Nougatine

Since both A and I had the day off today for Memorial Day, we decided to celebrate by going for lunch at Nougatine (the more casual dining room at Jean Georges)!

(Pictured (all descriptions from menu), left to right on each row: tuna tartare with avocado, spicy radish and ginger marinade; warm spring beets and rich yogurt with field mache and lemon oil; red snapper with lily bulb radish salad, white sesame and lavender; pan roasted pink cod with artichokes, peas and carrot vinaigrette; chocolate-ginger parfait with lychee yogurt and crunchy sesame; citrus sponge cake with mint sorbet, honeydew and coconut.)

I love going for lunch prix fixe menus at nice restaurants. It gives you the chance to sample all sorts of dishes, especially if you've never been to the restaurant before, and they're a great deal. I also just like going out for lunch since the lighting is nice, it's a great break in the middle of the day, and it's more relaxed. When I've gone to nice restaurants for lunch, it's almost always been a summer associate lunch at work (although I don't think that's going to happen much this summer), so it was nice to have the opportunity to go with A on a rare weekday day off. (Nougatine also does the prix fixe on Saturday, but I'm not sure which others do. I'd love to know so we can try them!)

The food was excellent. Good flavors, good presentation, good service. (Our poor server had to deal with the table next to us which sat down right before we were leaving, who told her they really would rather sit in the formal dining room and then proceeded to ask her about things on the menu.) I think the most "interesting" flavor to me was probably the chocolate dessert (the ginger made it very interesting - I'm not a huge fan of ginger, but somehow it ended up in all 3 of my dishes, but I only really noticed it as strong with the fish). The tuna tartare was excellent, possibly my favorite of the 6 dishes. I can't wait to go out for lunch again soon!