At Four Twenty Five, two top-tier chefs, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jonathan Benno, dazzle with a surprising and sumptuous menu.
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Melissa Clark, an interim restaurant critic, ate four times at Four Twenty Five, and has a long history of dining at Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jonathan Benno’s restaurants.
Four Twenty FiveNYT Critic’s Pick★★★New American$$$$425 Park Avenue, Midtown212-751-6921Reserve a Table
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The announcement that the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten was opening a restaurant in a glassy skyscraper on Park Avenue didn’t surprise me. A madly prolific international restaurateur, he seems to open restaurants like browser tabs (56 to date). My ears perked up when I heard that the new place, Four Twenty Five, was to be a haute cuisine restaurant, Mr. Vongerichten’s first in New York City since 1997, when he debuted the dizzyingly innovative, four-star Jean-Georges.
But when I learned that the kitchen would be helmed by Jonathan Benno, the Per Se veteran whose own celebrated restaurants, Benno and Leonelli, sadly closed during the pandemic? That was a shock.
Two megawatt celebrity chefs in one kitchen is practically unheard-of, besides being proverbially too many. And this particular pairing is doubly unexpected, because while Mr. Vongerichten is a notorious renegade, famous for his boldly spiced, Asian-inflected global cuisine, Mr. Benno is an ingredient-driven purist, hewing closer to French and Italian tradition. Translating all of these influences into a cohesive menu is a big challenge. Would their disparate styles emulsify, like wine and butter, into a beautiful beurre blanc? Or would the mixture break?
At first glance, Four Twenty Five seems to be playing it safe. Fluke crudo, baby beets and winter squash agnolotti are all comfortingly familiar, verging on dull. You can order the obligatory Wagyu beef as a tenderloin or a strip steak, depending on your penchant for chewing and the depth of your pockets (the tenderloin is $84 and the strip is $118). Throw in the butter-poached lobster and caviar for the expense-account crowd, and pretty much all the usual boxes have been ticked.
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