Review Preview

Record to date: 3–2

Tomorrow, Frank Bruni corrects one of the most egregious errors in recent New York Times reviewing history, when he will demote Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market.

The Skinny: Spice Market currently carries three stars, thanks to Amanda Hesser in 2004, when she served as interim critic before Frank Bruni arrived. The much-ridiculed and much-lampooned review began with these memorable bon-mots:

As you approach Spice Market, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new restaurant on West 13th Street, the stench of blood and offal from the surrounding meatpacking district intensifies. It’s hardly an olfactory amuse-bouche.

It turned out that Vongerichten had written a gushing jacket blurb for Hesser’s book, Cooking for Mr. Latte, which the Times admitted that Hesser ought to have disclosed. (Vongerichten later claimed that he had never met her.)

No one thought that Spice Market was a three-star restaurant then, when it had Vongerichten’s full attention, and it certainly isn’t one now. When I visited two years ago, I gave it 1½ stars, an option not open to Bruni, as his system lacks half-stars.

I am not saying that Bruni will demote Spice Market because this blog does not consider it worthy of three stars. It’s because nobody does. There have been no intervening events that would justify a return visit, except to correct the rating, and it has only one direction to go: down.

Bruni has done this to Vongerichten before, when he double-demoted Vong and Mercer Kitchen, knocking two stars off the rating of each. The only question here is whether Bruni will give Spice Market the full-body slam (one star or even zero), or if he’ll leave Vongerichten with a shred of dignity intact (two stars).

We can see it going either way, but we have to go with a full-body slam. Let’s charitably assume that the original rating should have been two stars. Does anyone doubt that the restaurant has gotten sloppier over the years, and that it has less of its owner’s attention than any in his large empire? How could the rating today not be lower than the “correct” original rating? Now add Bruni’s well known disgust for the whole Meatpacking Scene, and the blatant cynicism of the place, and the odds point to a monumental smackdown.

The Prediction: We predict that Frank Bruni will give one star to Spice Market.

Matsugen

Note: Matsugen closed in March 2011, after failing consistently to draw crowds.

*

Jean-Georges Vongerichten really, really, really wants you to visit Matsugen.

The other day, Grub Street ran the feature where it asks a restauranteur to chronicle his eating habits for a week. Among other things, we learned that Jean-Georges Vongerichten always eats dinner at Matsugen on Sundays, but apparently he eats there Tuesdays as well. He does not mention JoJo, Vong, Mercer Kitchen, or Spice Market.

Vongerichten spends most of his time at the flagship, but he’s supposed to be there; and he visited Perry St, where he was testing new recipes. But Matsugen is apparently the only restaurant in his empire where he dines regularly for pleasure. Maybe it’s because when we arrived at 7:00 p.m. on a Friday evening, the staff outnumbered the customers. To be fair, it got a bit busier later on, but it never filled up. On a weekend, that cannot be an encouraging sign.

We’ve written about Matsugen twice before (1, 2), so we’ll go easy on the background. There’s some intermittently compelling food here, and a good meal need not break the bank. Four appetizers (two more than we needed), a bowl of soba apiece and an inexpensive bottle of sake were just $125 before tax and tip. You can do even better if you have the multi-course $35 prix fixe, but we didn’t go that route.

Barachirashi, or raw fish over warm sushi rice ($12; above left) was the highlight of the evening—looking as good as it tasted. I was less impressed with Toro Tataki ($21; above right). When you’re serving premium tuna, it shouldn’t be drowning in gravy.

Meatballs ($7; above left) were a bit dry on the outside, but luscious on the inside. Tempura vegetables ($12; above right) were forgettable.

The Matsugen Special Soba ($16; above) comes with a blizzard of ingredients: scallion, bonito, yam, sesame, okra, wasabi, cucumber, myoga, shiso, egg, nori. It would be refreshing even without the thin, delicate soba noodles.

Ordering at Matsugen is an exercise in frustration, as you never have a sense of how big the plates are, and the servers provide very little guidance—that’s useful, at any rate. I’ve loved the soba dishes every time, but the appetizers aren’t as consistently enjoyable. The space is sterile and charmless, and for the price I think there are more comfortable destinations where the food is equally or even more compelling.

