High-end Dining: Expectations and Reviews

[PITTM]

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PITTM,

There's no comparison, it is imo at an entirely different level than Craftsteak. Ron Siegel is a truly world class chef.


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wait, after looking at the ron siegel wiki i realized he was the awesome chef who won the lobster battle on iron chef. that guy ruled. i will be making reservations for the ritz as soon as i find someone to go with.

[guids]

your first trip to Baskin Robbins





thats a great line.

[limon]

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

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I'm pretty sure this is not restricted to the southern U.S. Not exactly the paragon of classic fine dining culture, restaurants like Commander's Palace notwithstanding.

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i would disagree w/ you on this. service at private clubs and many great public establishments in the south is attentive bordering on ridiculous. many times i have thought they were going try to give me a slave in a doggy bag to take home. its embarassing, the south is another planet.

[Aloysius]

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limon,

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when you leave spago or ivy you pretty much feel like you got what you paid for it was worth it but not transcendent

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While I agree that when I go to a nice restaurant I want to be blown away, LA is not completely bereft of restaurants that can be transcendent, the two you cited are examples of old standards that are simply solid. Restaurants that can make me say "holy [censored]" in LA would include: Melisse, Patina, Grace, and Diaghilev. Last week I went to Jar on Beverly and it absolutely knocked my socks off, but I had relatively low expectations.

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yes, patina and grace are excellent, campanile and aoc as well, easy 9 out of 10 jar i would give 8.5. but i cant really say i've had a 10 in l.a. again places like gotham and babbo are just on another level. incredible creativity and all the little extras that fit perfectly w/ the meal.no 10's for me in vegas either but i have yet to visit joel rubichon.

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Haven't been to Grace yet, really want to check it out. I think Campanile is the closest I've had to a "10" meal in LA. Jar is excellent and just introduced a fantastic oxtail entree.

Here's a review of AOC I posted a while back in OOT.

One perfect meal I've had was at Montrachet in Tribeca.

-Al

[citanul]

alinea, Chicago, 2006
Tasting Menu: $135, Tour Menu: $195
Paired wine with the tour ~$175, chance to upgrade a couple glasses, extra ~$25

First off I'd like to just say that there's no chance my review is going to compare to any of the gillion other reviews that are out there and googlable. It will share my experience though as best I can.

The first surprise we got from alinea was that it was inconspicuous enough from the outside that our cabby had to loop around the block because he missed it the first time. Located basically in a yuppy shopping neighborhood, the reworked townhouse sort of feel doesn't really shock from the street.
street view image

That changes the second you walk in the door though. All doubts that maybe you're in the wrong place are quickly gone. The space is definitely more contrived than Trotter's, but also much sexier, and though it lacks the museum showpieces of Tru, it doesn't suffer from it.

entryway image

After ditching our coats we were led to our heavy (I think) mahogany table with large comfortable chairs. No tablecloths.

We each had a great glass of champagne (we were celebrating, after-all), and when we were comfortably started on that glass, the waiter came back to talk to us about the menu. Since the seating times for the two menus are different by a lot they prefer if you tell them which you'll prefer ahead of time, but it's not like they'll kick you out for changing your mind. We went ahead with the 24 course Tour Menu, got the paired wine, and splurged a tiny little bit extra to upgrade the wines. This meant getting 3 or 4 of the glasses changed out for truly rare things that otherwise we might never taste, so it was an obvious choice. (Not that the other wine selections were common or anything.) In total wine service was 13 pours beyond our original champagne.

I don't know if I can do a plate by plate review, so I'll hit some highlights and then maybe a lowlight or something:

Hot Potato
hot potato image
Was the opener and one of the big stars of the meal. Served with cold potato, trufle, parmesan, and a rose champagne, it set the perfect tone. Many of the dishes are served on plates or utensils created specifically for the restaurant or that dish. The meal mixed well between flavor combinations that are obvious, well liked, and classic, done well - like this dish, and plates that featured either or both new and interesting flavor combinations and ingredients you rarely see used.

Another star for me was the Pear
pear image
Served with celery leaf & branch, and curry. This dish is actually a sphere of pear juice, wrapped in an incredibly thin layer of cocoa butter, rolled in a coating of curry. Eaten as a shot, when it hits your tongue, the whole thing shatters and give you a great "wow." Asking the waiter how this was done/if I could do it at home was a lot of fun.

