4 Days in New York City - 9/8 - 9/11

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

 

Day 2 -Lunch at Le Bernardin - 9/9/13

First course

The menu at Le Bernardin is divided into 3 sections: 1-Almost raw - 2- Barely touched - 3-Lightly cooked

Since everything looked so interesting we asked our server to tell us the most popular dishes for guidance.

In the "almost raw" section I selected the Tuna.

Layers of thinly pounded yellow fin tuna drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice and simply garnished with chives.

Tucked underneath the tuna is a thin layer of toasted baguette spread with a layer of Foie gras au torchon.

Very nice combination, soft tuna that melt in your mouth and then in contrast you get a crunchy toast and the flavor of the Foie just burst in your mouth.

Such a tasty dish with great flavor, and yet it looks so simple, so elegant, and utterly decadent.

I really enjoyed this dish and I am trying to eat slowly so I made it last a bit longer...

 

Hoa ordered in the Barely touch Section the Octopus

Charred Octopus a la plancha with green olives and black garlic emulsion, Sundried tomatao sauce vierge.

 

Eric Ripert is a master at weaving together unexpected ingredients, like this tender charred octopus with a sauce of green olives and black garlic emulsion, Sundried tomato sauce vierge.

Delicious!  Cooking octopus is not easy and here it has the perfect consistency and has a nice char taste.

 

2nd course

I selected the Pan roasted Monkfish with tarragon scented pea puree, Morels with Armagnac black pepper sauce.

Monkfish is dubbed the "poor man's lobster" because it has a similar taste and consistency to lobster and that's why I really like the texture of the Monkfish.

This is a really beautiful dish and the monkfish was cooked to perfection.  The dish was brought out to the table without the sauce and the our waiter process to explain the dish and then poured the Armagnac sauce over.   The Armagnac sauce was tasty and light.  Overall this is a really successful dish.

 

Hoa prefers meat over fish so when he saw that they offer Duck he was a happy camper.

Crispy Duck breast with fresh Garbanzo Beans an sour cherry sauce.

 

I had a couple bite of the duck and it was very good!  The skin was crispy, the meat was perfectly cooked temperature wise and the sauce was also excellent.

The French really know how to master their sauce that's for sure!

 

3rd course: dessert

Dessert menu

 

The menu at Le Bernardin

 

 

I selected the Strawberries dessert.

It is actually a simply dessert made with macerated strawberries, creme diplomat, basil, and strawberry sorbet

   

This is very light dessert, also very light and refreshing.  

Hoa is not big on dessert so he asked me to pick for him and I went with a Chocolate mille-feuille.

Beautifully presented and so well executed.

 

In contrast with my light strawberry dessert this chocolate mille-feuille is rich decadent and a few bites was just enough to be satisfied.

It was a good thing it was fairly small and splitting it in half was perfect. 

You can taste the high quality chocolate and it is the perfect combination of flavors and textures (gooey, crunchy, rich, etc..)

Ending a meal without coffee is a sin!  So coffee it is.

Beside our desserts we also got two plates of blackberry Financier as a petit four.

I opted for regular coffee and Hoa went for cappuccino.  Both were excellent.

Enjoying our desserts with a cup of hot coffee!

 

Lunch at the Bernardin was a really nice experience starting from with food, the presentation of each dish, the quality of the food, and the delivery of each meal was simply impeccable. Dinning at Le Bernardin gave you a feeling that you are really special and they are here to take care of your needs.  Customer service is un-reproachable, they pay attention to every single little detail leaving nothing to chance.  I am sure everything is orchestrated down to the "t".

I was also amazed that they have a few staff members patrolling the dinning room just like the secret service but without the sun glasses, on the lookout if a guess is about to stand up they are right behind you to pull back the chair.  A staff member saw me looking around the room in search for the bread guy and he came right away (I did not call him) he came and ask if he could assist me with whatever is needed.  Talking about great customer service, no wonder they have a 3 Michelin Stars and a 4 four stars from the New York News!

Overall, this was absolutely a great meal,  nothing really WOW me but it is still a fantastic meal from start to finish. 

 

Le Bernardin

155 W 51st St  New York, NY 10019
(212) 554-1515

http://le-bernardin.com/

 

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