For this evening in New York, I decided to treat myself with a last-minute booking at a restaurant I had been dreaming of trying for a long time: Le Bernardin, which has held 3 Michelin stars for more than 20 years.

The concept

The concept is simple: a fine dining seafood restaurant built entirely around simplicity and the freshness of its ingredients.

The setting

The setting is, of course, luxurious, as one would expect from a restaurant holding the highest distinction in the Michelin Guide.

The dining room is dark, with carefully designed lighting.

The menu

The menu offers three different options: two tasting menus, including one vegetarian menu, where everything is decided in advance, and a so-called prix fixe tasting menu with two starters, one main course, and one dessert, which is the option I chose.

The meal and the dishes

I paired my meal with a glass of Meursault, Domaine Vincent Latour, Clos des Magny 2022, which was absolutely divine.

Amuse bouche

The amuse-bouche consisted of three elements: salmon sashimi, a cod cromesquis, and a carrot-ginger soup.

The salmon was lightly smoked and served at the right temperature, the cromesquis was just warm enough and absolutely perfect, and the soup had an excellent kick.

Tuna carpaccio with foie gras

The tuna was of flawless quality and very well seasoned.

The toasted bread and foie gras insert was divine and complemented the salinity of the tuna perfectly.

Trout au naturel, morel sauce, wild mushroom broth

The fish and mushrooms were both cooked perfectly, the sauce and broth were slightly tangy, and the whole dish was absolutely delicious, even if the sauce was a little salty.

Lobster, truffle gnocchi, pepper and brandy bisque

The cooking was mixed: the lobster was slightly overcooked and bland on its own.
The sauce was excellent, but there was far too little of it.
The gnocchi were absolutely delicious.

Strawberry carpaccio and sorbet, diplomate cream

Delightful and light.

Mignardises

I was no longer hungry, so I did not try them.

Service

The service was very organized, but a little robotic, with few smiles and little sense of passion.

The atmosphere

Not much to say here: it was not bad, but not particularly outstanding either.

Bottom line

A good experience overall, certainly, but the poorly cooked lobster is really difficult to understand.

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