Ochowie

I have to say despite any problems I had at Marea, the lobster and burrata was really terrific. Two of my favorite items together in one dish.

I was absolutely never able to even talk to anyone about a reservation for the Tuesday Dinner. Maybe you will have better luck or the hype has died down a bit.

You know, I didn't want to get into it with the waiter (as I've been known to) and ruin an otherwise nice evening but really this is how I felt as well. No offense to the chef, we paid well over $100 per person last night and at those prices "that's how we make our risotto here" is just not a valid answer. The only thing that really stopped me from getting angry is the understanding (is this true?) that it's not really possible to redo the risotto if it's undercooked.

So with the three star review and some more recent feedback I figured it would be a good time to try Marea last night. My mother was in town and for some reason I had spaced out and not made a reservation at the bar room at the Modern (our first choice). So after we found that restaurant packed I gave Marea a call and they said that they had plenty of space at the crudo bar. Overall I am mixed about my experience at Marea. While the dishes I selected (Lobster Burrata, Fusilli with octupus and marrow, and the John Dory) were good and in some cases excellent, my mother's dishes (Ouvo, Risotto Mare, and the Dover Sole) were less inspiring and in the case of the Risotto downright bad. And this brought up the major issue of the night, service. I'm not sure if it was because we were sitting at the crudo bar or because of our server but I thought service was really weak and really not acceptable for a restaurant at that price point. So the first issue occurred with our pre dinner drinks. While my wine was served promptly, my mother's cocktail did not appear until after the second course and after I specifically asked about it. The waiter brought it to her without so much as an apology. Furthermore my water was not refilled for pretty much the entire night. The runner appeared with the water jug at the beginning of the meal and then right before dessert ignoring all the times he came by with bread and saw my empty water glass sitting there. Finally, the thing that really ruined our experience. I am not sure that this is entirely a service issue but the way the Risotto was handled was very poor. Upon receiving her Risotto, my mother had an uncomfortable look on her face and when I asked her the problem she said the risotto was incredibly undercooked. Thinking that she was exaggerating I tasted a little bit of it and much to my shock and dismay the Risotto was so undercooked that if the chef were to pass it off as rice it would still be very much not ready. When we sent it back (something we hardly ever do) the waiters response, after checking with the chef (who tasted) it was that is how the chef makes it. Now, I am a huge fan of Chef White (who I am not sure was in the kitchen) but I laughed out loud when I heard this. The dish was so bad that I heard it crunch in my mouth when I tasted it. Then the waiter offered to bring the dish back out to the table a ridiculous offer after the chef and who knows who else tasted the dish. Finally the waiter offered to bring out another pasta but after we left the restaurant we became convinced that he had added on that pasta course as an extra (something I did not see on the itemized receipt but I didn't look that closely at. In all, given these issues I doubt I will be back to this restaurant anytime soon.

I can't edit my post but I meant Michael V. And ITA on his comments on Kevins dish. It actually looked more appealing to me. Really? Kevin's dish, while I'm sure it was tasty, looked like something that would wash up on a beach to me. It was largely monochromatic and really kind of just heaped on the plate. I'm not making excuses for Mike V's behavior but based on looks alone I would have much rather eaten his dish.

I believe all of Jean Georges restaurants are open on Christmas. I remember recovering from a stomach bug just in time to go to dinner at Perry Street Christmas night.

I enjoyed the review as well. However, I was a little surprised that it only received one star based on the text of the review. Without glancing at the star ranking at the beginning I thought this restaurant would be awarded two stars at least. It seems that like in the past reviews the tone was maybe not consistent with the final rating.

Jen is not an "executive" chef as you put it. She is the chef de cuisine at Eric Ripert's restaurant in Philadelphia. I believe Preeti was the executive chef and worked at Google.

I would say that the Brandy Library is known more for its selection of brown alcohol rather than cocktails. That said, if you want to sample some Scotch or Brandy that is not easily accessible elsewhere then this is a great place to go.

I totally agree. At least "Per Se" is relatively easy to spell and pronounce. For the record, "SH" are the chef's initials, and "O" is the logo for the Setai, where it is located. This is just hopelessly unintuitive. I mean, even if the chef had been Daniel Boulud and the name "DBO", it would have been a dumb name. They compound the problem by calling the place "SHO Shaun Hergatt," in essence using the chef's name twice. I'm a fan of this place and impressed with every decision they made BUT this one. The hostesses also seem to compound the problem by pronouncing SHO as a word and not an acronym which kind of confused me since I read earlier that SHO was supposed to be his name plus the Setai.

I completely agree with this. I, like you, was also very impressed with this place and hope that it doesn't go the way of ADNY and sticks around for a while despite critics not really being able to appreciate it.