Matsugen (241 Church Street between Leonard & Worth Streets, TriBeCa)

Food: **
Service: *½
Ambiance: Sterile, charmless
Overall: *½

Lunch at Jean Georges

Note: Click here for a more recent review.

For years, I’ve heard about the remarkable lunch menu at Jean Georges: any two courses, $28; additional courses, $14 each; desserts just $8 each. It also includes the same amuses-bouches and petits-fours served at dinner.

Few luxury restaurants come close to offering that kind of deal at lunch. Le Bernardin, for instance, is $68. The Modern is $55. Eleven Madison Park recently started offering two courses for $28, but Jean Georges was doing it before there was any recession. And Jean Georges has four stars.

For such a low price (the normal dinner menu is $98), you’d expect limited choices, but that’s not the case. There are twenty-one options (just two carry supplements), and most are recognizable versions of those offered at dinner. The list isn’t divided into the standard appetizers and entrées, just a long list: if you want two meat courses, you’re welcome to have them.

Even more remarkable, the prix fixe in the adjoining Nougatine, the casual front room, is $24.07, so the dining room is charging only a four-dollar premium for considerably more ambitious food. A friend and I had lunch there today. We ordered the standard two courses each and shared a third, bringing the savory total to $63. After a couple of glasses of wine, the bill was just $98, including tax.

The trio of amuses-bouches was nearly identical to those my mother and I had at dinner last month: a disc of homemade mozzarella, a crab fritter in mushroom sauce, and an herbal chicken broth. After we tasted the crab fritter, my friend said, “The wonderful thing about Jean Georges is that he never makes a mistake.” Then we tried the chicken broth, which tasted like dishwater.

A Warm Green Asparagus Salad was just fine, but overly simplistic. My friend’s appetizer of Tuna Ribbons with avocado, spicy radish, and ginger marinade, seemed a lot more interesting. We shared the Foie Gras Brulee, a Jean Georges staple, which must be the best foie dish in the city. It has been perfect both times I’ve had it.

For the main course, my friend had the same remarkable Goat Cheese Gnocchi with baby artichokes that I tried last month. He was equally impressed. I loved the Red Snapper crusted with seeds and nuts, and served in what appeared to be a stew of baby heirloom tomatoes.

It used to be that Jean Georges was my least favorite of the four-star restaurants. More than the others, it seems more prone to the inevitable minor screw-up (in this case, the dishwater chicken broth). But I have to admit the place is growing on me.

Vongerichten himself was in the house and came over to say hello. The dining room was full (as was adjoining Nougatine), which makes me wonder why the chef is quite so generous at lunchtime.

Jean Georges (1 Central Park West at 60th Street, Upper West Side)

Food: ***½
Service: ***½
Ambiance: ***½
Overall: ***½

Jean Georges

Note: Click here for a more recent review.

Even four-star restaurants have to adapt. A couple of years ago, the dining room at Jean Georges got a make-over. I’m not the one to itemize all of the changes, as I visited the original space only once, but the space now seems brighter and yet more spare—a kind of Scandanavian economy that ensures no distractions from the food and the adjoining Central Park views.

The current recession brought another change: a $58 four-course menu that is served from 5:30–6:00 p.m. and from 10:00–11:00 p.m. (At other times, the minimum entry point is $98 for four courses.) Those might not be ideal dining hours, but it’s still the lowest available price point of any four-star restaurant, or indeed, of just about any luxury restaurant in the city. For that Jean Georges deserves to be applauded.

It was the $58 menu that brought us into Jean Georges the other night. With a $74 burgundy added to the tab, we were still out of there for $205 before tip, making this one of the better meals we’ve had for the price in quite some time.

The $58 menu offers no choices, except at dessert: you are going to get the three savory courses they’ve mapped out for you. However, it is not a bad selection at all. If I’d ordered these dishes at full price, I would not have been disappointed.

We started with a trio of amuses-bouches (above left): a swirl of pickled rhubarb on a disc of mozarella, a peekytoe crab fritter in a light mushroom sauce, and an herbal chicken broth. The crab fritter was the best of these. The chicken broth seemed like a throw-away. The appetizer (above right) was classic Vongerichten: cubes of delicate hamachi paired with Japanese cucumber.

The next two courses were superb, and at least to me, bracingly original. First was a goat cheese gnocchi with caramelized artichokes, rosemary and lemon zest (above left). I wrote in my notes: “remarkable”.

