vinobiondo
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Posts posted by vinobiondo
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I may be the biggest fan of Le Grand Vefour on this whole site, but it doesn't sound like quite the right place for this particular occasion. It is fairly romantic, just a hair stodgy, and (most importantly) only a good value for lunch. There's a huge difference in their lunch menu vs. full degustation menu pricing -- the lunch menu is a screaming deal while the full tasting menu is not (the guy sitting next to me at lunch was having the degustation and the biggest difference I could see was that he was paying 350% of what I was). Plus, you'd want to have a walk in the Palais Royal garden first while it was light outside. Of course, if you can also talk your husband into a romantic lunch on this trip, well then...
I've made my non-fandom re: Le Meurice perhaps too well known, but I think that even its biggest supporters would say it is decidedly stodgy and quite formal. And they definitely are not giving it away there...
I suggest you consider Le Pre Catalan (and it even has a "the"!). It's a hair on the romantic (almost girly even, but you shouldn't let that put you off...) side, but it's great food, warm service, and their seasonal tasting menu felt like a very good deal when I went (although, fair warning, that was also a lunch, so you might want to check if they change the prices for dinner ... I don't think they do). It was an absolute avalanche (maybe the largest meal I've ever eaten!) of very delicious food and an impressive, non-confiscatory wine list. The cuisine is traditional French with some nice modern touches
Traditional cuisine with a hint of flare? Check
Not too stodgy? Check
Not over the top romantic? Check (it's certainly not "over the top")
Good value of cuisine and service for the money? I sure thought so.
But I will say that those pictures of Le Bristol absolutely blew my mind. Add me to the growing list of the mighty curious....
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Re marriage proposal plans... your secret's safe with us... and yes Bens d'Avall would be a wonderfully romantic spot. Did you go for the tasting menu? And on Can Fabes, I'm sorry to hear that some things dampened the experience. Maybe you could elaborate on the Can Fabes thread. Our only problem there was finding some reserve room to fit all of the food!
We actually ended up ordering a la carte, but there were plenty of "extras" so we felt we got a very representative experience. I agree that a few of the dishes were a bit too "busy" but they were still delicious.
Much like Alinea (which I also found to be mostly disappointing), Can Fabes is an eGullet sacred cow. I honestly don't think a recitation of my experience at either of these places would be appreciated or even believed.
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Great post!
Thanks to all for the recommendations upthread. And I second vinobiondo's comment on the excellent food at Bens d'Avall. What nobody has mentioned is the stunning location of this restaurant. It is pure James Bond territory. Between Soller and Deia, it is perched in a dramatic cove with a sheer mountainside drop to a crystal clear sea.So true! It was a sunny summer day on the day we were there, and we got there right at sunset and had our cava on the deck before going inside to eat. Before we went inside, we walked down the hill a ways and found a "private road" the led to some steps down the hillside that suddenly just dropped off about 1,000 feet to the sea. We sat on those steps and watched the beginnings of a sunset which was one of the most romantic moments ever. When I propose to my girlfriend, part of me wants to fly all the way back there just to try to re-create the moment.
On a related note, we ate at Can Fabes on the same trip and much preferred Bens d'Avall, although -- to be fair -- our pretty much disastrous experience at Can Fabes had less to do with the quality of the food than with other things.
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commentary on vinobiondi's post #48.
re: portion sizes.
at le cinq - that was certainly the case... my five course tasting had just as much, if not a little less (?) food than would have shown up if i had stuck with three courses. i went for lunch... so i deviated from the 75E 3-course set menu and went for the 120E "decouverte" menu - which featured:
amuse: buttery brioche sandwiching garlic sautee spinach (literally the size of a u.s. quarter).
*also included with the 3-course
1. chestnuts and truffle
* 3-course menu got an appetizer of two cubes of tuna sashimi in
ginger broth.
