Most of the restaurants and bars that we visited in New York were cool, trendy, young and fun but we also wanted to try some of the really special, high-end dining that New York had to offer. Le Bernadin was top of my list, as it’s considered the best restaurant in the USA and, indeed, the world! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a table, but I was lucky enough to get a spot at Jean Georges, another restaurant that I was keen to try.
Jean Georges is a three Michelin star restaurant in the Trump International Hotel and Tower. The chef is Jean Georges Vongerichten, French-born, he is one of the most famous chefs in the world with many restaurants to his name and a cluster of Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide. The restaurant over-looks central park and the dishes on the menu blend Asian, French and American cuisines.
I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant which wasn’t overly stuffy for such a high-end place.
This time I managed to convince Mr S that the tasting menu was unnecessary and we should stick with four courses from the a la carte menu.
We started with the amuses.
It’s difficult to remember what each taster was specifically but I will try and convey exactly what I thought.
I love rare tuna and I really enjoyed this delicate amuse.
The spoon full of salad had a very over powering taste of horseradish which ruined the enjoyment of the taster. There was also a cup of soup which for me I just felt was cold and watery. So unfortunately, Jean Georges only scored one out of three on the amuses 🙁
We shared the starters and very much enjoyed the tuna ribbons
which had a lovely kick of spicy radish and ginger.
The sea trout was enjoyable with some lovely crunchy textures!
For our fish course we chose a very beautifully cooked turbot served with radishes and grapefruit.
The fish was light and melt-in-the-mouth delicious.
Crispy salmon with fava beans and lime was even better, served slightly rare, just how we like it!
My main course was butter poached lobster with lemongrass and passion fruit. I loved the Asian flavours and zing of the tropical fruit. The dish was so light that even after my previous dishes I wasn’t feeling overly full.
Mr Silver chose a very perfectly cooked rack of lamb that was carved at the table. The dish was accompanied by a chilli glaze, spring onion and broccoli. To be honest, you really can’t go wrong with a rack of lamb for Mr S, as long as it comes rare!
A slight pause before dessert for a general opinion about the restaurant. In terms of the food, it was good but not perfection, many of the dishes had one overpowering flavour that masked the other flavours of the dishes. The service was good but a little patchy and inconsistent, I’m nit-picking but a three Michelin star restaurant should be perfection while there were definitely errors there.
Ok…on to dessert. The dessert amuse was a pretty tree of frozen sorbets.
A very pleasant palate cleanser.
Desserts are served as tastings of one particular ingredient. I chose the strawberry tasting.
The tasting dish came with strawberry sorbet, vanilla crumble, sponge cake and choux bun. Despite the number of confections on the plate all were light and refreshing.
Mr S couldn’t resist the chocolate tasting:
Composed of white chocolate ice cream, yuzu sorbet, chocolate custard, smoked salt meringue, bitter chocolate tart and warm chocolate cake. He was beginning to feel pretty full but couldn’t help himself when this came out:
Well it would be rude not to…
But when the petit fours came, we were pretty finished!
Though I can never say no to a macaron!!
The majority of the food was good, but overall our experience of Jean Georges was a slight disappointment as it came swiftly after our dinner at Enoteca Pinchiorri, a three Michelin star restaurant in Florence that had offered totally flawless food and service. Next time I’m in New York, fingers crossed for a booking at Le Bernadin!
