Al and I decided to aim high this year for our annual dinner. The experience was mostly great, though it included a couple kinks that unfortunately made it less than perfect. The main issue came not with the food at all, but began when I made the reservation online through Open Table. Some time after securing our table I received a call from the restaurant's reservationist to confirm our table for 5:30 PM. Toward the end of our conversation she said to me, "...and just so you're aware, your table has been appropriated by another party at 8:00 PM." Not even quite registering what she was telling me I hesitated, then asked her to please repeat, which she did in calm, clear fashion. Befuddled, I hung up. It wasn't until later on that the inappropriateness of what she said to me registered. At one of NYC's top restaurants I would expect better than to be told, essentially, that there was a time limit to my dinner. Now, I am under no illusions that such time allowances do exist during each and every dinner service, but this is not something that should ever be revealed to the customers. Absolutely never.
Al and I decided to bring this to the attention of a manager upon our arrival. The manager said, "Oh of course you will not be rushed or asked to leave, please enjoy your dinner". Ok, but I found his response rather more slick than I would have cared for. It had the air more that we were silly for even thinking that might happen, rather than simply apologizing for the reservationist's rudeness. As Al and I were seated we decided that we would take our time with our meal and keep a close eye on the service to see if it suffered around the 8:00 PM mark.
The restaurant itself is beautiful. A combination of warm wood panels reminiscent of Japanese architecture and vibrant colors emanating from the many European (Dutch?) paintings lining the walls. A very nice balance between comfort and elegance.
On to the food! With Al uninterested in the Le Bernardin tasting menu, and myself with the standard a la carte selections, we agreed to go big and do the 8 course Chef's Tasting Menu. A very charming and knowledgeable sommelier was sent to service our wine selection. She and Al hit it off rather wonderfully, and the resulting wines they picked together were superb.
First - Tuna
Smoked Yellowfin Tuna "Prosciutto"; Japanese Pickled Vegetables and Crispy Kombu
The meal began with a slightly rocky start. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this dish - it was interesting and tasty, especially the smokey kombu, however Al and I both felt that it didn't set a very impressive tone for the rest of the meal. It was quite simply too plain, falling even beyond the overused and zombie-ish "simple, clean, fresh" mantra littering cooking currently. Were it not for the spectacular Amuse preceeding this first course, we would have been a bit worried.
Second - Egg-Caviar
Poached Pastured Egg; Osetra Caviar; Mariniere Broth and English Muffin
Any reservations we had after the mediocre first course were blown away. Quite simply the best egg I've ever eaten in my life, this may have been my favorite dish of the evening. Everything about it - from the voluptuous texture of the egg, the buttery taste of the broth, the subtle saltiness of the caviar, and the delicate crisp and chewiness of the bread - were simply a work of art.
Third - Langoustine
Seared Langoustine, Mache, Wild Mushroom Salad; Shaved Foie Gras; White Balsamic Vinaigrette
This was a wonderful salad course. The langoustine was plumpand juicy, and all the other elements supported it very nicely. The star here was truly the vinaigrette - just a little bit sweet and a little bit sour, but totally unique and complimentary to the food elements. The white wine Al selected paired especially well with this dish, which I believe was Al's favorite.
Fourth - Monkfish
Pan Roasted Monkfish; Hon Shimeji Mushrooms; Turnip - Ginger Emulsion; Sake Broth
I'm a big fan of monkfish, and this offering did not disappoint. The plating was rather interesting - the sake broth poured first around the fish, and the thicker ginger emulsion being spooned in dollops into the broth. The fish was fantastic, and it was a nice touch of personal decision-making in being able to control the level of intake on the two wildly different but matching sauces.
Fifth - Black Bass
Crispy Black Bass; Braised Celery and Parsnip Custard; Iberico Ham - Green Peppercorn Sauce
For those Top Chef fans out there, this dish made an appearance in season 5, in which the contestants were treated to lunch at Le Bernardin and then had to recreate one of the dishes they ate. Jamie, who made no attempt at hiding her contempt for the cooking of the restaurant, was assigned this Black Bass dish. She complained the whole way and then failed miserably in her execution of the dish, getting booted from the show in just fashion. It was my pleasure to try this course myself, and I was very happy to be able to say that the dish is absolutely delicious and that any aspiring chef unimpressed by its subtle complexities is not in the right field.
The whole presentation was simply oozing flavor - the celery so gentle but acting as a sponge for the complex sauce. The fish was elevated so much by these elements, and the parsnip custard (topped with a parsnip foam and parsnip chip) was a wonderful sharp yet rich cutting component. A very close contender for favorite dish, rivaled only by the egg.
Sixth - Lobster
Baked Lobster on a Bed of Truffled Foie Gras Stuffing; Brandy Red Wine Sauce
Unfortunately by this point I was a bit worn out of the standard presentation of food, that being 1) Base element, 2) Fish on top of base element, 3) Sauce spooned into plate surrounding fish. While this dish on its own was really quite delicious, it was simply one too many similar concepts and felt a bit unnecessary in the meal as a whole.
Seventh - Chevre
Creamy Goat Cheese Spheres, Concord Grape, Candied Walnut, Black Pepper
A polarizing dish - like the lobster course it was tasty on its own, but seemed a little out of place in terms of the larger menu. The cheese capsules were quite fun to eat, popping in your mouth as you bit into them, and the tiny concord grapes added a great texture component. It was just disappointing to see the magnificent cheese cart being wheeled around, and instead receive a more concept-oriented sweet cheese course. Al and I both would have preferred a simple sampling of 3 or so cheeses from the cart rather than this relatively high frill, more dessert style dish.
Eighth - Corn-Praline
Caramelized Corn Custard, Hazelnut Praline, Brown Butter Ice Cream, Popcorn Tuile
Dessert somehow always feels less elegant than the savory courses. Not so here - the custard was served inside the crispy praline shell, with the ice cream and tuile on the opposite side of the plate. Each component was perfect on its own, but still combined to become more than the sum of their parts. The popcorn tuile was truly heroic here.
Overall the food was pretty superb. It was not perfect - there were some hiccups along the way, but absolutely nothing was "bad", only less spectacular than others. The highs came in the form of the egg, the langoustine salad, and the black bass. What stuck with me the most about the food can be found in the words I used repeatedly to describe it: "delicate, subtle, complimentary". This was not a meal that attempted to hit the flavors out of the ballpark. It did not go for big, huge flavors, but it did not do "simple, clean, fresh" either (well except maybe for the first course). The cooking was very intricate and very purposeful. Every element that was on the plate, or not on the plate, was an intelligent, well-thought out choice. It was extraordinarily complex in its subtlety - a true example of food that only seems simple but is in fact layered with dynamism.
One interesting side note was that Eric Ripert did make the rounds of the dining room twice throughout the evening. He greeted many of the guests, and it was impressive to see him there on an evening where most chefs of his fame would not set foot in their own restaurant. My understanding is that he still runs the kitchen nearly every night. Al noticed that each time he was present in the dining room, service stopped completely. Not a single dish left the kitchen while he was away from it, leading us to believe that he may have been personally overseeing the end of the line on every dish. Very classy.
Sadly, we did notice the service become very rushed toward the end of our meal. No sooner after we set our forks down at the end of the cheese course did the servers pick up our plates and set down the next course in one motion. The same occurred after finishing the desert - immediately our plates were gone and we were being asked if we would like anything else. Al had to ask for the after dinner drink menu (something that absolutely should have been offered to us without asking), and we decided to each enjoy a nice, long, slow glass of scotch. We spent about another 30 minutes enjoying that scotch, finally walking out a little bit after 9:00.
