High-end Dining: Expectations and Reviews

[Fast Food Knight]

I love the melting pot. Definitely do the oil broth for the meat in my opinion, yeah it's bad for you, but the flavor is WAY better than the other broths.

Also make sure you do a cheese, meat, AND dessert. The salad is forgettable.

[citanul]

Pitt,

While I had a pretty awful experience at the melting pot, and haven't really found much distinction between any 2 random fondue places, the melting pot does a good job of being a chain with some class to it, that serves food competently, that is tasty, etc. I think one thing I really learned was that it's definitely not a place to go with more than 2 people. totally agree on the salad as well. things come out tasty but i always have the suspicion that if somene else had done the cooking on the main dish, it would taste better. thus, as they should be, i think, the cheese and dessert are the stars of the show, and at the melting pot, i was not disappointed.

[PITTM]

[ QUOTE ]
I love the melting pot. Definitely do the oil broth for the meat in my opinion, yeah it's bad for you, but the flavor is WAY better than the other broths.

Also make sure you do a cheese, meat, AND dessert. The salad is forgettable.

[/ QUOTE ]

for sure, i think we;re just gonna do the big night out thing or whatever, where its like 88 dollars and you get everything. any ideas for a good wine pairing with fondue?

['Chair]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I love the melting pot. Definitely do the oil broth for the meat in my opinion, yeah it's bad for you, but the flavor is WAY better than the other broths.

Also make sure you do a cheese, meat, AND dessert. The salad is forgettable.

[/ QUOTE ]

for sure, i think we;re just gonna do the big night out thing or whatever, where its like 88 dollars and you get everything. any ideas for a good wine pairing with fondue?

[/ QUOTE ]

I suck at wine, but I would just pick something you like...maybe even google for common pairings with your proteins (sirloin &or fillet/lobster/shrimp if you are doing the big night out). Don't ask the server's opinion (its just not that kind of place).


stuff your mushrooms and then batter them...yummmmmmmmmm

[gumpzilla]

I'm not a Melting Pot fan. I think for the amount of money/time you spend (I recall it being a pretty lengthy dinner), you could do a lot better just about always.

[PITTM]

[ QUOTE ]

I suck at wine, but I would just pick something you like...

[/ QUOTE ]

thats the problem, i suck at wine too and have no idea what i like. someone else always ends up ordering.

[Eagles]

Something to add on pudge's review he didn't eat the shrimp cocktail but it was great. The shrimp are gigantic you only get 3 with this cocktail but they're probably 4-6oz. They're just served with cocktail sauce but they're very high quality and delicious.

Also I never really ate foiegras until recently and I can't believe I didn't it's just fantastic.

[hanster]

is LA very limited in terms of high end dining? seems like only LFS have mentioned the city in general. If possible could anyone give some reviews besides LFS's restaurants (which i will check out soon)? I've been to geisha house and porter bistro and stinkin roses but these just seem to be what college students consider "high end (fine) dining"

[Aloysius]

Hanster - I linked to this, but prolly got lost in the thread. It's an old review I did of AOC (sometime last year). Myself and Limon have mentioned other LA places worth checking out.
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Thought I'd post a trip report to this restaurant, as it enjoys immense popularity but is expensive:

I took my friend Aileen for a belated birthday dinner to A.O.C. (Appellation d'Origine Contrôllée). This is a very image conscious restaurant, and they try hard to cultivate a “sleek, modern, vibrant” dining experience. It is often referred to as a “food and wine bar”, and for walk-ins, there is a full-length bar where I believe the entire menu is available. However, most people go for the formal dining experience and you need reservations (there is a downstairs dining area that bleeds into the bar, and an upstairs dining room).

I’ve been twice before, but not in a year, so based on hearing some recent negative reviews of the place I was curious to check it out again.

Getting Seated / 1st Impressions: Walking in, the “energy” in the room was palpable. This is not necessarily a good thing, as it was fairly loud, but this is the by-product of the downstairs dining area and the bar residing in the same room. (It is much quieter upstairs IIRC, but fairly cramped.) Pretty "industry" crowd. Guys wearing blazers, chicks looking nice etc.

The décor, as in my previous visits, was standard “modern-chic” with a lot of whites accented by beige and dark woods. Completely unoffensive, very uninspired. But you know, pretty good-looking overall. There was a long line of people waiting for tables / seats at the bar. Despite being ~20 minutes late for our 8:15 reservation, we were promptly seated downstairs.