The last course was an arctic char (above right) with a rhubarb compote, ramp ravioli and olive oil foam. It had a sweet–tart contrast that Vongerichten is so well known for. The tart elements were slightly over-powering to my taste, but I give full credit to the ravioli and the fish itself, which was more tender than I thought possible.

We had our choice of any dessert on the regular menu. I chose “Caramel” (above left), while my Mom chose “Chocolate (above right). (“Rhubarb” and “Apple” were the other options.) It all seemed competent to me, but not as memorable as the savory courses.

We concluded with the usual array of petits-four, including the house-made marshmallows (left).

The service seemed more polished than it was on our last visit, but it surely helped that the dining room was not yet full. I still think that Jean Georges is a half-step behind the city’s other four-star restaurants, but this was my best meal to date in any Vongerichten establishment. I should schedule another visit while it is still possible to eat here at bargain prices.

Jean Georges (1 Central Park West at 60th Street, Upper West Side)

Food: ***½
Service: ***½
Ambiance: ***½
Overall: ***½

Matsugen

Note: Matsugen closed in March 2011, after failing consistently to draw crowds. Click here for a more recent review.

*

Last week, a colleague invited me to Matsugen, which I reviewed previously in July. Since then, Matsugen received three stars from Frank Bruni, a judgment that seemed then, and still seems, overly generous.

Mind you, Matsugen is a very good restaurant. As Bruni notes, it doesn’t pander to Western sensibilities—unlike some of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s other Asian restaurants. But the awful ambiance and an uneven menu are serious drawbacks. My colleague, who has sampled a good cross-section of New York’s better restaurants, said, “I’m finding it hard to believe this got three stars.”

We planned to share two or three appetizers and then finish with soba. One of our choices was the Crab and Japanese Mushroom with Rice in an earthenware pot. The server warned that this is made from scratch and would take 45 minutes. She advised us to order a plate of mixed pickles as a stop-gap. Despite her advice, the pickles came first—and it was altogether too much food. Just like gullible tourists, we had been “upsold.”

Anyhow, the plate of mixed pickles (above left) was very good, but entirely unnecessary. My colleague was eager to try the pork belly (above right), which had a faint barbecue taste. It was great, but even for two people it was a very large portion, given that pork belly is almost pure fat.

Salmon belly (above left) is a recent addition to the menu. Despite the name, the dish seemed to be indistinguishable from any other grilled salmon you’ve ever tasted, but it was a bit too greasy. Crabs, mushrooms and rice in an earthenware pot (above right) had a strong, earthy flavor, though after a 45-minute wait I expected more of a payoff.

These are all large dishes, and we were full at this point. We had over-ordered.

But soba was coming. We probably would have enjoyed it more if we had ordered half the number of appetizers. I had the Duck Soup with Inaka noodles (above left). These were the coarsest noodles available, the same as I had last time. Cold noodles with warm duck soup didn’t float my boat; your mileage may vary. The duck seemed over-cooked and flavorless.

I believe my colleage had the Kitchen Sink soba—no, they don’t really call it that—but it was chock full of just about every ingredient they offer, with a fried egg on top. He said it was good, but he left an awful lot of it unfinished, citing a full stomach.

I left Matsugen less impressed than last time. I have to add that the menu is a long one, and I am sure there are many gems here. But even with the servers’ patient explanations, it is a lot to navigate, and the format lends itself to over-ordering.

Matsugen (241 Church Street between Leonard & Worth Streets, TriBeCa)

Food: **
Service: *½
Ambiance: Not much
Overall: *½

Matsugen

 

Note: Matsugen closed in March 2011, after failing consistently to draw crowds. Click here and here for more recent visits reviews.

*

Matsugen, which opened about a month ago in TriBeCa, is Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s latest Manhattan restaurant. It replaces 66, which I sort of liked, but which died a slow, natural death, and closed last year.

Vongerichten has had a long love affair with Asian Cuisine. Vong and Spice Market are both Thai-inspired, 66 was Chinese. At Matsugen, it’s Japanese. But at those earlier restaurants, Vongerichten was the nominal chef, even if he paid little attention to them after they opened. At Matsugen, the Matsushita brothers are running the kitchen. The only things Vongerichten supplied were the space and the chocolate cake recipe. Funnily enough, he wrote a blog post about dining at Matsugen, as if he were an ordinary customer.

