Le Bernardin

I love food. There's no way around it. But as much as I love food...it's never quite caused me butterflies in my stomach. Well - that's changed for good now because I was kind of a nervous wreck at New York's three Michelin-star Le Bernardin.

And of course, the entire time, I was looking around the restaurant looking for Chef Ripert...my friend will attest to this. Good thing she's still my friend.

Without further delay, here's the food:


We were served this right as we sat down...I was really so excited that I couldn't hear what it was. I think it was smoked salmon?


Appy#1: Assortment of oysters


Appy #2: Escolar - White tuna poached in extra virgin olive oil; sea beans and potato crisps; light red wine béarnaise (my favourite dish! so much so that I can still taste it)


Entree #1: Skate “au bambou”; cellophane noodle and wood ear mushroom; spiced bamboo broth (The skate was cooked perfectly, PERFECTLY, but the broth was a bit too salty. In hindsight, I should have told the waiter this.)


Grilled Mahi Mahi; potato saffron emulsion and picholine; fennel salad (the fennel salad was so delicious and refreshing, bursting with orange deliciousness)


dessert #1: chocolate sweet potato (the sweet potato - that orange ball there - was the best part!


dessert #2: it was a grapefruit dessert...a creamy mousse component and also a light grapefruit sorbet, and a meringue of sorts







And finally the bathroom. In which I was super Chinese and took some Le Bernardin paper towels and I was quite impressed at the inclusion of pads/tampons in the toilet stalls. We forgot to take a photo of that...

Some regrets: I decided to be shameless and ask the waiter if Chef Ripert was in...and told that he just left 15 minutes ago. *SIGH*. (It was like...3:30pm at that point). Also - and this may only be of interest to my dining partner...but you know those eggs that we saw being served? They're famous, apparently. They contain chocolate crème brulée and caramel custard foam...but does not exist on the dessert menu. I saw them just randomly served but we didn't get one...I think because they ran out at that point in our meal. But hmm...maybe we weren't good enough guests?