Per Se Reviews

Category: French Restaurants
10 Columbus Cir
(between Broadway & W Central Park)
New York, NY 10019
Neighborhoods: Hell's Kitchen, Midtown West
(212) 823-9335
www.perseny.com

1. My second favorite meal, EVER! The Inn at little Washington is still my number 1. This place is truly fantastic and worth it. I was a little worried walking into the Time Warner center, kind of felt like we were dining in a shopping mall, I was a little concerned that our table might overlook the Armani store across the way, it did not. From the second the open up,m promptly at 11:30 (for lunch), not a minute sooner, you are welcomed into the inner circle, or so it seems. The space is clean, elegant and luxurious, everything about it makes you feel comfortable and relaxed. This is what fine dining should be, amazing, fresh and exciting food, prepared in a playful yet traditional style that makes you feel at home while experiencing something new. I noticed a lot of pleasant contradictions here, everything was perfect, the staff is so attentive and friendly, yet you feel like you are alone in the world while dining here. We indulged on the full tasting and although they don;t necessarily have a true "wine pairing" the sommelier and our server worked perfectly to provide us a wonderful cross section of wines that truly made our meal exceptional. A real nice touch is when the meal ends, not only do they give you a copy of your menu, but they include the wines you had as well. This is huge, I generally find that after oh 5 to 10 glasses of wine, that it is a little hard to remember my name, never mind the wine names.

2. I must preface my review by stating, it's not actually a two star experience. It is, almost undoubtedly, in my top fifteen restaurant experiences replete with very expected high class cuisine and service. But given what I believe to know about Yelp members and the quality of city/worldwide dining, the bang isn't worth the buck.

Sure, I'm a struggling college student who has her first job and who tries to expense her dinner every night at a price point of under $25. But lucky me, my father is not and thus, since I was a petite connoisseur, I've been introduced to dually rich and exotic flavors. Within the bracket of haute cuisine, Per Se misses the mark. It is delicious, but uses flavors that are anticipated to be delicious (butter, saffron, truffle) rather than those with challenge traditional culinary technique. Its wine list is broad, but the labels/vintages are not rare and can be found at many different restaurants at a pleasant fifteen percent off the markup. An automatic $295 for the anticipated tasting menu? It is absurdly priced from a standpoint of what the food evokes. Luxurious ingredients and atmosphere? Sure. But neither is composed in a breathtaking nor distinct manner. The average customer is either pretentiously loaded or so excited to be at the restaurant that every bite is punctuated by a camera flash. Plus TWC is always a depressing venue for its sterile and convoluted style.

In short, Thomas Keller is a magnificent chef and restauranteur, but his ego is bloated. Even if you don't think you care about the money, you will walk out fearing you wasted it--which for any wealthy man or woman, is almost worst than losing it. The food//service are very, very good but no better than EMP or Bernadin or Daniel. The latter three lack the supreme pretentiousness of Per Se and thus manage to provide a much better elite experience at a slightly lower cost point.

If someone wants to take me there for any reason, I won't say no. But as long as I'm buying, I want more for less. And that's not hard to find.

3. I wanted to give this place 3 stars, but I couldn't do it. Service was too good.

We took our friend here for her birthday. Caviar dish was the best dish of the night. I could've done without all the other dishes and I didn't think they were that good. Duck was not exciting. Fish was okay. Lamb was gamey (this really surprised me; I'd never expect it at a place like Per Se). Dessert was okay.

Company was great. Plus, we got a quick kitchen tour. Per Se's kitchen has a live feed into French Laundry, and vice versa. Pretty awesome. Also, all of us kind of wanted to marry our waiter.

But he had a ring.