Originally Posted by
PsiFighter37
Went to Eleven Madison Park for my birthday dinner last night. Perhaps it's just me, but I feel like nearly every high-end restaurant I go to gets worse the next time I visit. There are only 2 restaurants with Michelin stars that have continued to wow me on follow-on visits: Gramercy Tavern and Contra (both in NYC). EMP has basically turned into a generic high-end French restaurant now. When I went 6+ years ago, virtually every dish served was an homage to New York City, and while it wasn't the best food outright I had eaten, it was a much more memorable experience. There was one standout dish - sturgeon caviar served in an EMP-logo'ed tin with a pickled quail egg and hollandaise. The rest, to be honest - delicious but not 'The World's Best'. I'd argue that my meal at Le Bernardin a couple months prior was arguably more memorable.
My personal 'Best in the World' remains Hertog Jan outside of Bruges, Belgium - still not even a contest.
Not a repeat customer, but glad I wasn't the only one that wasn't blown away by EMP. I also had that caviar and hollandaise sauce dish, which I agree was one of the only standouts along with the famous duck, but everything else was simply good, and not great. Definitely expected more from the "best restaurant in the world". The pacing was also weird...the first few courses were served at a pretty normal pace, but the last few took 30 - 45 minutes between courses.
I also went to Le Bernardin on the same trip, and had a much more memorable time as well - I thought EMP had the more creative dishes, while LB had the better tasting/executed dishes.
Really not sure if I just had too high of an expectation for EMP and a lower one for LB, but I'm reluctant to give it another try given its price tag, despite feeling like they deserve a second chance.