Now that my wife Jun and I live in the DC metro area, we have been fairly behind on new restaurants in New York City. Given the limited number of evenings we would spend in the city (around four times per year give or take), we have prioritized returning to our old favorites instead of checking out newcomers. Some of these new restaurants have been quite impossible to book a reservation, and what if we are disappointed even after getting a table through all the hassles like constantly refreshing the reservation website? Le Veau d’Or, which was established in 1937, re-opened with much buzz in 2024 by chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr behind the acclaimed French restaurant Frenchette and quickly become one of the hardest tables to book. On our recent visit to the city, we got to catch up with a friend and ex-co-worker and her husband over dinner. The husband had been dying to check out Le Veau d’Or and I managed to leverage my Chase credit card (more on below) to get a 5 p.m. seating for the four of us. So, did Le Veau d’Or live up to its hype? Overall, the food was delicious overall, but Jun and I agreed that other than one dish, we didn’t have our minds blown.

The format at Le Veau d’Or is a three-course tasting menu (at $135 per person) and given the large number of dishes in each section (starter, main and dessert), having four diners in the party gave us a great opportunity to sample different dishes to share. The starter dishes were all surprisingly somewhat pedestrian. Pate en Croute was solid but not particularly memorable; same goes to escargots. The biggest disappointment was probably the pommes soufflees with caviar and cream which was entirely forgettable. The main dishes were better. If there is one dish that you absolutely have to order at the restaurant, and that we would gladly come back for, is the duck magret. Given Jun’s very high standard for duck meat, I was glad to see her thoroughly enjoy the duck with cherry sauce at Le Veau d’Or. It’s deceptively hard to nail the texture of duck meat, and the kitchen at Le Veau d’Or certainly did that.

My friend’s husband was very eager to try the special on the menu of quail that was also quite compelling with its juicy texture. For something a little lighter, the lobster salad my friend ordered also seemed like a good choice. The only underwhelming main dish from our table was the lamb; the texture of the meat was fine overall but the flavor was surprisingly muted. Interestingly, the coco beans that accompanied the lamb stole the show with soulful flavor. The desserts (curiuosly followed by a palate cleanser in the form of green salad) were also mostly delicious. The ile flottante was surprisingly light without being too sweet, and we also enjoyed the citrus flavored mille-feuille as well as the strawberry dessert of sabayon aux fraises (a seasonal special at the moment). For anyone who had been to French bistro restaurants, all of these desserts would’ve been fairly familiar and I wished they had a bit more impact.

As I noted above, Le Veau is still insanely hard to get a reservation. The reservation window opens two weeks in advance at 9 a.m. and the early and prime time slots disappear in an instant. One big perk of having a Chase Sapphire Reserve card is that OpenTable reserves a few seatings exclusively for the cardholders so if you have a card with Chase and are willing to go to a super early or late-night dinner, you may be in luck. There is full bar at the restaurant with exclusively French wine list across different regions of the country. The restaurant’s vibe of an old school bistro gave a warm and cozy neighborhood restaurant atmosphere without being stuffy, and I suspect that the nostalgia factor is one of the major reasons the restaurant is constantly packed. Le Veau is a solid bistro restaurant and we would be happy to go back one day to try other dishes (I’m particularly intrigued to try the melon soup dessert that unfortunately wasn’t on the menu on our visit). I just wish getting a reservation there wouldn’t require such a heroic effort on our next visit.

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.0/10)

Address: 129 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022

Website: https://www.lvdnyc.com/

Reservation on OpenTable