It's been years since I have been to Mercer Kitchen and frankly I was surprised that it was even still in business given how quickly NYC restaurant fold. But I went last week for a work dinner and I was shocked to see it bumpin and more crowded than ever. I guess being smack in the middle of Soho really does re-enforce the concept of location, location, location. I forget that this was one of Jean George's earlier restaurants in the city and while I enjoyed my meal here it was definitely not up to the same standards at ABC Kitchen or ABC Cocina.
We were seated downstairs and there are tons of guys in suits having dinner there - which really surprised me. I figured the Wall Street crowd would stick to the steak houses or even the likes of Carbone to really milk their corporate card. It's not to say that Mercer isn't pricey but it never gave off that vibe of drawing in a lot of corporate clients. In any case, the downstairs space is quite nice with a fabulous open kitchen concept. I love being able to see a working kitchen and it also makes me feel like they are being extra careful in making my food knowing that everyone is watching them. Since this was a work dinner, we kind of went to town on the ordering. We started with tuna spring roll, sea bass carpaccio, sashimi salmon, crispy squid, and a dozen oysters and clams. Of all of these dishes, I liked the tuna spring roll the best as you could really taste the fresh whole chunk of tuna that was wrapped in soy wrapper. The sea bass carpaccio was also tasty but the visual presentation of it swimming in a gallon of olive oil was incredibly unappealing to me but at least once you got to the fish, it was fresh and properly thinly sliced. The sashimi salmon is their play on a crispy rice dish with the salmon sitting on a giant bed of flash fried rice with chipotle mayo and ponzu sauce. It sounded great on paper and I've had many types of similar dishes before but for some reason this one just fell flat. The rice was so incredibly heavy and it was all I could taste. Some people at the table just picked off the salmon which I don't blame them for. The crispy squid is just calamari and I thought it was a bit over battered and fried - also the presentation wasn't great as it was served with this gigantic bowl of sweet chili mayo that made you feel really awful for even eating the dish in the first place. Lastly the raw bar - totally decent oysters and clams but I've had much better at places like Lobster Joint (RIP) and Maison Premiere.
I was super stuffed from all the appetizers but no work dinner is complete without stuffing your face even more - especially in these times of reduced T&E. I went with the tagine of steam black sea bass and a side of mashed potatoes. My co-worker and I were just saying how while we both liked tagine, this probably wasn't the place to order it but I got suckered into it because I love black sea bass. I will say at least the presentation on this dish was much better than the appetizers - they did their best to really make it look authentic by serving it in a traditional clay pot and serving it with couscous and carrots flavored with cumin, raisins and orange. The sea bass was steamed well and was nice and flakey but when I think of tagines, I think of a hearty stew and this just didn't have that feel to it. Dare I say it actually seemed a bit watery and thin? Don't get me wrong the fish was very good and after eating a bunch of fried appetizers, this was a welcome respite, it just didn't feel like a tagine except in presentation. As for the mashed potatoes....oh my, liquid crack. You could tell just by looking at it that it was probably made with 5-6 sticks of butter because the whiteness of the potato was completely covered by yellow buttery goodness. Mashed potatoes are one of my greatest weaknesses and this just re-enforced my love for this incredibly unhealthy dish.
I was ready to call it a night but then other people at the table wanted dessert, so out came the butterscotch pudding, sour cream cheesecake, caramelized banana cake and a warm chocolate cake. I could only muster a few bites of the butterscotch pudding but it was a perfect pudding. Sweet, smooth and delicious. The cheesecake was also nice and creamy with a poached fig topping it. I really wished that I had more room for the desserts because they were clearly the stars of the dinner.
All in all, I had a lovely time at dinner and it was nice to see this place still getting solid business. While it was a nice dinner because it decent quality food in a lovely setting, I probably wouldn't stop in for dinner on my own given how other great restaurants there are in NYC, including JG's other top notch restaurants just a quick cab ride away.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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