ABC Kitchen, NYC

Thursday night (7/14) was the second meeting of the Manhattan Dining Club. This name refers to Gianne, Patty & I and are quest to eat at lots and lots of great restaurants in the city. We try and meet once a month and make the reservation for four people so we can invite a guest to join us. Last night's restaurant was ABC Kitchen (Jean-Georges) and our guest, Alan!

To drink, we ordered a bottle of Domaine Carneros Rose that I thought was pretty good. It had a bit of a floral bouquet and a slight linger on the finish - plus a great color and was chilled nicely. it complimented the first two courses well.

It's located at 18th and Broadway near Union Square and it has one of the more unique and interesting interiors. Lots of white lights, trees and different styled tables. Pleasant and happy; bright and upbeat. We had a 5:30pm reservation not from choice but it was all I could get. This still must be on the hot places to dine list - it was packed by 7pm. Note - it doesn't open before 5:30pm - although it has a hopping bar scene, you can't get in early for a drink before an early reservation.

We ordered two market plates to share, appetizers and entrees. To start, a bottle of rose from Domaine Carneros in Napa. The market plates were the crab toast with lemon aioli and the warm, fresh mozzarella. The crab toast was heaped with lovely crab and a soft lemon accompanying flavor that I really liked. The toast enhanced without taking anything away from the fresh sweetness of the crab. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that was either dungeness or blue crab since it had a distinct flavor with that hint of brine I love.

The fresh mozzarella was nice but needed salt. It went well enough with the fresh bread and we all enjoyed it. But it wasn't super memorable.

For appetizers - Patty ordered the special Green & Red salad and I ordered the warm field greens with prosciutto, fried egg and sherry vinaigrette. I didn't try Patty's...mine was actually over done. Between the heavy pepper and sherry, you could barely taste the egg or the greens. Even the prosciutto was washed out. This course for me was a miss. Alan ordered the fried calamari with two dipping sauces - a white and a red. The white was a take on tartar sauce and the red a marinara. This dish was very good and probably the best of the appetizers. Gianne ordered the raw diver scallops with sea beans, Serrano chilies and lime. I had a bite of hers - way too much chili / pepper taste. It totally overshadowed the delicateness of the scallop. The scallop itself looked fresh and nicely prepared and a great texture...to bad you really couldn't taste it.

For our dinners, Gianne ordered the roast suckling pig with smoked bacon marmalade and baby leeks; Alan ordered the fried organic chicken with wild spinach, basil and hot butter sauce (served on the side). Patty opted for the steamed halibut with zucchini and I got the wood oven roasted Maine lobster with oregano and lemon-chili vinaigrette. All told, some dishes were good and some were blah...nothing was spectacular.

The suckling pig and the fried chicken were both pretty good. And my lobster was good, not great. Patty's halibut was bland. I actually liked Alan's chicken and side of mashed potatoes the best. Between this dinner and the lunch at Nougatine, I'm going to go ahead and state that Jean-Georges is just not a top 10 chef for me or my palate. It's possibly his executive chefs that are missing the mark, but I expect more from chefs and their restaurants at this caliber and price point.

We finished up what was in fact a wonderfully fun, chatty dinner among friends with two desserts - the donuts with vanilla cream & bacon fudge sauce and the sour cherry & a strawberry sorbet. The sorbets were great...the donuts lost me when I realized they were overstuffed with the vanilla cream and conquered any sugar coated donut happiness I was hoping to experience.

This one will not be a repeat for us.
Jenn's rating: 84
Zagat's rating: 24-23-23
www.abckitchennyc.com