Gordon Ramsey at The London, New York
May 23, 2014
After seeing Gordon Ramsey on the television through a variety of reality television shows broadcast in North America, it came time to try one of his restaurants. MrsWT73 has been a regular visitor to Gordon Ramsey’s Maze in London on her work travels through there and I was playing catch up as I had yet to have the opportunity.
I was able to get a reservation at “Gordon Ramsey at the London” about 5 days out using Open Table. The booking process advertised a “dress code” and set out the expectations for dress. This struck me as a bit unusual as most other restaurants simply state: smart casual, semi casual or the like. The restaurant is conveniently located a few blocks from Times Square or Central Park at the South End.
On arrival, we were led in through the outer restaurant (a New York offering of Maze – another Gordon Ramsey casual dining outlet) and into the Gordon Ramsey restaurant proper.
The dining room itself was a fine dining décor with colored in grey’s and greys, silvers and golds colors. It was reminiscent of what my British grandfather would have found super classy for an elegant service. In other words, it wasn’t all too contemporary.
Another first impression that we had were a table of middle eastern Arab’s who were dining nearby up wearing Tommy Hillfiger Rugby shirts. Another bit of an oddity to make obvious efforts with the dress code, but then appear not to enforce it. It could be perhaps because I went through the trouble of wearing a suit jacket (laughing).
Dinner service here is on a fixed menu consisting of either 3 course or 5 course offering. We each went with three course meal. As with many other fine dining establishments, each course was supplemented in between each course with additional surprises.
The service throughout the meal was exceptionally attentive and of high caliber. The seating was similar to other high end establishments that next tables in were seated in the opposite corners of restaurant to minimize intrusions and disruptions in your area.
There was no music playing immediately in restaurant, which led to nice conversation volume. There was some carry over of volume from maze restaurant next door. Despite seemingly many tables sitting empty, and no available times on open table, some must not have turned up or cancelled as at least 10 tables (out of a total of 45 persons occupancy) not were not sat by our reservation time of 8 PM. Either that or the restaurant wasn’t releasing all tables to the Open Table reservation system.
Our first amuse bouche was a caviar on pancake and a warm corn veloute soup.
This was followed by a wonderful morel mushroom sherry gellee.
I went with the foie gras appetizer “chaud / froid”. Foie gras hot and cold accompanied with peach, almond, crispy faro, celery, served with lightly toasted brioche. The hot foie gras was seared to absolute perfection. It wasn’t a perfect pairing, but we opted for a bottle of Ken Wright Pinot Noir from the Williamette Valley in Oregon, USA.
For the main I went with the Colorado Lamb Cannon, accompanied with sun choke goat curd puree, spiced eggplant, black olive caramel, shallot powder. The lamb was again wonderfully cooked.
MrsWT73 went with the Organic Chicken, accompanied with tortellini, sweet corn, artichoke barigoule, parsley purée, natural jus
The waiter dropped off a watermelon sorbet prior to dessert to cleanse the palette.
For the desert, I went with the Chocolate Hazelnut accompanied with coffee, burnt cinnamon, caramel ice cream. Again, perfection on a plate.
The meal was closed up with more chocolates prior to the arrival of the bill.
Tab for two with a bottle of wine was a reasonable $440.
Overall the dessert was the highlight of the meal. The comparison of the restaurant offering with Gordon Ramsey the television personality is a natural one to make. The meal itself was similar to a German BMW – exceptionally refined, conservative in flavors with nothing too over the top. Everything was perfectly prepared with obvious attention to detail. I would have expected sharper flavours given the amount of energy from his TV performances. Either way, it was a very pleasant fie dining meal.
MrsWT73 loved the service and the smaller portions. She felt that the environment was very comfortable.
We had a great meal here and found it to be reasonably priced for New York. I found myself thinking about the experience throughout the rest of the evening and the next morning so much I must have enjoyed myself. I find that you don't always remember the meal itself over and over again. You don’t always get memories of dining experience dining out.
Two thumbs up. ^^