drosendorf

We are taking our second trip to Spain in March, spending 3 days each in Madrid, San Sebastian, and Barcelona (I know, not enough time - what can you do?). We were in Madrid and Barcelona about 4 years ago and have some favorites to return to, and I've been doing much studying here and elsewhere (there are some great threads and I feel slightly guilty for starting a new one rather than tagging on). We like both traditional and contemporary cooking styles and have enjoyed some of the U.S. takes on the latter (i.e., Alinea, Jose Andres' Minibar). We like to eat tapas-style and I also enjoy tasting menus, though Mrs. F will only have patience for a few of the latter. I have started to put together something of a "hit list" for each town and would appreciate insights and suggestions. One additional complicating factor is that we will be arriving in Madrid on Sunday and will have Sunday / Monday in Madrid, and again Sunday / Monday in Barcelona. Suggestions for places open on these days are particularly welcomed. MADRID Viridiana - we have to return to get Mrs. F the huevos con mousse de hongos y trufas. I think they are open Mondays, am I mistaken? La Terraza - Ferran Adria spin-off in the Casino de Madrid. Recommended to me by a friend with pretty good taste; don't know if I'll ever have a chance to get to El Bulli. Any thoughts? I don't have many other sit-down dinner type places on my Madrid list (Lhardy?), but have several tapas bars - a string along the Cava Baja - El Tempranillo, Tximiri, Casa Lucio, La Camarilla; and nearer to home base (likely the Villa Real), Las Bravas, Vinoteca Barbechera. Bocaito. Any more suggestions, particularly around the Plaza Santa Ana and/or open Sundays? SAN SEBASTIAN Restaurants: Arzak, Mugaritz, Akelarre, Etxebarri Tapas: La Cuchara de San Telmo, Alona Berri, Bar Bergara. We have three days here, though Mrs. F may not have patience for three alta cocina tasting menus. If you had to choose? I have had people tell me Mugaritz is the best restaurant they've ever been to, and seen others that are distinctly underwhelmed. We are booked for Arzak but I was told it's in the smoking section (we are not smokers). This seems like it could be a real downer - anyone eaten there that can say whether it's intrusive enough to call for canceling if this can't be fixed? I get the impression Etxebarri is better as a lunch destination; can it be turned into a Bilbao day-trip if you rent a car? BARCELONA Restaurants: ABaC, Alkimia, Ca l'Isidre, Casa Calvet, Cinc Sentits, Comerc 24, Cuines Santa Caterina, Embat, Gresca, Passadis del Pep. Tapas: Tapac 24, Paco Meralgo, Takitka Berri, Bar Mut, La Vinya del Senyor, Xampanyet, El Quim & Pinotxo in the Mercat de la Boqueria, Bar Inopia, Quimet y Quimet. Again we have the Sunday/Monday issue in Barcelona, so there's only one night in Barcelona when all options will be available, otherwise we're picking among what will be open. Particular suggestions among these or others for Sunday/Monday options in Barcelona? For those places that are not open either Sunday/Monday, any thoughts on paring the list down (in other words, "if you had one meal in Barcelona")?

Try Josh's Organic Market on the Hollywood Broadwalk on Sundays. Some pix here from a local chef's blog.

Joe's does not take reservations (and Robyn is right, is not open Mondays for lunch). As for staying downtown vs. South Beach, MGF&D is not in downtown either, it's in the Design District, and you will be cabbing it there (or renting a car) whether you're staying at the Four Seasons or the Tides. The difference is maybe a couple miles.

cocoa - I would respond here had I not already responded here. Maybe others will surface on this board.

I thought for the truly hardcore the jamon iberico is supposed to be sliced by hand - you don't want any of the heat of a machine melting that lovely fat.

I think you need a "devils on horseback" cage match - how funny is it that there are 3 restaurants within 3 blocks of each other all doing almost the exact same dish? Is there some zoning requirement in the DD now that you have to offer bacon-wrapped, blue-cheese and almond stuffed dates? My kids insist on ordering the shrimp every time we're at PT and I never mind sneaking a couple. We've also been there very often (probably at least a half dozen times over the past several months) and never had consistency issues. (And we've always seen Jonathan Eismann there running the kitchen). But I do think I know what you're talking about when you say you're "bewildered" sometimes. Although the Asian focus is not nearly as overt as when PT was on Lincoln Road, I do think there's still a strong focus on salty/sweet/sour balance in his dishes, and sometimes I find the sour component overplayed. Some dishes just haven't worked for me occasionally. But that's similar to my experience at Michy's in the first several months it opened, where there were some items that I just didn't think worked (baby conch escargot?)

Surprised to see you refer to PT as sub-ordinary. I have it as one of the top 10 places in town, certainly within its price category. Grilled asparagus w/ poached/fried egg, hot & sour popcorn shrimp, tempura soft-shell crab, duck salad, buffalo sweetbreads, quail w/ peaches, short rib w/ white beans, great french fries, 20+ small dishes to choose from, all work for me. I agree the portions at Sra. are somewhat parsimonious.