Well, based on the recommendations from this board I decided to take the plunge downtown and try this place. I was really impressed even considering the high expectations I had coming into the experience. They are now doing a tasting menu which is what I opted for last night. It consisted of Salad of Autumn Figs (An addition to the printed menu) which had great flavors, the feta contrasting nicely with the sweet figs. Hand Picked Peekytoe Crab - I really liked the composition of the Peekytoe Crab with the piece of uni that was on top. Slow Poached Egg - My captain asked me my opinion of this dish (maybe it's one of their signatures) and while I really liked it, it seemed to be pretty close, in my mind at least, to the egg dish at Ko. That said, the brioche crouton that came underneath the egg made a great combination with the egg. Roasted Maine Lobster - I had mixed feelings about this dish going in as I remembered reading that it was overcooked on some members' prior visits. However, the lobster I was presented was perfectly cooked and went very well with the polenta. This turned out to be my second favorite dish. New York State Squab - This was my favorite dish of the night in large part because of the duck rillete parcel that accompanied the dish. The dessert was the java-chocolate cake I wasn't a huge fan of. It was good just not a memorable dessert. On the whole, I really enjoyed this restaurant in all aspects including the wine selection (the sommelier put together a great pairing that I can't really remember right now), and the service which in my opinion was near perfect. Also, I have to give mention to the truffle butter which had a much more intense truffle flavor then I was expecting. I would have eaten the whole pat if I hadn't stopped myself. As far as the reviews go, I can't believe this restaurant has been relegated to the dining briefs section. I don't understand how the Standard Grill can receive a full review at the same time as this gets a brief mention. Maybe it's because I'm new to this and I'm missing something important or maybe Sam Sifton will circle back and give this restaurant the review it deserves. As for me, I will be visiting this restaurant as often as I can make the trek down to the FiDi.

Yeah I know, maybe I just have a personal dislike of Casa Mono from when I went there.

Also, what's up with the crappy AOL speak in the twitter thread? Maybe they had to fight with the French parent of the guide over Gchat to be taken seriously after crap like this. Also, to put L'Atelier Joel Robuchon in the same category as Casa Mono seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

Add me to the group pulling for Garces. I love Amada and enjoyed Tinto the time I went so I am sure he will kick some ass. It would be interesting if Freitag won, then the Harrison would have an Iron Chef and Top Chef among it's crew (and former crew).

Actually, the reason Toby mentioned the whole pronunciation of foreign words was because Tom called him out on his pronunciation of Paella. He was just talking about the dish and then Tom made some comment on how "We can't even agree on how to pronounce the word". Normally I hate Toby and wish he wasn't on the show, but this time I will have to defend him in his comments about pronunciation.

Damn it. Why did I have to be out of town for this.

I hope so as I would agree she is really talented. Although, I respect Michael V a lot for putting it on the line this early and really doing some interesting dishes like the Gazpacho and braised bacon early in this competition.

I never said that either EMP or Le B encourage people to have loud conversations, what I was saying is what you mentioned in the last sentence of your post. The level of formality in a restaurant does not directly dictate the behavior of the patrons.

To me it seems much more a question of behavior than of the actual dress. In all the times I have gone to EMP I have dressed in jeans and sport coat and never felt out of place. Also, at EMP I have felt the other diners around me (whether they were dressed formally or not) never interfered or negatively affected my dining experience. To contrast this with one of my experiences at Le Bernardin where a very formally dressed woman ruined my dining experience by talking so loud about her baby's stinky feet (among other things) that she drowned our captain explaining the dishes we were being presented. My conclusion from both of these experiences is it's not necessarily about the dress code, but about how people feel they can act in a specific type of restaurant.

Is it just me or has Jennifer not shown very much range in what she has cooked. Pretty much all of her dishes have been lightly cooked/ceviche fish dishes. I know she has worked with Ripert for a long time, but even he has some meat dishes as additions to the LeB menu. She could be a great fish chef but isn't this the equivalent of Top Scallop from last season?

Yeah they also have Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore on that list. Which is a great restuarant for Baltimore, but is neither that new nor in my opinion in a qualifier for top 10 best in the country.

I was also there that night and it was the brioche and I was happy I crammed it into an already full stomach. I really enjoyed the duck egg as well as the oxtail. Also, I really liked the amuses they brought out (the tortilla I believe?). Unfortunately I didn't have the almond soup, but I guess that is something I saved for when I come back in the hopefully near future. ← We specially asked to substitute it per a suggestion on this board. I think they added it as an extra course. It was wonderful. The quail egg tortilla was terrific as well. How would you compare the meal to Ko? ← I enjoyed both restaurants about equally. The one place I think where Ko is better is in the variety of dishes they serve. As I believe you mentioned my tasting menu had at least 3 dishes where egg was the central ingredient. Now they were three good dishes but some more variety would have been better.

I was also there that night and it was the brioche and I was happy I crammed it into an already full stomach. I really enjoyed the duck egg as well as the oxtail. Also, I really liked the amuses they brought out (the tortilla I believe?). Unfortunately I didn't have the almond soup, but I guess that is something I saved for when I come back in the hopefully near future.

And yet all those crappy frat bars on 3rd avenue are open all night long.