JEAN GEORGES!!!

We made it to Jean Georges!!! We went for a celebratory belated birthday dinner to celebrate me and mona's transition into adulthood. Haha. Anyhow, side note, dress really professional cuz this place does not mess around dress code wise and you will feel intimidated even when you are dressed up. So look good. We went for lunch since they had a deal. They came out with amuse bouches but since I don't have pictures and I have no clue what they were called or what was in them, I'm just gonna say they weren't bad but nothing to write about. We started off with the sweet pea soup with parmesan (right) and the goat cheese gnocchi with caramelized baby artichokes, lemon and olive oil (left).

First off, the gnocchi. It was very cheesy. After all it was pretty much cheese with artichokes. I don't remember much about this dish (this happened a while ago, forgive the lack of memory). I just remember thinking very chees-y. What I do remember? The friggin sweet pea soup! First off, the croutons are placed on the bottom and the parmesan too. And then they come to your table and pour the sweet pea soup on top! How cool is that? Anyhow, this soups was one of my favorite dishes. It was just so strong in pea flavor (I <3 peas!) and it also had a very strong parmesan cheese flavor that I just LOVED. I kept eating it and I couldn't believe how much I was loving soup. Yes, soup. It was that good. This was followed by a mid course meal.

It was crispy crab with pink peppercorn and exotic fruits. That crab was definitely crispy. You could literally hear the crunch when you cut it with a knife. I don't know what the exotic fruits were per se, but I did like them. I also liked the greens that were on there too. The pink peppercorn I'm not remembering so much but I do know I remembered the strong crab flavor and liked that. then, came our main dishes.

On the left was the crispy sweetbreads with glazed maitake mushrooms, spring onion and hibiscus. That one was unique because I've never had sweetbreads before so I didn't know what t expect. Plus when I cut it, I really thought it was some sort of meat just based on the texture but Mona kept reassuring me it wasn't so I just kept eating it. The texture didn't sit well with me but I loved the crispyness and it tasted kinda like well for lack of a better description, sweet bread. The maitake mushrroms were a nice addition and the hibiscus provided a bit of sweetness to the dish. On the right was the grilled beef tenderloin with cherry mustard, mustard greens, and purple potato chips. Cooked medium well, it was a nice piece of meat. The cherry mustard was a bit bitter with the mustard greens but I didn't mind it so much. Sorry for no pics of the purple potato chips, but well, they were chips. Nothing special. Now, on to dessert!

So on the left was their chocolate tasting. It came with their signature molten chocolate lava cake with vanilla bean ice cream. It was pretty standard lava cake, nice smooth liquid chocolate with cake perfectly balanced by the ice cream. Classic. It also came with a white chocolate meringue with meyer lemon ice and cinnamon.This was actually quite unique. At first you only taste the tart lemon but then as you keep eating you slowly get the smooth white chocolate meringue that balances out that tartness. The cinnamon also gave it a nice arthy touch. Defninitely different. On the right was the caramel tasting. It came with caramelized pineapple, carrot cake pieces, and molasses. That one was the star. I wish there were more carrot cake cuz it was pretty awesome. But, the caramelized pineapple was pretty rad too. I'm definitely gonna caramelize my pineapples from now on. The molasses added to the sweetness but surprisingly it wasnt too sweet. Loved it.It also came wit hsticky toffee cake, coconut sorbet, and a tamarind caramel. Not sure what tamarind tastes like but it just tasted like caramel, which is always good. The sticky toffee cake was very dense, almost chewy. It was very sweet but thats ok cuz the creamy coconut was like hey what's up and then youre like mmmm coconut, and the sweet is back with that caramel. Pretty good I'd say. But it's not over yet!

Birthday cake surprise!  I called ahead and told them it was her birthday and Mona was shocked haha. It was quite funny. Anyhow, that thing was so damn cute we didn't wanna eat it. The chocolate bow, the gold pieces, the cute little box! We did anyway. I have no clue what was in it. Definitely chocolate something or other with some sort of cake, crunchy bottom and something creamy like a pudding like thing in the middle. Worst description ever but that's all I remember. Oh, and the white chocolate shard that they wrote happy birthday on. Hold on! Stilll not done.

We finished off with some dessert amuse bouches. It came with strawberry macarons and some truffles! They were pretty good. The macarons literally melted in your mouth and had a very strong strawberry flavor both in the cookie an jam in the middle. The truffles were really good too! There was a caramel one that was awesome as well as a passionfruit one that I really liked.Usually I'm against pureed fruit and chocolate like in truffles, gimme some caramel or more chocolate! But that was really good! So all in all a really good meal! And no that expensive either! Go for lunch! :)