Several other plates really were impressive both in taste and in presentation:

Bass, with vanilla and artichoke, served on a plate rested on top of a pillow filled with orange scented air, so it deflates and pushes orange scent was inventive and really tasty.

Granola with saffron, served in a rosewater envelope (I didn't know that rosewater could be made solid, let alone in to an envelope) was I felt a bit out of place because well, though tasty and cool (served hanging from a wire) I was almost looking forward to the bacon hanging on a wire i'd heard about, and well, it's granola in the middle of dinner?

Other sort of misses but sort of nots for me included:

Skate with caper lemon and brown butter powders. I just though it was too much powders. Very tasty, again, pretty interesting that you can make these things powders, but it was also pretty easy to not get the amount of powder you wanted with your bite of skate.

Asparagus with egg yolk drops. Made by dropping individual drops of egg yolk into I think just water, and cooking incredibly briefly, the drops were interesting but a little weird and rubbery at the same time. Not a favorite. I think that it's reasonable to have 2 or so out of 24 courses that you're personally not a fan of though, and since the skate still tasted good, and the egg drops were less bad than "that's just weird" I wasn't too sad.

To those thinking maybe the meal was a bit froofy, other courses unpictured and undiagnosed included:

Bison, Lobster, Kobe Beef, Foie Gras. All of which were truly excellent, and inventive (like the Foie Gras served with hibiscus, licorice, and blueberry soda). Sadly the Foie Gras is gone at the moment due to idiotic city-wide bans.

For more pictures and more review, (since I've been using this guy's pics already anyway) this guy, over at a foodie messageboard went at a time when they were serving many of the same dishes I enjoyed, and took a bunch of pictures. alinea's website also has a gallery of some of their work and the interior of the restaurant.

The service was amazing, our waiter was only working with one table in the room we were sitting in, and was assisted by 2 guys who carried plates in to the room, a guy who made sure you always have the right utensils, the sommelier- who was absolutely amazing and came to introduce each new glass of wine we were given and ask about our impressions of previous glasses, and appeared to be able to do this with every table in the restaurant, as well as a couple of other miscellanious helpers. They were never intrusive, always there when we wanted them, and obviously did the little things like having your coat ready when you wanted it, having a cab ready when you step out the door, etc.

The restaurant's decor was brilliant, and the only regret I had the whole evening is that even though there was plenty of space between tables, we could hear the couple at the next table: "Oh no, I don't eat eggplant, asparagus, beef, fish, granola, yogurt, green vegetables, meats, etc, so just make me an entirely different menu." Yeah, that guy got his money's worth with his trophy wife...

Total tab for 2 was somewhere between $1100 and $1200. Dinner can be done far, far less expensively though.

[limon]

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limon,

Delmonico Steakhouse in Vegas is one of Emeril's restaurants. He was executive chef at Commander's Palace for a number of years.

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yeah i know. thats what i was getting at.

[firstyearclay]

Here is a cliff notes background on my experience. I graduated Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. I have ordered food from purveyors, prepped, cooked, expedited, served, tended bar, bounced and cleaned at crappy bars up to 5 star restaurants. In no way do I consider myself a Chef, Writer, or expert in the restaurant field; however I do consider my taste and experiences to be unique.

I have been using Zagat for a long time as a base for finding restaurants in new cities. Although, I believe they are politically backed, I do think they are a good resource for learning about restaurants in most cities.

For this review, I will be talking about a restaurant in the Palms called, N9ne Steakhouse in Las Vegas.

My first experience at N9ne was actually in early 2006. It was a part of a week long birthday experience for me and a few friends. One of my good friends, Geno Bernardo, who is the Executive Chef @ Nove in the Fantasy Tower in the Palms, was the #2 at N9ne for about a year. He encouraged me to check it out as he thought I would like the food as well as experience.

I arrived at the restaurant with 2 of my close friends and proceeded over to the table. You are IMMEDIATELY taken in by the experience of N9ne. Its not uncommon to hear techno or rock n’ roll playing at a moderate level throughout the restaurant along with voices of 20-40 somethings’ talking up the evening. My first thought was wow, we are going to a club for dinner?

