Lunch at Jewel in Melville
The lunch menu at Jewel in Melville features beef tartare (foreground) and tuna tartare. (Dec. 21, 2011) CHECK CAPTION FOR HORIZONTAL CROPS; ONLY ONE TARTAR IS PICTURED /Erica marcus Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
Jewel, Tom Schaudel’s lavish new Melville restaurant, is now open for lunch; the place looks just as grand in broad daylight.
Though not a bargain lunch, there are plenty of good-sized starters, salads, sandwiches and pizzas going for $15 and less. Want to spend more? Grilled salmon is $24; spiced tuna, $28; aged steaks from $36 to $100 (for a 12-ounce Waygu strip).
My pal and I had these two tartares (each $15). In the foreground, my steak tartare, a big honking puck of chopped beef topped with cornichons, red onion and a quail egg. If you ignored the house-made potato chips, this would be a perfect Atkins lunch. (I did not ignore the potato chips.) My companion thought the tuna in her tuna tartare was cut too big. I loved how big it was cut. Go know.
A “millionaire’s pizza” with black truffle, mushroom, fontina and a farm egg ($19) was too busy, and slightly greasy of crust. My mushroom salad ($12) just didn’t come together: frisee was slightly browned where it had been cut, the braised pork belly strangely tough.
Much appreciated on the menu were nine vegetable side dishes, each $7. I only picked at the Brussels sprouts with chorizo and red onion, and a Sicilian-style cauliflower (with raisins, pine nuts and bread crumbs). They made for a fine lunch the next day.
Jewel is at 400 Broadhollow Rd., Melville, 631-755-5777.
