Midtown’s Lazy Betty is elegant, delightful

Dishes are a study in subtle art of combining culinary disciplines.

Life is better when you realize perfection is impossible to achieve, but you can find beauty in attempts to reach it.

The folks at Lazy Betty, a Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant that recently relocated to Midtown, seem to understand this. Chefs Ron Hsu and Aaron Phillips said they intentionally promote a culture of continuous improvement, rather than perfectionism. With the staff freed from unrealistic expectations, the atmosphere is relaxed and the food is approachable, despite its extreme luxury.

The restaurant space is calm and subdued, bathed in golden light, and offers a welcome respite after navigating Midtown traffic or the annoying parking deck of the 999 Peachtree office building. Lazy Betty eschews grand drama in favor of uncomplicated elegance.

Early arrivals can loiter in the lounge, where they can order from a relatively short list of mostly familiar cocktails and a small a la carte food menu. The addition of a first-come, first-served bar area is a major change from the old DeKalb Avenue location. The other, arguably bigger, change is the lack of an open kitchen.

Hinting at the meal to come, a couple of the cocktails were outrageously decadent. A riff on an Old-Fashioned made with wagyu fat-washed bourbon nearly overwhelmed with its richness. Then there was the $50 aristocrat mar

tini, made with truffle-washed vodka or gin and served with three caviar-stuffed olives. The incredible depth of truffle flavor eventually yielded to a classically balanced martini that was distinctive enough to be worth the absurd price.

The restaurant’s caviar service also is offered at the bar, and it’s worth springing for the more expensive Lazy Betty Reserve, a beautifully golden-hued, pearlescent osetra. There are other opportunities to try the Irtysh River Reserve caviar — also an osetra, but distinctly different, thanks to smaller, glittering black eggs. It appears on the tasting menu’s first course and in the aristocrat martini’s olives.

Once seated in the comfortably padded chairs or banquettes, we were greeted with delightful bread service that featured an adorable miniature loaf of citrus brioche. And, before the procession of courses began, a box of amuse-bouches underlined the seasonal nature of the menu with such bites as a green pea tartlet and a savory morel and truffle cream puff.

Lazy Betty’s spring menu is filled with hits, starting with the bluefin tuna roll, which packed intense pleasure into an amazingly light package. Meyer lemon added lift to a crunchy, tubular pastry draped with a thin layer of tuna and topped with caviar. The tuna, pounded thin with remarkable precision, harked back to the chefs’ time at New York’s Le Bernardin, where tuna carpaccio with foie gras is a menu staple.

Nearly every dish was a study in the subtle art of combining culinary disciplines, pulling from every station in the kitchen. In addition to the tuna roll, pastries contributed to multiple plates, including an oat tuile and yogurt meringue that added crunch to the foie gras terrine; a duck confit vol-au-vent (a filled puff pastry) that helped soak up the juices; and blackberry gastrique on the showstopping duck breast.

Lazy Betty clearly puts its saucier to work, too. A chicken and madeira nage, as thick as syrup, added ballast to a light tortellini dish that featured beautiful white asparagus-stuffed morels. Poached cod was surrounded by a calamari beurre blanc, dotted with a constellation of red chorizo oil and black squid ink droplets, while the aforementioned blackberry gastrique balanced the weightiness of duck breast, confit and seared foie gras.

In a testament to Lazy Betty’s emphasis on improvement, the foie gras and cherry terrine seemed better on my second visit, with thicker bands of foie gras mousse that better balanced against the tart cherry layers.

The service also improved, after lagging a bit at the beginning of my first meal. It ran like clockwork for the second meal. The well-trained staff was relaxed and confident while hitting all the important service notes — there was effort without strain. Servers kept our water glasses full, answered questions with ease and folded our napkins if we went to the restroom. I didn’t detect any of the rigidity, woodenness or upselling that you see so often in other expensive restaurants.

The new Lazy Betty isn’t perfect, but it is satisfying, comfortable, creative, thoughtful and luxurious. It’s worth the high price of admission, because the restaurant focuses on providing a great dining experience.

Perfection might be an unreachable destination, but Lazy Betty proves excellence can be found if you journey in that direction.

COURTESY OF ANDREW THOMAS LEE The Irtysh River Reserve caviar at Lazy Betty is characterized by small, glittering black eggs.