Why Come Here? Great tasting menu at a great price
To me, the tasting menu represents the pinnacle of the dining experience. You get to just sit back and let the professionals bring you the best dishes they can make that day. Multiple foods, fresh ingredients to try and no decisions to make. How can you beat that? The one drawback of course is the generally wallet busting price. Enter Contra.
Contra occupies a small, somewhat hidden space on the Lower East Side. Decor is minimal with what appears to be two-thirds of a painting covering the otherwise empty brick and white walls. In back, barely separated from the rest of the restaurant is the open kitchen. Here the chefs turn out a Nordic-inspired New American five-course tasting menu for the perfectly reasonable sum of 55 dollars. For the the quality and creativity, this price makes Contra a must stop for foodies. However, unlike an Aska, the food is normal enough that average diners will appreciate it as well. While the tasting menu is the only dining option at Contra, you can choose to tack on bread (+$3) and cheese (+$8) courses. The cocktail selection is also ever-changing to match the menu and every bit on par with the food.
Below are the dishes from my tasting earlier this week:
Bread 
Bread falls just short of water on the list of things I don’t want to pay for at a restaurant. But $3 isn’t so bad, especially when you have a perfect specimen like this.
Cranberry Beans, cabbage, tomato Cranberry beans aren’t something I’ve come across before and had no idea what to expect. But from what I can tell, they are far more more bean than cranberry. In fact they tastes nothing like a cranberry but very much like a pinto bean. Whatever the reason for their name, they provided a nice bite to the lighter notes of the cabbage and thin tomato sauce. This was an enjoyable starter, more so without the overpowering dollops of lemon aioli.
Pollock, anise, peas 
This was a perfect summer dish with the an herbacious flavors from the sauce and a little bitterness from the anise perfectly complementing the mild fish.
Beef, eggplant, amaranth 
The beef was cooked rare and loaded with flavor. The lightly fried eggplant was also excellent. This would have been a three starrer had it not been for a little too much fat in the meat.
Cheese Course This was the biggest surprise of the night. Instead of bringing out the ususal slice of cheese and accompaniments, we were presented with a bowl of mixed shaved cheeses over semi-cooked corn kernals. The result was essentially the best white cheddar popcorn you’ve ever eaten.
Wild chamomile, strawberry, olive oil The first dessert was reminiscent of a strawberry panna cotta. So basically you’re enjoyment of this one comes down to how much you like strawberry sauce. Luckily for me, it’s very much.
Yogurt, grains, seed This was basically a fancy version of the parfait I eat for breakfast every morning. It was also a nice palate cleanser to close out the meal.
Contra
138 Orchard Street (Rivington & Delancey Sts.)
New York, NY