I guess by "ground zero" I mean that you can go to just about any of the now-several restaurants in the Design District and at a minimum have a good meal, and potentially have an excellent one (which is a lot more than you can say for South Beach, which these days is a lot like playing Russian Roulette with 5 bullets in the chambers). There are certainly more places I want to go for dinner in the DD and along Biscayne Blvd. than there are in South Beach or the Gables these days. Personally, I seem to like Pacific Time more than some folks, and Fratelli Lyon less than others. I've not yet been to Buena Vista Bistro, which I thought you liked. Particularly since several of these places have a focus on small dishes, I do like the possibility of a DD tapas crawl - you could do a taste-testing of MGF&D, Pacific Time and Sra. Martinez's bacon-wrapped, blue-cheese & almond-stuffed dates (the official snack of the Design District).

Miami local hero Michelle Bernstein (Michy's) just opened up a new tapas restaurant in Miami's Design District, which is rapidly becoming ground zero for great dining in Miami. The place aims to be an upscale tapas joint with mid-scale prices, with some straight-ahead traditional items and several others with chef Michelle Bernstein’s creative flair. I have a real prediliction for this kind of thing, being a huge fan of Spanish flavors and tapas-style dining, and it's great to see it done well. Sra. Martinez is in the old post office building in the Design District which previously housed the short-lived restaurant Domo Japones. I had not been to Domo Japones before it closed so I can't really tell you what's been changed, but I can say that it is an interesting space. Most of it is open to a 2-story height, with a staircase up to an open loft-like area on the 2nd floor. There are several large horseshoe booths along one side, with 2- and 4-tops throughout the middle and a reasonably large bar (maybe 15 seats) on the other wall. The upstairs has a couple larger tables which look down on the main dining room along with another small (maybe 6 seats) bar area. It looked like the downstairs bar was also being put to use as a cold prep area. The place was not as brightly colored as some reports had led me to believe, with the main color accents coming from a couple bullfighting posters and some bright red Philippe Stark "Ghost" chairs and barstools. One piece of good news is that I didn't have to feel remotely self-conscious about being a pig, as Mrs. F promptly ordered about a half-dozen things for the table almost immediately after we got the menus (which come folded up inside envelopes, a little tribute to the building's original role), and everyone quickly got into the sharing spirit. Between the six of us (including Frod Jr. and Little Miss F) we ordered a total of 16 items plus a couple desserts. Although individual portions were generally pretty small, overall this was a pretty good amount of food. A link to the full menu is here -> Sra. Martinez menu Here's the rundown on what we tried -> - crispy artichokes – really good. Artichoke hearts with most of the tender stem left on (why people often sacrifice this part is beyond me), sliced thin and fried with a little bread crumb coating. Light, crispy and not greasy at all. Served w/ a lemony dipping sauce. - poached fried egg – actually more like a fried poached egg (same style as Jonathan Eismann does at Pacific Time where the egg is poached and then coated in crumbs and fried), served over a bed of crispy (fried?) kale and draped with serrano ham. So nice we had it twice. - tortilla espanola – the classic Spanish egg and potato dish, with some sweet caramelized onion in the mix. A pretty small hockey-puck sized portion, Mrs. F didn't like that it was slightly watery though I recall this sort of oozy quality being typical of many versions we had in Spain. - arugula salad – with piave vecchio cheese, thinly sliced persimmon, tarragon and lemon oil. I did not get a chance to try this but Little Miss F - who we've discovered is a big persimmon fan - liked it, as did the rest of the table, apparently. - fried calamari – although this appears in the menu circulated online (linked to in an earlier post), the actual menu has a grilled calamari dish though the fried calamari was available as an off-menu item. Good but nothing special. But, with rare exceptions, I think fried calamari, while it can be done badly, even when done well is only going to reach a certain height - it's good, but it'll never floor you (though one exception I can think of is a fried calamari sandwich I had at a place called El Brillante in Madrid; oh my that was good). - white bean stew – one of the real standout items for me. Gigantic white beans (not sure if these were fabes or the mammoth judion beans that we saw in Segovia) stewed with big chunks of duck/foie gras sausage (more duck-y than foie-y) and laced with a port reduction that gives the whole dish a hint of sweetness. Absolutely loved it, great dish for a cold night. - boquerones – traditional white anchovies marinated in vinegar. Nothing special but good if you like such things, like my mother-in-law and me (we're also the ones eating all the pickled herring at old-school Jewish spreads). - piquillo peppers – again another simple traditional dish. Good if you like such things (I do) but again nothing extraordinary. - patatas bravas – another classic, cubed fried potatoes w/ a spicy tomato sauce (hence the “bravas,” i.e. “brave” or “fierce”) and often served w/ an aioli as well. Though the potatoes had a nice crispy-outside, creamy-inside texture, I didn’t like that this was presented with both the tomato sauce and the aioli in little dipping bowls instead of being “dressed”. While perhaps it’s OK to treat the aioli as a dipper, I much prefer when these are sauced /w the tomato sauce first so it can soak in a little (but not so much that it dampens the potatoes’ crunch). I also thought the bravas sauce was too sweet and not spicy enough. Also a pretty slight portion even for tapas. Yes, I’m particular about my bravas. - pork belly – here was another standout, a nice cube of pork belly (about 3 inches square), crispy outside and super-tender within, topped with a smidge of a not-too-sweet fennel-orange marmalade, and accompanied with a “benihana salad.” Really good pork. On the meat alone this will give Michael Schwartz’s pork belly w/ kim chee a run for its money (though I still think MGF&D’s accompaniments are a little more interesting). - sweetbreads – if you’ve eaten at Michy’s and like sweetbreads, you know that MB has a real touch with these. The prep here was just as good, crispy outside and ethereally tender and fluffy inside, but I thought the accompaniments – a romesco sauce (a pesto-like paste of dried red peppers, almonds and garlic), a caperberry, and a lemon wedge – were not nearly as inspired or effective as some I’ve had at MIchy’s (for instance, with bbq sauce and braised pork jowl). - prawns a la plancha – massive head-on “Madagascar prawns” (for those wondering, as I was, what the deal is with “Madagascar prawns,” I suspect that they must be these puppies, which say they are organically and sustainably produced) grilled and served with cloves of “confit garlic” and a shmear of a smooth chimichurri. The prawns were good, if a little tricky to extract from their shells - and there are few dining experiences I like as much as sucking on the head of a good prawn - but I thought the accompaniments could have been a little more inspired. The idea seems to be somewhere between a classic gambas al ajillo (shrimp sautéed in olive oil and lots of garlic) and gambas a la plancha (simply grilled, often with nothing other than sea salt) but this somehow fell a little short of either. I just think this dish ought to go in one direction or the other, or perhaps in another direction entirely (for instance, Michy’s giant prawns with corn and tarragon was a beautiful