It's been said to me a time or two that my love affair with food can sometimes be a curse, because with an uncultivated palette, mediocrity at its best can still tantalize the tongue and satisfy the stomach. But between various cities, countries, with five star dining and hidden culinary treasures among street markets or carts,  it's difficult to consume anything that I'm not in love with.

To close out restaurant week, my friends and I decided to try out JSIX,  because their lounge always comes highly recommended, due to their chic decor and rooftop views.   Also they were one of the few restaurants that opened up their entire menu for "restaurant week" as opposed to a pre-fix selection of items.  Another bonus was that they offered drink specials as add ons to any dinner choice.

Before dinner came a bread basket with one of the most amazing olive tapenade spreads I've had in quite sometime, but sadly this is the climax of our culinary experience.  Between the 7 of us, we were all able to try a bit of everything and here's are my thoughts based on each dish that I ordered.


Line Caught Hawaiian Ahi Tuna Tartar
olive vinaigrette, pine nuts, orange essence
-- 
start with good ingredients and you'll get a good dish.  The Tuna was fresh and the pine nuts were a great textural addition but all the flavors were surprisingly very muted.  Added a bit of the olive dip and it was much better.

Grilled Mano de Leon Scallops
roasted yellow and red peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and tofie pasta
--
Scallops were cooked perfectly, but overly seasoned. I think I needed half a glass of water after the scallops, yet the pasta was incredibly bland. the peppers were a wonderful visual addition, but there was no cohesive flavor marrying all these items together.

Creme BruleeI don't want to post the picture I took of this dish because I feel like the shot would make it appear that I'm trying to make things worst than they were.  The sugar crust was crunchy and perfect, but once that shell broke my custard was replaced with some sort of curdled watery mixture.  I think they didn't let the custard settle long enough.  To top that off, the server insisted that I didn't know what Creme Brulee was supposed to be like, and that the custard was how it should be.  I tried explaining that had there been custard, I'd be fine, but instead I received some egg, water bath.  Finally she asked if I would like another one and I said once was quite enough. 

Other dishes I nibbled on included their steak which was good, the short ribs which was also ok, and ravioli which was also decent. 

Overall, I can say I've had worst, but at roughly $60 a person, I think the quality of flavors and such could have been much better.  More than anything I think I was annoyed at the conveyed atmosphere which was "you're lucky to get to dine here". 

While JSIX is not completely fine dining, there is a suggested luxe about the place, I just wish their food exhibited the same. 

Final thought? Average at best.