The Mercer Kitchen

Last night a few friends and I decided to try one of Jean Georges' restaurants - Mercer Kitchen at The Mercer Hotel (on the corner of Prince St. and Mercer St. in Soho). I had originally considered making reservations for his namesake restaurant - Jean Georges, but after my buddy Jesse posted an article in which the place was cited with 18 health code violations, I decided to scratch that idea.

The decor was uber trendy and the service was very prompt, but it was another one of those restaurants that got progressively dimmer as the night wore on - once again affecting the quality of my photos (to my major irritation, since I personally hate using flash). By the time dessert arrived, we were pretty much eating by candlelight (romantic - yes... but not necessary when it's a group of 4 girls).

We started off with drinks: Jenn ordered a Cosmo:

I decided to try their Cherry Yuzu, which tasted like cherry syrup mixed with sparkling water and some sort of citrus fruit (makes sense - since Yuzu is a type of East Asian fruit that looks like a mini wrinkled grapefruit):

For entrees, both Nicole and Niu Niu ordered the slowly baked salmon on corn pudding with cherry tomato vinaigrette. Niu Niu had requested that hers be done "rare," but was disappointed when it arrived more along the lines of "well-done." Nicole on the other hand, likes her fish cooked to a crisp, so she had no complaints. They both agreed that the corn "pudding" was actually the consistency of soup.

Jenn ordered the sea scallops, which were accompanied by pea greens ravioli and smoked bacon vinaigrette.

We also shared a side of the macaroni and cheese, which was unimpressive:

I chose the steamed red snapper, which arrived on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, and garnished with basil vinaigrette and cucumber. I thought the snapper was done perfectly, and was much more satisfied with my dish than most of the others were with theirs. Normally I'm pretty picky with my seafood, and there's nothing that gets on my nerves more than fish that has been over-done.

 

For dessert Niu Niu selected the passion fruit souffle with passion fruit ice cream. The souffle LOOKED yummy, but ended up being way too sour (unfortunately the pictures did not turn out well, so I'm opting not to include them). I chose the warm Valrhona chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream, which tasted like all the other molten chocolate cakes that I've ever had. Jenn ordered the local strawberries with strawberry infusion and strawberry red wine sorbet. She liked her dessert the best - probably because she was so amused by the mini-size of her strawberries. Each one was similar in shape and size to those lemon-head candies we used to pig-out on in grade school.

Overall rating: 6.5/10 (although I thought my entree deserved a 7-8/10, the salmon was rated a 2 by the others...)

The Mercer Kitchen
99 Prince Street
New York, NY 10012