The Food: A.O.C. features a “small plate” menu (French, some Mediterranean elements) broken out by charcuterie, fish, meat, vegetables. They range in price from $8-$18 dollars a plate. They also have a fairly extensive cheese selection ($5 for 1, $15 for 3 cheeses). My friend and I decided to order 5 plates, a cheese and a bottle of wine.

Here is their full menu.

Here’s what we ordered:

Wine – 2001 Stags Leap Cab (Isley)
Cheese - Everona Pirdmont Rapidan-Virginia , a sheep’s milk cheese from Dirty Jerse, sold to us as “very rare” and “nutty"
Fish - Black cod, celery root, sunchokes and hazelnuts
Other Seafood – Dungeness crab gratin
Fowl - Grilled quail, foie gras and porcini sauce
Meat - Veal saltimbocca with madeira brown butter
Other - Sweet potatoes with bacon and romesco

The food is brought out 1 or 2 plates at a time (can’t remember how it went in a larger group, maybe 2 plates at a time). Once you finished the plate(s), there's maybe a 10-minute downtime in-between.

The wine was brought out before the food started coming, and was great. Recommended by a waiter and not sommelier (note: I am not a huge wine guy, but my friend is a big wine drinker and was pleased by the choice).

Cheese came out first – $5 gets you a reasonable sized slice of cheese and some bread. As promised, it had a strong nutty component (it was a harder cheese) and was OK. Next up was the Black cod. I have to say, A.O.C. does fish *really* well. It was f’in delicious. The fish was cooked just through (perfectly) and the hazelnuts were an awesome complement both taste-wise and texture-wise. Easily my friend and mine’s favorite dish.

Crab comes – it is basically fresh steamed crab with a “gratin” topping. The whole concoction has been baked, and it’s really dry-looking. We ask for some lemons, which they promptly bring, makes this OK dish alot better.

Next up the veal and quail (they come at the same time). The veal, which promised a “Madeira brown butter sauce”, was basically just a veal cutlet on top of rosemary mashed potatoes. I asked the waiter if they forgot to sauce the thing, and he said “no, it’s very subtle”. WTF. This was easily the worst dish.

The quail was very good, and ended up being great cause of the foie gras and awesome porcini sauce. Final dish - sweet potatoes. Got the job done, and was an interesting mix of flavors. (I have no idea how they decide the order of dishes, but intuitively, you’d think the sweet potatoes would come earlier).

Service: Out waiter was great – attentive without being obtrusive. Also the plates were cleared quickly, the food came out in a timely fashion, water was re-filled constantly. Pretty much the level of service you’d expect from a fairly expensive restaurant.

Other: Lighting is very good for an intimate type setting and convo. Although it's louder downstairs because of the bar, it's not super noticeable. Comfortable all-around experience, not too cramped.

Overall: Again, I came for the food, so much of my reason for coming back is based on that. Overall, this time the food “got the job done”, but didn’t blow me away (except for the Cod and Quail). We were “sated” but not “stuffed” based on the number of plates we ordered.

However, the menu is so extensive, plate selection is critical, and with a larger group, a much greater chance obviously of hitting all the great ones. From past visits, I thought their coq au vin, grilled lamb, halibut, and charcuterie items were great. With good / lucky selection, you can have a great-tasting meal.

If you're expecting an overall better than 8/10 for the price, you'll probably be dissapointed by this place.

Food: 7.5/10 (past visits were 8.5 & 9/10 due to better selection)
Service: 8/10 (though this was a Thursday)
Decor / "Look": 7.5/10
Chick Factor: 8.5/10 (I would say because it’s expensive, it’s not a great early date place, but is probably a good 3rd -5th date place if you really like the girl. My friend was very satisfied by the meal, the overall experience, and really liked the variety element of small-plate eating).
Damage: Came out to $170 all-in (I gave a >15% tip).

-Al

[octopi]

I know that most of you aren't really in the position to make it to Calgary (which is like Houston, but with snow, I guess) but I thought I would review a restaurant I ate at last weekend nonetheless.

Calgary is an oil rich city that is currently in the middle of a boom. There are tonnes of specialty food shops opening (in addition to the tasting menu we indulged in, my boyfriend and I also tried two hot dog shops and tried to make it to a cupcake bakery) and basically there is money falling off of trees. There have been some new entries into high end dining, so we drove three hours to visit some friends and indulge in an evening of fine food.