2. frog legs (4 small) with sunchokes
3. 3 (overly done) sea scallops with lentils
4. choice of either pigeon with cabbage OR veal in milk sauce
5. pre-dessert of vanilla cream with guava jelly, diced apples and
crumble
* included in the 3-course menu
6. columbian coffee souffle tart with cocao ice cream. the souffle was
terribly undercooked - the center collapsed into a very liquidy soup...
terrible! the 3-course dessert options (there were three, i think),
looked much more appetizing and well done.
7. mignardises carte - a variety of the usual chocolates and sweets
* also included on the 3-course.
i don't necessarily think that my five-course tasting featured higher quality ingredients, nor any more food... it just cost 45E more. i felt like such the fool. i may be missing out on some "culinary" secret... but i wasn't impressed...
u.e.
Yeah ... um... for me, for a 3-course lunch, LE GRAND VEFOUR (75 Euros) is in a class by itself. As for Le Cinq -- I've only had drinks at the bar and walked through the dining room, and that was all I needed -- they had the worst stated prices I saw in Paris. We had thought about trying to get in for lunch the next day but decided "non" based on price and the palpable lack of professionalism of the staff in how they greeted us. Generally I tend to steer clear of hotel-based restaurants in most major world cities (with one exception), and Le Cinq looked like a total rip-off when we walked through ...
Getting to your points ... it simply remains a mystery to me -- I honestly don't know how portion size/# of courses/cost all balance out because I simply don't have a frame of reference -- I've never ordered a whole roasted duck for two (or a pigeon) -- I just don't know. All I can say is that I think tasting menus in France tend to be smoking deals, and it is certainly not true elsewhere.
Love your insight...
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Let me put in another good word for Bens d'Avall ... it was tremendous for what it was and what it cost... a very fine restaurant. Koldo Royo was really great as well. Most of the rest of our meals in Mallorca were quite forgettable (and, importantly, not at any of the restos under discussion on this thread) but these two were excellent, especially Bens d'Avall.
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By way of example, this Spring's first course at the devastatingly fantastic Pre Catalan was Tempura Langoustines ... but only six of them per person.
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"There is a difference in portion sizes. At French 3-stars, a 7-course menu will serve approximately the same amount of food as a three-course menu. There are some exceptions of course. Some dishes ordered a la carte menu might be small but expensive if they are based on luxury ingredients. Whether you go to Troisgros, Michel Bras, Le LouisXV, Michel Guerard, Regis Marcon, Pierre Gagnaire e t c a degustation menu will not from a food quantity point of view be a bargain compared to ordering a la carte. I cannot think of a single multi-starred restaurant where there would not be a portion size cutback equivalent to the larger number of dishes. "
Well, I can't disagree based on experience (as I said, I've never not had the tasting menu), but I shudder to think of what the "full portions" must have been like at the conspicuously gut-busting Pre Catalan, decidedly over-filling Le Cordeillan Bages, mildly overwhelming Le Meurice and certainly north-of-enough Guy Savoy if I was merely getting the undersized makeweights, which were elephantine compared to the individual courses on my Charlie Trotter/Thomas Keller visits. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that you are correct, but I'm sort of laughing at the widespread notions that French food is too tiny and "precious" and that Americans are so comparably fat because our restaurants serve enormous portions. As far as the top levels are concerned, I have had just the opposite experience re: portion size -- all these places were an avalanche of food (and, in defense of my original point, I had the tasting menu at each of them).
Thanks for your insight. I'm just sort of ..... flummoxed.
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Debate between tasting menus vs. ala carte is an old one. If I am ata restaurant that is new to me or I am unlikely to teturn to for a period of time due to location, tasting menus have served me well by showing me much more of the breadth of a chef's cooking. If I am at a restaurant at which I am a regular, a la carte makes more sense to me.
