I think it would be a big mistake to take the 9:30 reservation on a Friday or a Saturday.

I've had I think nine dinners at Per Se, however, they were all shortly after the place opened, and I haven't been back in years. So what I'm saying is based on past experience at Per Se, plus general knowledge about dining in New York, rather than recent experience at Per Se.

First of all, if it's your first dinner at Per Se, you'll probably want to order their tasting menu. It takes a good while to get through that. I once started the menu at 8:00, and didn't finish until 2 AM. Part of that was because they added a few extra complimentary courses. And part of it was that the restaurant was still relatively new, and the servers weren't as fast as they could have been. But still, if you start at 9:30, you won't finish until well after midnight. And I find it hard to properly enjoy serious food that late at night.

My opinion of Per Se is generally not so positive (hence my failure to return for a few years). However, I'll say this for them: they won't rush you through a meal just so they can turn a table. In fact, I found the service to be occasionally on the painfully slow side, although that may well have improved a lot in the past few years.

The atmosphere in virtually every high-end New York restaurant changes dramatically on Friday and Saturday nights. There's a big influx of guests who drive into town from the suburbs, and whose approach to an expensive meal is very different from that of the weeknight crowd. As such an event is more of a rare and special occasion for them, they tend to order more food and drinks, and spend a lot of money. Some of them tend to stretch out interactions with the staff, asking lots of questions about certain dishes, taking photos, etc. They'll order every optional extra: the pre-dinner cocktail, the cheese course, dessert, coffee, after-dinner drink... Frequently these "big nights out" are accompanied by rather heavy drinking, which often started even before the party arrived at the restaurant. So the noise level is sometimes much higher than during the week. It's basically more of a party, and less of an environment designed for concentrating on food. Frankly, the increase in noise level was a lot less pronounced at Per Se in its early days than at most restaurants. But I suspect that, as the restaurant has become better known, you'll get a lot of high-rolling partiers coming into town to spend as much money as possible.

That may or may not seem attractive to you. But either way, the weekend suburban visitors end up placing far greater demands on the kitchen and front of house staff. Food quality may decline somewhat, but the quality of service certainly will.

When I was doing a lot of serious restaurant dining in New York, I made every effort not to go to the better and more expensive restaurants on weekend nights. When I had to do so (and that was very often, unfortunately), I went as early as possible. Ideally no later than 6:00 or 6:30, unless I was going to a restaurant that was immune to the suburban influx effect.

Your individual preferences may vary. For you, the sense of the evening as enjoyable experience simply may not work if you're having a super-early dinner, and you may prefer a slowier, noisier, rowdier meal that starts at a later hour. But if you're there mainly for the food, then you should absolutely, positively, no question about it go as early as possible. I think the chef would say the same thing.

hawksbill, your "haven't been back for years" may be technically correct, but since Per Se has only been open for three years, it somehow seems misleading.

And although I've not been there, I'm willing to bet you the cost of a meal there, that 6 hours is NOT the norm for a tasting menu there.

I will agree, however, that fine restaurants are not at their best on weekends as opposed to weeknights. Just like Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve -- no person in his right mind should go to a really fine place on those nights.

Becca:

If you haven't already given up the 5:45 reservation, I suggest you keep that and cancel the Saturday 9:30. When I ate there, we went at 9:30. Our meal did not end until after 2 am. As I said in a previous post, the meal was fantastic. But it was also quite rich and if I had my pick of reservation times, I would want to go early. The service at Per Se is impeccable and I highly doubt you will feel rushed if you go early.

Hawksbill: The only option at Per Se is which tasting menu to go with -- are you sure you ate here?

Yes, I think they finally opened in about May of 2004, right? Most of my meals there were in the Summer and Fall of 2004, and I think the last one was probably around March of 2005. Basically about 2.5 years ago.

In New York foodist circles, the opening of Per Se was the most widely anticipated restaurant openings in years. Decades, probably. A lot of us went back over and over again to check the place out thoroughly, and ultimately lost interest when it became clear that it just wasn't what we had hoped it would be.

There were a lot of interviews with Chef Keller during the planning process, in which he candidly expressed how difficult and exhausting it was, trying to realize his perfectionistic vision in a restaurant 3000 miles away from his home. Ultimately I think he realized that he would either fail, or make an unreasonable sacrifice in the course of succeeding.

My sense is that he quite reasonably just gave up on Per Se. He sold out, if you will. I think this conclusion was supported by his opening of a restaurant in Las Vegas (never a sign of a chef's focusing his efforts!) I can't blame Keller at all for doing this. After rising to the very top of his profession at Per Se, doing such great work for such a long time, in such a small restaurant that couldn't have brought in too much revenue, he deserved to finally make some big money, even if it did cheapen his name.

I'm not as active in foodist circles as I once was, but I don't know any serious foodists who even go to Per Se anymore.

Hawksbill, although I don't disagree with much of your commentary about weeknight vs. weekend dining at high-end restaurants, I must take a bit of an issue with your assertion that serious "foodies" don't take Per Se seriously anymore. I guess it is a bit over a year ago now, but when I was there late summer 2006, sitting at the table across from me were Ruth Reichel, Burt Wolff and a third very familiar NY food person, whose face I could not place. They were having a great time and loved their dinner (as did I!).
For what it's worth, I agree with the other posters about the earlier reservation - of course it's personal preference, but if I'm eating such wonderful rich food, I like to do it earlier rather than later. And my experiences of the service at Thomas Keller restaurants, although limited, were never less than gracious. Becca, I think you will have a lovely time, no matter when you dine.

I agree with hawksbill .. Per Se is "old news" for serious New York restaurant goers and, particularly on weekends, is now overwhelmed with tourists & those with a "check-the-box" mentality.