Fifteen Years Later, Nougatine Gets Its Due

Angel Franco for the TimesPete Wells' review of Nougatine this week is the restaurant's first Times review in its 15-year run.  "It has never been reviewed before in The New York Times, and it rarely comes up in conversations about favorite Vongerichten restaurants, although it is one of the most dependable." 

Wells has a few theories as to why Nougatine never got reviewed, "There’s that slightly embarrassing name, which suggests a shop that sells chocolates or lingerie or maybe both."  "The biggest reason Nougatine never quite emerged from the long shadow of its sister may have been its design, meant originally as a hotel lounge."

In April of this year, the restaurant got a makeover from architect Thomas Juul-Hansen.  The result?  "Nougatine feels like a destination."  Wells is grateful for the adjustment and finds a new window into the kitchen provides a glimpse of the cooks, "and often Mr. Vongerichten."  New tables, chairs, and mirrors make Nougatine a "livelier, more kinetic space" than its sister restaurant next door; Jean Georges.

Like the former dining room, some of the dishes on the menu could use a makeover, like the Cantonese-style lobster dish, where Wells found the warm slaw that comes with it better than "the chewy lobster meat itself."  There is something called a "lobster burger" that is "interred, bizarrely, under green chile mayonnaise and a blanket of melted Gruyère."  And, "If a French-born chef serves fries, you expect more than the pale and not terribly crunchy ones at Nougatine." 

Wells harped on a handful of dishes that strike out at Nougatine, but the lively new room, Jean Georges Vongerichten's New York legacy, and all the dishes he does well on the menu at Nougatine earn the restaurant two stars.