I dined at The Mercer Kitchen a number of years ago and it was a restaurant that I had always wanted to return to and I finally got around to it earlier this year. Located at the Mercer Hotel in Soho, this Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant was quite the buzzy celebrity hotspot when it first opened in 1998 and for a number of years after. The swanky bi-level space designed by Christian Liaigre, features exposed brick walls, long banquettes, communal tables and a partially open kitchen which gives it a contemporary industrial feel. The market driven menu makes use of seasonal ingredients in dishes that range in style from American to French to Asian fusion. The last time I ate here we had the most amazing tuna with crispy sushi rice. I was disappointed that it wasn't on the menu anymore but they did have a version that was sashimi salmon with crispy sushi rice. This probably would've been delicious on it's own but the chipotle mayo really enhanced the flavors. We got the pizza with tender leeks, three cheese, prosciutto and black truffle and yukon potato soup with sweet onions, brussels sprouts and crisp chestnuts. The pizza was tasty but nothing special and there was barely a hint of black truffle. The soup had a nice mix of textures and flavors going on. For our entrées, we chose the buttermilk chicken milanese with endiive salad, honey mustard and crisp bacon and the crunchy roast skate with glazed mushrooms, green chili and mint. The chicken was definitely better seasoned and tastier than the skate which was crispy but bland. Since we were there during restaurant week, dessert was included in our meal but I honestly don't remember much or ate much of it since we were pretty stuffed by the time they arrived at our table. We got the almond cake with citrus sorbet and warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. The chocolate cake was in the style of molten chocolate cakes. I've said this before but dessert is never a priority for me since I don't really eat sugar so it has to be something special to tempt me. Our service was somewhat friendly and mostly inattentive. There was a huge lapse in time between when they finally cleared our entrée plates to when dessert came out and this wasn't even acknowledged by the waitstaff. At most fine dining establishments, they would at least apologize for the wait. We also had to wait almost 10 minutes to be seated and caught an attitude from the hostess when we didn't want to sit in the dark corner in the recesses of the dining room. Not cool and not really impressed with the subpar service and underwhelming food.
New York City
212.966.5454
$$$
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