I was taken over to my seat which was placed right in the middle of the restaurant facing the center bar. The place is very well designed. When you come into N9ne late, you have to fight off the club crowd over at Rain (sometimes asking for bouncer assistance to get through the lines), then proceed to the left to the hostess stand. The hostess’ are all stunning! Proceed through into the restaurant and you have a long bar on the right that is jam packed with over-dressed movie star wanna-be’s. I mean this is Vegas folks and you know you are in Vegas within 20 feet of being in here!

The restaurant seats a conservative 150 people. It was jam-packed. Joe Montana was with friends in the private room, Paris Hilton was 30 minutes departed, and this place was just getting busy. Geno comes right out to greet us and tell us he is SLAMMED, but will get us some appetizers soon. He also basically recommends our entire meal so we try everything. I put my menu down and have him send over the Sommelier. The waiter is basically point and clicking our experience and just making sure we have strong drinks before the food comes out.

Typical of good restaurants, there is a bunch of people providing different functions. One person is filling your glass with water (tap, sparkling), one person is making sure your table is cleaned, one person is scouting for problems (manager), one is taking your order, and a few are delivering. Pretty typical here, but busy and efficient to say the least.

After about 3 GG’s and soda’s the appetizers arrive. I cannot remember specifics, but I do know the food was all outstanding. Geno tends to go off menu (for friends) which in essence changes the experience for the casual diner. We had Fried Rock shrimp (served in a Chinese box with 3 different sauces), an assortment of sushi, and the stand-by calamari. Food was all great and the sauces made the experience. I absolutely adored the Rock Shrimp.

Where I am a true noob, is wines. I have taken a few wine classes when I was in college and even had a private lesson when I was working in a 5 star, but never paid attention. I really didn’t care about wines then. Only later in my 20’s did I begin to appreciate, love-then-hate white wine and now am learning about the reds. The sommelier determined with our meal that a Washington Merlot was in order. It was one of the best Merlo's I have ever had. Nice and dry and flavorful. It was Ecole No. 41.

Geno then brought out some more sushi. I am a huge sushi fan, and he tends to try and kill us every meal. The dinners came out next. If I remember correctly, we had three courses. Short-Ribs, a New York Steak (cooked to perfection), and a whole lobster (2.5 lbs.). The food was outstanding. The plates rotated til’ clean.

The drinks flowed hard, and the food slipped down our alcohol greased throats with perfection. The service was above and beyond. The atmosphere was YOUNG and HAPPY! I left wanting more, feeling like I just met a hot girl that wanted more time.

This meal SCREAMS Vegas. If you are looking for above average food and service before you go out, N9ne Steakhouse is a great place to start.

Overall:
Food: 10
Service: 9
Décor: 8

Experience: 9


FYC

[offTopic]

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oT,

Gary Danko (http://www.garydanko.com/) is $61/77/92 for 3/4/5 course tasting menu.


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Damn. Between this and the Ritz-Carlton review, that would be a tough choice to make!

Thanks.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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oT,

Gary Danko (http://www.garydanko.com/) is $61/77/92 for 3/4/5 course tasting menu.


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Damn. Between this and the Ritz-Carlton review, that would be a tough choice to make!

Thanks.

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it depresses and slightly confuses me, b/c I'm not sure where in Boston I could get a meal like that for that price. I've never ventured past the $70ish for food realm (Delmonicos, etc). the most expensive (I think) places in Boston are (I think) classic French places like L'Espalier and Aujourd’hui, but these are roughly the same price as Gary Danko and I fear not nearly as good.

looking a little bit more, perhaps No. 9 Park would be on the same level.

[howzit]

citanul, if you like fresh sushi with absolutely no wait try Le Miu in the east village. 7th and Ave A.

head sushi chef is an ex-Nobu guy and because of the price tag, this place is empty.

the fish is very very fresh: mirugai, aji, ama ebi don't have much of a shelf life so these usually go bad the first. all were fresh.

we had drinks at the bar, 5 apps for 3 ppl, beer and sake during dinner, full sushi orders for 3, coffee, one dessert of red bean/chocolate creme brulee. came out to $120 each.