I recently celebrated my New York City bridal shower, and my family came from all over the East Coast (and even further!) to share in my joy. The night before, because only Kate and Marisa had arrived at that point, we had an impromptu cousin dinner at 44 & X, one of Marisa’s favorite restaurants in the city.

Predictably, 44 & X is located at the corner of 44th Street and 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. And it’s a sister restaurant to 44½, a restaurant that I absolutely loved and is sadly now closed!

Because Marisa raved about the food, we ordered… lots of it.

For appetizers, we dined on the Blue Claw Crab Fritter with tomato tarragon fondue.

We also had the Pan Seared Diver Sea Scallops with roasted parsnip purée, Sicilian arancini, and vanilla bean blood orange reduction.

And we had the Goat Cheese and Pistachio Soufflé with Asian pears and pomegranate jus.

For her main course, Marisa ate the Pan Roasted North Atlantic Salmon served with caramelized baby leeks, baby spinach, wilted kale, braised haricots vests, crispy chanterelles and honji meiji mushrooms in a spiced vindaloo coconut broth.

Blair dined on the Turkey and Wild Mushroom Meat Loaf, which was wrapped in bacon and served with an old fashioned tomato sauce and creamy mashed potatoes.

Kate and I both had the Vermont Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese. I liked the top layer of it a lot, but the bottom layer had way too much cheese, in my opinion (and that’s saying something, coming from me)!

Greg had the Crispy Sea Bass with chanterelle mushrooms, baked asparagus, and artichokes in a saffron mussel broth.

I always love our cousin nights, and I had a fabulous time with Kate, Marisa, Blair and Greg.

But did I love 44 & X? No, not really. It had a cool atmosphere, but nothing I ate impressed me all that much. Marisa loves it, so it could be that we chose poorly in ordering this time around.

But luckily(?) Marisa’s favorite blog posts of mine are the ones in which I say I don’t like the restaurant, so umm… this one’s for you, Marisa!

~A