dish). Plus, I don’t think anyone particularly wants to pop a whole garlic clove in their mouth unless perhaps they’re dining alone (or would prefer to be alone). - sea urchin “sandwich” – This one really won me over. Uni is one of my favorite ingredients, though usually I prefer it as is rather than messed with or cooked. Here, it’s smooshed into a sandwich that’s pressed and grilled with some soy-ginger butter, and boy does it ever work for me. It didn’t lose any of that urchin-y goodness, and the soy-ginger just highlighted and enhanced the intriguing salty spicy sweet flavors of the uni. Frod Jr. liked this too, though only in small portions (the flavors were pretty intense for him), as did the mother-in-law (not exactly someone you would peg as a sea urchin eater). - galbi pinchos – short ribs, sliced thin across the bone dim-sum style, marinated in a Korean kalbi-style sweet soy sauce, and served with a kohlrabi “slaw” (made with kohlrabi sliced super-thin cross-wise into rounds rather than julienned, and vinegared – reminiscent of something you might get as a Korean banchan). I liked these, as did Frod Jr., though Mrs. F thought they were a little chewy (which they were, but us boys didn’t mind). - rabbit – this is a varation on a dish I’ve had as a special at Michy’s, a loin of rabbit wrapped in bacon, and served with sautéed rounds of carrot, a carrot-cumin sauce and cubes of panisse (chick-pea fries). Delicious. One of the best rabbit preps I’ve ever had. - cheese plate – Mrs. F ordered a cheese plate in lieu of a dessert, and they brought it out with a candle stuck in one of the cheeses because it was Mrs. F’s birthday (Yay! Birthday Cheese!). A simple presentation with a Valdeon blue, a Manchego, and a Murcia al Vino, each with a dab of some jam or marmalade to accompany. The blue was paired with an onion marmalade, I could not pick up what each of the others were. - donuts – dulce de leche filled donuts, accompanied with a coffee granita (coffee and doughnuts!). I only got the tiniest bite of a donut but they went quickly, and the coffee granita was (pleasantly) very strong and not very sweet at all. Little Miss F, despite our best efforts to keep our 8-year old off stimulants, is a coffee fiend and loved this. - greek yogurt ice cream – a very yogurt-y ice cream (again, pleasantly so, I thought), accompanied with a sweet tomato marmalade and a third component which I’m not recalling whether it was a basil syrup or a balsamic syrup – I only recall that the flavors were evocative of a sweet caprese. I enjoy the mash-up of sweet and savory ideas and thought this was good, though I thought a similar concept was executed even better by Pastry Chef Fabian di Paolo at a dinner we had at Neomi's in Sunny Isles a/k/a Paradigm - The Test Kitchen several months ago. The wine list is exclusively Spanish and has many interesting items. I didn’t quite get to soak it all in, but noticed a couple of Txakolis (a high-acid, sometimes slightly effervescent white from the Basque region that is wonderful with seafood dishes) and a number of other nicely priced choices. We had an Alto Moncayo Veraton (a garnacha from Campa de Borja made in a modern style which is absolutely delicious) for $55, which is almost exactly 2x the retail release price. I also didn’t get to soak in the drinks list though it also looked very interesting. Little Miss F very much enjoyed her “San Sebastian,” a non-alcoholic mojito variation with lime, mint, cucumber and ginger beer. MB was in the house and very graciously (after some hocking of the waitstaff by my mother-in-law, who saw her speak at the Book Fair) came by to say hi. Some of the staff from Michy’s were there as well, we noticed at least a few familiar faces. I don’t know whether that’s just to ease the opening week jitters or will be a more permanent state of affairs, but I was astonished at how smoothly the place was running for only their second official day open. We did not have a single notable snag in service or execution the entire night. Since we were sharing for the whole table, dishes were just brought out as they were ready, and the pace worked out great, as we basically had a parade of 3-4 dishes at a time over the course of the meal. Our waiter knew the menu pretty well (said all the staff tasted through the whole menu before they opened, the “best breakfast” he’d ever had). Another group of servers brings dishes to the table from the kitchen (no easy task for the upstairs tables) and they might need a little more studying (I think one said that kohlrabi was a fruit) but generally did a great job of getting the food out smoothly. The upstairs space can feel a little tight when waitstaff need to squeeze through (there are wine fridges and racks positioned on either side of the tables up there) but it was no big deal to me. The place had pretty much filled up by the time we left around 9:30 (the Design District was PACKED last night presumably with the Art Basel crowd). Portions were somewhat on the “wee” side, with lots of funky service pieces and elegant, somewhat sparsely decorated plates, rather than the loaded, bubbling cazuelas you’ll find at a traditional tapas joint. I suspect if we were all adults at the table (though Frod Jr. and Little Miss F are good eaters) that we probably would have needed around 3 items per diner or more, and even then you’d likely be sated but not stuffed. Depending on what you order, that could easily be $40-50 a head – certainly not a cheap meal (our bill came to about $200 for 6 people excl. drinks tax & tip). But that’ll be a pretty nice meal; plus, the place also really lends itself to having a little snack and a drink at the bar instead of a full-blown meal, or maybe, before a meal as you head off to another of the DD's restaurants (y’know, like a tapas bar!). Some may note that I am not trumpeting every single dish we had as a knock-out. And that’s true. Generally speaking, I found the stuff that was more basic traditional tapas items to be somewhat less exciting, though that’s not to say they weren’t good. Piquillo peppers are delicious – you don’t necessarily have to mess with them. So while the roasted piquillos may not have been a revelatory dish (though it might be if you’ve never had them before), it’s still a good dish and one I’m happy to be able to order. (Though if someone could recreate the outrageously good piquillos rellenos with bacalao and squid ink sauce as well as El Carajo used to do them, that would make me very happy indeed). Everything was very good, and several of the dishes I thought were outstanding – the white bean stew, the rabbit, the uni sandwich and the pork belly particularly. And the feel of the place is just great, and the food really fits it. So, even though it’s only been open 2 days, is it too early to come up with a wish list? What can I say, I love this kind of food, and I want more. - jamon iberico – I know it’s inconsistent with the price points of the rest of the menu, but can you really have a tapas bar without a leg of real-deal jamon iberico behind the bar awaiting carving? The stuff is the platonic ideal of porkiness. Those who know will pay handsomely for it. - callos – I did not try the garbanzos w/ morcilla, but if we’re going to do blood sausage, can’t we get some tripe in the mix too? - soups – other than a gazpacho, no soup on the menu. How about a sopa de ajo? A caldo gallego? - fish – a surprising dearth of fish on the menu, though lots of shellfish. How about a bacalao al pil pil? Piquillos rellenos w/ bacalao? - montaditos – these little bites on bread are elevated to an art form in some Spanish tapas bars (San Sebastian is legendary for them). I think it’s a great format to play with and would make for some fantastic bar nibbles. I guess I'll work my way through the rest of the menu first. I’m already plotting my next visit. Chickpeas w/ morcilla? Rabo encendido? Roasted marrow bones? Harissa-spiced quail? I’m coming for you.

