High-end Dining: Expectations and Reviews

[lapoker17]

i come from a family of fine dining psychos, but i'm pretty easy to please - at the same time i'm not often impressed.

there are only a few places i've eaten that i would consider memorable - and i've eaten at a lot of "name" spots:

the most amazing restaurant experience of my life occurred about 10 yrs ago at everest in chicago. i guess the place is fairly well known now, but back then it was not. it's located at the top of the chicago stock exchange building. back then, the loop area was dead at night - almost deserted. i remember we drove down an alley to a beat up looking garage door which magically opened and lead to a dingy parking lot. things weren't looking to good. we got into an equally unimpressive elevator and pressed 40. i was with some of my fine dining psycho relatives and could feel the tension building during our ascent. what was probably seconds before one of them pulled the emergency stop switch so we could reverse course, the elevator doors opened onto the most opulent dining room i had ever seen.

there were probably 15 tables max, and the space was large but warm. everything there was aesthetically perfect. the flowers, the silver, the plates, the glasses, the colors, the view. it was amazing.

the staff was attentive - almost too much so - and knowledgeable about EVERYTHING - which actually was kind of annoying. i really don't care where the mushrooms were grown . the whole thing was such a scene that it was kind of ridiculous - but it was at the same time, just awesome. not the casual "awesome" we use in everyday speech - but the awesome used to describe things like god and natural disasters. the food was excellent, but was merely a sidelight to the experience.

everest taught me my first real lesson in brand building. they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and executed it flawlessly. you could just tell that someone had probably spent a few days settling on what kind of matches they would offer, and which flowers communicated what they were about. a great experience.

another that comes to mind is a private men's club in richmond, va, called the commonwealth club. it's essentially a place where old white guys go to get away from their wives, but it boasts one of my favorite dining rooms anywhere. the service is PERFECT. invisible, but helpful. knowledgeable, but humble. and the food is phenomenal. fine dining with a slight southern flare.

the last is le bec fin in philadelphia. i think they produce the best meals in the world.

i'm sure i'll think of a few more.

['Chair]

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- I expect them to call me and FFK a cab should we require (currently don't have any friends that appreciate this level of dining).

I have yet to be disappointed at $75/plate...but that's only been about 6-7 times in my life.

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i honestly could not think of a place to go that would be this expensive - or an occasion. why do you and ffk go to places this expensive? is the food that much better? and i don't mean this to be a hijack but i'd like anyone with an explanation to answer. i think the food when we're paying ~$50 a person (predrinks etc) is fantastic, but i couldn't imagine eating enough to warrant it being more money.

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I'm pretty sure the $75 number is including starters and dessert, not just the entree. In which case you have been to plenty of places that qualify...

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Fluff and NL -
yeah...$75+ includes apps/salad/entree/desert or total cost of the tasting menu.

to put this in perspective...I've never spent $500+ on a meal for two including tip and wine...but then again I live in Atl and not NY, LV, CHI, or SF

[Claunchy]

I CALL DELMONICO VEGAS

Just gimme a little while to get it together.

[Claunchy]

This is sort of a trip report/review combo, because I'm in no way qualified to write a legit review.

Two Saturdays ago, fellow 2p2er rageotones, four of my other friends, my girlfriend (thinly veiled brag?), and I all went to Delmonico in Vegas for the first time. Our reservations were at 6; we would have liked them to be a bit later, but it was a Saturday night, so we took what we could get. Three of us got there a bit early, so we had a seat in the little lounge outside the restaurant.

I ordered a martini with Ciroc. The cocktail waitress asked me if I wanted regular or blue cheese olives in that. Of course I had to dry the blue cheese olives; both they and the martini were great. Our friend (the third one of the three of us) wasn't accustomed to a nice restaurant, so she tried to order a white zinfandel (LOL). They didn't have that obviously, but the waitress was very nice about it and recommended a Riesling which she liked a lot.

So the rest of our party shows up and we're seated almost immediately thereafter. They gave us a big round table, which is way superior to a rectangular table for conversational purposes, so that was awesome. We also had not one, not two, but THREE SERVERS. Wow.

