Le Jardinier | Gluten-free in New york

Daniel Southwick
18/07/2024

1

I recently celebrated my birthday at this restaurant, hoping for a memorable evening, but it turned out to be an incredibly disappointing experience. Despite booking a private room, it took four hours to serve five courses. Repeated requests to expedite the service were ignored, leading to an excessively long wait. During this wait, a friend gifted me a bottle of sake. I was merely holding it when the manager, Nikolas Stark, abruptly entered the room without inquiry. He rudely seized the bottle and unjustly blamed one of our guests, who was unaware of their three-bottle policy. Although I offered to surrender the bottle and explained the misunderstanding, Nikolas’s attitude remained shockingly disrespectful. Their policy allows only three bottles of wine with a $75 corkage fee, which I accepted, but Nikolas’s approach was unacceptable. His behavior was not just poor service—it was outright unprofessional and offensive. He singled out our group, made derogatory remarks, and even threatened to eject us, which was deeply insulting. I was compliant with the policy, but Nikolas’s attitude and the mismanagement by the event staff were intolerable. When I voiced my dissatisfaction, Nikolas's response was, "You guys can leave right now." Firstly, my friend was unaware of the three-bottle rule and had not signed any contract with the restaurant or Nikolas. I was only holding the sake bottle as a gift, not opening it. Secondly, the waiting time for food was unbearably slow, and we often had to pour our own wine and water. The presence of cameras in the room made us feel constantly watched. The most frustrating part was Nikolas’s disregard for our concerns about the dining experience, focusing solely on the unopened sake bottle. He even mentioned his right to ask us to leave at any time. His approach to customer service was far below the standards expected at a Michelin-rated establishment. Additionally, we were forced to leave a 20% tip and a 6% overhead admin fee for such subpar service. I would not recommend this restaurant under Nikolas’s management to anyone.

Christopher Tanski
29/12/2023

2

TL;DR: 4/5 star food, 1/5 service. Should be stripped of their michelin star until they can get their front-of-house in order. Review: I'm just going to rip the band-aid off now, and say in all of my years of going to restaurants, from chain restaurants to Michelin star restaurants, I have never been made to feel less "valued" as a customer than at Le Jardinier. The restaurant should be stripped of it's Michelin Star because of how poor the service is alone. My wife and I have been looking forward to trying this place for months now as we saved up to take a Christmas trip into NYC. We were excited for the tasting menu most of all. We excitedly confirmed with our waitress that the tasting menu was gluten-free for my wife and let her know we were most likely going to do it. She leaves, says she'll come back to take a drink order, but she never returns. Instead, our first course shows up, and another guy eventually comes around to take a drink order. From that first course up until the dessert plates were cleared, our waitress never came back to check on us, never asked if we needed anything, no one asked if we wanted another glass of wine or a cocktail. The waitress ignored us for the entire 2.5 hour ordeal. It wasn't a 2.5 hour ordeal to appropriately space the tasting menu mind you. If it was, they would have been interested in selling more drinks to us at the very least. The food was just slow. The wait staff even dropped the desserts at our table without so much as a word about what was in them until we had to ask because my wife was nervous about the cookie-like thing on the bottom of hers. Meanwhile, the customers to our left and right were being waited on consistently by the waitress. She was chatting both tables up. Their water was constantly topped off. The disparity in service was so profound we both just wanted to leave by the fourth course. So, how WAS the food? It was...fine. The first item, HIRAMASA, GRAPEFRUIT, JICAMA, AVOCADO MOUSSE, BAY LEAF, was fresh, good acidity and use of textures, and it was plated beautifully. It was a nice start to the meal for sure. The second item was SAVOY CABBAGE "LASAGNA" CELERY ROOT, HAZELNUTS, BLACK TRUFFLE." It had a nice savory, earthy flavor profile to it and was pretty tasty. The third dish was surprisingly underwhelming, POACHED MAINE LOBSTER, CREAMY POLENTA, CORALINE BISQUE It was very one-note in it's flavor profile and my poached lobster was overcooked. Rather disappointing. The fourth course was the LONG ISLAND CRESCENT DUCK, ROASTED SALSIFY, KUMQUATS. The duck was just salty. If there was other seasoning on it, I couldn't tell because it was licking a salt cube. The cook was impeccable though, so they definitely get points for that. The dessert I had was THE PUMPKIN PATCH, AUTUMN SPICE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE, CANDIED GINGER ICE CREAM. It was visually impressive, but your mileage may vary depending on how you care for flavors like pumpkin or ginger. I will say though, their patissier is very skilled.

Beth Rota
20/06/2019

4

Very nice interior, sleek, with leafy greenery wrapping the dining room. Tables and chairs were a comfortable size, banquette seating available. Food was excellent. Gluten free bread served for the table. We did 2 savory course, cheese, then dessert. Wine service was a bit awkward, did not flow as smoothly as other NYC high end restaurants - red was not cellar temp. All the other aspects of service were on par however, friendly host, knowledgeable captain, polite back waiters/runners . Very good over all experience