Last night I stopped by Ardesia, a wine bar in Hells Kitchen that has gotten great reviews, especially noting it's good food. It's a pleasant space for consuming wine, with a living room-like area in back, and a beautiful marble bar, with a two-story wine rack behind that. I don't care about drinking much anymore though, food is the only thing on my mind of late.

Homemade NY style pretzels ($6) came with Dijon mustard and a Gruyere cheese sauce. I rarely, if ever, have homemade pretzels, these were fine, and a nice change of pace. I especially enjoyed the mustard which was homemade too.

One of the bartenders, who was extremely nice, strongly recommended the duck banh mi ($14), saying if I liked duck I would love it. It came with house cured duck, spicy duck pate, sriracha aioli, and pickled vegetables. Unfortunately though, the duck flavor was lacking, and the sandwich was more pate, than duck, and didn't do it for me. It was more of a pate sandwich, which would have been ok, for the bread was nice too, but I missed that duck flavor dearly. Also, the entire time consuming this pate sandwich I could not help but think about the great banh mi sandwiches in Chinatown that cost 4 or 5 dollars.

I ended with a ice cream sandwich ($5) with hazelnut ice cream in between homemade chocolate cake. Lets just say you usually don't come to a wine bar for dessert. I did consume every last bite of this ice cream sandwich, but I would never order it again.

I would definitely come back to Ardesia for some wine and to try some more of their menu. I wasn't totally impressed with the food, but I'm sure after a few glasses of wine, culinary bliss can occur here, or anywhere really.

Ardesia
510 W. 52nd Street (bet. 10th and 11th ave.)
New York, NY 10019
212-247-9191