For me, it's a France vs. not France thing. At multi-starred French places, it has WITHOUT FAIL been the case, in my experience, that the tasting menu seems like an absolute bargain compared to the a la carte offerings. Not atypically, it's something on the order of a 140 Euro 7-course tasting menu vs. 48 Euro starters and 75 Euro main courses. I understand that part of this is because there tend to be many "unexpected extras" with either format, but I think that a lot of these restos redundantly "price in" the add-ons with both the starters and the mains (i.e. your 30 Euros worth of "goodies" is added on to the price of both your starter and your main plat) but don't meaningfully cut down on the portion sizes for tasting menu servings. For some reason, this tends (or, more preceisely, has tended to be for me) the case only in France -- it has not been so in Italy or Spain (the two other European countries in which I have dined extensively enough to have a thoughtful opinion), which are much more similar to the US pricing rubric when it comes to tasting menus. I don't think I've ever seriously considered ordering a la carte in a multi-starred French establishment -- both because I have been interested in seeing what the chefs could do and because it has always seemed to be quite obviously the better deal.
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This is an interesting thread. And all the advice proffered has its rationale. Digesting it all, I thought about what I would do. I would go "all in" in the parlance of TV Poker and aim for one great meal to treasure; one meal against which all others would be measured. That requires coordination with the Maitre D'Hotel and the Chef in advance, not just a reservation and choosing from the menu when you arrive.
I think this a great idea, too. For this particular adventure, I have to believe Guy Savoy would be the call. It is shockingly expensive, but the food is as good as any of them and the level of PERSONALIZED service is in a class by itself. Everyone's complaint about Guy Savoy seems to be the cost (which is borderline heart-stopping), but I sense that people (myself included) tend to leave the restaurant feeling that it was darn near worth it for such extravagant attention (both on the plate and off). I also think that if you rang up Hubert (their maitre d' sans pareil) and explained what you sought to do, he would absolutely make it happen (unless he has yet to be paroled from the Las Vegas opening). It would cost you a SH**-TON of cash, but for a no-limit blow-out, I think this is the place.
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It must be different tastes - out of the four places I ate, it was the one I enjoyed least. I really wouldn't recommend it at all.
Hey, I HATED Le Meurice, one of eGullet's sacred cows (which led to quite an excoriation on the France board) ... so I hope you don't think I'm being critical of you or your tastes -- I'm certainly not. More likely than a difference in tastes is probably just "good night/bad night" (unless the crowdedness was a real factor for you ... because it is definitely crowded and loud)...
Or maybe another thing ... did you eat at the early seating or the late seating? For those that don't know, Alle Testiere has two seatings per night: 7:00 and 9:30 (and, yes, they flat out kick you out at 9:25 -- we wanted to stay for dessert -- no dice, but with so few seats and such high demand, this didn't really bother us). We were at 7:00. I wouldn't be surprised if this little tiny space (which was plenty cool at 7:00) might be quite hot by around 10.
Anyway, your thoughts were certainly appreciated by me ... I just had a different experience.
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After reading so much about this restaurant, maybe my expectations were too high. But I found this restaurant to be a disappointment.
First, it is very small, and overheated. Which means you can alearly hear everything that the table next door to you is saying.
Second, it is expensive - the most expensive meal we had whilst in the city
Third, the food is OK, but really nothing special. I had a mixed seafood starter - which wasn't a patch on the ones I had the two previous nights, the pasta was OK, though too stodgy, and the main courses were largely simply grilled fish. Good quality, but again, nothing special.
Compared to Alle Testiere, I thought both Corta Sconta and Il Nuevo Galeon were far better
I recently (2 weeks ago) ate there as well and had a very different experience. I thought the food was magical (yes, somewhat simple but impeccably done) and had no problems with either the temperature of the room or the prices. It is crowded and loud, but, for me, these are minor complaints. I am very grateful that eGulletteers turned me on to this place, which was by far the best place I ate in Venice.
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Did you mean Naya when you said Nonya?
Nope ... I meant Nonya.
http://www.pasadena.com/AdView.asp?ad_id=191
It's Malay/Indonesian food -- delicious, very relaxing, Zen-like setting.
By the way, I went to Naya once (shortly after it opened) and it was excruciatingly bad, bad enough to rule out even giving it a second chance.
