Le Bernardin's dining room is simple yet elegant, with soft beige colors, featuring beautiful paintings of seascapes and mariner related scenes, while gorgeous bouquets of bright red carnations grab attention in the restaurant’s interior. It is a very busy atmosphere, with the seating full even in the early hours and many waiters bustling around with an air of purpose. The hustle and bustle certainly adds to the feeling that this is a happening place. However, this is not an intimate restaurant. The service seemed rather rushed, and some of the waiters are not careful enough to avoid bumping into a customer's chair, the first time this has happened to us (repeatedly) at a 5 Star restaurant. The waiters are also not unfortunately as attentive to the customer's individual needs as they might be. We asked for our daughter's main order to be brought with our first or second course, while the waiter argued with us that it should be brought with the fourth course, and in fact her pasta dish become even more delayed without apology, arriving with our last savory course quite late in the evening.
The sommelier recommended a Premier Cru Burgundy, Beaune Les Cent Vignes, from Domaine des Croix, which was pleasant if unremarkable with our meal to come.
We chose to sample the Chef's Tasting menu, comprising eight courses in total. An amuse bouche arrived immediately to begin our evening, in a very unique beautiful bowl, featuring poached shrimp with the black trumpet mushroom puree and a black mushroom foam. The shrimp was perfectly succulent and tender, and its sweetness paired beautifully with the earthy delicate flavors of the black trumpet mushrooms. This was a terrific start of our meal.
We had a few different choices of breads, however only one of the breads that we tried was warm and fresh. The other breads, unfortunately, were surprisingly disappointing, tasting no better than average, and even kind of stale.
Our first course was a Yellowfin tuna, lightly smoked in a style of a "prosciutto". The tuna was delicious featuring salty smoky flavors. It was served with Japanese pickled vegetables and crispy kombu, a special seaweed used extensively in Japanese cuisine. While I liked the concept of pairing the smoky tuna with sweet and sour pickled vegetables, unfortunately the pickled vegetables were not perfect, being too crunchy in a middle and too limp on the edges, failing to achieve the intended contrast in texture.
Next, we tried the seared langoustine. This was a winning dish, cooked perfectly and topped with incredibly light and wonderfully delicate slice of shaved foie gras, served on a bed of Mâche greens and wild mushrooms with white balsamic vinaigrette. The langoustine and foie gras combination just melted in our mouths. This was definitely the best dish of the evening.
Our third course was a tagliolini pasta with a rich sea urchin butter sauce, topped with Osetra caviar. The sea urchin was subtle, the sauce was wonderfully satisfying, and we were pleased with a generous portion of the caviar, making this a tasty and successful dish.
The Nantucket Bay scallops were served on top of braised baby leeks in a Kaffir Lime Marinière sauce. While we did enjoy the tangy flavors of the sauce with the Kaffir limes, the scallops themselves were a bit bland, and we found this preparation of scallops too simple.
The bread crusted red snapper was cooked nicely with the crust perfectly crispy and featuring a soft flaky texture on the inside. It was served in a colorful and flavorful smoked sweet paprika sauce. The vegetables and the saffron "fideos", Spanish coiled vermicelli were a lovely addition to the plate, with flavors reminiscent of paella.
The main course of poached turbot was not as impressive. This was an unsuccessful attempt of presenting a more "meaty" course, featuring a spiced squab jus that was actually not that flavorful. The turbot itself was not cooked properly and was too chewy and not as tender and flaky as it should have been.
A delicate wild mushroom black truffle custard was served on a side, and this was a delicious component. However, it was completely separate from the rest of the dish and did not make up for the fish.
Despite a disappointment in the main fish course, and with the breads that had been earlier presented, the desserts were quite good.
A pre-dessert of Greek yogurt panna cotta, spicy apple gelée with jalapeno, candied walnuts and tiny chopped apples was excellent. The flavors were perfectly balanced, and it was not too sweet. The crunchy walnuts and apples were a great contrast in texture to the delicate gelée and creamy panna cotta.
Finally, a chocolate cremeux was perfectly decadent, with a smooth creamy texture, topped by a crispy slice of chocolate, and a delightful vanilla-sweet potato sorbet. A bourbon caramel sauce was a terrific finishing touch. This was a wonderful treat.
We also loved the tiny delicious petit fours with our coffee.
Le Bernardin largely delivered with a delicious exploration of various fruits of the sea, and Eric Ripert’s own interpretation of French and Spanish influences. Overall, despite a few minor flaws and a not very successful main course, this was an enjoyable and a well balanced meal, deserving acclaim in New York’s busy restaurant scene.
***
We have now enjoyed dining at 14 of the Forbes Travel Guide rated 5-star restaurants. To see how Le Bernardin compares with the other 5-star restaurants, please check out my 5 Star Rating page.
