I must admit, one of the main reasons I wanted to dine at Jean-Georges was because of an episode of Friends (where Chandler managed to snag a last minute reservation for his & Monica’s anniversary). I am rather obsessed with Friends, but that’s another story for another day.
Of course, I wouldn’t have made a reservation had there not been good reviews for the restaurant.. I’m not that Friends-mad! And obviously, the fact that it holds three Michelin-stars was a factor.
In keeping with my ‘trying to be more efficient at blogging’ thing, this will be a a photo-centered post.
p.s. We dined here in mid-December 2011.
Bread. Good, but not great. (Nothing can beat Eleven Madison Park’s warm, flaky bun goodness. )
Amuse: Flavours of fall. From L to R – Cheese & truffle spring roll with lettuce; Salmon smoked with chilli; Sweet potato soup with apple & basil.
Scallop sashimi with crispy rice and chipotle mayo. This was my favourite dish of the meal. There was something so simple, yet so good about this.
Sea urchin on black bread, with jalapeno. I was impressed at the freshness of sea urchin – I normally am not a fan but was won over by this.
Crab dumplings with celeriac & meyer lemon tea. This was light and refreshing.
Comte risotto. This came with the (extravagant) option of having white Alba truffles shaved atop the risotto, which I decided against.
Chicken leg confit with parmesan crust, artichoke & lemon sauce. I order anything with artichoke in it. It’s another one of my obsessions, having only discovered the wonders of artichokes in the last year.
Caramelised beef tenderloin, with comte beignets, spinach & wasabi pea puree. Is it wrong that I enjoyed the beignets more than the beef?
For some reason, I didn’t write down the name of this dish! From memory, this was a chocolate pear cake, with shaved ice in the bowl. I can’t for the life of me remember which alcohol was used in the shaved ice, but I do remember it being extremely boozy.
Chocolates, one of which was adorned with ‘JG’.
Macarons. Again, I didn’t note down what flavour these were – oops!
Vanilla marshmallows. These were delightful. The restaurant stores them in giant glass jars, and cut them for you with scissors at the table.
Jean-Georges
1 Central Park West
New York
NY 10023
www.jean-georges.com
NB: This site houses the 70-seat Jean Georges dining room (which is where we dined), and also Nougatine at Jean Georges (a more casual bar-style dining room).
As the restaurant was just next to Central Park, we took a slow stroll across the park (and ended up in the Upper East Side). I didn’t have my tripod with me and it was getting quite dark, but I wanted to share a few photos I took at the time, even though they are not of the best quality.
Man, I ♥ New York.
Fabulous pictures…..of the food and the park! I guess I’m kindof a ‘normal’ food person, cuz until you got to the desserts, I wasn’t going for any of that! Each plate was beautiful, but not what I would think to eat. But the desserts looked amazing! Yum!
Yeah we were too full otherwise would have gotten a dessert each. The couple next to us had a special cake made for them, which looked fab! (They were regulars who were celebrating their wedding anniversary.)
On another note, I just found out that their executive pastry chef is Johnny Izzuni (the judge from Top Chef Masters – if you watch food shows hehe).
Beautiful photos of your meal + Central Park. I’m glad you had a wonderful meal. Wish I had followed you to the luncheon that day. Hope to see you soon.
Thanks Ken! We actually went to Per Se after we met you for breakfast.. this was the day after. 😛
Hope to see you soon too, be in in London or NYC! x
that ice skating photo is stunning! what can i say.. you and i both need to move to NYC.
I knowww! Shake Shack, Kyochon, pork buns, lobster rolls.. omg heaven.
The food looks wonderful! And I missed that episode of Friends but I’m going to look it up! 😀
It’s the episode in Season 5: The One where Ross Can’t Flirt. 😉
Hi,
Great photos & post!
Thank you very much!
It looks fabulous. We’re going to go to NY next year – I think we might have to go here as a special treat. It’s not as crazy expensive as I thought it might be!
Yeah Jean-Georges is surprisingly not as expensive as I thought it would be. I must say I prefer Eleven Madison Park to Jean-Georges (or even Per Se) though – if you go for EMP’s lunch it’s 4 courses for $74, with lots of little nibbles between courses. I’ve blogged about it before here ( https://breadetbutter.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/new-york-eleven-madison-park/ ).. and will blog about it again in due course as we ate there again in December! 🙂
p.s. We tend to have lunches when we go to nice restaurants because 1) it’s usually more affordable, and 2) the light is better!
I would so love a trip to New York! The food here looks creative and is beautifully presented.