ABC Kitchen

“I wanted to try the new Jean George place in the ABC Carpet bldg…” emailed a friend.

Always game to try something, especially a restaurant with a Jean George signature, we made plans to meet and sample his  “farm-to-table” cuisine. We did so in April while it was still new and ironing out the kinks.

In typical fashion, we ordered too many dishes, but we always want to experience as much of the place as possible. We should have invited more mouths to join us! We ordered a bottle Gueule del loup, chateau de roquefort,  a spicy and bold red wine ($39) to accompany our many picks.

The golden and red beets in homemade yogurt ($9) were sublime. Perfectly cooked flavorful beets in  like a light cream-like sauce. With that we shared flavorful peekytoe crab ($12) on buttered toast followed suit. We smiled, thinking we were in for an evening of real treats.

Wrong.

The trumpet mushroom pizza ($16) was over cooked (actually burnt) and had no flavor. Literally none, having us reach for salt, pepper or something to doctor it. The interesting sounding pretzel-dusted calamari ($10), wasn’t. Instead it was dry and rubbery.  The accompanying grainy mustard aioli and marinara sauces, though, were good and  flavorful with a spicy kick.

My friend’s Arctic Char ($22) arrived sitting atop large (very large) chunks of broccoli and broccoflower with zero seasongings. A loser.  My Roasted Cod ($24) was much tastier with a delicious lemon creme over the fish atop flavorful asparagus and other veggies.

That’s a best bite for sure.

The winning recommendable dessert from the four we sampled is the vanilla ice cream cake ($7) dessert chocolate roll with blood orange sorbet.

Bottom line: ABC Kitchen is expensive, but once they iron out the many kinks in the kitchen (as you know Jean George will make happen), it will be worth trying.

ABC Kitchen
35 east 16th street
New York, NY 10003
212-475-5829