So we decide to start off with some wine--something lighter to go with the appetizers and stuff. Their wine list is nothing short of intimidating at 80 pages, but we decide to go on the medium-low end because we're not super balla. So we got some $80 bottle of Pinot Noir, which was pretty good. Unfortunately I can't remember the names of any of the wines, and they don't have an online wine list to refresh my memory, so, sorry.

For appetizers we got the mozzarella bruchetta, the oysters bienville, and the foie gras. Everything was good, but the foie gras was unbelievable. I had never had it before--to be honest it always sounded gross to me--but now I'm hooked. Like a yummy piece of fat that falls apart in your mouth. Delish.

For entree I got the bone-in rib steak, which is supposedly like the standard thing to get there. It was excellent--done perfectly rare in the middle with the outside almost crisp. I also had a twice baked potato and split some creamed spinach with my friend, and both sides were very solid. By this point we're on bottle #2 -- a malbec. My favorite bottle of the night personally, but some were weirded out by the big chunks of sediment at the bottom.

Girlfriend got some special that came with a 5 oz. filet and some lobster claws. She thought it was kinda weird that they didn't bring any butter to go with the lobster, but she figured out why when she tasted it--you don't need it. Putting butter on this would be like putting A1 on their steaks. Apparently it comes from Nova Scotia where the water's colder than Maine, so it was extra sweet.

Bottle #3 was a cab. We went down to like $60 for the third bottle because we knew we'd stop being picky after a while.

Overall, this was the best restaurant experience I've ever had. The service was absolutely perfect; stuff just kinda showed up. You never thought "wow that was fast" but you never wondered what was taking so long either. Everything was perfectly in sync. Our main waitress was very personable, and even took time to discuss the merits of My Super Sweet Sixteen with us. A+.

[limon]

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i come from a family of fine dining psychos, but i'm pretty easy to please - at the same time i'm not often impressed.

there are only a few places i've eaten that i would consider memorable - and i've eaten at a lot of "name" spots:

the most amazing restaurant experience of my life occurred about 10 yrs ago at everest in chicago. i guess the place is fairly well known now, but back then it was not. it's located at the top of the chicago stock exchange building. back then, the loop area was dead at night - almost deserted. i remember we drove down an alley to a beat up looking garage door which magically opened and lead to a dingy parking lot. things weren't looking to good. we got into an equally unimpressive elevator and pressed 40. i was with some of my fine dining psycho relatives and could feel the tension building during our ascent. what was probably seconds before one of them pulled the emergency stop switch so we could reverse course, the elevator doors opened onto the most opulent dining room i had ever seen.

there were probably 15 tables max, and the space was large but warm. everything there was aesthetically perfect. the flowers, the silver, the plates, the glasses, the colors, the view. it was amazing.

the staff was attentive - almost too much so - and knowledgeable about EVERYTHING - which actually was kind of annoying. i really don't care where the mushrooms were grown . the whole thing was such a scene that it was kind of ridiculous - but it was at the same time, just awesome. not the casual "awesome" we use in everyday speech - but the awesome used to describe things like god and natural disasters. the food was excellent, but was merely a sidelight to the experience.

everest taught me my first real lesson in brand building. they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and executed it flawlessly. you could just tell that someone had probably spent a few days settling on what kind of matches they would offer, and which flowers communicated what they were about. a great experience.

another that comes to mind is a private men's club in richmond, va, called the commonwealth club. it's essentially a place where old white guys go to get away from their wives, but it boasts one of my favorite dining rooms anywhere. the service is PERFECT. invisible, but helpful. knowledgeable, but humble. and the food is phenomenal. fine dining with a slight southern flare.

the last is le bec fin in philadelphia. i think they produce the best meals in the world.

i'm sure i'll think of a few more.

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le bec in philly is my wifes fav restuarant on the planet. she gets a $90 truffled risoto appetizer and bernard meets her at the table and says its better than sex w/ her husband (me)

[El Diablo]

Claunchy,

Nice review. Delmonico's in Vegas is a perfect example imo of non-stuffy high-end dining. It's nice and classic and classy, while at the same time not feeling old. It's lit at a nice level, not too bright but not such that you have to squint to read the menus by the candle. The only black mark for this restaurant is the bathrooms. The men's is a pretty small restroom that is tucked in the back and is fine, but I expect it to be more perfect at a place like this. Service, as you mentioned, is great. You didn't mention one of my favorite touches at this and some other high end restaurants, how everyone gets their plate put on the table at the exact same time.

http://www.venetian.com/dining/menu_delmonicodinner.cfm

You really can't go wrong in the apps and soup/salad section. My personal favorites are the foie gras, the wilted spinach/fried mozzarella (basically the opposite of a salad), and tomato/onions/blue cheese plate.