I made a return visit to "Paradigm" on Friday 10/24 for another "Test Kitchen" dinner. Chef Chad gives a rundown of the dinner from the kitchen side on his blog -> chadzilla: paradigm 102408 Here's my take from the dining room. The name of each dish should hopefully link to a picture -> lox – one of Paradigm’s ongoing themes in each menu has been “breakfast for dinner,” here is this menu’s version. A smoked salmon gel film is used as a ravioli wrapper to encase a chive cream cheese gel, topped w/ a sprig of fresh dill and a caper salt (capers dried and pulsed in spice grinder w/ salt). Interesting to have the wrapper carry the flavor of the salmon, and the flavors (very traditional ones, just presented in a new format) worked. The caper salt could have used more caper flavor to it. I would have followed the theme by adding some “everything bagel” sprinkles (sesame / poppy / dried onion / salt crystals / caraway seed etc.) to add a little more flavor and crunch. foie 'suzette' – a twist on a classic dish, another ongoing theme. A foie gras “crepe” is made by firming a foie mousse w/ methylcellulose (?), spreading thin and cutting rounds, the process having the added benefit (some of us would say anyway) of holding in all the foie’s rich fat even as you warm it (otherwise a bunch leaks out as you sear or otherwise heat foie), wrapped around lightly warmed and dried satsumas, w/ a blood orange gel and a flambé of Venezuelan orange rum; topped w/ a transparent black pepper sugar tuile (glucose? isomalt?). Again, a neat concept to have the protein component serve as the wrapper. When tasted on its own, the crepe distinctly carried the foie flavor (though not the texture, which is one of the greatest joys of foie), but with the other elements it tended to get lost. The black pepper tuile was very cool, but overwhelmingly peppery in the context of the dish. I thought the flavor combinations here were excellent, pairing the foie with the varieties of orange, but the balance was somewhat out of whack and would have liked the foie more forward in the flavor hierarchy (and I missed its texture). banana pho – a knockout dish. The presentation starts with a little squeeze bottle holding some liquid set before each diner, labeled “noodles.” Then a bowl holding a dark green gel disk, together with a strip of beef tendon, on top of which are a few bean sprouts and fresh cilantro. Tableside, the servers pour into the bowl a clear broth simultaneously redolent of Vietnamese pho aromas (star anise, ginger, fish sauce) and … banana? Yup. And it works. Beautifully. As the broth warms the dish, the green disk (a gel of Vietnamese basil) melts into the broth, adding its flavor and aroma. The broth is clarified using gelatin, somehow rendering a clear consommé out of a soup made with bananas. Oh, and the little squeeze bottle? You squirt it into the broth, and voila, it makes nuoc mam –flavored noodles. A tribute / take-off on a technique that Wylie Dufresne has done at wd~50 in NY, which works perfectly in the context of this dish. I liked everything about this dish. The flavors were outstanding, the presentation was both fun and functional. Loved it. Only thing that could have made it better would be a couple more pieces of beef tendon, maybe some tripe … hamachi cucumber tartare – another winner. A dice of hamachi and cucumber perked up with a little sriracha (?) is topped with a thin translucent sheet of ponzu gel, accompanied by soy caviar done using the “cold oil” technique w/ sesame oil, a little toasted peanut oil, some toasted shiso seeds that give a little pungent crunch, micro shiso and micro wasabi. Mostly traditional sushi flavors, with some effective twists on the presentation. I’ve now seen them do a couple different variations on the concepts in this dish and they’ve all been great, though this was my favorite so far. "refresh" – Pastry Chef Fabian makes an early appearance - a demitasse-sized kabosu crème brulee (kabosu being a citrus fruit similar to yuzu), topped w/ a dab of tomato marmalade and a spoon of lemon sorbet w/ a sprig of micro basil. Absolutely delicious. Another knockout dish. The concept is similar to the old-school tradition of serving a light sorbet as a “palate-cleanser” in the middle of a meal, and one that is followed as well by contemporary places such as Alinea, where around the middle of a lengthy multi-course tasting menu, the flavor notes will shift a bit into the sweeter realm of things before turning back to the savory. You see a lot of bending barriers between sweet and savory in much "experimental" cooking and this is a nice example. sweet bread nuggets – a “Fall” dish (if it’s occasionally below 80 degrees, it’s fall in Miami), a nub of sweetbread coated in crushed pepitas and toasted oats, over a shmear of a simultaneously tart and rich tamarillo “espagnole” (I always thought tamarillo was South American in origin, but if Wikipedia is to be believed, it originates from New Zealand) made from tamarillo puree and a little glace, a pickled ginger flower (had no idea these were edible), and a delicious, potent espuma of chanterelle mushroom squirted tableside. I liked each of the elements of this dish and liked them together, quite a bit. cod a la mode – black cod done sous vide (or, as I recently saw it misspelled, “suveed” – I like that, not all Frenchified) at 50C, topped with a wafer of crispy fish skin, and paired with a spoon of chorizo ice cream. The chorizo ice cream is a Latin American spin on a “contemporary classic,” Heston Blumenthal’s (from the Fat Duck restaurant in England) bacon and egg ice cream. Somehow, it absolutely works, both on its own and together with the fish. The black cod was the best sous vide fish I’ve had, retaining all the moisture of the fish and not losing any of the unctuous texture. The difficulty I’ve had with some other sous vide fish I’ve tried is that the texture gets compacted and all tight, and can be somehow reminiscent of canned cat food. Don’t know if it’s because of the fish or the temperature or the time, but this one maintained all its glory. I think this dish was another of the big hits of the night. duck, duck, goose – duck #1 – breast, brined and cooked sous vide (see, this is why I like “suveed” – instead of “cooked sous vide”, I could just say “suveed” – it’s a verb!) and remaining a nice rosy pink throughout. I thought the texture was great, though a traditional pan-searing method, when done right, is probably more effective in rendering out the subcutaneous fat, leaving just meat and crisp; duck #2 – rillettes, pureed with some extra butter (because, according to Chef K, duck rillettes don’t have enough fat on their own!), and then plated as a shmear on the plate. I liked the rillette flavor but think this may have served better as a topping for a canapé; goose – gooseberry, 3 versions, actually, a block of custard, a couple meringue crackers, and a couple dried gooseberry raisins (too dry – as Chad notes on his blog, these could and should have been macerated in something to soften and plump them). goat cheese – a goat cheese “cream” (almost like a flan in texture) paired with a pumpkin seed and olive oil cake (I thought this was delicious), a yogurt espuma over the top and a drizzle of a balsamic caramel reduction. Nice textures, but too one-dimensional in flavor for me (“creamy” without much else). I thought this could really use some fruit element or something else to contrast. horchata – a ribbon of a horchata gel (I thought this could have used bolder flavors), a nice square of chocolate sacher (a spongy cake), a quenelle of pomelo roso gelato (I got the sense not everyone liked this, though I did), a little drizzle of a transparent vanilla gel around it (neat) and a delicious “milk candy wrapper” on top. A little lollipop with a green tea shell and a Chambord filling (did I get these right?) was given as a final sendoff. The restaurant offered a nice series of wine pairings to go along, which we supplemented with a few brought from home that were shared among the table. The chefs came out to present, explain, and sometimes to do final plating for each of the dishes, giving an opportunity to share not only information on the ingredients and techniques, but things like reminiscences of MFK Fisher writing about drying out tangerine slices on a radiator as a tie-in to the foie suzette dish. I thought each of the dishes succeeded, but the real standouts to me were the banana pho, the hamachi tartare, the kabosu brulee and the black cod “a la mode.” There's good stuff going on here. I had indicated in my earlier message that this will be a Thursday-night only dinner but I believe the game plan is to move it to Friday nights.

