Perry Street - Not my Favorite Jean Georges but still a Jean Georges

I'd been looking forward to Perry Street for a while. A friend of mine, who happens to be my boss, is a foodie who loves it there and I almost always love places he loves. I didn't love it there. But I also chose poorly.

I did love the decor. It's so pretty and neat and there's so much sunlight. I'm sure it's a great place for dinner 
but with these windows, it would be a shame to miss enjoying the bright and cheerful atmosphere for lunch. Not bad for a workday, if you happen to be downtown (it's all the way on the west side down in meatpacking) but I can also imagine that a leisurely lunch followed by a walk along the Hudson would be a really nice way to spend an afternoon. It's a beautiful space. 

Like I said, I chose poorly. I don't feel like Robert chose all that much better than I did and I was surprised by his selections, given how he'd raved about the place. 


Perry Street's lunch special is year-round and not affiliated with Restaurant Week, which is great. I'm a huge fan of establishments that choose to create accessible options on an ongoing basis. It's a wise business choice and it speaks to the priorities and values of the owners. I also find that restaurants that do have year-long accessible options also have friendlier wait staff who are less likely to betray resentment for their special deal diners, which warrants and extra gold star. A customer is a customer and nobody should be treated as less than, as far as I'm concerned. The staff at Perry Street were all delightful.

Before our appetizers arrived, we were given adorable little cups of cantaloupe soup with little stripes of herbed olive oil. They were a great twist on a canape and a nice, refreshing way to start a summer lunch.

I started with the calamari and it was just too deeply fried for my taste. It was fried to a crisp, literally. Too many pieces were crunchy all the way through without the soft yield of squid that's supposed to exist in the middle. I was disappointed. Calamari in a great place is a treat because it's one of those things that can be poorly done or very expertly done and the difference is huge. I was looking forward to expertly prepared fried calamari and I daresay, this missed the mark. I'm always a little nervous to say things like that because who am I to criticize some of the best chefs in NY? But the work of the best chefs is exclusively for the benefit of their diners so my opinion, as their diner, is what ought to matter most, I think.

The yuzu (East Asian citrus) sesame dipping sauce was more of a foam than a sauce so it was light and fresh tasting and I got that there was supposed to be a great contrast between the heaviness of the fried squid and the lightness of the citrus dipping foam. It was clever in principle but it didn't work for me. The dipping foam was lost on the calamari.

Robert got the arctic char sashimi with lemon and olive oil and that was a better choice. I didn't catch a pic of that dish but it was small and bright and it also tasted bright and fresh. The lemon in his dish was much more pronounced than the yuzu in mine.

Then Robert got a cheeseburger, which surprised me. But he is quite a carnivore and it was the only red meat option on our menu. It looked like a good burger but unless there was something extraordinary about it, which there wasn't, it was just a good burger.

I ordered the yellowfin tuna burger, which came only lightly seared. It was nice. The bun was good and the tuna was tender. Raw yellowfin doesn't have a super strong flavor in and of itself so if you're going to slap it on a bun, there needs to be something that kind of makes it pop. I thought the bonito mayonnaise was going to do that but it didn't, really. Bonito is to Japanese food what sofrito is to Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine. It's the backbone of much of Japanese cooking and it's usually made with dried mackerel flakes. For my taste, it was too mild and almost bland for an already lightly flavored fish on a bun. I would have enjoyed the pop of a little wasabi or something racier. But it was still a nice, light dish. Unfortunately, it was served with house made potato chips, which were also pretty deeply friend and on the oily side. After the calamari, it was way too much. I didn't eat many of the chips. That was my fault. I should have thought about that when I ordered.  

Dessert was good. I mean, I had a molten chocolate cake with ice cream. Any good restaurant that screws that up should hang their collective heads in shame. Perry Street did a nice version of this now classic dessert. It was far from my favorite but it was rich and yummy. The ice cream was actually the best part. It had a very deep vanilla flavor, which was great. Having said that, no chocolate dessert has managed to beat the chocolate souffle I had at Fig and Olive, meatpacking, so far. That was the chocolate dessert by which all others are now measured. This one held up well and was solidly good but not especially noteworthy. 

And that's how I felt about the whole meal. It was good, overall, but not especially noteworthy. There were aspects that actually weren't so good but most things were solid, just not special. At least not special to me. I love Jean Georges and this is still a Jean Georges restaurant but it isn't my favorite of his establishments. So far I really enjoyed Nougatine a lot more than Perry Street and since it also happens to be more conveniently located for me, that's actually pretty good news.