Jonesin' for Jojo

My first flirtation with a Jean-Georges Vongerichten took place last week, when I visited Jojo with my girlfriends Vanessa and Ludette. It was nice.

Jojo is just one of many upper crust restos that have decided to extend their discounted restaurant week, in the absence of big spending Wall Streeters. Jojo, in fact, takes this one step further and is now offering $24 lunch and $35 dinner menus all year round (same goes for Jean-Georges establishments Vong, Mercer Kitchen and Nougatine, although Nougatine only serves discounted dinner menus from Sundays to Fridays between 5:30-6:30PM and between 10-11PM). Lunch seems to be a better deal for Jojo as you have a lot more choices and of course, pay less. The downer, though, is that the famous warm chocolate cake is not on the discounted lunch menu.

Even without it, however, the meal was exceptional. We all started with the sweet potato creme fraiche ravioli with parmesan sauce and basil. I thought it looked a lot like Park Avenue Winter's ravioli starter, but all resemblance ended with appearances. The filling was pleasantly sweet and creamy, and tasted wonderful coated in a light parmesan sauce flavored with basil and rosemary.

For my entree, I ordered the salmon, which was slowly baked and served with truffled mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and truffle vinaigrette. I asked for it to be cooked medium rare, but I didn't think it was rare enough because I was so convinced it was medium that I switched plates with Vanessa. Three bites into the salmon though, we realized mine was the rarer of the two and switched back. That said, the salmon was amazing. The meat was soft and flavorful and the truffled mashed potatoes were simply addictive.

Vanessa and I coveted Ludette's order: grilled prawns on a bed of lemon risotto and caramelized fennel. The creamy, citrusy risotto was absolutely delicious. Gotta order myself an entire plate next time. For dessert, I picked a warm pineapple tart with almond cream, poached pineapple and pineapple sorbet. It was a great way to cap the meal: not too rich nor too filling.

One thing that I didn't like, though, was the service. Our waitress had a bit of an unpleasant manner. When my friend, for example, asked her to repeat the dessert choices (mind you there was no physical dessert menu so it's not unreasonable to ask her to repeat it), she started with an annoyed, "Like I said, the dessert is ... " Is it really necessary to act so impatient with the customers? I felt that perhaps she wasn't very keen on our table because we didn't order wine and really just ordered the discounted menu. But jeez, we were there on a lunch break and were in no mood to drink! I think that if the establishment she works for has enough sense to adjust its prices to the new economy, she should maybe consider adjusting her attitude too. Also, she never came back to close out or tab. We had to ask the runners and finally, a guy who seemed like the manager, bring us our tab. Really annoying for us, who actually had to hurry back to work to pay for our meals.

That said, I'd definely come back to try more dishes. There are so many intriguing choices on that menu, I'd cough up the $24 for a fantastic lunch anytime.

Where: 160 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10021. Tel. (212) 223-5656