Glad to hear it - other than rush hours, the traffic really isn't so atrocious, though I wouldn't make a habit of commuting back and forth to Boca Raton. We were just at Michy's this weekend and had a very good meal (as we pretty much always do). The sweetbreads are now being done in a nice sort of orange-fennel gastrique studded with bacon and capers; pork belly got a sweet chili glaze w/ thinly sliced apple; the tuna tartare was really popping with layers of soy and fresh ginger flavor; miso-glazed brussels sprouts w/ bacon were pretty good (bacon seemed to be our theme of the evening); a few other regular items (bibb lettuce salad w/ fried shallots and serrano-ranch dressing, polenta w/ truffled egg, baked alaska) were as good as always. Was also quite happy that some roasted marrow bones I'd had as a special on last visit (interestingly, split lengthwise rather than crosswise, and topped w/ a pear gremolata) were on offer again, though I exercised some caution and decided not to do marrow, sweetbreads and pork belly in one sitting.

Being a Miami guy, I've eaten at Michy's much more often than Cafe Boulud but have been there a couple times as well. Very different places in many different respects, not the least of which (as I suspect you know) that they are in completely opposite directions from Boca Raton. Michy's is a fairly casual place with quirky kitschy decoration (some think the white-painted furnishings with bright blue and orange patterned materials and 70's chandeliers are godawful, I get a kick out of it). The menu, which changes often, focuses mostly on small-dish type items, with almost everything on the menu available in 1/2 portions. There are several dishes I've had there that are real standouts - an excellent white gazpacho, the braised short ribs, pretty much anything she does with sweetbreads (she often changes the prep), pork belly & clams. On the other hand, I've had a few duds as well, sometimes in conception, less often in execution. I enjoy being able to put together a few different 1/2 portions to have a tapas or DIY tasting menu style of meal. To me it's a great neighborhood place, but of course that's partly b/c it's right in my neighborhood. Boulud is much more of a fine-dining experience - not over-the-top or stiff by any means, but a good bit more formal than Michy's. They've done a very nice job with the restaurant space there, with everything (artwork, table linens, plates, etc.) coordinated in an orange/gold mediterranean look. When I last had a dinner there (a couple years ago) the menu was divided, somewhat confusingly, into a few different "themes" - traditional, global, seasonal ... from the current online menu it looks like they have simplified (and perhaps "dumbed down") the menu a bit. The execution and quality of everything I had was outstanding (true also of a more recent brunch visit) but nothing particularly stands out in memory as a "I must come back for this" type of dish. I suspect the level and consistency of execution that you'll find at Cafe Boulud may be higher than that at Michy's; on the other hand, Michy's may be a more fun, less fussy meal. I anticipate either will be quite good. Hope this helps.

I have never been to the Orlando location. I went several times to his "flagship" restaurant in Coral Gables, which unfortunately closed this past year, and also to predecessor restaurants of his in Miami. Van Aken is a very talented chef and one of the few folks who I think can successfully pull off this sort of "grab bag" fusion style. The flavors and execution are almost always on target; the only complaint commonly heard about the Miami location was that portion sizing was on the small side. A couple classic dishes that I love are the orange-infused conch chowder, and the "down island" foie gras french toast; I don't get as excited over a couple of his other "classics," the yellowtail over mashed potatoes and the "havana" roasted pork, primarily because they are not as adventurous in their flavor combinations (like many places, I generally prefer the apps to the entrees). Having said all that, I repeat that I've not tried the Orlando location nor do I know anything about the team that's in the kitchen there (I don't know how much time Norman himself spends at the Orlando location, though it may be more lately since his Miami and LA locations closed).

I usually avoid these massive events - very expensive and nobody can really showcase their cooking at its best in this format. There's a few threads on a certain other site discussing prior years' events -> http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/491744 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/468710 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/446701 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/374188

