CherieV

THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! Glad to see that you are thinking in those terms BIGBOSS! You are way to talented to remain behind the scenes.

Matt, it is happening. Places like Gayle, Meritage, Ansill, Southwark etc are popping up everyday. Phila moves Slowwly but I remain optimistic about our culinary scene since I have had the opportunity to work with some really talented chefs your company included! Come back and open THAT restaurant!! Phila misses you! As for fine dining, I'm with Holly, it has its place and I hope it doesn't go away.

Matt, I know you asked for my opinion. Well, a few things come to mind after working for both Georges and Jean Marie in a past life. Is fine dining dead? I do not think that it will ever die for sure if it is the real thing. Le Bec, Lacroix, The Fountain, St Bass etc are special places to dine in Philadelphia. For many reasons other than just the food. Service, atmosphere, wine selection and service are also very much part of the experience. There is something to be said for the Maitre d' greeting the guests at the door, an amazing cheese and dessert cart, and of course a Sommelier assisting with wine suggestions for your meal. Fine dining is a special evening out that you have put $$ aside for to enjoy. The Rittenhouse and The Four Seasons have the advantage of being a destination for a weekend getaway with fine dining in house. People will always want to get dressed up and truly dine for that special occasion. I look forward to it absolutely. We also have diversity in our dining scene that is expanding every day. The gastro-pub scene is strong, quality chefs opening BYO's continues to grow, and the casual concept fine dining aspect is now on the move with places like Ansill and Gayle. I guess what I am saying is I hope there is places for them all to be here and be successful. Personally, I have use for them all and enjoy my experiences in each type for different reasons. If we lose our fine dining scene in Phila I believe we would be moving backwards as a culinary destination and a world class city.

I ate at Bricco recently, it is on 3rd street...? I recently opened and is Italian. It's resonably priced and a great space. Also Stock's on Second is really good.

My husband and I had a craving for Raw last night and it was better than ever! The food has always been great in my opinion and now Chef Greg has added an awesome tempura menu (with awesome tempura I might add) and some more items to his kitchen menu. We had the kobe beef carpaccio, which was a generous portion for the price, topped with a quail egg. Sublime....need I say more? Also, Chef Greg sent out one of his new dishes which consisted of spicy shrimp and rice paper wrappers. The shrimp were so flavorful and it is always fun to create your own roll. Lastly, I need to comment on the service. All I can say is they took their review VERY seriously. We were greated by a warm, friendly, front of the house manager that was really committed to making sure each guest was well taken care of. We opted to wait for a table at the bar and our bartender was so gracious we decided to eat our entire meal there. He was extremely friendly, detail oriented, and our service was just perfect. All I can say again is this has become my favorite Japanese restaurant in Phila and if you haven't made it there yet please check it out, it really is a cool space with amazing food and now really great service.

Daniel, This was hysterical. I haven't eaten at an OG since I was in college. Wow, it really is that bad. It's amazing to think that a lot of American's actually think the quality of OG food is a good dinner out. Some of my family included. The OG in Times Square always amazed me with the amount of people waiting to eat there. I've seen a line up the block many times. For what? It's not cheap and it's not good. Sure there is a comfort level associated with it but it would seem to me that the risk involved with eating possibly at a worse place is minimal, especially in NYC. Sorry, I just don't get it. Call me a food snob I guess.

I have a friend that worked in an OG. It was her first job in a restaurant. Anyway, she said that all the sauces etc come from a food preveyor premade in vaco-sealed bags. Nothing is homemade there or even really made. The whole culinary school in Tuscany is very curious. I wonder if it is a complete lie?

I too finally had the chance to eat at Ansill this weekend. I loved it, many of the dished that I choose have already been reviewed, the shirred eggs with foie gras, I just loved this dish. I think it was my favorite of the evening. Also had the sauteed mushrooms, truffled califlower, and a few different cheese plates. I thought the wine list was interesting and well priced. Can't wait to go back for more!

CONSuuuuuuuuuuuuumerism. Mathew is correct though I doubt that would have achieved anything. The root of the problem here is that ultimately Hotel restaurants cannot be take seriously as food friendly dining destinations if they have polices of allowing families with crying babies to be routinely sat without doing anything about it. So what if you bought a half million dollar condo in the building, you wouldnt take your crying baby to Le Bec Fin so why Lacroix ? You cant be a fine dining restaurant at the top of the food chain and have Chuck E Cheese policies. ← Georges does not have provisions for children nor does he need to, he is a freestanding restaurant. He makes the rules. When you are a restaurant inside of a 4* hotel you do not have the autonomy to make the same decisons. In a lot of instances your hands are tied. It makes functioning at a high level very tricky.

With all due respect Valdouvan; I am responding from a Four Seasons Company policy perpective. Management at my level did not have the authority to tell any customer how to behave. Our hands were tied to company policy. I can assure you that George V has similar policies. Unfortunately, we are more tolerant in this country to bad behavior in general. Especially when $$$ is involved. Back to Lacroix, they did not seat a baby in the dining room but in a closed off room adjacent to the restaurant used for house guests. Can you say Lawsuit -- Well here I have to say "if it walks like a duck...." I'm all about exceptional service believe me and because I spent the last 10 years in fine dining front of the house operations I have heard A LOT. I have listened and listened. Some things are just out of your control. That is what we are talking about here. A bad table to one guest is a good table to another. A crying baby was out of management's control. Back to my original question, did KIMWB ask to be moved to another table? And this is entertainment, not hospitality. There are different policies on conduct I'm sure. Incedently, what would you do? Ask the usher to escort them out?

I agree with you totally. The Palm is what it is.....most people know exactly what they are getting before they walk through the door. It's the same food and scene at all the locations.

