Although this was my third time there, it was *Shinta's first. Much of our time therefore, was spent checking out the food. Similar to last year's set up, Jean George's had their own restaurant in the main lobby area, while individual suites had separate catering arrangements.
The queue was a lengthy one, and last year a lot of items had run out because we went too late. Not going to make that mistake again this year!
Way too many good dishes on the list, so I'll just highlight my favorite ones. #1 is the Osetra Caviar and Creme Fraiche Beignets. Loved this so much, with the salty balls of roe on crispy beignets that burst open with fresh cream at the lightest bite. I unashamedly sent *Shinta back a few times to get me more servings of this.
Next to the cavair is the Crispy Sesame Calamari with Yuzu Dipping Sauce. It was good but not enough for me to allocate valuable eating capacity to it, but *Shinta liked it enough for thirds (or was it fourths?). No prizes for guessing what my #2 favorite was; Sauteed Foie Gras with Lychee and Black Olive. The lychee was.. interesting. It was so soft and mushy that we thought it was lard at first!
#3 on my list was the Black Truffle Fontina Pizza. Its difficult for anything with truffles to go wrong with me, and this pizza was just chockful of them.
#4 was the Wagyu Beef Tenderlion with Mushrooms and Grainy Mustard Butter. I guess ultimately I like classics done well.
The Roasted Black Cod, Asparagus and Miso Butter is worth a mention. Also a classic done well.
The second day had slightly different dishes, which is strange because the printed menu was exactly the same. Maybe they ran out of ingredients or something?! Anyway there was lobster done with noodles and lobster done on some bread base. Unfortunately neither could match up to the lobster dish of the year before.
Dessert wise, I loved the Chocolate Pudding with Crystallized Violets and Whipped Cream. The crystallized violets were amazing and added a nice crunch to the creamy chocolate.
I'm not a fan of citrus fruits in my dessert, so its not really fair for me to comment on the cute little lemon cupcakes. But I suspect the lemon taste would be a little too overpowering for most.
Eating here was one of the priorities this year. *Shinta and I had actually eaten at the New York restaurant itself earlier this year, and really enjoyed that. So yes a review of that will be coming up in due course...
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