An almost inconspicuous sign outside reads “Soba Cuisine,” but while there certainly is soba here, there’s a lot more, at a wide range of prices: appetizers ($6–65), salads ($8–39), tempura ($12–22), grilled items ($20–135), shabu-shabu ($52–160), rice dishes ($32–45), hot & cold soba ($14–36), sushi & sashimi à la carte ($4–10), and rolls ($5–12). To be fair, the higher-end prices are for luxury items like Wagyu beef, fatty tuna, and sea urchin. Typical prices are nearer the lower end of each range. Still, this has to be called a luxury restaurant.

So it’s hard to avoid the fact that the décor is rather charmless and ugly. I deliberately didn’t try to find the best angle. The photo (left) was the view from my table: an unadorned industrial column, white walls, spare tables, plain banquettes. Restaurant 66 wasn’t a beauty, but I don’t remember it being this barren. Maybe my memory is deceiving me.

The staff aren’t any more stylish than the space, but they are knowledgeable. When I asked about something to drink, I got a course in Sake 101. The explanation of the soba dishes rose to a graduate-level seminar. As I was alone, I didn’t really mind the explanation. But it does underscore the potential to be overwhelmed by the menu here.

Fortunately, when the food arrives your patience is repaid—maybe enough to make you forget the grim surroundings.

 

Sliced chilled asparagus was cool and crisp, but it was $15 for a small portion. An eel–cucumber roll ($8) was uncomplicated, but beautifully done. There was a nice contrast between the warm rice and the cold cucumber. The soft, fresh-ground wasabi put to shame the clumpy version of it that most sushi places serve.

That left the main event, Soba Goma Dare ($16), one of the simpler soba items on the menu. The noodles at Matsugen are offered three different ways, with a variety of accompaniments. I chose the darkest, huskiest noodles, served cold. They had a lively, bracing flavor that is difficult to describe.

A server brought over a funky-looking teapot (right) containing the hot broth that the noodles were supposedly cooked in. I was instructed to pour this broth into the bowl in which the noodles and condiments had been dipped (lower left of the photo above), and to drink it like a soup. This was the highlight of the meal, with all of those terrific flavors floating together in one bowl.

After $14 for a small carafe of sake (served in a bamboo box), this fairly modest dinner was $53 before tax and tip. As everything I ordered was near the low end of the range, it’s safe to say that most meals here will cost a lot more. Any Vongerichten restaurant is bound to attract plenty of attention, but I have to wonder if such an expensive, yet ugly, restaurant will be able to build up a loyal fan base. I’ll probably be back, but not on a regular basis.

Matsugen (241 Church Street between Leonard & Worth Streets, TriBeCa)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: Are negative stars allowed?
Overall: *½

At Matsugen, even Vongerichten is a food blogger

Most chefs and old-line journalists look down on food bloggers with disdain. So what’s it like when a four-star chef turns into a food blogger himself? Here’s Jean-Georges Vongerichten on the opening of his latest restaurant, Matsugen:

My newest New York City restaurant, Matsugen, is open. I am thrilled to bring truly authentic, refined Japanese dishes to this great city in a warm, chic setting.

We have some of the best sushi and sashimi in the city, but Matsugen is ultimately a soba house. And what soba. These fresh noodles are the best I’ve ever had. Starting with whole buckwheat grains, we slowly grind them into fine, medium, and coarse flours each morning. Throughout the day, we prepare the doughs and cook the just-cut noodles to order. Here’s Marja, my wife, enjoying a bowl of hot soba.

Of course, I love our other Japanese specialties too, like homemade tofu and shabu shabu. Here I am enjoying some tempura at the end of a long night.

Spice Market

Note: Spice Market closed in September 2016. The restaurant remained successful; the landlord simply wanted them out, to make way for a more lucrative retail tenant. Jean-Georges Vongerichten says that he hopes to re-open at another New York location. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with clones in Punta de Mita, Mexico, and Doha, Qatar.

Amanda Hesser of The New York Times comically over-rated Spice Market when it opened in 2004, awarding three stars. It was probably a solid two, but suffered the inevitable decline that plagues almost all of the Vongerichten restaurants. In 2009, Frank Bruni demoted it to one star, which was probably about right. By the end, it was basically a party restaurant for tourists, but as tourist restaurants go, you could do a lot worse.

