase what a chef can do?
All in all I was sorely disappointed because expectations ran high. It’s not a bad place and the food is definitely decent but certainly adjust your expectations as what has been written about this place sure isn’t what it may have been then.

I read about Contra in a restaurant review that noted its great value for the prix fixe menu so I decided to try it out. The idea of a prix fixe menu was attractive to me since I could be completely lazy and not have to pick my own food. Although, the overall meal was pretty good, but nothing about the menu was mind-​blowing.
Food: The amuse-​bouche was a lettuce bite that was a little difficult to eat but it was fresh and crunchy. Next came a cheese and strawberry course that was delightful. The creamy cheese was perfectly cut with the acidity of the strawberry sauce. Next came the squid pasta that wasn’t really my favorite. The cold squid didn’t have a lot of flavor but it was beautifully presented on the black ink purée. Next came the first entrée, the tilefish. The fish was beautiful and flaky and the sauce was light, fully highlighting the flavor of the fish. Next came the highlight of my meal, the duck. It was beautifully presented with berries and leaves. The duck was tender and juicy and the flavors were divine. After came the 2 dessert courses: a popcorn ice cream with peach ice and a cherry and cream dessert. My favorite was the popcorn ice cream that was unexpected and delicious.
Service: Our server was attentive and very on top of it with the wine pouring. Worthy of a classy restaurant.
Overall, the meal was a pleasurable experience. However, I wasn’t really blown away by innovation or flavor. It is still a great deal for a prix fixe menu and worth the price.

Pretty good
The tasting menu was very fresh and you can tell they use good products. The strawberry and cheese salad was delicious and so was the blue fish and the chicken. I did not enjoy the dessert part which included the peaches and corn and some cherry thing
I would say jus the desserts need to be worked on, sometimes simple is the best, maybe a light tart

What a great meal! 7 course pre fixe for $ 67. One of the best meals and a very good value!
Food rundown:
— Lettuce bites: pretty good lettuce if i say so myself
— Burrata with strawberry: light and refreshing
— Squid and eggplant: great dish
— golden tilefish and trout roe: one of the best cooked fish I’ve had, great flavors
— Veal: the best veal ever, also my favorite of the night. Amazing flavors
— peaches & corn for dessert: so light and refreshing! Interesting hint of popcorn
— cherry, cocoa and cream as our second dessert: light and airy. least favorite of the night.
Overall great place, everything tasted amazing. Definitely a good place for a date night.

After reading a blog article about Contra, I felt compelled to try it. And I’m glad I did! This place has an affordable 7 course tasting menu at the price tag of $ 67. This is mainly Mod American food which is always palatable and balances the line between experimental and crazy.
The menu changes every so often, but here was our food experience for the night:
My favorite was the slow-​cooked duck. It was beautiful and lucious with a slight gamey flavor. I could eat that course all day every day for 3 weeks. A close runner up was the butternut squash with burrata. It was definitely one of a kind with overpowering flavors and a creamy finish (burrata). Lastly the cherry, tapioca sour cream dessert was phenomenal. I am not a fan of cherries but it was used as a garnish rather than adding to the flavor. The consistency and texture were surprising for this dish.
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Additional add-​ons are below
our bread and butter +3
cheese +8
We opted to add on the bread & butter as well as the cheese. As a cheese fanatic, I have to say the cheese was amazing! But it was only one kind and a very small slab of cheese so at the price of $ 8, I’ll have to say pass the cheese option.

