Re: High-end Dining: Expectations and Reviews
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for what i would consider "high end" i expect more than i expect ... just leave saying wow, i had no idea...
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limon,
I feel very strongly about this. The meals that I qualify as "the best I've ever eaten" all have this "whoa, that was really great and (as you said) transcendent." If it was just some nice food, I don't get that. For example while you can spend a lot of money at a steakhouse, there's basically nothing that comes out of the kitchen that doesn't taste at least very close to what you expect. There's no surprises. I think that you nailed it though, when I pay a lot for "an Italian dinner" instead of just eating at a local fairly nice place, I'm expecting to get something on the lines of "well I hadn't had anything like that before, wow!"
Noah,
I definitely don't want to see this turn in to a tipping thread, but I'd like to address a couple issues:
-I don't think I've ever spent 5 hours in a family restaurant unless you count hanging around, drinking and watching a game "spending time." But I get your point. You could "eat dinner" and pay less to the server somewhere else, so the service should be damn good. I totally agree.
-In general most high-end places only hire people to wait tables who have good resumes, and have worked their way up the food world. The interview processes can be pretty ridiculous in terms of just taste recognition, knowledge, etc. The largest lack of knowledge I've sen at good places are:
"I'll get the sommelier to help you with the wine" and
"I'm sorry, I haven't had a chance to taste that yet as it is new to the menu, but I have heard x from customers so far."
The only place that sticks out in my mind for the service having a pretty gaping flaw was at Charlie Trotter's. Our waiter saw and heard us commenting on the reviews/top 10 lists they have framed on the wall and talking about another restaurant and at some points stuck his head in to join the conversation. I thought this was pretty wildly inappropriate, but led to a couple of funny moments during dinner.
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