*

A little over three years ago, Spice Market’s arrival signaled a milestone for the Meatpacking District. For the first time, a serious restauranteur (Jean-Georges Vongerichten) was staking claim to an area that used to be a wholesale meat market and prostitution haunt.

Indeed, in a much-ridiculed three-star review, Amanda Hesser of the Times advised Vongerichten to pump ginger aroma into the street, to overcome “the stench of blood and offal from the surrounding meatpacking district.” She added, “It’s hardly an olfactory amuse-bouche.”

Nowadays, your tender nostrils needn’t worry about the stench of blood: the original meatpackers are long gone, and the area is a maze of clubs and mostly second-tier restaurants. Whether it has any restaurants worth your while is open to debate. I am probably in the minority, when I tell you that there are actually a few Meatpacking restaurants I like.

Until yesterday, I’d never been to Spice Market, except for drinks. In the early days, it was one of the city’s toughest tables to book, and I never bothered. However, when a friend suggested it, I was happy to accept the invitation, as it was the only one of Vongerichten’s Manhattan restaurants I’d never been to. Things have settled down a bit, although Spice Market still does brisk business. On a Tuesday night, most tables were taken, and I noted that all of the luxurious private rooms downstairs were fully booked.

The pan-Asian menu is divided into appetizers ($9.00–14.50), salads ($7.50–14.00), soups ($7.50–8.50), seafood entrées ($18–30), meat entrées ($16–36), and noodles/rice ($2.00–14.50). At the bottom comes the ominous warning, “All dishes are served family style.” That means they come out of the kitchen, and onto the middle of the table, when the kitchen is ready to serve them—not necessarily when you’re ready to eat them.

We weren’t sure how much food we needed, and “small plate” restaurants like Spice Market tend to encourage over-ordering. For appetizers, we tried the Black Pepper Shrimp ($14.50), which was nicely balanced in true Vongerichten fashion with sun dried pineapples. Mushroom Egg Rolls ($9.50 for four) with a galangal dipping sauce were also excellent.

We moved on to the Ginger Fried Rice ($7), which came topped with a fried egg, sunny side up, with ginger and garlic. This was so irresistible that we practically inhaled it, and didn’t wait for any of the entrées to arrive. The kitchen also did well by a tangy Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce ($19), which the waiter divided and served tableside.

Both meat entrées disappointed. Pork Vindaloo ($19) and Red Curried Duck ($19) both tasted like they could have been simmering for a week, with generic sauces that could have come from any curry house on any back street. Amanda Hesser loved both, but they’ve lost whatever appeal they once had.

In the end, we probably ordered one dish more than we needed, but I was glad to be able to sample a broader swath of the menu. Most dishes were spicy, but not particularly so. The server was about right, when he said that the heat of the Pork Vindaloo was “5 on a scale of 1 to 10.”

I had recalled that Thai Jewels were the best of the desserts, and though we were quite full, we had to give it a try. Here we agreed with Amanda Hesser, so I’ll let her tell it:

Tiny bits of sweet water chestnut are glazed with tapioca, dyed candy colors like cherry red and lime green. These jewels are blended with palm seeds and slivers of jackfruit and papaya, then heaped onto a nest of coconut ice. It is fruity, nutty, cold and slushy, a wonderful mess of flavors, not unlike Lucky Charms.

The wine list isn’t long or complex, with reds and whites listed in each of three categories: smooth, bold, spicy. I chose a spicy red wine for $48, and we were quite pleased with it.

Servers were well versed in the menu and gave reasonable ordering advice. The choreography of waiters and runners sometimes got a bit discombobulated. At the table next to us, they managed to spill a whole bottle of water. Nothing so alarming happened to us, but there were minor glitches. Yet, at other times the service was more polished than you’d expect for a restaurant in Spice Market’s price range.

Despite the “family style” menu, the pace was quite reasonable, and we spent around 2½ hours there. I don’t know if we lucked out, or if they actually try to time the courses intelligently. Anyhow, it’s a good thing we were never served more than one dish at a time, as our small two-top wouldn’t have accommodated any more.

What can you say about the Disney-meets-Thailand décor, and serving staff in orange pajamas? You’ll love it or hate it, but it has no peer in Manhattan. I would guess that Jean-Georges Vongerichten spends no more than 15 seconds a month thinking about Spice Market. It runs on reputation. But there’s just enough left that you can see what all the excitement was about.