I have not been to Vix in some time but felt underwhelmed and overcharged when I tried it. Pretty place, though, and I'd go to have a drink. Prime 112 is also not my kind of place and I haven't been, though it has its fans. I'm a big fan of both Michy's and Sardinia. My other favorite on South Beach would be Talula, and for an interesting and less spendy meal, Indomania (Dutch-Indonesian). For an old-school classic, Joe's Stone Crab is an institution which still has very good food, and opens for the season on Oct. 10. You should know that Michy's is not on South Beach, rather it's on the mainland and about 50 blocks north (about a 15 minute drive or taxi ride). If you're venturing out of South Beach - and for the best food in town, you should - Michael's Genuine Food & Drink is a don't miss, and Pacific Time is also doing very nice stuff these days. Both are in the Design District which is again back on the mainland, across the Julia Tuttle Causeway (slightly closer than Michy's). For a really interesting experience, though a bit out of your way, the restaurant at the Trump Hotel in Sunny Isles (about 10 miles north of South Beach) is doing a reservations-only, communal-seating tasting menu dinner on Thursday nights which showcases some more experimental cooking techniques. I shared some extensive comments on their opening night here -> http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=118484 More links and info: http://www.talulaonline.com http://www.indomaniarestaurant.com http://www.joesstonecrab.com http://www.michaelsgenuine.com Pacific Time - 35 NE 40th St. Miami FL 305-722-7369 Paradigm - 18001 Collins Ave. Sunny Isles FL; for reservations - Steven Rauscher 305.692.5645 srauscher@trumpmiami.com

New incarnation has a lot more going on than the old one on Lincoln Road. I think the old Lincoln Road spot became stagnant and catered too much to the tourist trade. New place in the Design District follows the "small plates" trend, lots of choices, most fairly reasonably priced.