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There are many restaurants in Old Town Pasadena. Mind you, I don't know whether your group wants to avoid Colorado Blvd. & Old Town on NYE. Is that a factor in the decision-making process?
I read about a restaurant named Derek's.
$105 at the Ritz on NYE? I'm not surprised, but even for kids??
Anyways, I'm not finished yet. I'll be checking some more sources for you.
I've eaten at Derek's many times. Derek himself is completely insufferable, but the food is often quite good. They definitely do not give it away price-wise (I recall the wine list being totally confiscatory), but it is a legitimate, special occasion destination, food-wise. I'd say it's about on par with Akira and Shiro, except for its slightly better decor in a strange, strip-mall location. For me, Tre Venezie, Bistro 45 and Nonya are all better.
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The room at Maison Akira is a little bit strange but I think the food is quite good. It's often times nearly empty (unlikely to be a problem on NYE), which adds to the weirdness. I have had several good to very good meals there. My recollection is that I paid handsomely for these experiences.
The recent buzz on Shiro is that the chef is devoting all his attention to the new restaurant on the west side and that the original is basically on auto pilot. It is also kind of a strange, time-warped space (lots of 80's-ish design elements). I loved it about 5-7 years ago, but I fear it's time may have passed. The menu is also very small, which can be a concern if you have picky eaters.
I have heard nothing but uniform praise for the Ritz Carlton -- across the board, every foodie I know that has eaten there has been impressed. Sadly, I have not yet been there to eat.
For me, Pasadena's best restaurant is Tre Venezie. I actually ate there for last New Years Eve, and it was tremendous. It is the only restaurant I've visited in Pasadena that would threaten to make the list of best meals ever. I would also recommend Bistro 45 and Nonya.
By the way, I'm a Pasadena native who lived there until six months ago.
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Having also just returned from Piemonte, let me add to the discussion my agreement that both Antine and Belvedere and indeed better than ever. I would also highly commend the apparently undiscovered (or maybe just undiscussed) and hard-as-hell-to-find La Pergola in Vezza d'Alba. I went there purely due to the 85 points it has in my 2004 Gambero Rosso, and it earned every one of them. It might have been the best meal we had in Piemonte, even if it is casual to the point that there is exactly one person working the front of the house and he is wearing jeans (his mom is doing the cooking in the back).
For me, Trattoria della Posta was a little bit disappointing -- nowhere near as good as previous visits. Their truffles were of noticeably poor quality. La Ciau del Tornavento gets an incomplete since my girlfriend and I were having a fight spectacular enough to both ruin the meal and make us leave early (I can at least confirm the beauty of the room). Thankfully, that blew over.
I've never made it to Flipot, so I have nothing to add there.
A side trip to Verona and Il Desco confirmed (to me at least) that all the haters are just somehow missing it. It was tremendous. My only critique of this place is how somber, serious and downright German (I mean that in good fun...) all the other diners seemed to be and how much more expensive it has gotten over the last five years. The annualized inflation rate at Il Desco must be 25% over that period (obviously, some of this is due to the weak dollar).
By and large, it looks like most of 2005 Barbaresco was picked before the rain and most of 2005 Barolo was not (this is judging from talking to winemakers and from just looking out the window of the car).
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I will be there in Nov I can not wait!!
Somebody help us out!! I leave in 12 days and am dying for some word from someone in the know. Inquiring minds...
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I will be in Houston for medical treatment at MD Anderson. I have never been to Houston (and do not want my illness to take over my life).I intend to check out food in Houston. I am a Pastry Chef in Honolulu. I love farmers markets, restaurants of all types (and would be looking foreward to some good Mexican food- something lacking in Honolulu). I love seafood, I am very fond of Gulf shrimp- in my opinion, far better then tiger shrimp? Where should I go between tests and Dr. appts? I would love some opinions
I'm not from Houston but have visited several times. You should immediately check out Central Market -- it is a grocery store non pareil. I wish so badly I had something this cool in Los Angeles.
I'd recommend Cafe Annie for excellent if pricey Southwestern fare.
