La Sirena

This review is just as true now, as it was then: La Sirèné is hidden away in plain sight on Broome Street about four blocks southwest of the Spring Street subway station, and although it’s out of the way to some New Yorkers it’s the way home for others. La Sirèné is for those who love and miss authentic and luscious French bistro food in New York, or for that matter, in Paris, where it is lucky to find a small kitchen and dining room in any quaint side street café or boîte that even approaches La Sirèné for taste, texture, and the fun of stepping back into a sensual dimension of the past. As the old saying goes, «When it’s eight o’clock in the evening in Manhattan it’s 1938 in La Sirèné.»
What brought two restaurant-​wise New Yorkers to this location (a stone’s throw from the Manhattan entrance to the Holland Tunnel) was Chef Didier Pawlicki’s devotion to answering his restaurants’ critics on Unilocal! in the smartest, truest, and most kindly ways. When they write that his food is wonderful, he humbly accepts the praise; when people have a beef, so to speak, he explains clearly why things were as they were, even if the complaint was ignorant or insulting; he apologizes sincerely, and promises to make matters better, which he often does. He is never standoffish and is always truly concerned. We wanted to sample the cuisine of a chef like that. Best decision of the season.
It’s an excellent bet that everything on La Sirèné’s menu, which is available online, is memorably excellent, if the goat cheese tartlette or the tiny ravioli or the rack of lamb with rosemary and the coq au vin and the mind-​messing profiterols with Callebaut chocolate sauce and the rich, robust coffee are any criteria. The waiter/​maitre de/​Paul recalled that he has worked at La Sirèné for a year and, «In that time I have eaten more than 200 of them.» Once you taste the warm goat cheese in the perfect, slightly crunchy baked brown crust that is mysteriously «veiled» in a Swiss cheese lace, you may think that even at 200 tarts Paul is depriving himself ($ 16.95 and perfectly sharable). The apple and greens salad that accompanies the tart is a brilliant companion.
There is no way to describe in words that are fit to print the elegant intensity of the Comté Gruyère truffle perfumed cream sauce on the tiny ravoli (about as long and wide as the word «tiny» is); a generous bowl full is served as an appetizer at $ 15.75 and it is a splendid meal on its own.
The rack of lamb is not the best in the world (the breeder and butcher need a mild talking to), but it’s in the top ten (No. 1 is at Chef David’s Chez Ledford in Hockessin, Delaware). A big winner is the coq au vin in red wine with celery, onions, and small potatoes; it tastes just like it did when Paris’s heart was young and gay in the 1920s and 1930s. If your grandmother was French, this is the way she probably cooked it. To dip crusty bread in the coq au vin sauce is a miracle of culinary teleportation back to a by-​gone time; to savor the dark chicken meat that easily leaves the bones is so real it’s actually funny. You can eat as Charles de Gaulle ate, in today’s Manhattan.
Profiterol is a dessert so classic that you might think it’s un-​chic even to order it; do not be misled. Profiterols are back, and in La Sirèné they are as sexy as they ever were, maybe moreso.
The wine list is thoughtful and affordable. There is a $ 20 per bottle corkage fee in case you decide to bring in your own great vintage bottle, which is truly a good idea. Bring in a semi-​precious bottle or two of wine (maybe a Volnay) and for the obligatory corkage fee let Didier’s kitchen create a dinner around it.
Also bring cash (presumably US dollars) or an American Express card. If you pass the sniff test, a personal check is also good.
Since there is very little pedestrian traffic on the block, La Serèné must depend for its survival upon people who enjoy best kept local secrets and who make it a regular destination It’s well worth the journey back in time. To complete the illusion, you may for dessert order the Tarte Tatin, the classic upside-​down caramelized apple tart ($ 9.50) and add just $ 3 to get it Flambée!
You may notice if you visit the La Sirèné’s website that Chef Didier is not a particularly good speller in either English or French (he makes four spelling mistakes in one sentence: «The menu offers a choice of Fish, Meat and Foul Giant Profiterolles with Bitter/​Sweet Dark Chocolate (Callebau) Bön Apetit !»
His spelling is suspicious but La Serèné can be sublime.

Great salad selection with patient employees, can’t wait to try the other stuff.
I would of rated them a 5 if they had adequate delivery. They won’t deliver unless you are In a 5 block radius which sucks compared to other businesses in the area.

Great breakfast at great prices. $ 4 salad with anything u want from the salad bar. Desserts that are unbelievable and pizza for $ 1. U can’t go wrong.