I was very happy to have gotten an invite to the first “soft” run this week of “Paradigm – The Test Kitchen,” a new idea at the Trump Hotel in Sunny Isles. A few months ago I did a lengthy post on a certain other site on a great special event dinner they did for me at the hotel’s restaurant, Neomi’s Grill. Here’s my take on it -> http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/525597 And here’s the perspective from inside the kitchen, from “chadzilla,” the blog written by Chad Galiano, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine -> http://chadzilla.typepad.com/chadzilla/200...tep-closer.html The idea behind “Paradigm” is to provide a forum for more contemporary, experimental cooking, in a “controlled environment.” The game plan of Exec Chef Kurtis Jantz and Chef Chad is to have “Paradigm” be a 1-night a week, reservation only, set tasting menu, set seating time deal, likely with communal seating at one table in a semi-separate part of the restaurant. This past Thursday they did a test run with an 11-course menu and 10 guinea pigs. You can see a description of the concept, the initial menu, some pictures from the meal, and another diner's take here -> http://chadzilla.typepad.com/chadzilla/200...st-kitchen.html http://chadzilla.typepad.com/chadzilla/200.../first-run.html http://allpurposedark.blogspot.com/2008/09...r-paradigm.html Particularly for a first shot, I thought the meal was genuinely successful and that the concept shows great promise. South Florida has not been particularly fertile ground for more cutting-edge type of restaurants. There’s a long line of places that have attempted it and failed, some with great pedigrees like Sergi Arola with La Broche, David Bouley with Evolution, Jordi Valle with Mosaico … but I think the prospect of trying something different, as a restaurant-within-a-restaurant, starting it on a once-a-week basis, etc. helps mitigate a lot of the peril. It’s somewhat similar to what Jose Andres has done with minibar in Washington DC, which is a 6-seat, 25-course, 2 seatings a night “restaurant-within-a-restaurant” housed inside his Café Atlantico (which has become one of the hottest reservations in DC), and is being done in a few other places around the country, interestingly enough often in hotel restaurants (Chef Ian Kleinman is doing it at a Denver-area Westin hotel, until recently Chef Kevin Sousa at a Doubletree in Pittsburgh). http://food102.blogspot.com/ http://www.kevinsousapgh.com/ My hope is that there is at least enough of a market out there to do something like this on a small scale successfully, and that by starting small it has the opportunity to find and then expand its niche. The layout for our meal was a large communal table set up in a lounge area to the side of the main restaurant, and separated from the main restaurant by a decorative wall. I thought it worked well and gave the chefs the chance to address the diners, explain the dishes and even complete the assembly of some of the dishes in front of us. Here are my thoughts on each of the dishes: smoke & mirrors - great story, great dish. Chef Kurtis explained that they wanted to start with something called “smoke & mirrors” because of the perception that this is what much contemporary cooking is – magic, tricks, some culinary slight of hand. While there is certainly a focus on technique and playfulness, Chef Kurtis made clear that their primary goal is to make good food, and that these are only tools to that end. If I were to paraphrase their M.O., it seems to be "make good food - by any means possible." The dish itself was a good example. It was simple, just a few components - oyster, smoke, mignonette (a classic sauce for oysters w/ champagne vinegar and shallot) - with a few contemporary twists. The oysters were smoked a little prior to service, then brought out on a platter with a glass cover and smoked further tableside using a “smoking gun,” a device that looks like it was assembled using pieces from a headshop which enables you to generate and direct smoke through a tube (and thereby quickly add smoke flavor). The oyster really held the smoky flavor without being overwhelmed by it, and I thought the mignonette, which was made into a gelee, really worked. A very successful dish and a nice way to start the meal. Not to contradict myself, having praised its simplicity, but I thought it could possibly use one more flavor note to really complete the dish. Not sure if it might be herb or acid or possibly something else. breakfast - another really nice concept, well executed. “Breakfast” here was represented by an egg – cooked sous vide at 61C for about 3 hours; ham – a slice of jamon iberico rolled into a cylinder, and given just a slightly crisp edge; potatoes – done in the manner of Washington DC chef Michel Ricard (in which I believe potatoes are cooked, mashed and firmed up with either a starch or gelatin, cooled, and then cut super-thin on a meat slicer before frying, making for deep potato flavor and all crispy texture – the chef explained the method but I wasn’t paying good enough attention); and coffee – a coffee espuma, piped tableside from an NO2 canister into little espresso cups. The egg was a little firmer textured than the one we had at our prior dinner in a deconstructed carbonara (some would likely find this a virtue who are ooked out by the creamy white; I liked it both ways); the jamon was lovely (just a hint of crisp, but not crispy - liked that); the potatoes were perfect. The coffee