Spice Market (403 West 13th Street at Ninth Avenue, Meatpacking District)

Food: *½
Service: *½
Ambiance: **
Overall: *½

Perry St.

After two previous visits to Perry St., I had mixed feelings. It’s certainly a very good restaurant, but is it a great one? My mom was in town, and she hadn’t been to any of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants, so I thought it was time to give Perry St. another try.

We had a 6:00 p.m. reservation on President’s Day, and it was totally empty; even a couple of hours later, it was only a bit over half full.

The menu at Perry St. remains short and focused, and it changes frequently. There are just nine appetizers ($10–29) and eight entrees ($24–45). The wide price range means that you can get out of Perry St. fairly cheaply; but if you want to spend a bundle, you can. (The most-expensive appetizer is poached eggs with caviar; the most expensive entree is poached lobster.)

The amuse bouche was a sunchoke soup with a black truffle (above, right).

 
Mixed Green Salad, Toasty Goat Cheese, Kumquat Vinaigrette (left);
Toasted Barley Risotto, Parmesan, Dried Sour Cherries and Pecans (right)

My mom loved the Mixed Green Salad with toasty goat cheese ($13), which came sculpted in a tall cylinder. I found Toasted Barley Risotto ($13) dominated by the taste of tomatoes, and couldn’t really perceive the dried sour cherries that the menu promised.

 
Sweet & Sour Glazed Short Ribs, Spaghetti Squash and Crunch Cheddar (left);
Spicy Laquered Halibut, Grilled Broccolini, Clementine (right)

My mom also had the better of the main courses. Sweet & Sour Short Ribs ($28) were wonderful, as was the accompanying side of spaghetti squash topped with cheddar. But I found the Spicy Laquered Halibut ($28) over-seasoned, with the taste of the fish literally lost in the sauce.

The petits fours (photo, right) were excellent, although I’m afraid I didn’t catch the explanation.

The bread service remains a definite weakness. Over the course of three visits, this was the first time that bread rolls arrived slightly warm, but they were still hard enough to be lethal weapons in the wrong hands. After I’d used my knife to spread the butter, a server removed the used bread plate but left the knife behind for me to re-use on my appetizer.

The wine list is brief and underwhelming. If I were being really picky, I would point out that we ordered a burgundy, and they served it in bordeaux glasses. I am not suggesting that this actually matters to me, but it does show Perry St.’s definite casual side. And in a restaurant that is so pleasant and comfortable, serving food that is as ambitious as this, can’t they do better than brown paper placemats?

Frank Bruni awarded three stars to Perry St. in September 2005, although his endorsement came with more caveats than he normally allows in a three-star review, calling it “undeniably flawed and surprisingly inconsistent.” Several of Bruni’s complaints — the sub-par bread service, the paper placemats — remain unremedied, presumably because Mr. Vongerichten, is getting exactly what he wants.

But what that is, is a two-star restaurant.

Perry St (176 Perry Street at West Street, Far West Village)

Food: **½
Service: **
Ambiance: **
Overall: **

Jean Georges

Note: Click here for a more recent review.

The dining room at Jean GeorgesOver at eGullet, there’s a long-standing discussion thread that asks: “Has Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jumped the Shark? Or does he still have the magic touch?”

In other words, can a chef manage an empire of sixteen restaurants, and still turn out four-star food at his flagship, the eponymous Jean Georges? To be sure, many of those restaurants don’t generate the excitement they once did. JoJo has left me underwhelmed on each of two visits; I found Perry St uneven (though many swear by it); most people won’t touch Spice Market with a ten-foot pole; Frank Bruni demoted both Vong and Mercer Kitchen earlier this year; and V Steakhouse at the Time-Warner Center folded quickly. I was a fan of 66 before it closed, but few diners took it seriously.

No other elite chef has attempted to juggle so many responsibilities at once. But against all odds, most people agree that Jean Georges is still the extraordinary restaurant it was in 1997, when Ruth Reichl awarded four stars, a verdict that Frank Bruni re-confirmed earlier this year. The Michelin Guide has been the butt of every imaginable criticism, but no one disputes that the Michelin inspectors know French cooking, and the Guide has awarded its top honor of three stars to Jean Georges in each of the last two years.

