Jean-Georges — Restaurant in New York

Overall my lofty expectations of culinary Valhalla went unfulfilled. Upon sitting down (we were seated on the wrap around bench seat that lines the entire restaurant) I noticed the bench back creaked loudly and damn near collapsed backward. A few springs and screws felt like they were missing, and it's something you'd expect and forgive at a roadside diner but not at a vaunted Michelin star restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, and in a Trump building no less! The Emperor's clothes started to come off right there.

The overall decor is minimal at best, and I've had lunches in better looking conference rooms at work. For crying out loud get some starving artists from Greenwich Village to paint the walls, the way La Coupole allowed Chagall and others to decorate in exchange for food.

The service was off the charts - all young kids, obviously intelligent and working in symphony with one another - and signaling each move with just a glance. They circle constantly like sharks on a reef looking for the first sign of need, and execute beautifully. The head waiter, a late 20 something, bordered on friendly insolence and turned me off a bit.

The amuse bouche were OK, but not invigorating in any way. Appetizers: I started with the raw tuna 'strings' over guacamole (OK they didn't call it gauc, but that's what it was). They poured a soy sauce-type sauce over it which was fine, but it was just sashimi tuna with avocado. Nothing really special about it. For the main I ordered the crunchy rabbit, which by itself was done beautifully, but the sauce was so hot with red peppers that is was inedible. I like hot food, but the Scoville reading (measurement of capsaicin in hot peppers) in this sauce pointed to an egregious error by an inattentive saucier. The head waiter swapped it out for the confit, but not after a viper-like strike at my explanation that the sauce was far too hot - "That's Jean Georges!" he remonstrated. Well Jean George isn't paying for the meal I felt like saying, and besides I'm not a bad cook myself so I feel versed and assured of my assessment. We both had the crab on sesame toast, again nothing that would differentiate the dish from snow crab meat out of a can on some toast. No value added by the kitchen. The confit was listless and uninteresting. Decent I suppose, but nothing to make a culinary declaration. I also noticed the paltry dispensing of bread. You get a piece. Then, if you're lucky, another. OK I know you didn't come here for the bread basket and fill up on carbs, but something about it was less than cordial. The desserts were the high point of the evening and provided the understanding of what I came for, but the rest of the meal did not match the culinary excellence of the desserts. I was waiting all night for the explosion that would send it off the charts, but it never came. My experience at Jean Georges was like hearing about a quarterback and offensive that scores 50 points a game, but the night I came to watch he got picked off twice, only managed one TD in the air and pulled it out late with a just a field goal to win 20-17. The show you expected never materialized, and left you bit frustrated and a bit let down. I expected Jean George to be a culinary tour-de-force, and the paragon of my restaurant experience during the Holidays in Manhattan, but I write in a dejected manner of what should have been the best eating experience of this trip.

There are far too many decent restaurants in Manhattan to give Herr Vongerichten...

I hate to slam a restaurant, but my experience at Jean Georges was pretty appalling considering it's a 3 Michelin star restaurant and owned by a really famous chef. Keep in mind that my review is compared to the standard and expectation that a 3-star restaurant should be and the level of quality that the restaurant touts.

My list of grievances:

Food was not great. We came on New Years Eve for the early seating, which featured the regular tasting menu instead of the special NYE tasting menu. I don't think there was one memorable dish of the evening for me. Everything was over sauced and condiment flavors were too strong. None of the natural flavors of the ingredients came out. From the lack of imagination and creativity of ingredients, to the richness of each dish starting with the first one, I was sorely disappointed for a $600 meal. We left stuffed, but not in a good way. I couldn't enjoy anything because my palette and appetite were clammed up with the heaviness of each dish. There was poor planning and execution mistakes all over the place.

$85 corkage... REALLY? Is that completely necessary? It really goes against the spirit of good food.

The service was not worthy of a 3-star rating. Our waiter had this haughty air about him. He wasn't entirely attentive but tried to make small talk with us. Not only was there lack of finesse in the latter, he really rubbed me the wrong way with his know-it-all attitude (even though he wasn't that knowledgeable). The bread guy was inconsistent. Sometimes he'd come by frequently and other times he didn't. At one point, he didn't even ask me for bread when he came by our table.

The wine. I ordered a glass of the Pinot Noir. When I tasted it, it was obvious that the bottle was open too long. Instead of offering to open another bottle, our waiter suggested another wine, which was twice the price.

Restaurant interior. We were seated in the dining room, which I thought was overly cramped, especially for those at a table for 2. The larger round tables were further apart from tables around it, but the 2-seaters are dangerously close to each other. If I'm shelling out hundreds of dollars for what supposedly is a good meal, I don't want to hear other people's conversations as if they're on speakerphone. The tables were also really small. At one point, I wondered how I should fit my water glass, wine glass, entree plate, and bread plate.

For a restaurant that has received 3 stars from the Michelin guide consistently, the service and food were both seriously lacking in quality. I have been to 1-star rated restaurants that were far superior in food, service, and comfort level, which leads me to think that the Michelin rating of NY restaurants is hit or miss, when it should really be a reliable guide to...

(Last season's menu FYI) To be entirely honest, based on my meal alone I would give this 3 Michelin star restaurant 5/5. However there were 3 of us and we all tasted each other's dishes, not every single dish deserved a standing ovation. In addition the service, although very conscientious, timely, and unfailingly polite, was not quite perfect.

We all ordered the autumn tasting menu, choosing 2 courses which were capped with various amuse bouche and dessert bites. I usually have a very good memory of exactly what I ordered, however not for this meal because (and here is where the service was a tiny bit lacking) mostly because our server was a bit awkward. He spoke with quite a strong lisp, very quickly, quietly and stumbling over his words often, making it difficult to understand what we were eating in detail.

I thought the hand crafted vessels were a lovely touch. Most of the glasses and plates were unique and slightly "flawed" with the feel of dining by the ocean from sea shells.

The amuse were delicious bites. Memory fails, but one was a deep fried but light and crispy ball of an autumn vegetable, another was a very umami crunchy rice square, and a very large sip of a gazpacho like soup.

My yellowfin ribbon appetizer was very delicious and an interesting presentation although if dipped too much into the Avocado wasabi soy sauce it swam in, it was very salty. (granted my palate is salt sensitive). The other appetizers: a sea trout and oyster Tartare with diced bits of egg and Meyer lemon (yum!) was deliciously balanced with a lovely popping texture like caviar, and another sashimi style hamachi dish topped with radish that I found a bit ordinary.

For main dishes, my sweetbreads with chestnuts was not a pretty dish but very delicious. The flavors complemented each other perfectly. The skuna Salmon dish was tasty, the cremini a nice touch but overall unremarkable. The veal scallopine was a big disappointment. It was fried to overdoneness with a large slice of salty ham glued to the top. It had the texture of beef jerky, no tenderness or nuance of flavor. It tasted like an overly fried piece of ham.

We opted not to get dessert as we were doing a whirlwind food tour of NYC and had other places to go (momofuku crack pie siren call) but the meal included various yummy truffle nibbles (peanut butter and jelly, rose, hazelnut, etc flavors) and a fluffy hand made marshmallow that were a perfect dessert.

All in all a wonderful experience with a couple speed bumps, but $48 for prix fixe at this 3 Michelin is an amazing value and overall we were not...