Market (Jean-Georges) - 2/26/2010

Went to Market in the W Hotel for lunch today.

Pleasant dinning room. Large open space with clean lines and a modern feel.

Friendly attentive service, but not too attentive.

Generally I thought the food was good here, although not everything was completely successful. I enjoyed my meal, and I would certainly return.

Butternut Squash Soup - The soup was fine but nothing special. The presentation was very nice. The bowl was presented with the mushrooms and pieces of butternut squash in the bowl, and the server poured the soup into the bowl table-side. The texture was smooth, but I prefer a creamier texture and taste. The flavor was pleasant, but it did not blow me away. It could have used more seasoning or had a richer butternut squash flavor.

Warm Goat Cheese Custard - I found this dish to be enjoyable although unspectacular. The custard was similar to unsweetened yogurt, and it was topped with pistachios and beets. Of course I was predisposed to like this dish as it has several elements that I like (pistachios, beets and goat cheese). I would have liked more pistachios and beets. I found after I had eaten about half of the custard I had few pistachios and beets left, and at that point the custard was pretty plain.

Pear, Frisee, Apple Salad - Good concept, but needed more frisee and less blue cheese.

Parmesan Crusted Chicken - Fantastic. The chicken had a delicate parmesan crust, which gave the chicken nice flavor and texture. The artichokes were firm but tender, and the lemon-basil butter was a great compliment to them.

Cod - I had high expectations for this dish, as I heard it was the best fish dish on the menu. It did not live up to the billing. I found the fish and the broth to be generally lacking in flavor. And the fish itself had a soggy characteristic. The fish had a mushroom topping which was well seasoned and flavorful. The mushroom topping was the best part of the dish. On a previous visit I tried the Striped Bass and I was much more impressed with that dish.

Green Apple Crisp - This was a very good straight forward apple crisp. The crumb topping was crunchy and flavorful, the apples were tender and sweet (I never would have thought they were green apples), the filling was not too soggy or too dry, and the crisp was topped with cinnamon ice cream, which obviously works well with apple crisp.

Passion Fruit Souffle - The souffle was cooked perfectly. It had the light airy texture as I first dug my spoon into it, and it became slightly creamy as I went further into the souffle. Unfortunately the flavor did not work at all. It was both too sweet and too sour at the same time. It was just overpowering.