Jean Georges is amazing . . .

Went to Jean Georges the other day as I am trying to get around to as many of my favorite restaurants before I leave for Hong Kong. Jean Georges happen to be one of my most favorite restaurants in New York. However, please note that Jean Georges has two dining rooms, one is the main dining room, and only serves dinner, while the other one is the Nougatine room (I think that is how it is spelled), which serves both lunch and dinner. Let me tell you, the food between the two rooms is drastically different. The food at the Nougatine room are more bistro like, while the main dining room serves a 4 course absolutely delicious meal. Many people ate at the Nougatine room for lunch, and thought, hey, Jean Georges is not that good, it is not as good as say Le Bernadine or other restaurants that serves lunches. What they don't realize, is that the Nougatine room does not even scratch the surface of Jean Georges talent, the man is amazing.

I ate at Jean Georges several times, and each time, I was quite impressed. The meal was $95 for 4 courses prix fixe, which is plenty of food and I was extremely stuffed at the end of the night. Also, as far as top restaurants go, that is actually pretty reasonable (I kid you not, I can give you examples in my other blogs). I started off with the foie gras strawberry brulee, with strawberry sauce on the side, then followed by artic char with roasted porcini, jalapeno and garlic. Next, I had the special chicken that is not usually on the main menu. Charlene started off with sea scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-rain emulsion, followed by sautéed foie gras with green apple puree and dashi-yuzu froth. She ended up having the duck breast topped with cracked jordan almonds and honey wine jus. Let me tell you, we couldn't get enough of the food.

The foie gras strawberry brulee is a work of genius. I actually didn't think that combination would work. The strawberry is sweet while foie gras terraine are usually slightly sweet with a touch of saltiness to it. The strawberry is in the terraine, and the fruit enhanced the sweet nature of the foie gras without being overpowering. The texture of the foie gras is smooth and melts in your mouth, while you get a little bit of the small strawberry chunks from time to time. Charlene's scallops is good, but I had this dish many times, so it was not exactly special to me, but for some reason, I just like the combination of scallops with cauliflower. The artic char is perfectly done, and the roasted veggies compliment the fish perfectly, and the jalapeño actually enhances the taste of the fish. The sautéed foie gras is another masterpiece. Who knew you can take something Asian, the daikon-yuzu froth, and make it go so well with the foie gras that is done just right, not overly cooked as to retain the softness of the foie gras.

The entree was amazing also. The duck is one of my favorite dishes of all time. Charlene had it before too, and she loved it. The almond crust on top of the duck breast tasted so good. The almond crust is crunchy and sweet, while the duck is tender and juicy, and the combination is just wonderful. The chicken, on the other hand, was interesting. I like the taste of it, but again, the chicken actually reminded me of a dish that is popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and you can get it fairly cheaply in Asia. The chicken itself is tender and moist, unlike a lot of the chicken that you usually get in restaurant that are often dry. However, again, the taste is good, but it reminds me too much of this Chinese dish (sorry, don't know the English translation of the dish), that I can't really justify paying that much money for. Perhaps Jean Georges had this dish while he was expanding his empires in Asia, haha, and thought people would like it here in the US.

Desserts at Jean Georges is an experiment. You don't just get one dessert, but you order dessert based on groups (Citrus, Strawberry, Chocolate or Rhubarb), and you get 4 tiny portions in each group. Not everything works though, I have to say, but in general, some of the combinations are pretty interesting and you will get tastes that I usually get get to try, for example strawberry in this spicy chocolate foam.

Again, the whole meal is $95 a person, which, compares to many of the fancy restaurant is a far better bargain, like for example, Morimoto. The food at Jean Georges are wonderful, and for the same price, why not enjoy yourself a wonderful meal, instead of going to places like Morimoto, that serves interesting combination of that just doesn't work. In Jean Georges, you see interesting combinations too, more subtle, but it works quite well.