Neither of these are particularly resourceful recommendations -- both are very well known in Houston, but I loved each of them.
I also recommend Aries. I had quite an enjoyable meal there over Memorial Day, but it has received quite mixed reviews on eGullet.
Good luck -- in your eating and in your recovery!
-A
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I concur. This is an excellent recommendation that skipped my mind earlier. It is not outrageously expensive compared to other Ritz-Carlton properties and the quality is almost surprisingly high.
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It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who thinks Chef Alleno is capable of serving the occasional course that sucks really badly.
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Was that amuse this dish?
This is similar with at least one important difference. Assuming the ingredients are the same (can't tell just by looking), the green layer on the bottom of yours was up at the top of our and, partially because of the conical glass, probably 6 times as large volume-wise. We had less crab, less gelatin and much more whipped avocado (which, for me, was the main problem). This does look similar, however. Let me guess ... you loved it.
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Wow vinobiondo! That was definitely a contrast to our meal. I can only say I'm glad the appetizer courses had changed by the time we were there. And I would have to say (and did so on another thread comparing Le Meurice with Ledoyen) that some of the dishes had a certain "rollercoaster" quality that felt like our palates were being pushed and pulled (sometimes a bit aggressively). Nonetheless, we left feeling very satisfied. I've noted several other positive reviews about Le Meurice here on eGullet, but it sounds like your experience goes beyond the kitchen just having "one of those nights". Hard to know what to make of all that.
More than anything, I think it just goes to show how little has to go wrong to torpedo a meal at a restaurant of this caliber. After all, our fish, our meat, our cheese, our dessert, our wine were all very good to excellent. The room is beautiful if cold and the service is very professional if equally stiff. I actually think it mostly was the kitchen having "one of those nights" along with one poorly conceived dish served to just the wrong people and just the wrong time. But when you pony up the big bucks, you expect perfection, which is just what we got at three other Parisian restaurants this same week. By the way, your Ledoyen post was excellent, and I kicked myself for choosing the romantic setting of the Eiffel Tower at Jules Verne over the romantic setting of Ledoyen. It also amazed my that two people who live in San Clemente and San Diego find themselves eating nearly the same meal at the same restaurant on a different continent one week apart...
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I lived in Pasadena for my first 18 years and returned for the last 8. If you are looking for one absolutely outstanding meal, I highly recommend Trattoria Tre Venezie. I have eaten there probably 10-12 times, and can confidently call it my favorite Italian restaurant not in Italy. It is very fancy, refined food from a comparatively obscure region of Italy -- nothing pizza/red sauce about it. It is also BY FAR the most "serious" restaurant in Pasadena -- easily 1-star Michelin quality, probably closer to 2. If you are not in the mood for Italian, I'd probably choose Bistro 45, but it is a considerable step down from the gold to the silver medal.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks this -- it got a sparkling review in the LA Times about 12-18 months ago.
A word of warning: Tre Venezie can get expensive. And their wine list, while downright pornographic, is especially pricey.
Another recommendation is lunch at Nonya, which is insanely inexpensive for what you get. I think a 2 course lunch is $10?!?!?! This is a must for lunch -- the food is Indonesian/Malaysian/Chinese and the room is downright soothing in a Zen-like way.
As for others recommendations, Din Tai Fung is really fun and worth a trip. I'll second (or third or fourth?) that excellent recommendation. Their soup dumplings are in a class by themselves. Casa Bianca is excellent for pizza/red sauce, but expect to wait for a table. I would assiduously avoid Cafe Beaujolais and the culinary school restaurant. I've been to both twice and had four absolutely terrible meals.
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I am a big fan of Aqua. I had a fantastic meal (as did the other three people in my party) there is February. If you are looking for thoughtful, creative sauced fish dishes, I can't think of a better place. I don't consider it particularly romantic, however -- it's much more a "big city power restaurant."
