Perry Street

I’ve visited a couple of the restaurants in the Jean Georges empire (Nougatine and Jean Georges) but I was especially excited to visit Perry Street ever since I read about his son, Cedric, taking over as the head chef. The restaurant is located in the west village and is on the ground floor of a really beautiful apartment building (Jean Georges and his family live in it!):

Josh took about ten pictures of me but it was so windy this is the best we could do:

Josh and I had a long day planned, so we made reservations for an early brunch. We were the first people in the restaurant, which allowed me to take some pictures of the interior:

We started off with some bread and butter with large flecks of sea salt:

The Perry Street menu for lunch includes two courses + dessert for $26, making it one of the best deals for Michelin restaurants (or any restaurant, really). After we placed our order with the server, another server came by with a tomato soup amuse bouche:

The soup tasted exactly like the soup at SHO Shaun Hergatt; the flavors were all a little too muddled and the tomato in the soup didn’t shine through.

For my appetizer, I ordered the roasted market eggplant and heirloom peppers with ricotta cheese and grilled sourdough:

I really liked the dish, but Josh wasn’t impressed with it because he thought it was too similar to baba ganoush. I thought the flavors were very clean and loved the creaminess the ricotta added to the overall taste.

For Josh’s appetizer, he ordered the sweet chili crab dumplings with cilantro and yellow snap peas:

To be completely honest, my first bite wasn’t that good; the sweet chili really threw me off since I really don’t like the sweet and savory combination in cooking, I almost gave the dish back to Josh. However, I took another bite without so much sweet chili sauce and fell in love with the pockets of crab topped with just a hint of spiciness. It ended up being my favorite dish of the afternoon. Josh also really enjoyed the dish and was a little bummed I liked it because he had to split it with me.

For our main course, I ordered the fried chicken with spicy pea puree and pickled onions:

The fried chicken came de-boned and with white and dark meat. While I enjoyed the crispness of the fried chicken, I didn’t think the delicate pea puree went with the fried chicken at all (texturally or taste-wise) and I didn’t even touch the pickled onions.

Josh ordered the grilled yellowfin tuna burger with bonito mayonnaise, shiso, and yuzu pickles:

The yellowfin tuna was cooked medium rare and didn’t taste completely right with the shiso leaves, but as soon as I removed the leaf, I really enjoyed the texture and flavor combination of the burger. The bun was also structurally sound; didn’t get mushy at all and also had enough bite (although with tuna, it’s easier to stay firm since it’s not leaking burger juice all over the place).

We were given the option of two desserts, so we each selected one – I went with the chocolate cake with ice cream:

And Josh ordered the fruit soup with lady fingers and ice cream:

The server also sent over another dessert, layers of chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream with candied lavender:

When we were first presented with the dessert, we thought that the purple candied lavender might’ve been fruity pebbles and were wondering who in the kitchen was stuck picking out all of the purple fruity pebbles (ha!) Instead, they were very sweet and crunchy pieces of candy. Josh and I weren’t fans of the candy, but we absolutely devoured the chocolate pudding and cake. The pudding tasted like very high quality chocolate, creamy, and the chocolate cake layer added enough sweetness to offset the chocolate pudding and whipped cream.

Josh and I were really happy with our meal; three courses, extra dessert, and all for $26! We really enjoyed our lunch and would definitely return. The restaurant was filled by the time we left for the Cloisters and I can definitely see why – it’s the best deal in New York!