Jean Georges - NYC

Jean Georges restaurant is located in the Trump International Hotel & Tower, next to Central Park and Columbus Circle.  It is the flagship restaurant of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a native of Alsace who now heads a group of more than a dozen restaurants.  The cuisine at Jean Georges mixes French, American and Asian influences.

Jean Georges is one of the seven restaurants in New York City holding three Michelin stars.

We walked through Nougatine, a restaurant-bar which offers a casual alternative to Jean Georges.

The Jean Georges dining room. We were seated at a banquette by the big glass windows overlooking the room.  Here's the view from our table:

All the diners seemed to have taken the casual-elegant dress code seriously, which matched the setting well.

We were offered bread before the amuse. They had a selection of 4 types of bread.

Amuses bouche

Fluke sashimi with tangerine snow
Beet toast with fresh ricotta and candied pecans
Sweet potato soup with parmesan and dashi

We selected the Tastes of Winter menu.

Appetizers

Sesame crab toast, miso-mustard, Asian pear and shiso - very good

Gulf shrimp, water chestnuts, saffron, silken kabocha and chipotle - way too salty

Entrées

Steamed Flounder with roasted pumpkin seeds, spaghetti squash and soy yuzu broth - the steamed fish, squash and broth did not complement each well, which resulted in a less than memorable dish.

Red Snapper crusted with nuts and seeds, sweet and sour jus - nice!

Dessert

I ordered the Winter Dessert Tasting, which consisted of butternut squash sorbet, espresso syrup and pumpkin seed brittle, cranberry bar, carrot meringue and clementine granite.

A waiter rolled a trolley  to our table with a huge jar of marshmallow, and started to cut some pieces. Who would have thought that serving marshmallows could be so classy?

Here are the two vanilla marshmallow cubes along with a selection of mignardises.

We had asked for the details of the amuses bouche at the beginning of our meal. As we were having dessert, a waitress brought a personalized menu to take home - a nice touch indeed!

Service was good, although some waiters seemed to be in a rush for no apparent reason, since there were so many of them. The steamed flounder was rather disappointing, and the rest of the dishes were good but nothing spectacular, as one would expect from a three star restaurant. Although we had a pleasant lunch at Jean Georges, we would not recommend dinner there, since the dinner prices are way too high for the quality of what comes out of Jean Georges' kitchen.

Jean Georges

http://www.jean-georgesrestaurant.com/