Dinner @ Gordon's

Last night it was finally time to cash in on my highly anticipated reservation at Gordon Ramsay at The London. I dined with Kimmi K and as she said in her review, we were both looking "smart" (I broke out my new John Bartlett suit for the occasion - oh wait, that was because Gordon's orders are that jackets are required for men). Upon arrival, we were immediately whisked through the more casual London Bar dining area into the formal and more intimate (there were only about 10 tables) main dining room. The decor is all very muted green and stiff - reminded me of sitting in a grandmother's formal room in Miami in the early 70's. Lots of mirrors with green leather chairs. Not really my taste.

First up - the champagne cart. Sommelier: "Would we care for any of the selections?" Us: "Um, no thanks - bring on the martini's!" (which were perfectly done!). When the drinks arrived they were accompanied by chicken liver foie gras and truffled sour cream with crostini - rich & DELISH! This was followed by the amuse bouche - a frothy white bean & mushroom soup served in an espresso cup - again, DELISH! Wow, the dinner is going to be SICK we thought! The sommelier returned and helped us pick out a great and somewhat affordable wine from the extensive list (it was a Largen from the Whitcraft Winery - kind of a cross between a Cab and Pinot Noir which suited us perfectly). After opening it, he transferred it to a gorgeous decanter which remained on the table.

For our meal we decided to go with the a la carte menu since it had more choices. For a starter I had the hand dived sea scallops with sauteed new potatoes, truffle sauce and mixed herb salad. My first reaction was this: there is a truffle on the plate that is extremely misplaced (it obviously had rearranged itself while being delivered). All I could think was minus 1, if Mr. Ramsay had seen this he would've had somebody's head. I was VERY tempted to send it back. This dish was very unremarkable. The scallops were nicely done but there wasn't much flavor to the dish overall. KK had the lobster ravioli, poached in it's own bouillon with celery root cream, shellfish vinaigrette and chervil veloute. This dish was better, but still not amazing. I will say though that the portion sizes on both were perfect - 5 scallops and lots of plump lobster meat in the single ravioli.

Next up, the main course. In keeping with our fish theme, I had the pan fried fillet of John Dory with slow roasted eggplant, tomato, parmesan, grilled zucchini and sauce vierge. This was light with a very Mediterranean feel (although honestly, it didn't hold a candle to the halibut at Extra Virgin). KK had the line caught turbot poached in St. Emilion with creamed potatoes, braised salsify, braised baby leeks and civet sauce. This was probably the best and most interesting of the 4 fish dishes we samped.

Next up was the intermezzo - a pallet cleaner of sweet pineapple granite. YUM! Very refreshing! For dessert, I had the bittersweet chocolate mousse with coffee granite and a light ginger cream. I LOVED this - mainly for the rich coffee flavor. Kimmi had the Pain Perdu, baked apple, Griotte cherries and pistachio ice cream. This didn't do much for me since it's not chocolate but she seemed to like it a lot.

Overall, the best things I have to say about this restaurant was that the service is outstanding, the room intimate with good accoustics (i.e. you could actually hear your dining companion and didn't have to yell like in most NY restaurants). It is indeed a first class operation all the way - I just wish the food had more "fireworks" (as an editor of a competiting epicurean title recently stated). I won't be returning anytime soon though. I'm also not sure how long it may last - seeing that as at any given time during our 3+ hour dinner at least 3 of the 10 tables remained vacant (even though they are supposedly sold out for the first 2 months).

I left a little sad since I never got to speak to Gordon. I did spot Ms. Caroline however eating in the London Bar section. She said the tapas-sized portions were miniscule and again not so amazing (so if you are going to go, I'd say to go for the main dining room - or even better - pass by the front door and head over to Joel Rubuchon at the Four Seasons instead).

Oh, and one more thing - the doors on the unisex individual bathrooms are EXTREMELY difficult to lock and I saw more than one person get walked in on so be forewarned!

After dinner drinks were at my new fav Midtown bar at The Modern. Some type of party at MoMa was just letting out when we arrived. Spotted in the crowd were: Emmy Rossum, Glenn Close, Michael Nouri, Stephanie March, Richard Belzer, Ice-T, Frances Sternhagen and Piper Perabo. Still No sign of Gordon though . . guess I'll just have to hope I bump into him at some epicurean event . . .