Carlsbad

I'm not sure how it is at 5:00 pm, but two of us walked into Pizzeria Mozza at about 12:20 pm last Saturday, and got a table immediately. There was a wait for the counters, and larger groups were waiting for a while for tables. The pizza was certainly as good as any I've had, and the 5 antipasti we had were all interesting and excellent. The wine list is also outstanding. The only problem with it was we ate so much it was hard to get up for dinner.

To accomodate his restaurant, they ruined the front lobby and took away one of the best bars in the city.

This is California, not France. It's a different world. What Michelin has done is lump most of the good restaurants in San Francisco as one star. That really doesn't help anyone much. There is no place in California I've been that could compete with the service (or wine list) at Taillevent, and it has been busted to two stars. It's a different world here. Now that Taillevent is gone, the three stars in Paris cost three times what people pay in San Francisco for the expensive places, not even counting the deflated dollar. The French Laundry is what they are looking for in the Bay Area, and priced accordingly- $240 for the tasting menu, with maybe a supplement or two. It's a wonder they even awarded one star to Chez Panisse. I don't think Aqua would be my first choice for two stars, and since I refuse to go to Michael Mina because of what it did to the St. Francis, I don't know about it. San Francisco is a great restaurant city. The more I go elsewhere, the better it looks. But Michelin isn't going to get what makes it what it is. Los Angeles probably isn't going to fare better. There will be a bunch of one stars, and maybe a couple of two stars.

After seeing what they did in the Bay Area, I'll pass on the SoCal edition.

We had an excellent dinner at Vivace last night. The food and service were first class, and the surroundings are elegant and romantic. I had a fantastic "Tuscan" bean soup, which had very large, perfectly cooked beans in a light broth. We split black spaghetti with sausage and shrimp, flavored with scallions, and light gnocchi with tomato. Perfectly cooked and very interesting. The butter poached lobster tail on a perfectly executed risotto flavored judiciously with Thai basil was perfectly paired with a Pio Cesare Chardonnay. The wine list is too heavy on California, and needs more Italian entries, but there are some well-chosen Italian wines. Well worth the money and one of the better meals I've had in San Diego County.

How far is Craft from Disney ? in minutes ? ←

Brasserie du Boulingrin In Paris, there are a lot of restaurants that fit your description. Three one star places that won't break the bank are Dominique Bouchet, Les Ormes, and L' Angle de Faubourg.

Drouant is within walking distance.

pierre45 has the right idea.

I believe that some red wine is being made in the Cinque Terre, but I've never tasted it. The wine you see everywhere is white and dessert.

The Cinque Terre shouldn't be too crowded in October, especially if you avoid the weekends. The best meals we had were at Miki in Monterosso, which had very good whole fish from a display in front of the restaurant and excellent pasta with pesto. They have a decent wine list there. Like the Cinque Terre itself, the virtue of the local wine is its simplicity. We tried the best Cinque Terre wine off the list at Miki, which is not expensive, and it went well with the food. At the urging of the waiter, we tried the house Cinque Terre wine on a later visit, and I thought it was just about as good. There is a small wine bar in Monterosso on the main street up from the beach in the old part of town that had some interesting selections and a nice area out front to enjoy them. They also had very good bruschette to go with them. The sweet wine they produce in the Cinque Terre, Sciacchetrà, is interesting enough to try at least once, and their limoncino (which is what they call it there) can be very good.

Yes, it was the 3 bedroom apt. this time. No real cooking, but we did some lunches in with lots of good things from the markets.

A quick report on our seven nights in Paris last month. The highlight was dinner at Taillevent, which I thought was even better than the last time. The tasting menu is a bargain at 140E. A Remoulade de Tourteaux was extraordinary, and was perfect with a Dagueneau Pur Sang Pouilly-Fume. A simple pan cooked rouget with a dab of tapenade was also memorable. In fact everything was excellent. Loss of a star has only made things better from what I can see. Second place went to Dominique Bouchet, where everything was near perfect. Le Clos Des Gourmets was exellent and quite reasonable for the quality of the food. Dinner at Drouant got off to a somewhat shaky start as far as service, but soon all was well. I don't believe M. Clemot was there, so maybe that had something to do with it. We had a very nice dinner at Les Fines Gueules, which I found delightful. We travelled out to Leslie Caron's Auberge La Lucarne aux Chouettes in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne one day for a birthday lunch for a friend. The place was enchanting and the food was quite good. That night we had a light dinner at a cafe. On our other night, we returned to Aux Trois Oliviers, a little place across the narrow street from our apartment, which we had liked two years ago. The food has gone more upscale, and while good, I think I liked it better before. We were all content as we headed out of Paris for the South.

We really enjoyed La Petite Maison and L'Univers - Christian Plumail when we were in Nice last month. Plumail's Langoustines wrapped in pancetta and roasted were really outstanding. I don't know where he gets his lamb, but it is some of the best I've ever encountered. I had it several years ago and was worried that it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. It was even better. La Petite Maison is a very fun place with excellent Niçois cooking. There were several large parties of locals celebrating when we were there. They have so many good things to choose from, I was happy I could order a first course combination of the things I wanted most. Both places have a nice selection of local wines, including Bellets.

Chapeau!

Campanile is near LACMA and you can do lunch there within your limit.

Le Dome is said to have very good bouillabaise by Pudlo and some others I've recently read. Maybe there or the Bistrot du Dome?

Thank you for the feed-back. I think we will give it a go.

Does anyone have any recent news on Dominique Bouchet? We are considering it for next month. Thanks.

The answer is "No".

Constanela hit it right on the head! By the way, I thought we weren't supposed to get political on here.

The wine list is on the website.

I wasn't going to comment because this guy has received way too much attention on here already. But I can't resist commenting on the $8 eggs. They are $8 a dozen as I understand it. I have a friend who has chicken on his property, and he gives me truly fresh, natural eggs from time to time. They are so far superior to any eggs I can buy anywhere, I would gladly pay $8 a dozen for them. When you poach them in water, they stay very compact and don't fly all over the place. When you eat them, they are far superior to any eggs I can buy, and believe me I've tried everything available anywhere near me. I don't eat a lot of eggs, but when I get good ones, I eat them. If this guy at the Ferry Building has people lined up at $8 a dozen, I'm sure his are something special. By the way, my friend tells me he figures his eggs cost him about $1 each. Maybe someone can try the eggs and report back. Try poaching one and putting it over organic asparagus with a little really fresh butter and some reggiano. Was the egg in the dish worth 67 cents?

Take a look at Savory. They have a Sunday brunch and the food is excellent and market based. It's in Encinitas, but not far from Carlsbad at all. Vigilucci's Seafood and Steakhouse is open for lunch on Sundays. It is across the street from the beach in Carlsbad, and I've had consistently very good food there. I don't know if they do brunch type things on Sunday or not. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Four Seasons either. It's a beautiful place, and even though I haven't eaten there in some time, I'm sure you would enjoy it.

Thanks, grace3. Violon is high on the list. The last time we went there in July, they were virtually empty and were serving only one set menu. If they are serving as usual, we will probably go there. The new format looks great.