Three Stars for the Wandering Nomad

Pete Wells awards three stars to The Nomad.  The restaurant is "loose, alive, genuine, deliberate."  This is intentional.  "Daniel Humm and Will Guidara talk about modeling the restaurant on the Rolling Stones.  They went through a branding exercise, writing down words that defined the band."

Perhaps that's why the atmospher is "Fancily if impersonally decorated, like a Riviera home rented out to a rock band."

Wells finds the signature chicken for two as "the uncontested prima donna.  If served at a dark no-reservations tavern in the Village, it would be enough to put the place on the map."

"When things can go so right, you notice when they go even a little wrong."  This was sometimes the case with certain dishes, the flaws of which are "minor demerits for a kitchen that takes on as much as the NoMad's."  In addition to the 120 seats in The Nomad, the kitchen is responsible for room service and the five-course tasting menu that launched last week on The Nomad Rooftop, the hotel's alfresco sibling.

A hotel is not complete without a bar and The Nomad does an excellent job in this department. "The selection of cocktails, an entire fleet, is surely one of the best in the city."  The Turf Cocktail is "an absinthe-fortified martini that could easily become a habit, but it's probably not the kind described in “Sister Morphine.”"

The Nomad came up just shy of four stars.  "But while the NoMad seeks its tone, there are so many reasons for patience."