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LE MEURICE
I have rarely been more excited for a meal than I was for my late April dinner at Le Meurice. After reading seemingly limitless hype and being urged to go by friends who had been, I was confident this would be among the best meals of our trip to Paris/Barcelona/Mallorca.
It was impossibly romantic to be dressed up in a nice suit, strolling down Rue de Rivoli in a light drizzle, holding an umbrella over a beautiful woman dressed to the nines – and all right around sunset time. Yeah, that’s tough to beat.
The jet lag having just worn off, we felt well adjusted to Europe and ready to go. I was confident that Le Meurice would show Melissa just what “Fancy French Food” was all about.
Taking the advice of our hotel concierge, we made sure to leave extra time so we could enjoy a Meurice Millennium Champagne at the hotel bar. This is an impossibly cool bar and a truly fantastic cocktail. It is champagne rosé, liqueur de rose and Cointreau garnished with a gorgeous oversized knot tied out of orange peel (I pictured a basement sweatshop dedicated to nothing but orange-peel bows – I’m sure it takes 4-5 tries to get one just right). I have never been so glad to pay 40 Euros (or was it 50?) for a pair of cocktails. Indeed, this prompted us to spend the following afternoon taking a survey of the champagne-based house cocktails at the chi-chi Paris hotels – Meurice won hands down.
Here it is:
By now we were downright giddy with excitement.
The room is beautiful if a bit cold – the high ceilings and lack of floor coverings make it feel like an ornate baroque racquetball court. Both the strange acoustics and stiff atmosphere make you feel like you have to whisper and sit up straight – like you’re in church.
We quickly opted for the tasting menu (170 Euros each) with wine pairings (another 130 Euros each). In April, that was nearly $800.
Before I tell you why I ended up profoundly disappointed with this meal, a few positives. I read RichieRich’s post on Le Meurice …
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...9866&hl=Meurice
…with some interest, as we were there at almost the same time (seven days apart). Indeed, I had many of the same dishes and many of the same wine pairings. What’s funny is that I don’t disagree with much of what he wrote. And yet, just a few subtle differences made all the difference. To wit:
(1) I agree that the wine pairings were fantastic. Even when the food wasn’t great, every single wine was a very thoughtful and appropriate companion to the food. This is even more remarkable because several of the wines aren’t exactly collector’s items. In particular, allow me to second RichieRich’s favorable comments about the Zind-Humbrecht Muscat and asparagus combination. I didn’t like this dish, but the food/wine pairing was undeniably successful.
(2) I agree that both the seabass and the ’78 Leroy were excellent.
(3) I really enjoyed both the ’95 Leoville Poyferré and the Poulet de Bresse (by far the best Bresse chicken I had in France).
So why was he so happy and we were so disappointed?
It was all in the early courses.
Our surprise amuse was a (quite large) avocado mousse with a gelatin layer and some crab underneath. Alas, yet more French avocado abuse! This was downright disgusting – awful taste, worse texture -- so bad, I said so to Chef Alleno later in the meal. To be precise, I told him rather pointedly that some of the courses I didn’t enjoy might just be a matter of taste, but that “as the grandson of an avocado farmer who has eaten hundreds and hundreds of avocados in many, many different forms, this was just plain wrong.” I honestly can’t see how anyone with any familiarity with avocado would enjoy this dish. I note with interest that it was off the menu by the time RichieRich arrived exactly one week later. I’m not saying we made this happen, but we could not possibly have been clearer in expressing our displeasure, and I assure you all that RichieRich is very glad he wasn’t subjected to this abomination. It appears the Parisian chefs are hell bent on using avocado after all the praise heaped on L’Astrance’s now-famous crab-and-avocado dish. This was NOT a good knock-off.
I don’t want to be too dramatic, but it is hard to emphasize how deflated we were after this course. Fresh from the Jules Verne debacle, this is exactly what we didn’t need at the start.
Alas, our second amuse has been forgotten. All I remember is that we really didn’t like it either. By now, a sense of gloom began to descend upon our table.
