I swear we’ve been in this place in at least four of its incarnations. The latest, Aix (French for “overpriced”), is as big and overly-bright as the others. Nobody has really figured out what to make of the bi-leveled space here, often trying to put up walls and add muted colors to make it seem in the least bit cozy. These guys have managed to make the place feel like a somewhat upscale Ikea showroom. That’s not good when you’re dropping about $100 dollars a head. We did the four course prix fixe tasting menu with the wine pairing. For those of you heathens out there, this basically means that for a set price ($86 in this case), one gets four courses (appetizer, two main courses and a dessert), along with four glasses of wine. We must say that the food was rather unremarkable and pretty bland. Our understanding is that French food is supposed to be all about the sauces, but most of their dishes seem to be lacking that great, thick stuff that gives the food, uh, taste. Luckily everything tastes better with a buzz, and after four glasses, the booze started doing its job. It’s no surprise, then, that the best part of the meal was the hazelnut soufflŽ with peanut butter ice cream. Granted, that shit would have been good dead sober, but it’s a shame we had to wait until the end of the night to get something worth our hard earned cash. [MF]
2398 Broadway
212/874-7400