The only reason I am giving J&G a 2 star is for the awesome waiter service we received last Friday night. We'd a party of 5 and the service was impeccable. Our server was exceptional.
We all had the tasting menu ($60) with the wine ($35). The wine portions were generous. However the quality of the wine was not good.
For starters we'd a tuna tartar which contained ginger and sesame sauce. The ginger was too over powering and the tartar had too much avocados. The pairing for this was a Riesling which was good.
The second course was a risotto with a wine from Alsace France. The risotto was ok and a bit salty. Nothing special. The wine was horrible. It tasted like flat soda that left a burning sensation in my throat. Kinda like drinking scotch with flat ginger ale. We told the waiter and he confirmed that the wine was off without saying it. He compensated us with a glass of Chardonnay which was ok. The waiter also gave us an extra glass to compensate for the poor wine. This is the reason why he was a good server.
The third course was a Chilean Seabass with black beans. Seabass is a very delicate fish and should never be paired with beans or anything with rough texture. This is a horrible combination. To top it off, the seabass tasted like it was frozen. The fish was not delicate at all. Why did I know this? I was at Ocean's up in Scottsdale the night before and had a real Chilean Sea bass. This dish was so bad I completely do not recalled what the wine was...
The final course was a petit filet which they cannot possibly screw up. It was tender but nothing special. I believe it came with a Cab which was ok.
Given the amount of feedback we've provided to the server and one of our friends didn't like the chocolate cake in the prix fix menu as a dessert, the server gave us a sampler of desserts and a port to end the evening. Desserts were so so and so was the port. However, the server made a genuine effort to satisfy our needs.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten needs to pay closer attention to this restaurant along with his Vegas steakhouse as both sucked. At this rate, someone should take away the Michelin star from his NYC restaurant.