A Restaurant Week Standard

I always get excited for restaurant week, but when it actually comes to sitting down at the table of the chosen restaurant, I’m usually not intrigued by the limited menu. So when Dr. Doogs, Ginger, A-Duh, and I ventured to the other side of the world (ie. Perry Street and West Street—If we went any further west we’d probably be swimming or hooking in the Holland Tunnel) and made a visit to Jean George’s Perry Street it came as no shock to anyone that the two choices for entrée were skate or chicken—neither of which enticed me.

On another note, in order to get a reservation here, we also said we would take a table in the lounge. I wouldn’t exactly go as far as calling it a lounge though—it was more like a waiting area where patrons can enjoy a pre/post dinner cocktail on benches or small couches facing round cocktail tables. While the table wasn’t exactly ideal, I do have to say the hostesses made a valiant effort to make sure the door facing the outdoors was fully closed before the door opened to the restaurant—ergo no draft. Our waiter was also clearly new but in that cute way where you wanted to react with an “Aww it’s okay..” when he messed up. If a snotty waiter poured wine in a glass of water, forgot to ask meat temperature, or didn’t visually know which dish was which, it might’ve not been so cute. He was clearly new, hadn’t had many of the dishes on the menu and, therefore, they probably let him take a table in the ‘lounge.’

In any case, when the four of us looked at the menu, we all wanted to see the other options from the ala carte listings. A-Duh said she could do either menu as she liked chicken and would probably get that or the red snapper off the a la carte menu anyway—plus her allergies hinder her (a la sesame seed Riki experience). Ginger, Doogs and I were a lil ehh on the skate or chicken and came up with our top entrée choices from the regular menu. We decided in the spirit of restaurant week(and being cheap) we would still get a discounted bottle (or two) of wine and split an app to counter the cost of the expensive main course. We decided to split the risotto; I got the Filet with butternut squash dumplings, Doogs got the sweet and sour short ribs, and ging got the rack of lamb. Our risotto app was actually bigger than we anticipated and it split very well. A-Duh questioned why chefs have to always add nuts to everything..does it really make it better? In the case of the risotto, however, the pecans actually offset the grains very well and the Cherries provided a punch of sweet-tart. A-Duh liked her chicken soup with avocado but didn’t really dive into detail aside from, ‘it’s a little spicey.” Our entrees came and everything looked delic. All of our mains were good but nothing over-exceeded expectations (aside from my Filet). My Filet was ridiculously tender and could be cut with a butter knife (maybe even the edge of a fork if I tried), but the dumplings couldn’t rival buddahkan’s or Stanton Social. The mushrooms that were paired with the dish were something I kept talking about because they basically tasted like magical 'shrooms to me. I kept trying to eat them, but it just wasn't working. So rooty. Doogs liked her short ribs but as she said, “There was nothing innovative or new about them” and Ginger agreed while the meal was very good there was nothing that blew us away. We all agreed that A-duh put it best, however, when she said, “My chicken was standard… but the warm molten chocolate cake—now that I would come back for an eat it for all 3 courses.” And that brings me to the dessert which was very good as a-duh described. Doogs, Ging and I tried the poached pears (which I thought were better at Freeman’s) but the Vanilla sherbert was pretty good.

In any case, while restaurant week is good to encourage you to try restaurants you might not ordinarily go to—it also has it hindrances. And even after our disappointment from the menu faded, it seems like we were still left unmoved by the ala carte menu even if it is one of Jean George’s creations. So I guess standard is the fitting word of the evening.