Incedently, did you ask to be moved?? Also, how can the Chef minimize the inpact other diners have on your evening? Some things can be controlled, this isn't one of them. I'm convinced some people are just oblivious of how inconsiderate they are to others around them.

As I stated before, I was a restaurant manager in a past life. Babies crying is not the way you want to spend an evening at a restaurant or anywhere else for that matter. However, Lacroix must cater to hotel guests/condo owners with a seperate area for them to dine just as I had to at the Fountain (aka The Four Seasons). So if that Michelin 2 or 3 star restaurant happens to be part of a hotel you may have to deal with this kind of behavior as well as wrong as it seems. Back to my hotel days, I was not allowed to remove customers from the cafe/lounge area that were loud or had children because my Fountain customers didn't believe they belonged there interupting their evening in the very near next room. Especially hotel guests spending big $$$ on accomadations. Incedently, Vadouvan, European hotel guests tended to be the worst offenders with unruly or crying children. As far as the table location one table may seem "the worst" to one person and "the best" to another. You can go around and around in circles with this one and I have. One guest says it's too dark, another, it's too bright, another it's too cold, another, it's too hot. On and on the bitching goes. I've heard it all believe me. Honestly, when I go our to eat with my husband or friends the location where I sit is last on my list of needs?! For me it's about the food, service, wine and the time being spent with my husband or friends, not looking out of a window. That's just me though. Lastly.. What do you do if you spent $$$$ on a 1st class flight and have the same situation? Guess what I've been there and you can't really blame anyone. Certainly not the airline or crew.

I do not believe that this dinner was "horrible". Some things are out of the control of the chef and management such as: other customers, design of room etc. Service and food are the things that can be affected on a daily basis. Clearly KimWB had great food and great service. Incedently, I ate a Lacroix recently and I do know the table that KimWB is referring to and sat right near it in fact. It is right at the window (coveted seats) and it has a view. This table sat guests all evening with no problems during the time I was there. Also, did anyone at Lacroix actually recieve the fax? Was it faxed to the proper dept? Hotels are big and things tend to get lost. It is interesting to note also that this is the ONLY negative thing I have read in regards to one of our best restaurants in Philly. Baby crying and "I didn't like the table" is not waited very heavy in terms of valid complaints in my book. Personally, I do not think there is a bad table in the room from what I can tell. I was restaurant manager at The Four Seasons so I am especially sensitive to this type of criticism.

I had the opportunity to check out Morimoto Manhattan last week. The white stark decor paired with the glass bottle walls is indeed interesting. It reminded me of an ice palace. It creates atmosphere which is of course Stephen Starrs signature. I did not have a chance to dine but managed to have a couple of specialty martini's which were quite tasty. The service is friendly and the bar area is comfortable enough to have a bite to eat if you wish. The bar menu had some similar items to Phila for a bit more $$ of course "it's Manahattan". Overall I am curious about the omakase and next time hope to see what it is all about in Manhattan. I've had it Phila many times and NY seems to be more interesting.

Great pic's philadining!!! I am so glad a few of you made it. I knew that you all would appreciate the level of cuisine and I LOVE the Saki list! I am going again tonight and can't wait!!!

Having worked for Chef, he will appreciate your feedback.

Yeh, Szechuan Hunan. It is between Locust and Spruce. Sorry about that, I always get it delivered. They are pretty quick, the food is always hot, and it is consistant. I live in Fairmount also which is a bit of trek for them and I have no complaints.

Try Sezhwan Hunan on 20th and Chestnut. Decent and quick delivery.

Next time tell your server to tell the chef your a gulleteer and They are on the house. ← I meant the gyoza ,not the sushi. Gotta pay them bills ← Greg, your too kind. I come from the restaurant side and we are not complaining. Really! Just wanted people to be aware that they need to remember to be patient when servers and restaurants are new. Your servers are amazingly pleasant and that makes a huge difference. Especially on a busy Sat night when things aren't going perfect.

My husband and I went again tonight. Our service was a bit out of sorts and slow but luckily it was just us and we were in no hurry. We had the pork gyoza again and they really may be the best we have ever had. Also we had a selection of rolls, sushi, and sashimi which were nicely prepared and delicious. The Sake list is awesome and we had Kaori Junmai Ginko Sake that we really enjoyed. Despite a hick-up with service we enjoy it there and will continue to patronize.

The Snapper Soup at Sansom Street Oyster House is the best. Need to have the little shaker of sherry on the side to jazz it up "to taste". ← OMG how could I forget one of my absolute fav's?? SSOH Snapper soup is a must! Although it did taste better when Katie worked there.

A few of my fav's Chicken Raman soup at Morimoto French Onion Soup at Bar Lyonaise (Le Bec Fin) Tomato Crab at Vietnam Standard Tap also makes great soups

Three of us made it to Raw tonight and it was a great experience. The list of Sake was amazing and our server was very helpful when sorting through it. I had an amazing appetizer of oysters. I can't remember the details real well (too much Sake ) but if you love oysters these were sublime. My husband had the Gyoza and they were some of the best we have had. We all shared three of the special maki rolls offered. Awesome presentation and extremely creative. One was spicy tuna based, another was eel and lobster, last one was avacado crunchy salmon? Not sure but they were wonderful. There point of difference is the Maki rolls which there is many to choose from. We also ordered a few pieces of sashimi and sushi and they were lovely as well. We had a really nice evening and were very well taken care of by our server. We will return, often I expect!

It's a know fact that there are winemakers that go out of there way to make sure they make wines in the style and taste profile that is most appealing to Parker. I am in the middle of reading his biography.