A Most Interesting "Menu"

Have you ever been to a restaurant with one appetizer and one entree on the entire menu? I can now check that off my list! I met up with a friend for dinner in NYC and I requested that we dine near my hotel. He didn't know the restaurants in the area that well so he consulted foursquare. One of the suggestions was Le Relais de Venise, a restaurant he had passed a few times and was curious about. So we headed over to check out the menu. We found a dessert menu displayed next to the entrance. Hmmm where's the dinner menu? I suggested we step inside to peruse the dinner menu away from the cold. 

I asked for the dinner menu upon entering and received the following reply. "We don't have a dinner menu! The menu is prix fixe. We only serve one item - steak frites with a salad starter." My friend and I looked at each other in amazement. This was a dinner adventure we could not pass up. We took our seats and found ourselves staring at a long list of desserts. The same list of desserts by the entrance. So funny! A dessert menu that's longer than the food menu. A waitress came by to take our drink order and asked us how we would like our steak cooked. My friend ordered rare while I ordered medium. Then she wrote R | M on the table. (I used to order everything well done so medium was a big step for me. Maybe eventually I'll move into the rare category.)

Steak frites with the secret house sauce

Our food arrived fairly quickly. We wondered what it was like being a chef at a restaurant with one app and one entree. The salad was good but nothing special. The steak frites was excellent though. The secret house sauce was peculiar and quite rich but it was tasty on the steak and spectacular on the fries. My friend commented that is was easy to eat since the steak came pre-sliced. Then came the surprise! A waitress stopped at our table as we were finishing our steak and proceeded to add more steak and fries to our plates and ladle more sauce. What what?? My friend and I looked at each other with 'Did that just happen?' looks. Yes it did. And yes he received more rare slices and I received more medium slices. We consulted foursquare and one of the tips mentioned that this was all part of the routine. Wow. My friend and I couldn't get over how different and interesting this dining experience was from other restaurants. And in midtown Manhattan no less.

I had the second helping steak frites boxed up to save room for dessert. My friend ordered the profiteroles and I ordered La Tulipe. It consisted of a wafer cookie topped with canned fruit, vanilla bean ice cream, whipped cream, and almonds. We figured out why it was called 'The Tulip' when it arrived. The dessert light and fresh, like Chinese fruit cake. My friend thought his profiteroles were 'just ok'. Glad I went with La Tulipe! Overall we both enjoyed our meals. I would go back. Our bill even came with a 10% off coupon for the next visit. Have you ever had an unexpected but positive dining experience? Would you visit a restaurant like Le Relais de Venise?