ulterior epicure

I simply haven't dined there enough to accuse J-G of inconsistency. I will note that this was my first dinner at J-G in 6 or 7 years, although I have had many lunches there in between. And I would say that my overall impression of the restaurant is that it has slowly slid downhill in quality. And here, I am talking mostly about the food, although I would say that the server assigned to our table this last time seemed particularly misplaced. I know he was trying to be personable, but his attempts at humor were, at best, insincere, and at times, downright atonal.

Sadly, I cannot disagree. I had dinner here with friends a month ago, and "underperforming 2 stars" is not an unfair indictment.

I just left NYC, and during my brief, three-day tear-through the city, King was one of the most mentioned places. I will have to hope to get to it on my next trip.

UE tries to be sensitive to my aversions (to the extent he is capable). Oh geez. Remind me never to hire you as my P.R. guy. Knowing Sneakeater's aversion, I purposefully did not ask to take any pictures of his food. Only his pecan pie. I love pecan pie.

Huh. It's always been described as asparagus with a vin jaune sauce. In fact, I most-recently had this dish a couple of weeks ago, when it was described as a Chateau Chalon-morel sauce. (And yes, the turbot - which, I believe is now skate at lunch, as you say - at lunch is traditionally served with Jean-Georges's famous Chateau Chalon sauce as well.)

To clarify, there are two asparagus dishes that regularly appear on Jean-Georges's lunch menu. One is an asparagus "salad," which is more of a green salad with asparagus and warm Hollandaise (photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ulteriorepicure/3397146472/in/photolist-bxNj7-6bcghU-bxNjk-bxNja-bxNje-6bchgq-nsUfKD-kppvq-4LfrMW-nqRT1U-6bchNj-6bch5d-4LfrL7-4LbeEP-4LfrMb-81iWgc-81b7yU-nfdLxE). While there isn't really anything wrong with this salad, in my opinion, I also don't think there's anything that great about it either. I generally think of this dish as Jean-Georges's version of the "obli

Maybe my definition of "creepy" is different from others'. I don't find this online client profiling creepy, necessarily. I find it disingenuous. Part of feeling "special" at a restaurant is the fact that there is a natural and organic rapport and familiarity between the staff and the client, one that is sometimes developed over multiple visits, and rarely over one, brief encounter. Walking into a restaurant and having the staff know certain public information about me is unlikely going to make me feel special. Almost the opposite, it's going to make me feel like just another Google-able

Why does Saison suffer "in these parts?" (I assume you're referring to Mouthfuls?) Orik doesn't like it. It's a perfect example of what UE is complaining about, but they pay him . I really can't stress how eating some of the exact same dishes at Saison and Manresa on consecutive evenings made it clear that what we thought about it was right. But to put it in perspective, Saison is not (based on one visit) good at what it wants to be, rather just an okayish me-too joint, but it's still much better than most restaurants. I don't think they're particularly at fault of not understan

Why does Saison suffer "in these parts?" (I assume you're referring to Mouthfuls?)

That all being said, I was at Lincoln recently for lunch and had the spaghettoni. And I do understand your comment about the stiffness of some of the pasta (like the spaghetti). I haven't a problem with it. But I can see how some might.

Spaghetti alla chitarra should be flat, it shouldn't be square. I'm not sure that's true. Most spaghetti alla chitarra I've seen is more squarish than flatish. In fact, sometimes, if you don't look closely, it can be mistaken for spaghetti (which is why I'm assuming it's "spaghetti alla chitarra" and not "linguine alla chitarra").

I think LiquidNY is suggesting that the pasta was extruded. There are a number of reasons why this is very likely not the case. Dyes for extruded pasta are very expensive and rolling pasta and cutting it on a chitarra is relatively easy. More to the point, why would Benno be extruding square spaghetti when he could do it the "authentic" way?

Wait. What service?

I agree. I have been to EMP at least once every year that Humm has been there (although I haven't been in 2013), and his first three years there remain my favorite three years of eating at EMP. he got there in '06 right? If so, then I am mistaken. My first visit was in March of 2007. And, in many ways, it remains my favorite.

Oh wait. I lied. I just checked, and I have been there this year. I eat out too much.