Contra
NY Manhattan LES
8:30pm Thursday 25^th June 2015
Five Stars
If you have not been to Contra in the Lower East Side, you are missing out on an amazing tasting menu for a reasonable price. I made a reservation for 7:30pm online with a credit card with standard 24 hour reservation cancellation policy. I had to push back the reservation to 8:30pm which they graciously accommodated. We came in right on time and had a drink at the bar while waiting for our table. I had a Westbrook Brewing Company Gose which is a traditional German-​style Sour Wheat beer brewed with sea salt. The combination of citrus, saline, and crisp tartness. The place is quite sexy and was a good choice for a date. The wait staff was attentive. Some food runners were better at describing the dishes than others.
Food: We tried the housemade bread with the housemade butter for an extra ($ 3). it was warm, crusty, and delicious.
First Course: The center of a whole gem lettuce stalk covered with Milkweed dressing and Parmesan cheese. It was crisp, creamy, and salty.
Second Course: Thinly sliced yellow and green summer squash covering a freshly piece of burrata with sorrel. The squash was delicious but the sorrel was not my favorite flavor. The burrata was rich, creamy, and buttery.
Third Course: Spaghetti-​Cut Squid, English Peas, Lardon in a pea and squid ink sauce. This was most interesting dish. The squid was firm but not chewy.
Fourth Course: seared and then chopped Scallops, Fava Bean, with a rhubarb juice. Scallops are so hard to get right. However they hit a homerun on these sea creatures.
Fifth Course: Thick rare Beef Ribeye with pistachio, radicchio, and micro bull’s blood. The steak was nicely cooked but cooked slighlty unevenly. The rare center was more to one side than the other.
Sixth Course: Dessert #1: Sour Cream Ice Cream with a dehydrated crisp in a sweet cherry sauce and tapioca. I really like the tart and sweet combination. The texture differences between the elements really made this dish come alive.
Seventh Course: Dessert #2: Candied Peaches, Sweet Cream and Corn, Angelica. This play on peaches and cream was spectacular.
Overall, an enjoyable 2.5 hour dining experience.

Ok, when I saw the first dish (the starter) — one small piece of cucumber with a whipped tarragon and dill sauce — I was a little worried since I had been saving my appetite /​calories the entire day in anticipation of the 7 course tasting menu.
Since we didn’t feel right about getting bread at the time for an extra $ 3 (the cheese $ 8 extra) we didn’t have anything to soak up the sauce with, as the cucumber didn’t really hold a lot of it.
Even though I don’t eat bread it just didn’t sit right with me that they would charge extra for it in a chef’s tasting menu. Actually, on second thought, it works quite well for those like me who never touch the bread basket but the cost of the bread is probably included in the meal… but I felt bad for my bf who looked famished.
Anyway, I wasn’t crazy about this dish… but my hope was things would get better.
Next up was summer squash, burrata and sorrel — 5 thin slices of squash with cheese and a green sauce that was quite delicious. This dish was fresh and tasty but also pretty tiny. By this time I was filling up on water since it was starting to seem like I would leave hungry.
3 entrees:
Next was the best dish of the night — squid, english peas, walnut (which I didn’t detect at all) and lardo (basically 2 thin slices of lard or fat, which I didn’t eat). The squid, covered in a squirt or ink, was delicious and reminded me of spaghetti, which I haven’t had in a very long time (ya know, avoiding carbs and all)
After the squid was scallop, fava beans and rhubard (not pictured). This was light and yummy but lukewarm.
The last main meal was the rib eye, pistachio and treviso. The bitter taste of the treviso balanced well with the sweet sauce and the rib eye was a lot rarer than I would prefer my meat (which I only eat on very special occasions. I should note my bf told them no peanuts or red meat when making his reservation but I guess they didn’t really pay attention to that). Still, the meat was quite tasty and my tummy was starting to feel heavier, thank god.
The two dessert dishes which had very vague descriptions on the menu:
first up was a scoop of honey ice cream with peaches and olive oil. There were some small round gelatin balls and the texture/​taste really reminded me of porridge.
Lastly, was the strawberries and corn, as listed on the menu. My bf thought it would be cornbread with strawberries and I thought it would be just boiled kernels of corn with some type of strawberry syrup. We were both wrong: the last dish was strawberry granita (crushed ice) with corn mousse, 2 small pieces of raspberry and I think some ground up corn flakes or toasted corn.
The strawberry and raspberry packed a powerful taste/​flavor and the entire dish reminded me of an odd combination of corn flakes and fruit loops in milk. Both my bf and I didn’t care for it too much when we started eating it but by the end (when you got a little bit of all the flavors on your spoon) it actually tasted quite good.
The service was ok (not extra attentive — but we generally don’t like hovering waitstaff), and slowed as the restaurant filled. We dined for approximately 2 hours, 15 minutes and at the end of the night I was pretty satisfied without feeling stuffed thanks to the lightness of each dish.
Oh, and my bf did end up springing for the extra bread in the end, which was the only reason he felt full when we finished