Per Se drops to 2-stars. After reading review, rating should be minus 1-star.

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

At Thomas Keller’s Per Se, Slips and Stumbles

NY Times drops rating from **** to **

In a development that is rocking the rarified foodie world, New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells, issued a 2-star rating to the oft-proclaimed “greatest restaurant in America,” Per Se. The Times’ previous rating for Per Se was 4-stars, the highest rating the Times awards.

Per Se, the New York outpost of chef Thomas Keller, owner of the legendary French Laundry in the Napa Valley, opened in the Time Warner Center in 2004 to near universal acclaim.

But times have changed.

Among Wells’ criticisms of the $3,000, four-hour dinner:

•  A server picked up a napkin dropped on the floor without pausing to see whose lap it was missing from;
•  The bacon-wrapped cylinder of quail was placed on top of a dismal green pulp of cooked romaine lettuce, rendering it crunchy and mushy at once;
• The mushroom potpie was a swampy mess due to the gluey, oily liquid in which it was sitting;
• The yam dumplings were limp and dispiriting;
• The lukewarm matsutake mushroom bouillon was murky and appealing as bong water;
• The sabayon in oysters and pearls had broken and separated, so fat pooled above the tapioca;
• And, in the ultimate indignity, wine glasses sat empty through entire courses and the table was set so haphazardly for dessert that a spoon ended up next to a water glass instead of a plate. Mon dieu! 

When contacted for comments, Per Se spokesperson, Pierre Pompousberg, said, “Frankly, we’re very disappointed by Mr. Wells’ review but, make no mistake, Mr. Keller takes the comments seriously and changes will be made.”

As a first and immediate next step, Pompousberg announced that  “Clearly, $3,000 for a dinner for four is far too little for us to ensure we have the best chefs and wait staff and still make an outrageous profit, so, starting next week, we will raise the price of our meals to $4,000.” 

Pompousberg took issue with only two aspects of Wells' review saying, "Regarding the napkin incident, we stand firmly behind our server. After our recent lap-staring harassment suit, our servers have been meticulously trained never to scrounge around, or even look at our patrons' laps."

And, in speaking of Wells' criticism of the bacon-wrapped quail cylinder, Pompousberg, said, "Mr. Wells clearly didn't understand Mr. Keller's intention; simultaneous crunchy and mushy is precisely the effect the chef was attempting to achieve," calling it "cooked romaine lettuce nirvana."