brescd01

I tried Szechuan House in Trenton and even one meal revealed it to serve the most refined Szechuan food I have ever enjoyed. So, I would like to know, is there any other restaurant on this level in the Trenton area?

As a matter of fact I did try it and it is considerably better than the seafood restaurant that preceded it. I do not think I selected the best dishes for my wife and I, but everything was well-prepared. I did not think the mao po tofu was good, but otherwise everything was high-quality Cantonese. I got a little too adventurous for my own good, with several fresh fish and shrimp dishes. Next time I will try steak and chicken. But overall, very good and the waiter took a long time for me to get my order right. I recommend trying it, especially if you hate Chinatown traffic, as I do.

I could not resist trying Butcher and Singer, I have to admit I am not into the sophisticated continental cuisine promoted by its predecessor Striped Bass. I took my wife and we paid $194 for two with tax and tip, the most expensive meal I have ever had. We had two of everything except dessert, of which we shared one (the Baked Alaska). We started with asparagus and the Butcher Salad. Nothing special. For entrees my wife got the Delmonico and I got Steak Diane. My wife's steak was excellent of course. And my Steak Diane was fine, but boring. Each of us got a side dish (mushrooms and creamed spinach) and a cocktail (sidecars), which were very strong. Service was warm and eager-to-please. The hostesses were busty and warm (what a surprise). The baked Alaska was too sweet, I remember Oceanaire's being better (more unique), and that is not a restaurant I care for (at least the Philadelphia iteration). Don't get me wrong, there was nothing bad. But I think a dish like steak diane or the salads need a contemporary stamp, in the way the Barclay Prime puts its own stamp on what are really traditional steakhouse dishes. I don't know what to say, I guess I really want to hear from industry mavens, will they revise their menu? Did I go too soon?

A drug rep took me there Thursday and I really enjoyed it, on several levels. First of all, I thought the service was warm and unpretentious, something I like about Brasserie Perrier. Second of all, I thought each of the sauces or preparations I had was wonderful. My steak for instance was beautifully flavored. The meat itself was not that tender, but it was cooked the way I ordered it (rare), perhaps if I had got it more cooked it would have been slightly more tender and less chewy. The dessert was beautifully presented though I did not think it tasted special: it was a complicated and elaborate pastry, though. I think the thing I loved about Table 31 is that like Barclay Prime, it is a new take on the steak house, and I do not remember there being anything like this in NYC (I left there in 2000), so I feel as if Philadelphia is perfecting something new. Until Barclay Prime (and now Table 31), a steakhouse could just do the same thing better and better, like Capitol Grill, and thet gets old fast.

What would be the fanciest most expensive meal in or near Trenton?

I had the same experience: the entree was much larger than the appetizers and certainly fairly sized. I only went once, and perhaps I managed to pick the three smallest appetizers on the menu, that is possible. The quality of the preparations was very good, exceptional even. When I forget my upset stomach and I want Greek food again, we will probably give it another chance. And maybe ask for a different table.

First of all, we left full because we ordered more plates, obviously. Hence the $50/person tab. The problem was that some of the plates were under-portioned. Had the appetizers been more appropriately sized we would have consumed fewer french fries from the entree and we would not have ordered dessert. Second, I did not write that Dmitri's has better food or that its food is even as good, in fact I specifically wrote that its food is a step down. Nevertheless, I am more comfortable there. Whenever someone writes that Dmitri's is "overrated" I am always wondering, "By whom?" I have never met anyone who loved Dmitris who said it serves great food. Just that it is tasty and unpretentious. Third, vis a vis space, I am not sure what to reply to that list of restaurants except perhaps I would feel crowded there too. Fourth, I spent the day after housebound due to stomach upset, presumably due to the food I consumed at Kanella. Since it did not rise to the level of food poisoning, I am not sure to what to attribute it. GI upset is a great disincentive to return to any restaurant. I am not sure how a mixed experience at a restaurant could be seen as contradictory, just nuanced.

We tried Kanella and though we enjoyed it, we won't be back any time soon. The plates (except for the huge kebab) were too precious. For example, the special smoked herring appetizer came with two fragments of herring. The pasta entree came with 5 ravioli. Dinner was $104 for both of us with tip and tax, no alcohol. We felt rushed by the server, though he was very nice. The food was much better than Dmitri's for example, and yet I would not hesitate to celebrate at Dmitri's (or Estia for example, for different reasons), but I wouldn't celebrate anythng at Kanella. Too cramped, too precious. We left full but an underportioned plate has a psychological effect on us that is not good.