That’s the backdrop to my own first visit to Jean Georges last weekend for a 46th birthday celebration. The restaurant offers a choice of four courses prix fixe at $95, a seven-course tasting of Vongerichten favorites at $125, or a seven-course seasonal tasting menu, also $125. We chose the autumn tasting menu, which was fairly close to what is now displayed on MenuPages (sure to change in the near future):

Hamachi Sashimi Fresh Herbs, Champagne Grapes and Buttermilk
Foie Gras Brulé Spiced Jam and Toasted Brioche
Wild Mushroom Tea Parmesan, Chili and Thyme
Red Snapper Lily Bulb-radish Salad, White Sesame and Lavender
Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Fuji Apple, Endive and Crystallized Wasabi
Roasted Venison Quince Madeira Condiment, Broccoli Rabe and Cabrales Foam
Dessert Tasting

(The night we were there, the first course on the menu was scallops, but we requested the Hamachi Sashimi as a substitution.)

The were two highlights. Foie Gras Brulé was one of the best foie gras preparations we could recall, with a light crisp crust covering a perfectly prepared lobe of foie gras, and the spiced jam adding a contrasting flavor kick. Likewise, the snapper was probably the best seafood dish we’ve had all year, again because of the contrast of ingredients—the fish and the radish salad. On the other hand, the Hamachi Sashimi, the Lobster, and the Venison, are all dishes I will quickly forget.

My friend and I had different reactions to the Wild Mushroom Tea (actually a soup). This dish is served tableside from a silver bowl, with the warm soup poured over parmesan shavings. My friend seems to have gotten far more of the chili peppers than I did, so whereas my portion lacked the contrast that is essential to these dishes, her portion was far more successful.

I haven’t found the desserts anywhere on the web, and after seven courses I’m afraid my memory has failed me. I do know that we were offered a trio of options, each of which was a quartet of small desserts on a square plate. I have completely forgotten what they were, but all four were excellent—and it is rare that I feel that way about desserts. This was followed up by petits-fours and servings of home-made flavored marshmallows, cut tableside from large multi-colored strips. There was also, of course, birthday cake.

The amuses bouches were also strong. As often occurs in restaurants like this, the server’s explanations went by all too quickly, but there was a trio of them—a small square of goat cheese, a small sliver of sashimi-quality fish, and one other item.

The bread service was distinctly inferior for a restaurant in Jean Georges’ class, with a choice of simple French-style baguette rolls or sourdough bread (neither warm) and garden-variety butter. Per Se, Alain Ducasse, and Bouley all have far more impressive bread service than this.

We noted that all of the serving staff are quite young. (Our primary server reminded us of Pat Sajak in his twenties.) Perhaps this explains a number of service glitches. At one point, the server started to pour my wine glass before catching himself at the last moment, as he had not yet poured for my girlfriend. At another point, plates were deposited, taken away, then brought back again. Servers were at times unsure about when to pour and clear wine glasses, and at one point in the meal we felt that the pace was slightly rushed.

We ordered a wine pairing and received six excellent choices, with contrasting varieties and regions, although at no point did we speak to a sommelier—again, I consider this a minor lapse for a restaurant in this class. It is not the wine staff’s fault that five of the six wines were white, as they were all sensible choices for the menu. But perhaps the overall effect would have been better had the fifth course (the lobster) been an item that paired with red.

There are a couple of wonderful tables at Jean Georges that occupy small alcoves, and we were lucky enough to have one of these. With a wall on three sides of us, it almost felt like our own private world. However, it meant that all we saw out the window was the Time-Warner Center across the street, instead of the more compelling park views that many of the other tables have. We noted that there is nothing particularly lovely about the room itself, although it is of course tastefully decorated, and the service accoutrements are all lavish. When we left, we were sent on our way with just a tiny paper bag, containing a tiny box, containing two tiny pieces of chocolate.

On our tasting menu, the foie gras, the red snapper, and the desserts showed how Vongerichten’s cuisine can still be extraordinary, even if (as Frank Bruni claimed in his review) not much has changed in ten years. I do realize that it’s nearly impossible for every course out of seven to be a mind-bending experience. Certainly everything we tasted was at a high level of competence. But I wanted just one or two more of those courses to be sublime.

Jean Georges (1 Central Park West at 60th Street, Upper West Side)

Food: ***½
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***
Overall: ***½