As I finish my third meal at Daily Eats, I sit back and gaze out over the packed dining room, wondering, "Why are all these people here?"
It can't be the bland and uninteresting food. Actually, maybe I'm on to something there. This is SoHo, so it could be that all of the asses perched on this pseudo-diner's chairs belong to bland and uninteresting people. Zing!
Let's give these folks the benefit of the doubt, though. Once upon a time (actually, a few weeks ago) I was also seduced by Daily Eats' conceit. The Old Meeting House emerged from a hiatus to become something akin to a "modern" diner. Less an update of the diner concept, it's more a revitalization of the "upscale" diner trend of the 1990s. But instead of gourmet meatloaf and slices of chocolate cake bigger than your head, think organic soy burgers and veggie patties, brown rice salads and goat cheese sauces.
Sure, the health-food aspects are compromised a bit by veal burgers and kobe beef, but that just adds to the attraction. You can have ahi tuna on seven-grain bread with a strawberry salad, then chase it with 20 ounces' worth of peanut butter chocolate milkshake and a piece of apple pie. Cool food for professionals on the go. It would be perfect — if the food weren't so bland.
All the burgers, regardless of which animal or vegetable protein you pick, are served medium. That's either culinary cowardice — which would mean Daily Eats is afraid of food-borne illness like a common Chili's — or laziness, which would mean it just wants to go easy on the kitchen. It's easy to understand with poultry, but anyone who prepares (or orders) a Kobe beef burger ($8.75) cooked past pink should be ashamed. Throughout their admittedly brief lives, Kobe cows are treated with more respect and care than your mama ever gave you, so it's a shame when the end product hits the table overcooked and under-seasoned.
A fear of salt and other flavor-producing seasonings is a consistent theme with Daily Eats' cuisine. The Memphis Southern fried organic chicken sandwich ($8.25) is perfectly cooked — producing crags and crevasses of golden brown batter, and moist meat that puffs with steam after the first bite — but there is no flavor, only texture. Potato chip-crusted turkey burgers ($7.50) suffer a similar fate. One dining companion said it was like eating a pasty hash brown sandwich.
Maybe that's why almost everything at Daily Eats is served with a "special sauce" on the side. The turkey was accompanied by something that tasted suspiciously like ranch dressing colored by a splash of chili powder; chicken had a "remoulade" entirely devoid of the bright and fresh flavors that make this classic sauce worth eating. In both cases, we still smeared the sandwiches with the sauces anyway, in a vain attempt to eke out a wee bit of something to tease the tongue.
At least the fries are salted, with a sweet potato version coated in honey and touched with cinnamon — so crisp they may be the best in town. But that diner staple — mac and cheese, only available at night — is revamped in an odd and unsuccessful way. A foundation of predictably mild baked pasta and cheese is doused with liquid cheese sauce and topped with un-melted grated cheddar. The only thing in the bowl with any taste is the cheese sauce, and I'm not sure that was a good thing.
Besides lettuce wrap versions of the sandwiches, there is but one little detour into culinary adventure — Daily Eats' shredder bowls. Essentially salads piled atop brown rice, there is a lot of potential for healthy, tasty dishes. Would you be surprised if I told you that most of them are neither?
The most popular shredder, recommended by servers on every trip I've made to Daily Eats, is the New York Blue ($7.95). Along with the lettuce and rice was an unappealing mass of coarsely ground steak stained white by mayo-based dressing. The menu lists blue cheese, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms, but halfway through the salad I was still waiting for everything but the 'shrooms.
I could go on about sweet, tomatoey three-bean chili ($2.95) that's devoid of cumin, peppers or other chili seasonings; about green bean "fries" ($2.25) that leave more crispy breading at the bottom of the basket than on the unseasoned beans; and about a tasty apple pie filling stuffed into unsweetened and pasty crust ($3.95). But I won't. Wait a minute, I guess I just did.
Sure, it sounds pretty bad, but the truth is that most of this food is more near-miss than total failure. A little bit of extra seasoning, some more interesting sauces and an appreciation for ground beef would help Daily Eats live up to its potential.
It's early still, so I have some hope that owners James Lanza and Jeff Gigante (of Ciccio & Tony's fame, as well as Water just a block up the street) can liven up the food. That still doesn't explain why all these people are here in the meantime, though.
Maybe the attractive and gossipy staff is the draw. The service is better than you might expect from waiters who are always looking over their shoulders, as if something significantly more exciting is about to happen somewhere else.
Customers would be advised to follow the servers' lead. At Daily Eats, it's better to pay attention to the beautiful people decorating the room than focus on the food on the table.
Brian Ries is a former restaurant general manager with an advanced diploma from the Court of Master Sommeliers. He can be reached at brian.ries@weeklyplanet.com. Planet food critics dine anonymously, and the paper pays for the meals. Restaurants chosen for review are not related to advertising.
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2006.