We all have our particular tastes: mine is for rustic over refined, local over international, honest over precious. I would not mind spending money on grand meals if they made me happy, but overwhelmingly when I eat at the grand restaurants I long for the simpler local favorite. I hate restaurants frequented by tourists, which I know seems somewhat self-hating, but my experience is that tourists = bad food. With that preamble, let me ask the board where I should eat in Madrid in March. I have divided the restaurants into seafood, meat, tapas and other. Amongst seafood places I would like to dine at the local favorites that are not too expensive. I am quite sure these will be good enough for my peasant tastes, with the Spaniard's emphasis on ingredients that I have read so much about. So El Combarro is out: Casa Rafa, Narváez 68 915731087 Gran Barril, Goya 107 914312210 Naveira do Mar, Santa Juliana, 57 914594532 Taberna del Puerto, Fernán González 50 915046699 Telégrafo, Padre Damián 44 913506119 Do any of these places fill the bill? In the second category, meat. Any of these places recommended?: Ansorena, Capitán Haya 55 915796451 Casa Julián, Don Ramón De La Cruz 12 914313535 Frontón, Tirso De Molina 7 913691617 Imanol, General Díaz Porlier 97 913090859 Next, tapas. This is hard I know, people tend to recommend areas rather than specific places. I have scanned Chowhound and eGullet for recs. I have to add, we are not going to be drinking more than one glass of wine if that, and I am very unlkely to want to go to several places in an evening. We are probaly going to bed early and not keeping Spanish hours. Finally, we will probably spend a disproportionate time in the Prado and at Salamanca, because we both love window shopping and art. Can anyone propose a few starting points or some classic recs? Two I found were: Casa Lucas, Cava Baja 30 913650804 Tempranillo, Cava Baja 38 913641532 Txirimiri, Humilladero 6 914014345 Finally, other. These are some varied recs I have written down: Casa Lucio, Cava Baja 35 913658217 Chocolatería San Ginés, Pasadizo San Ginés 5 913656546 Maceiras, Huertas 66 914295818 Taberna de la Daniela, General Pardinas 21 915752329 Ventorrillo Murciano, Tres Peces 20 915288309 A side issue is that I would like to try a fine Madrid tailor and may bring fabric so that I can have the requisite 2 fittings before I leave, with the final product to be shipped back home. These are the tailors whose names I have collected. Note that the most famous is not on the list (Larrainzar), because I always feel as if I get more local flavor from the second tier option, a personal predjudice: Cecilio Serna Martinez, Miquel Angel 4 913087100 Hermanos Collado, Almirante 21 Jaime Gallo, Ayala 27 914316084 Manuel Calvo de Mora, Claudio Coello 113 915765931 Moises Cordoba, Valazquez 96 (I have edited to accomodate suggestions and corrections)

I had a slightly different take on this place, and I have to concede I am no connoisseur of Mexican food. I thought the food was very good though never great. Well, the octopus ceviche was pretty wonderful. I think Mexican is one of those earthy cuisines that loses something to preciousness. I was surprised at the service, I really expected it to be a lot more attitude-inal given the pedigree of the place, but the servers, waiters, and hosts were never anything but warm and sincere. I do have one complaint though: the chairs were uncomfortable enough that I had to sit next to my wife on the bench (rather than across from her) because I got sore.

I really love how with Mexican food at least, I can truly say that Philly kicks NYC's ass....

We are almost there. I think that these supper clubs really did require membership at one point. However, I don't think they had nothing to do with dinner theater. And the dinner club that is a wine society, this sounds new-fangled.

No, I meant what I wrote. Let me write what I think, and more knowledgeable people can add or correct me. A supper club and dinner club are the same thing. They are private, that was the whole point, members would pay a membership fee whose purpose was not to exclude anyone (these were for the middle class, not upper crust) but to establish that the restaurants were clubs and therefore immune from liquor laws. Which laws they were trying to escape is not clear to me. Since the purpose of the clubs was dinner and dancing with liquor, they served staples like steaks and chops. I think they became extinct more recently in the Midwest than the East Coast. But they are extinct, and any restaurant claiming to be a supper club or claiming to offer supper club-like fare are not supper clubs, they are trying to be supper club-like. Again, I cannot remember what aspect of the alcohol laws the supper clubs were trying to escape but those rules either don't exist anymore or liquor licenses are easier to get. I would appreciate someone's helping me out here.

That's it, I'm going back to sleep! I have a bunch of questions: what is a supper club? I think I know (I lived for one year in Minnesota and they are a more recent phenomenon there than here). Why the transformation? The obvious answer is to make more money. But Striped Bass wasn't successful enough? He put 1 million into renovating it, is that lost? WHat is the prognosis for Parc?

Is this true? Have I been in a cave?

