April 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Gilded Age is over. Thomas Keller’s Per Se, once New York’s most exclusive restaurant with a two-month wait for reservations, is now courting walk-ins for dinner at the bar.

And those pedestrians are being offered an a la carte lounge menu that’s cheaper, if not necessarily cheap. Try $40 for a single scallop.

If it’s any consolation, that scallop is a giant four-star mollusk -- caramelized on the outside, rare within -- paired with a dill-flecked aioli that keeps the sweetness of the shellfish in check. But is it worth $40?

The 64-seat Columbus Circle eatery was once a temple to a booming Manhattan. The nine-course meal started at $150 in 2004. Then it slowly climbed with the stock market: The chef’s or vegetable tasting menus reached $275 in 2008 (that number now includes a service charge). Still, tables would fill up. Vigilance and a good speed-dial button were necessary.

Now, same-week seats are easy to come by. And in an effort to lower the barrier to entry, Per Se has introduced a “salon menu” at the 24-seat lounge with more reasonable prices: $24 to $46 for savory dishes. They are the same quality and portion size you’d get on the prix-fixe. A light meal -- three plates plus dessert and wine -- will run about $160 per person.

That’s the catch: You’ll spend less, but you’ll eat less too -- unless you count filling up on free amuses before, chocolates after, and bread in-between. And that’s the added value: You still get the Per Se treatment.

Delicious Dough

Sample the soft, malty pretzel sticks. Then order the foie gras. No one does it better than Keller. A long pink slab is less of a livery terrine, more of an airy mousse. Kumquats, with notes of bitter and sweet, cut the richness.

This is how Per Se earned its laurels: assembling creations of gustatory ecstasy and sustaining the culinary bliss over three long hours. And because this experience wasn’t available elsewhere, the price seemed justified then. The $40 foie gras is still justified now.

But some of those dishes don’t translate in the salon.

Al dente agnolotti, just bigger than a thimble, hold wallops of creamy polenta. There are seven bites. Keller has said he wants you to exclaim “God, I wish I had just one more bite of that,” before another course enraptures you. In the salon you’re more likely to say: “God, I just blew 28 bucks, I have to order more food now?”

Per Se should be wary of such pitfalls in the era of Corton, Momofuku Ko and Craft, which serve four-star fare at more affordable prices. If the food is equally ambitious and almost as refined at those venues, why pay so much more for the Per Se treatment?

Cost Analysis

Take the gnocchi. I counted a handful of dumplings for $26. The sweet knobs dissolve into a potatoey fluff. Pecorino adds depth. Then you remember the parmesan- and butter-swathed gnocchi are just as good at Craft, which charges $8.

Butter-poaching lobster “loads the flavor of butter into the meat,” Keller writes in “The French Laundry Cookbook.” It’s so tender “some people think it’s not completely cooked.” That accurately describes the generous, silky-as-sashimi portion I received at Corton (three-course prix-fixe with lobster supplement, $88), not the $40, two-ounce lobster tail at Per Se, which tasted like any other version.

The beef cap is everything a good steak should be: rare, obscenely marbled, and with good char. Except it’s not a steak, per se. It’s a two-ounce slice of a steak. Cost: $46.

Waiters

But salon diners are exposed to the mind-reading and accommodative wait staff, probably the city’s best. When I said I wasn’t interested in the vegetarian selections, my server had the chef whip up a batch of sweet beets and angostura gelee -- a genius pairing of cool, earthy flavors.

Advice: Keller is at his best with vegetables, so ask the restaurant for more of those selections in the salon. And the tiny soups sometimes sent out to regulars -- I had nettle veloute with black truffle mousse -- should become a fixed part of the meals for everyone.

With lean, mean competitors, Per Se needs to improve its value. Dramatically.

Rating (Salon only): ***

The Bloomberg Questions

Cost? $275 dinner; $175 weekend lunch; $24-$46 for a la carte savory dishes in the salon. Service is included.

Sound level? High heels clicking on Italian bronze floors

Date place? Take a couch for canoodling; but the bar itself is better for dining.

Inside tip? My $20 gin with house-made tonic, a signature cocktail here, was inexcusably watery. The small ice cubes dilute too quickly.

Special feature? You can tell friends you ate at Per Se without lying.

Private room? Yes, but no salon menu.

Will I be back? For the foie gras and wait staff.

Per Se is at 10 Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center. Information: +1-212-823-9335; http://www.perseny.com.

What the Stars Mean:
****         Incomparable food, service, ambience.
***          First-class of its kind.
**           Good, reliable.
*            Fair.
No stars     Poor.

(Ryan Sutton writes about New York City restaurants for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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Last Updated: April 15, 2009 00:01 EDT