Perry St., and Lists In General

The seats were also comfy. (img: Citysearch)

I’d put Saturday night’s dinner at Jean-Georges Vong…somethingforeign’s Perry Street as easily one of the two or three best meals I’ve ever had at a restaurant, and I don’t have to hesitate hard to place it there. It’s hard, however – even for a list-and-ranking obsessive like myself – to perform this exercise. After all, I can rattle off twenty or so meals that are contenders, for dishes (Tosca’s pork osso bucco, Rasika’s boar vindaloo), freshness (Shiro’s Sushi out in Seattle), service (1789 making my parents swoon with white-glove precision) or simply how I was feeling at the time (date night with Alice at Tuk Tuk Thai in Los Angeles was always just wonderful.)

So to make this list, all of those things had to come together. Not every dish was mindblowing, but all were good, and a few were spectacular (especially the seared tuna and the beef short rib). The service was excellent – a little bit too hands off, but at or above the level expected. The company was stellar. The value was quite good (about $300 for the both of us, including 4 courses, dessert, amuse, petitfours, a bottle of wine and a pair of cocktails, tax, and tip). It was the perfect weekend for a doting gourmet dinner, frigid and demanding of an indoor excursion. Thankfully, Perry Street delivered completely.

The list of courses, reprinted from an email to icarane, is after the jump.

Rob	Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 3:41 PM
To: Matt
I am interested in knowing more about the tasting menu you had at Perry St. And perhaps subscribing to your newsletter.  Regards, Rob

Matt	Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 3:57 PM
To: Rob
Oh, it was pretty amazing. And it gives me a chance to write down what I had, which I was going to do anyway.  We started with cocktails – I had a chili and Maker’s cocktail and my lovely date went with a lychee Bellini to go with some rosemary popcorn. The Maker’s cocktail had the kick of the alcohol (which was copious) followed by a nice afterburn from the chilis with some orange to set it all off. The lychee Bellini was for girls. The bottle of wine was the Ponzi MV Pinot Noir, which was an instant favorite of my date’s, although she was quite disappointed upon finding out that it wasn’t publicly for sale and only available in Jean Georges’ empire. Amuse: A small fritter with a cheddar-jalapeno sauce inside garnished with a small bit of truffle puree. Like a tiny, super-gourmet jalapeno popper. Course 1: A rice-cracker crusted seared tuna in a sriracha-citrus emulsion. The emulsion had great little bits of scallion in it that added good texture to the sauce; the tuna was cooked perfectly and very flavorful with the crust providing a great crunch. Course 2: Peekytoe crab toast with miso mustard and shiso. We both thought the crab spread was excellent, super-rich, although a bit too much bread on the toast… but conversely, the bread did a good job of balancing the kick off the mustard (and going jalapeno to sriracha to mustard is a ballsy three course set, but then again I’m a firebreather by nature so I loved it.) Course 3: Black truffle crusted cod; celeriac with lemon and butter. I’m not a huge cod or celeriac fan, so this was my least favorite dish, but even here it was hard to find fault. The cod melted in your mouth – not usually the case – and the sauce gave it something rich to go with the relatively restrained cod flavor. The black truffles, of course, quite a nice bonus. Course 4: Onion-lacquered short rib (beef) in a beluga lentil vinaigrette. The beef was falling-apart moist and was just top-notch. The onions added an awesome sweetness and the lentils were some of the best I’ve ever had – I don’t think I left one on the plate. Probably the best of all the courses. Then dessert was a light, rich chocolate pudding under  a layer of creme fraiche with candied violets; with a little chocolate-apple-mint layer candy for the road. All in all one of the two or three best meals I’ve had (I’d put it up there with my tasting menu at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria) and for NYC, not too bad from a wallet perspective – all told, after dinner, cocktails, wine, tax and tip it was a little under $300 for the two of us.