I am not entirey objective right now because we ate Sarcone's leftovers tonight for dinner and my gut is...reminding me of this, over and over. No, I have never had a great hoagie. There are great prepared foods in both France and Italy. Brazilian barbecue places serve wonderful prepared foods with their meat. Of course, we are speaking in generalities. The bread of the Sarcone's hoagie was very good, mind you. I recently had an authentic baguette from Di Bruno's. No idea where it came from, though

There are fabulous prepared foods nevertheless, as anyone who shopped in the most modest "tratteurs" in Paris, can attest. I always thought Zabars had some wonderful prepared foods, obviously with a Jewish slant, which might have been what I appreciated. Actually, any of the many gourmet supermarkets in NYC had various prepared foods that were memorable at one moment or another. Gourmet supermarkets have never taken hold in Center City. I tried Wegman's prepared foods once (Cherry Hill) and it was memorably awful, so bad I penned a letter to the company. WHole Foods is pretty awful too. We had hoagies from Sarcones and the bread was very good Italian bread. And the hoagie pieces were good. Just not great.

Flying Monkey sounds worth a visit. I am a huge Philadelphia booster and I love the food scene here, one random thought is that I never saw a city try so hard to refine the bar menu and expand beer offerings, NYC can't touch us in either regard. These are just 3 icons that fall short of their reputations, in my view. Plus, there is plenty of bad food in NYC, not every place is miraculous there. I guess that the whole of Philadelphia food is greater than the sum of its parts, might be true.

Yesterday my wife threw a party for her 34th and her having finished her dissertation (Rhetoric, U Minnesota), catered by Isgros and Sarcones. Isgro's "best cake" was good, not great, as were their petit fours. Sarcone's antipasto plates and sandwiches were good, not great. And Di Bruno's prepared foods (I throw them in just to stir the pot) are good, not great. Di Bruno's greatest sin is monotony of dressings and preparations. Now I love Di Bruno's and I would use Sarcone's in a heartbeat for another party, don't get me wrong. And I have not had better sandwiches in Philadelphia (or better antipasto). Nevertheless, I was underwhelmed by Philadelphia's best. Now bring it on.

Oy vey, orange beef and sweet and sour chicken, you were just begging for it weren't you? I would predict they would be crummy. Remember, I am recommending dim sum for delivery and basic Chinatown dishes, anything involving sauces is risky. 2:15 AM? I didn't know Chinatown stays open that late!

I am surprised to read you writing that, Katie. You were one of the people most enamoured of Szechuan Tasty House, and I thought STH's claim to fame is that it is heads and shoulders above the glop that most delivered Chinese is. New Golden Palace is heads and shoulders above the glop, plus you can get dim sum any time, both of these qualities are unique. What was Lakside's claim to fame? That it served dim sum all the time. I am not sure anyone thought there dim sum was qualitatively better than dim sum served elsewhere in Chinatown. But on a Saturday Night with a Will Smith or Will Ferrell DVD in the home theater....

Most of the dim sum was good not great. Really basic dishes like fried rice or chow fun are good. Salt baked things are okay. Other dishes are spotty. The main quality of this place is that it will prepare dim sum all day all week, and deliver it, as well as that it delivers food that is recognizably "Chinatown" Chinese food.

I have known about this option for a while but I never actually tried delivery until yesterday and what we got was very good. New Golden Palace, 801 Washington, 627-2822/89. They will prepare dim sum at any time of the day. Furthermore, they will deliver it. The food we had was not up to the highest Chinatown standard, but it was recognizably "Chinatown quality" and not "Chinese-American." Now, to clarify definitions, so far as I know, the ONLY restaurant in Philadelphia without exception (until New Golden Palace), that delivers Chinatown quality Chinese food is Szechuan Tasty House. I would say all the food was on the same level as STH delivery though not on the same level as STH's best dishes. The dim sum ranged from acceptable to very good. In the context of "Chinatown quality" I would say the dim sum was one step below what Lakeside used to serve, and I always considered that one step below the best I had had in NYC. Were I to have a numbered system and the best dumplings I had in NYC were a 5, Lakeside's would have been a 4, STH's food in general would be a 3 with their best dishes a 3.5, the best non-Chinatown delivery I have had here would be a "zero" and I would rate New Golden Palace a "3."

Sniff, sniff, no one even called to invite ME though I was the one who "discovered" this place....

The owner said that her restaurant opened May 17, so if you ate there before that, this is a completely different restaurant. Trust me, the soup dumplings are the bomb. I actually remember that discussion and I tried the dumplings when the restaurant was in its previous incarnation, and I agree, the place was mediocre. But now it is much more interesting with excellent soup dumplings and the restaurant is quite devoted to the Hanzhou cuisine. To make things more confusing, I checked the restaurant's business card, and the previous name ("Zhi Wei Guan") is exactly what the owner wrote on it. So go figure.