Le Jardinier
610 Lexington Ave 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
Accommodating Gluten-FreeExperience a stunning ambiance paired with high-quality offerings in a chic, upscale setting that's perfect for a special occasion.
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Christopher Tanski
TL;DR: 4/5 star food, 1/5 service. Should be stripped of their michelin star until they can get their front-of-house in order.
Review: I'm just going to rip the band-aid off now, and say in all of my years of going to restaurants, from chain restaurants to Michelin star restaurants, I have never been made to feel less "valued" as a customer than at Le Jardinier. The restaurant should be stripped of it's Michelin Star because of how poor the service is alone.
My wife and I have been looking forward to trying this place for months now as we saved up to take a Christmas trip into NYC. We were excited for the tasting menu most of all. We excitedly confirmed with our waitress that the tasting menu was gluten-free for my wife and let her know we were most likely going to do it. She leaves, says she'll come back to take a drink order, but she never returns. Instead, our first course shows up, and another guy eventually comes around to take a drink order. From that first course up until the dessert plates were cleared, our waitress never came back to check on us, never asked if we needed anything, no one asked if we wanted another glass of wine or a cocktail.
The waitress ignored us for the entire 2.5 hour ordeal. It wasn't a 2.5 hour ordeal to appropriately space the tasting menu mind you. If it was, they would have been interested in selling more drinks to us at the very least. The food was just slow.
The wait staff even dropped the desserts at our table without so much as a word about what was in them until we had to ask because my wife was nervous about the cookie-like thing on the bottom of hers. Meanwhile, the customers to our left and right were being waited on consistently by the waitress. She was chatting both tables up. Their water was constantly topped off. The disparity in service was so profound we both just wanted to leave by the fourth course.
So, how WAS the food? It was...fine. The first item, HIRAMASA, GRAPEFRUIT, JICAMA, AVOCADO MOUSSE, BAY LEAF, was fresh, good acidity and use of textures, and it was plated beautifully. It was a nice start to the meal for sure. The second item was SAVOY CABBAGE "LASAGNA" CELERY ROOT, HAZELNUTS, BLACK TRUFFLE." It had a nice savory, earthy flavor profile to it and was pretty tasty. The third dish was surprisingly underwhelming, POACHED MAINE LOBSTER, CREAMY POLENTA, CORALINE BISQUE It was very one-note in it's flavor profile and my poached lobster was overcooked. Rather disappointing. The fourth course was the LONG ISLAND CRESCENT DUCK, ROASTED SALSIFY, KUMQUATS. The duck was just salty. If there was other seasoning on it, I couldn't tell because it was licking a salt cube. The cook was impeccable though, so they definitely get points for that. The dessert I had was THE PUMPKIN PATCH, AUTUMN SPICE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE, CANDIED GINGER ICE CREAM. It was visually impressive, but your mileage may vary depending on how you care for flavors like pumpkin or ginger. I will say though, their patissier is very skilled.
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