President's Day with Jean Georges

I love holidays...especially now that I'm no longer working, I actually get them off! I met some friends at Jean Georges today to make the most of our extended weekend and to take advantage of the great lunch special at JG (2 tasting plates for $28, each additional $14). It was my first time dining at JG and I was pretty excited to see if it would live up to the hype. I haven't been to a fancy place for lunch in so long, I almost forgot that it's not casual. It was kinda fun to get all dressed up at noon! The interior of the restaurant is beautiful! Tall windows, tons of natural light, spacious tables and not at all fussy.

The chairs were super comfy! Most of the men in the restaurant wore jackets, but I don't think they're required for lunch.

Like any classy restaurant, an amuse-bouche (mouth teaser...haha) was served first. This amuse-bouche was a trio sampler starting with salmon sashimi with mango sauce, chicken and ginger broth and some sort of egg roll with bibb lettuce.

My first course was foie gras brulee with pineapple-meyer lemon jam. The foie gras was served on a piece of brioche bread and carmelized. I didn't like the burnt crust...left a bitter taste. The pineapple-meyer lemon jam was really yummy and balanced out the saltiness of the foie gras.

Elaine and I decided to share all of our courses so we could taste more dishes. She ordered sea trout sashimi draped in trout eggs, lemon, dill and horseradish for her first course. The trout was fresh and went well with the tangy lemon sauce, but it wasn't that impressive of a dish. I wouldn't order it again.

My second dish was arctic char, roasted cremini mushrooms, jalapeno and garlic. I ordered it medium rare, but it came out more medium-medium well. I don't normally like fish skin but the skin shown in the picture was light and crispy and so tasty! The mushrooms and jalapenos had some sort of light oil sauce that I couldn't get enough of.

Elaine's third dish was soy glazed beef short ribs, apple-jalapeno puree and rosemary crumbs. We had actually ordered peekytoe crab dumplings before the short ribs, but I was too eager and forgot to take a picture! I really liked this dish although the short ribs were a tad on the dry side. It was tender and tasted great with the apple-jalapeno puree. On side note, two dishes was definitely more than enough food, especially with the amuse-bouche and endless bread. We were struggling a bit to finish the short ribs. Classic case of bigger appetite than stomach..

We didn't order dessert, but still got a bunch of free goodies. First, was homemade marshmallow: vanilla, banana and cranberry. I loved these, tasted nothing like the kind you buy in bags at the grocery store. The way they served it was super cute too.

Other goodies included mini macaroons and exotic chocolates. I'm polished off both these plates :)

I really enjoyed this lunch. Great food, wine selection and service. Take advantage of the lunch special if you can or splurge for a special occasion dinner...totally worth it.



Restaurants mentioned
Jean Georges
1 Central Park West
New York, NY 10023