The first course was “Fresh Anchovy Seasoned Like a Tabouleh.” We both love anchovies. Although it was quite pretty to look at, we both hated this. The real problem here was the “fresh” part. These anchovies weren’t. Unfresh, unpreserved anchovies are not tasty.
Next was the second course – the “vegetable” course of “Green Asparagus Glazed with Bone Marrow and Parmesan Cheese.” Although not in the menu description, there was also some ham involved. This was veritably slathered with bone marrow, cheese and ham, resulting in a dish that was outrageously heavy, soaked in fat, in no way refreshing, and having very little to do with asparagus. I’m not sure this is a bad dish, but the way our particular servings were executed was way, way, way too rich – to the point of being unpleasant.
By now, we have had four items – and both disliked every single one of them.
By now, 600 Euros poorer and with our sky-high spirits having come back to earth, this meal was going to be a failure no matter what. And to have your first fancy meal and a half be Jules Verne followed by these four courses was very discouraging for both of us (fortunately, Le Pre Catalan got us back on track in a big way the following day at lunch).
To the extent we remained capable of enjoying our meal, we both were pleased with the sea bass (same as RichieRich’s). The foie gras (Duck Foie Gras poached in Chambertin Wine with Pasta Cooked in Truffle Jus and Stuffed with Green Pea Puree) was the next course. It had a texture in between soggy bread and chicken fat, and was exceptional in its blandness (hard to do with foie gras and truffles!). Melissa doesn’t dig on organ meat, so she subbed in a “Light Shellfish Soup Opened with Seaweed Steam” that tasted basically like salty, canned fish stock.
Our main courses – the Poulet de Bresse for me and the Poached Fillet of Beef for her – were excellent. But by now, it was far, far too late for one or two good courses to save this meal.
The cheese (same as RichieRich’s) was pretty good, and the desserts (a strawberry and ice cream situation and the same pear RichieRich was served) were quite nice but far from revolutionary.
The service was very, very formal and stiff – enough to make one almost uncomfortable, actually. By the middle of our meal, it was pretty obvious to everyone that we weren’t enjoying ourselves (even the people at the next table, who felt free to cast disapproving glances and insult us and all things American to such an extent that even my limited French could understand some of it). Dish after dish was being returned unfinished, and the service staff knew we were displeased. At the end of the meal, Chef Alleno came out to chat with us, and it was clear that he had been briefed.
He was very gracious and professional. We did not mince words, and he took what criticism was offered in the spirit in which it was offered. He seemed genuinely disappointed that we had not enjoyed ourselves, genuinely interested in what we had to say, and a genuinely nice guy.
We walked back home in rain, all the excitement and romance having been sucked from such a promising evening.
LE MEURICE
Final Grade: 76 ( C )
Trois Etoiles A Paris... Reprise
in France: Dining
Posted · Edited by vinobiondo (log)
I had a pair of very, very good lunches at Le Pre Catalan and Le Grand Vefour back in April. I would put both among the 10 best meals I've ever eaten, and I've been enough places to know. I think Pre Catalan is slightly more experimental (and significantly more food), but Le Grand Vefour was a better deal. Pre Catalan is more romantic and probably best done with a significant other. If I were dining alone and had the chance to return to one or the other, I'd probably go to Grand Vefour ... unless I felt really, really hungry! Seriously, it would almost come down to the time of year and what kind of mood I was in. Taking the Metro out towards Pre Catalan and walking through the Bois to get there was wonderful ... on a sunny spring day with my girlfriend in tow. Probably less so in December.
Given your disappointment with Le Cinq, I'm suspect that "avoiding disappointment" and "getting your money's worth" are among the major directives here, and on that count I think Le Grand Vefour might be the better choice for one main reason: the lunch menu has choices -- choose from among three starters, three plats, and three desserts. We did the "smaller" (ha!) tasting menu at Pre Catalan and, although we were allowed a substitute or two, the menu was set.
Finally, if you are expecting culinary pyrotechnics, these are not the places. The food remains relatively traditional, with a few modern twists.
I have a couple of pictures that I'll post later today.