Jônt (**) – Washington, DC
My partner and I went to DC earlier this month for a quick weekend trip. I decided to splurge on one meal. I was debating between Mini Bar and Jônt. Jônt won out because the food looks like something more in line with our preference. The restaurant is located above Bresca. We arrived for our 8.15 pm reservation and was promptly escorted upstair. We walked through the dessert parlor, where the guests from the first seating round were enjoying their desserts. As I walked by, one guest spoke up "Enjoy! This is a good one." Now, I'm excited.
We were seated at the end of the counter. In front of us was an iPad with the beverage list, add-ons. One of the hosts prompy came by to offer us a glass of champagne to start. I decided to go for the wine pairing, while my partner went for the non-alcoholic pairing. We both decided to add on the Yubari Melon from Japan. While the truffle and Wagyu add-on was tempting, the price was a bit too steep for me, on top of everything else.
Pork-Red Bean-Steam Bun
Foie Gras-Blueberry-Brioche
Dungeness Crab-Kohlrabi-Tamagoyaki
Wagyu Beef-Marmite-Croustade
Tachiuo-Wakame-Caviar
The first bites were definitely one of the highlights of the meal. Each bite was packed full of flavors. Reading the ingredients, you know it’s going to be good. My favorite was their take on the Tamagoyaki and Crab.
Onagadai, green tomato, cucumber, bafun uni – a refreshing dish topped with Hokkaido sea urchin. Excellent.
Managatsuo, koji, buttermilk, caviar – this was quite a technical dish. The protein, on one side was the pomfret meat and on the other side was pomfret fishcake. The caviar on top certainly did not hurt.
Sasanishiki Rice, king crab, maitake, truffle – one of the signature dishes. The rice and the king crab were well-cooked. I found the truffle to be a bit too earthy for me, almost overwhelming. Don’t get my wrong I love truffle. This one was a bit much for me.
Pink Pineapple, baby radish, dashi, kombu oil – a palate cleanser. This was a nice break in the meal.
Lamb – Elysian Fields, Porcini, Lamb Jus – we saw the chef cooking the lamb since we first sat down. Serving just one piece of protein set up quite a high expectation of the dish. This was…fine.
Amish Yellow Chicken – the next course consists of three dishes – the breast, a tartlet of chicken liver, and a sausage. The star was supposed to be the breast, but I found it lacking. The two side dishes were excellent. After we finished the dish, we were then escorted to the dessert parlor to finish the rest of the meal.
Peach – bomb, tartlet, white chocolate. Very good.
Yubari Melon – now came the melon. This was very hyped up by our waiter in the beginning, the chef who brought the melon, and the waiter who brought the dish. Maybe I had sky high expectation. This was unfortunately not that special. It was good, but not as good as some I had in Japan. Again, maybe I had too high of an expectation?
Charcoal & Chocolate – pecan praline, grilled cream – a good dessert.
Mignardises – we were quite full at this point. They kindly put everything in a box for us to enjoy with our coffee the morning after.
Service – Good, well-executed service, as expected at this level. The highlight was we mentioned to our waiter that we are going to Japan at the end of the year and would love some recommendations. At the end of the meal, she brought a print-out list of restaurants. This was a nice touch. Other than that, I felt the service was not as warm as some of the other Michelin-starred restaurants in the US. Also, I felt like the attentiveness seemed to taper off towards the end of the meal in the dessert parlor. We weren’t offer an option to order coffee or tea.
I was a bit conflicted about Jônt. We had a good meal at Jônt, but it felt like something is missing. It peaked early with the first courses. Unfortunately, the meat dishes were the weakest to me. I don’t think Jônt is at the same level as the “top-tier” fine dining restaurants, like Singlethread and Atomix. While they use expensive, high quality ingredients, to me, the restaurant lack a story and a sense of place. It just felt like they wanted to cook expensive ingredients, with strong Japanese influences. And there’s nothing wrong with that. With the price tag, I would try other places in DC first before I come back.
by buttapopcorn
4 Comments
I know that often times the technique is in the cooking itself. His meat dishes never impress me. It’s just meat and sauce. Most of his dishes are just tarts now. It’s like he read a copy of Frantzen’s cookbook and copied only the first 10 pages.
We felt the same, it’s confusing as it checks every box for quality product and technical ability but lacks soul. The truffle crab rice was a favorite for me though.
They want 3 stars so badly but it really is a 2 star restaurant.
Thanks for the review. Haven’t been and didn’t realize Jont is that Japanese influenced
I felt like jont was missing a lot as well. Their truffle supplement is very expensive even for 2/3* nyc standard. The chef was trying super hard to sell the melon, he was going table to table showing and explaining but that night no one ordered it.
Food was fine but nothing to write home about. Some dishes had some weird textures (risotto with very al dente pieces of squash). I remember he was trying to explain shiitake mushrooms to me for one dish and was saying that they try to get mushrooms with the cap open, I was thinking, aren’t all shiitake you buy at grocery stores have an open cap? It is like saying, we try hard to source a yellow banana while all bananas in grocery stores are yellow.
Definitely a step down from atomix and singlethread. Don’t want to bash the place but usually when they start to open second locations, it becomes more of a business transaction than to make the best food. Highly do not recommend, after the tip tax and truffle add on, super not worth the price.