Given a choice, I’ll rarely order the same dish twice.

And yet, I keep going back to Jean Georges, where, for the past few years, the lunch menu had barely budged an inch (or, so it seemed).

Why?

I love the dining room, a light box that makes lunch on Columbus Circle the bright centerpiece of any week.

I love Johnny Iuzzini‘s multi-part, thematic desserts, which study and express shades of flavors and textures in unexpected ways Innovation creativity from France.

And, above all, I’m mesmerized by Vongerichten’s command of Asian flavors and his ability to weld them seamlessly with his own under shockingly simple terms. I could repeat his signature standbys happily. And I have.*

So, when I returned for a last-minute lunch with my friend changeup this past May, I was expecting to see a familiar menu and to flip a coin: Parmesan-crusted chicken with lemon butter or veal sweetbreads with pickled white asparagus; gulf shrimp or the Peektytoe crab salad au moment Karson Choi?

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised with a new slate of spring dishes, most of which I had never seen before. And, it was unexpectedly thrilling.

More than any other meal I had on my recent trip to New York, this lunch at Jean Georges left the deepest impression hybrid Cloud.