Perry Street

[BryanZ]

I've never been super-impressed with the chicken sandwich. At best, it's my favorite "hangover food" item since I'm usually not too into breakfast food and that sandwich is relatively simple/inoffensive.

The burger is damn tasty though. I've tried the pancakes when friends haveordered them, but they're nothing special. Unless you're really craving breakfast food, I'd stick exclusively to the more Jean-Georges-esque items. In comparison to, say, the pancakes or omlette, the ginger rice bowl is damn good, just not as good as the calamari, hangar, chili oil snapper, etc.

And a crispy egg is just a deep-fried, breaded egg, if I recall correctly.

[sickchangeup]

Well, we went Sunday and had a very nice brunch. If my first lunch experience at Jean Georges counts as a 10/10, then this first visit to Perry St. was more of a 7/10 by way of comparison. Everything was very nice, but nothing was really extraordinary.

Good recommendation on the calamari BryanZ, I see what you meant by it being more of a signature JG dish compared to the rest. I didn't care too much for the yuzu flavor of the dipping foam, but it's preparation, presentation and texture were top notch. The calamari themselves were fantastic, best I've had.

I also had the tuna burger - which honestly is probably as good a tuna burger as you can make, which doesn't quite make it to extraordinary. The fresh sesame bun was soft, the bonito mayo added a fishiness that was unwelcome at first until I realized it wasn't from the tuna, the shiso worked very well and the yuzu pickles added a nice completeness.

My wife ordered the asparagus, sourdough, smoked bacon, fried eggs dish to start, thinking it would be a side of asparagus with an egg on top - classical dish almost, the best of which I've tasted came from Momofuku. Instead it was basically a breakfast entree all in one plate, with two large perfectly fried eggs dominating a dish that contained minor elements of bacon pieces, small asparagus pieces, sourdough croutons and I think even cheese. It was very good, and in point of fact I think I'll order it next time, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a nice little vegetable side/app to start a meal off (as my wife did), it's more of a breakfast entree.

Despite being fuller than she bargained for, she still powered through the "slow cooked" (i.e. sous vide) salmon, which she said was amazing - as well prepared a piece of salmon as she's eaten.

The desserts were honestly a complete throw-away, the bill rings them up as $0 and that's kind of the way we felt about them - they are there, we nibbled at them but they could also not be there and it would be fine. A molten chocolate cake with pistachio ice-cream, and a ricotta cheese cake with concord grape ice-cream. The concord grape got finished, the rest didn't. It kind of felt like a mignardises served in large format, it's free and because of that it's nice to have, but only because of that.

The only true mis-fire was the elderflower/orange drink which cost $5 and tasted like bad frozen juice with seltzer. The coffee was very good.

All in all, I think the decor here probably factors into the overall experience and value proposition more so than at Jean Georges proper, where the food experience dominates all else IMO. Sitting down facing the water on a nice sunny day with those big bright windows was very relaxing - even entering and leaving the restaurant felt like an exercise in isolation, which was nice. Then getting good food served with no bustling like most of the good NY brunch places was great too. In fact, I wish they could import some of the tranquility and feeling of isolation into Jean Georges, it would make it even better.

[flinflon28]

I've had two lunches at Perry Street in the past few weeks and must say that the $26 3 course lunch menu they are offering is still for the most part out of this world.

I myself have had the ginger rice bowl (twice), the burger and the skate. All have been terrific. Friends have tried the tomato soup (excellent) and the hanger steak (just ok mostly because of a strange spice rub that may have been used on it) but no one has been dissapointed.

Service has always been friendly and both times have been walk ins.

[sickchangeup]

Compelled by this video, I went ahead and ordered the fried chicken from Perry St this week.

Before I proceed, I have to admit my timing was bad. I had just eaten at Willie Maes Scotch House a few weeks earlier, and the original Popeye's taboot.

And truth be told, it compared quite favorably in some ways, better in others, but worse overall. If you compare it to something more normal by way of NY fried chicken, this is definitely very good.

The whipped batter really is the great thing about this piece of chicken. The crunch and the lightness of the batter is really really great. It just stays crunchy, almost no matter what.

The worst part for me, and it looks this way in the video as well, is that the chef basically blackens the chicken skin in the pan before dipping it in the batter. It's just... well.. burnt, and not appetizing - tasted acrid to me. This isn't a slow and deliciously rendered piece of golden skin, it's a black burnt one (the video shows this too it appears, right after the 2 minute mark).

The thigh meat was the best piece by far, and really very close to the delicious Willie Maes chicken I had in NOLA. The breast piece wasn't. The smoked chicken gravy was also very good, although very salty.

The lemon zest was detectable, and a nice addition I thought.

It's hard to complain about fried chicken (joining a tuna burger, the chicken sandwich, and I noticed this for the first time - maybe it's just me - but they have a beef burger too) on a 1 star michellin menu, and I'm not complaining. But to my taste, it could actually be even better, and get seriously competitive with some of the best chicken out there.

I also think the prices took a tiny dip from the last time i went, probably cause the place had plenty of empty seats. Still, nice that the prices may have gone down, very easy to eat dinner for cheap there.

[weinoo]

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