Per Se: The Salon

Cliff and I decided to go out to one nice meal while he was visiting from California. Lucky for us, per se had just introduced their salon (a la carte) menu and there wasn’t a month long wait to get in (it’s walk-in only), so we decided to meet there for a light meal before he left. Earlier in the afternoon, I went to the Mets game and had awesome box seats, where I loaded up on chicken fingers, french fries, hot dogs, and other things that are not good for you, so I wasn’t extremely hungry when we met at per se.

I didn’t take pictures of my meal (maybe because I ordered the gnocchi and it literally came with 6 amazing pieces), but I did capture the desserts. We went with two desserts – Bombe au Pamplemouse, which was a Chocolate “Roulade,” Manjari Chocolate Mousse and Grapefruit Curd with Pink Grapefruit Ice Cream:

I was quite skeptical of putting together pink grapefruit and chocolate, but this dessert was sweet and tangy. Not my personal favorite (and not something I’d order again), but it wasn’t terrible. Oh heck, it was pretty awesome, actually.

I ordered something our server, Andrew, recommended, which was a mixture of Chuao chocolate, hazelnut, and ice cream:

I had never even heard of Chuao chocolate until my cousin from Taiwan told me about it (what a trendsetter), but now I can’t get enough of the stuff (although for $18 a bar, I can hold back a little). I enjoyed Andrew’s recommendation a lot more than the grapefruit-chocolate dessert.

If you’re a semi-fan of gracenotesnyc, you’ll remember that I went through the full four-hour tasting back in August. If you’re a new fan, here’s the lengthy write-up. Anyway, Andrew must’ve remembered me from our last visit because he also brought out this dessert:

I must’ve squealed with delight when the coffee and doughnuts came out because 1. it’s never on the actual tasting menu and 2. they only serve it for special occasions (repeat customers, if they know it’s someone’s birthday). I must admit that coffee gives me a serious headache, but I HAD to try this dessert – I mean, I’ve READ so much about it! One bite and I seriously could not stop eating it – the “coffee” is actually cappuccino semifreddo and the “doughnuts” are brioche doughnuts dusted with cinnamon and sugar. Cliff and I were sharing desserts, but he could tell I loved the coffee portion so much that he just stopped trying to fight me and let me finish the cup 🙂

The total was about $50/per person (including service) and it’s definitely worth it; not only do you get the per se service, you also get lots of little things that you’d get if you sat down for the full-tasting (at a fraction of the price!)