AQ Kafe, the First Swedish Go-To Sandwich Spot and Bakery?

Photographs by Robyn Lee

很难相信，但确实如此：西57街周围的地区没有很多地方可以在早餐时喝杯咖啡和丹麦人。汤，沙拉或三明治午餐；或更熟悉的一板晚餐。有Le Pain quotidien，希腊咖啡店，如果您想高档和超高品质，则有时是昂贵但大多是美味的Bouchon面包店。进入此竞赛是aqkafé，名人厨师的最新项目Marcus Samuelsson(of Aquavit) and his partners.

Did we need a bakery/cafe with a Scandinavian bent? What does that mean exactly? The Serious Eats team went to find out.

早餐时有一系列面包和早餐糕点和三明治。注入豆蔻cinnamon roll($1.50) is a little dry, but thehouse-made pretzels($1.50) were terrific—slightly chewy and crunchy on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside.

预制鸡蛋沙拉三明治在种子麦面包上（$ 7.50），培根条没有足够的培根。我也买了一个cheese loafmade with priest cheese ($6.95) that was tang, yeasty, and delicious. It's the kind of bread you rip hunks off of all day and before you know it's all gone. An excellentcranberry-hazelnut danish($2.95) was plenty buttery without being decadent.

顶部：鸡肉汤；左：番茄和奶酪汤；右：牛肉古拉什。

Lunch regularly features three soups:番茄和奶酪汤($4.95/$6.95) that would raise Campbell's game a lot; an inspired匈牙利牛肉古拉什汤（$ 4.95/$ 6.95）不幸的是，这本来可以在纽约的任何希腊咖啡店提供；和chicken noodle soup（$ 4.95/$ 6.95）这是一个奇怪的味道平淡的，这是奇怪的奇怪，考虑到所有新鲜的草药漂浮在其中。

I was really looking forward to theSwedish meatball sandwich（$ 9.95）因为萨缪尔森（Samuelsson）曾经煮过我与杰弗里·斯坦加丁（Jeffrey Steingarten）共同主持的旧纽约Eats Television Show上品尝过的最好的瑞典肉丸。las，这些沉重的干燥，肉丸与那些没有相似之处。

火腿三明治和虾沙拉三明治。

Better lunch sandwich options are the aforementioned鸡蛋沙拉三明治,a straightforwardham, red cabbage, apple, and sauerkraut sandwich($8.95) and a fineshrimp salad在Dill Quark面包三明治（$ 10.95）上，带有小肉质虾。

The lunch and dinner plates are decidedly a mixed bag. Asplit roast chicken breast stuffed with sautéed mushrooms($11.95) had that icky airline reheated-chicken taste.

TheBauernwurst（$ 10.95），在酸菜床上的精美乳化香肠配上一堆美妙的莳萝含有浸泡的土豆沙拉（2.25美元），好多了（几乎每个三明治或Entreé都配以土豆沙拉）。

Vegetarian meatballs($10.95) are failures as meatballs (AQ Kafé should change the name of this dish), but moderately successful as balled up vegetarian stuffing.

Thesmorgasbord plate($12.95) had all these inappropriately tiny portions of decent herring, shrimp salad, a solitary meatball, and a ping pong ball-sized new potato and a tiny wedge of cheese that both looked lonely and lost on the plate. Come on, Marcus and company—bring on the potatoes!

一个必备的甜点是bittersweet chocolate tart（$ 4.95）。黑巧克力壳，一些粘糊糊的焦糖和一条细巧克力甘纳果联合力量，使最终的成人糖果棒用作盘子上的楔子。

Seasonal-food junkies should happily avail themselves of the moist, not-too-sweetpumpkin gingerbread cakewith smooth, light maple mascarpone frosting ($4.95).

如果您正在寻找真正的斯堪的纳维亚甜点，您可能会考虑订购princess cake（$ 4.95）。这将是一个错误，除非酸橙绿色的小杏仁饼，干海绵蛋糕，一些不起眼的糕点奶油和一些覆盆子是您对天堂般的组合的想法。也许是真实的。可口的？没办法，没有。

If you order carefully you can fare reasonably well at AQ Kafé. But proceed with caution, because the menu is loaded with food mine fields. You'll probably fare better at Le Pain Quotidien (which is not particularly great, either) or Bouchon Bakery, which is a far better option in terms of deliciousness percentages.

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