For dinner the bone-in ribeye is definitely the way to go.

Every dessert I've tried has been great too.

[ElSapo]

I think this is probably a really important topic, because it speaks to so much of what is a restaurant dining experience. Whenever I read a restaurant review, I do a little (and obvious) comparison -- the tone of the review versus the final rating. I read the Washington Post because that's where I live, and often you'll see reviews that are pretty damn positive - and yet the restaurant gets maybe 1-star or 1.5-stars, or something.

At first, that seems off. The food was great, the service was great, and they get 1 star? And then you start to think about what the restaurant is, beyond the food. The kind of experience they aspire to give, what they actually give, and so on. Aspirations and intentions become really important.

If that was off topic, I didn't mean it to be. I think considering what a restaurant is trying to do, and what you want, is vital.

Personally, I love doing pre-fixe/tasting menus. This is the distinction for me when I go to a new place - me ordering a la carte is nice, but the chef saying "this is what I can do" is what can often make the meal a memorable ocassion. I hate paying $75/head for a boring but decent meal; I don't mind paying $200 if I'm going to be amazed.

Most of all, I want restaurants to push both what I know and what they can do.

[citanul]

7ontheline,

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I enjoyed Charlie Trotter's, although it was so hyped that when I went maybe I it couldn't quite meet expectations. That said, it was an excellent meal.

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I think my first trip to Trotter's suffered a little from the same problem. I also agree that the space lacks a certain amount of happiness and brightness. When I fineshed my meals at Trotter's, I was still a bit hungry, not much, just a little. I thought for the most part the service was absolutely amazing, the kitchen is great - and a fine example of Trotter's OCDish behavior. The problem I had with Trotter's was that there was almost never enough of anything. The idea of having many many bites of lots of stuff, each good, is great, but at this restaurant I kept finding myself wishing that there had been say, 6 bites of veal instead of 2 or 1. Everything was obvoiusly excellent, and everything tasted great (very few risks taken) but it lacked a certain amount of wow as compared to the price, notoriety, etc. I think I've got the menu from Trotter's somewhere, but I doubt I can find it =(

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I preferred Tru though.

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Wholeheartedly agree. Like you said, the food at Trotter's is light. The food at Tru is the opposite. If you were impressed by the kitchen at Trotter's, the kitchen at Tru will blow you away - probably 10 times as large, with a staging area the same size as Trotter's' kitchen. On my first visit I sat at the Chef's table, which is in back of the kitchen, and can seat up to I think 6. (Trotter's has a Kitchen table that seats up to 4 I believe.) There's more courses in the Kitchen, and everything is rich, and the portions tend not to be small. I found myself near struggling by the end, but that was was I think because we were taking full advantage of their offer to eat as much dessert as we wanted. I've got a copy of the menu from Tru in my office, and I'll probably write it up when I get a chance. I just think people should know that they're going to be in a bit of trouble for finishing their 12 course meal when the 3rd course rolls out and it's a pint of lobster rissoto.

I have to say that I disagree about Spiaggia, but I can understand, definitely. I think that Italian is probably the cuisine that it's hardest to "feel" the difference between medium-high-end and high-end. Once you've got good handmade pasta and fresh ingredients well prepared, the differences are definitely subtle when existent. If you were mostly unhappy with the price, I definitely suggest the cafe next door which is much less expensive, and excellent food.

I've been to alinea, was incredibly impressed, and will post a review later in the thread when I get time. I'll say now that it was almost definitely the best meal I've ever eaten.

[fluffpop62]

ok, I didn't realize that people ate their own individual appetizers/salads/desserts. how do you fit all that in your stomachs?!

[limon]

"You didn't mention one of my favorite touches at this and some other high end restaurants, how everyone gets their plate put on the table at the exact same time."

this is classic southern style service. commanders palace new orleans is the best at this.