 THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Gardens Restaurant Review: This formal dining room dressed in dramatic reds and golds features white linens and Limoges china settings, but the food is far more adventuresome. English chef Ashley James proclaims he once cooked “more French than the French” while working in Bordeaux, but his peripatetic career has only sharpened his skills while widening his base of ingredients. After two years in Singapore at Maxims de Paris, he enjoys seasoning Western ingredients with Asian spices, such as his seared scallop salad sitting on a bed of carrots in a lemon grass vinaigrette, or his surprising banana, lemon grass and coconut soup with cumin served with a shrimp skewer on a toasted crostini. He adapted recipes from his stint at the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires to produce a moist licorice-roasted John Dory, and serves candied tomato chimichurri with his grilled steaks and chops. We also like the black cod with roasted melon, which is very fresh for the season, as well as his Moroccan-spiced roasted Maine lobster, and Chilean sea bass with Indian-spiced cabbage and aromatic lobster-lime foam. There is a separate artisan cheese menu, but save room for the Valrhona chocolate cake with its warm gooey interior contrasting well with the accompanying dulce de leche ice cream. The best seats on a balmy night are on the patio outside, but James undercuts the stuffiness of the formal dining by serving colorful cotton candy to all patrons.
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