The place was recommended by a school friend of my boyfriend, neither one of us had heard of the place before (which is surprising!). There are not many places in Alberta where you can indulge in a tasting menu, so I would say that was the main draw. We seemed to be the only ones partaking that evening.

Muse :: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
5-7-9 dish tasting menus ($75-120 CDN, wine pairing another $40 or so) plus daily entrees and other selections. (Being so high on food, I forgot to check out their a la carte menu upon leaving. Mains run $25-40 CDN)

The place is extremely intimate, but spread out over three floors. It was a holiday weekend and a bit busier than I thought it would be, but noise levels were manageable and even romantic. My date and I were still able to indulge in people watching, something we love to do (there appeared to be a young couple there on an early date. I wonder how it went!). We could see the kitchen from where we sat, so I would get excited whenever I saw our next dish being plated.

Our server was very friendly- almost playful, and made the experience extremely fun. He was never intrusive, and always had answers to our questions or would find out the answer for us. I think he spied me taking notes on the courses, so he gave us a copy of the menu and wrote all the wines on the back. At the end of our three hour+ meal, the executive chef came out to meet us...it was kind of like dining at a friend's house on extremely fancy food. It lacked pretentiousness and any air of false sophistication. Which is nice, because Alberta's main interests in food are chains like the Olive Garden and the Keg. It would be easy to become stuck up, I imagine.

Anyhow, the dishes were as such, including the wine we were served. I don't think I'll comment on each course because sometimes there isn't much to say.

Moments upon being seated, a warm bowl of popcorn dressed with truffle oil, Maldon salt and freshly cracked pepper arrived. It was an extremely decadent snack I would be pleased to eat at the next movie I saw. Our first wine was a prosecco from Italy: Nino Franco Rustico.

Amuse bouche: Portabella Mushroom Soup with Truffled Foam

1: Seared Tiger Prawn with Nicoise Olive Coulis and Parsley Oil
Wine: Paul Zinck Pinot Gris 2003

2: Pan Seared Ahi Tuna on a bed of Fennel Slaw with Orange Vinaigrette
Wine: Saxenburg Sauvignon Blanc 2005

3: Prosciutto Wrapped Veal Sweetbreads, Grilled Portabella, Warm Diced Golden Beets and Spinach Puree
Wine: Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2003

4: Quebec Seared Foie Gras in a 'Jelly Sandwich': Homemade Brioche with Alsace jelly and Veal Jus
Wine: Hill of Content Pinot Noir (?)

5: Spinach Stuffed Roast Quail, Purple Potato mash and Red Wine Quail Jus
Wine: Ten Mile Shiraz (this seems a big vague)

6: Braised Veal Cheek, Forest Mushroom Ravioli upon melted Leeks

Sorbet: Pink Grapefruit with Basil syrup and Mint chiffonade (the texture and flavours of this were amazing)

7: A four dish dessert tasting of White Chocolate Panna Cotta, Chocolate Brulee, Frozen Chocolate Mousse and Sour Cream Ice Cream
Dessert Wine: Moscato d'Asti 'Vigna Senza Nome' 2005

I have to say that the meal went pretty much as our server described: "It's just going to build and build until *claps hands together*" The first few dishes seemed thrown together, and lacked cohesiveness. We were worried. Then, things picked up. Mushrooms and earthy flavours really dominated the meal, which was fortunate since we both enjoy the flavours, but could have been a trainwreck, otherwise.

The star pieces were the sweetbreads and the "sandwich" which blew both of us away. The veal cheek was nothing to poo poo either. The prawn dish and opening soup were quite disappointing, actually. The prawns were too garlicky and overdone (but the olive coulis was amazing) and the soup a bit bland. The truffled foam really saved it.

I was pleased with dessert on the whole, even if the serving was a bit too large. I make a better mousse, I must say. I had overhead that the ice cream was sour cream for the evening, and when I asked if it could possibly be true (I LOVE sour cream) they substituted it on the dessert platter, without even being asked.

I am not knowledgable about wine at all, but really enjoyed the dessert wine we got. Not overkill and too syrupy as dessert wines sometimes are, but delicious and light, like honey. We were even allowed to finish the bottle. I'm not sure what the usual deal is with wine pairings. I like that you can try many different kinds, but typically are they at a higher price range than most glasses on the menu? Most of the bottles in our pairing sell in stores for $12-15, which surprised me. Is this standard? Are pairings a rip off?

Anyhow, it was an extremely enjoyable evening, and I think that the friendliness and openess of the kitchen will probably beg a return visit in the future, possibly with more requests on our part.