The Fulton Is NYC’s ‘Best Seafood Restaurant’ to Open Since 2017, Wells Writes

The Fulton — which Jean-Georges Vongerichten recently opened at Pier 17 in the Financial District — is the best seafood restaurant to open in Manhattan since Major Food Group debuted the Pool in 2017, Times critic Pete Wells declares today in a two-star review.

Mega-chef Vongerichten’s waterside restaurant excels at raw fish: Wells highlights dishes like sea trout tartare, served with raw oysters and horseradish that create a “momentary illusion that you’re eating beef,” as well as fluke topped with mint and Sichuan buttons.

As for the rest of the menu, Wells writes:

A separate menu card lets you know that most of the seafood in the main courses can be ordered “simply cooked.” I was never curious enough to try it, being too distracted by the salmon in a cumin-coriander seed crust so fragrant it turns heads; the sea bass and carrots in a life-affirming pool of lemon-turmeric sauce; and the detailed-oriented [sic] fish and crisps, a brick of flounder kept at scalding temperature by a leakproof and supernaturally crunchy buckwheat batter. Served with mashed fresh peas, it could almost pass for English if it didn’t come with saffron aioli.

Wells writes that a few dishes still need some work, namely a “generic” fish stew and the red snapper ceviche. But overall, he argues that the Fulton serves a menu “full of smart, reliably pleasurable food” — in contrast to Vongerichten’s Paris Cafe that opened around the same time at John F. Kennedy Airport, which serves “likeable pizzas and salads” that don’t necessarily impress. Two stars.