Jean Georges - New York City

2 course lunch meal at one of the best 3 michelin star places in NYC for just $32 per person? Why not?

During our honeymoon on our non-budget, I was researching all the good restaurants and cafes to check out in NYC. I came across Jean Georges which had really good reviews from heaps and heaps of blogs and seemed like AMAZING value! And hence - we just had to try it.

Located opposite Central Park and in the Trump, it felt like a really chillaxy type restaurant. There were two sections in the restaurant, one appeared more casual, and the other, slightly more dressed up. As I had mentioned in the reservation that we were on our honeymoon, we were quickly and effortlessly escorted to the more formal side of things the moment we got there.

Complimentary bread - a choice of a few, but the ciabatta was the winner for me. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside - perfectly accompanied by creamy room temperature butter :)

complementary bread

The amuse bouche came out not long after we were seated. I have to say, my memory slightly escapes me. As much as I recall, the orange liquid was a chilled carrot soup with some fancy vegetable salt encrusted on the rims of the small glass. The carrot juice was really really sweet but then because your lips and tongue are touching the salt, there's the element of that melting and melding in with the sweet carrot liquid. It was slightly wierd - something that you don't really like at first, but then the taste grows on you and before you know it, you've downed the whole thing. I think the others were a crunchy raddish bit on buttered wholemeal bread and a ricotta pasta thing? I have to say - I don't remember anything about them ... which probably means that they weren't bad nor outstandingly good.

amuse bouche

As the first course, my hubby chose the foie gras brulee. This was a really well oiled, perfectly browned, really rich and smooth foie gras cylinda accompanied with a blob of pineapple-meyer lemon jam, just to balance out the richness of the foie gras. It smelt amazing. And I think it tasted quite delicious as well.

foie gras brulee

Mine was a little bowl of sea trout sashimi, which is hidden below a lemon, dill and horseradish dressing (which was nice and thick) with a heapful of trout eggs and crispy tiny bits of deep fried trout skin on top. It was asthetically pleasing and a whirlpool of flavours. It was sour (due o the lemon), rich, smooth yet subtley fresh and sweet (due to the trout) then you get the saltiness from the trout eggs and the crispiness of the bits of skin. It was altogether a bit confusing... but in a good way. Odd yet beautifully so.

Sea trout sashimi

As for the main, my hubby and I both opted for fish. I ordered a salmon and him a snapper. My salmon was slow baked to perfection. A warm potato salad with liquified horseradish sauce and sugar snap peas accommpanied the fish which made it uber palatable. Really well cooked fish!

slow baked salmon, warm potato salad, sugar snap peas and horseradish

My hubby's red snapper was encrusted with nuts and seeds and was swimming in a sweet and sour jus. I believe that his fish was cooked to perfection too! (though I thought mine was better)

red snapper crusted with nuts and seeds, sweet and sour jus

After all this (for lunch)... we were both stuffed. However, I still kind of wanted something sweet and the dessert menu was so enticing! Luckily, we decided against it because we were soon met with a massively tempting array of petit fours.

A variety of chocolates were presented - the best is probably the caramel one - with lavendar macaroons. Wow! To top it all off, we got super fresh fluffy marshmellows...So fresh that they cut it at your table! Hecticness!

petit fours- macaroons, assorted chocolates, fresh marsh mellows cut at your table

Service here is impeccable. The value speaks for itself. Everything was just as it was meant to be (apart from the epicness of the tips you're meant to give in US restaurants). Definitely would recommend it, and for the value, definitely worth a return visit.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 9/10
Overall - 34.5/40

Jean Georges
1 Central Park West
New York 10023
Tel: (212) 2993900