espuma I would have liked better if it had been less sweet, but I drink my coffee black - I think more coffee bitterness could have really worked, though some might find it too much. I would have loved some form of “toast” in this dish too, especially as a vehicle for soaking up the eggy goodness. watermelon – Watermelon was macerated with sake, then sliced into thin shingles, and plated with Chinese fermented black soy beans, compressed pea tendrils dressed with peanut oil, and a small pool of sauce made from black garlic (a Korean product by which garlic cloves are fermented in clay jugs for several weeks, giving a deep, sweet, complex flavor). Chef K's mental transposition of watermelon with tuna, inspired by the similarity in appearance of the macerated watermelon, was pretty amusing – to the point that, when describing his slicing method he referred to “loins” of watermelon. On the plate, the watermelon really did look like, and even had something of the texture of, tuna sashimi, with the other flavors, particularly the salty soy beans and black garlic, also reminiscent of sashimi accompaniments. I love the compressed pea tendrils which have such concentrated bright flavor, which gives me a chance to again refer to one of my favorite lines from an old long-lost TV series, "The Critic" - "full of country goodness and green peaness." I would have liked to see what the Korean garlic is like whole. I think fermentation is an area of flavor development that is really fascinating, though it runs the risk of pushing the barriers of folks' comfort levels sometimes. I saw a menu from a Spanish chef recently where a dish played on this, involving milk & grapes, and cheese & wine (only saw the description, no idea what the actual execution was like, but thought the idea was intriguing). In this dish, I thought that the black garlic and the fermented black beans were too close in flavor and "what they bring," and thought it would have done better with another component that would bring a different dimension of flavor. prime tartare - great flavors, interesting reinvention of the structures of the dish. A mound of beef tartare was enveloped in a sheet made of egg yolk flavored with tarragon and shallot (like a béarnaise), presented along with a “paint chip” of Worcestershire sauce (the chip made by combining the sauce with a starch, spreading in a thin layer and then drying it in a food dehydrator), and topped with fried capers. This one really got going when all the different flavor components were put together (like making a tartare!). The flavors of the béarnaise and the Worcestershire were really well-defined yet melded with the whole dish when combined, together with the salty briny pop of the capers too. I thought the textures could use a little refinement. The béarnaise sheet was just a little stiff when first plated, and the Worcestershire paper was difficult to work with as an eater. It didn't quite crumble, nor did it particularly want to be cut, and then it stuck to the plate. These are quibbles, though, the flavors were right on target and the presentation was clever. scallop – a nice dry-packed sea scallop was seared with “mycryo” as the cooking fat. Mycryo is 100% cocoa butter in powdered form, which is sprinkled on the surface of an item to be fried or sautéed and gives this very nice delicate crispy edge to it. Accompanied with a vanilla milk froth and a green tea & lemon fluid gel (interesting process, the gel is made by combining the flavored liquid with agar agar, then goes into a blender to get a more liquid texture – the gelatinizing agent being susceptible to being broken down by the motion of blending, rather than by temperature). Each of these seemed to have very potent flavors when I tasted them on their own and thought they were nice compliments to the scallop, but somehow they seemed to fade when eaten together with the scallop. Maybe it was just me. Beautiful presentation over a thinly sliced strip of cucumber, one end rolled into a spiral. "refresh" – a little “intermezzo” course, a narrow parfait glass with a bottom layer of a peppermint gelee, then a layer of lemon chutney, topped with absinthe “clouds” (a thick foam). I liked each piece of this except for the peppermint, which I thought was overwhelmingly strong, artificial and toothpaste-y, and was the only thing I actively disliked in the whole meal. “block lobster” – This pun didn’t make the printed menu we were given but I’ve seen Chad refer to it as “block lobster” on the blog, which is a good description (there’s a nice picture of this one on chadzilla). Pieces of lobster are molded together using transglutaminase, a/k/a TGM, a/k/a “meat glue,” then presented in sliced slabs which look something like marbled blocks of lobster. Accompanied with mustard “sand” (think Joe’s Stone Crab mustard sauce, in a powdered form), sea beans (a/k/a glasswort, a plant that grows in saline environments and has this great green, slightly crunchy, salty “essence of the sea” flavor to it), and “sea foam” (a very light and airy froth blended tableside, made from a liquid flavored with kombu, sea salt, some other ocean-y ingredients, and an emulsifier). I think lobster's two highest callings are either (1) simply steamed, on a dock in Maine, right off the boat; or (2) quickly par-boiled to get it out of the shell and then poached in a beurre monte until just cooked through, a la Thomas Keller. Having said that, I liked this implementation of TGM more than others I’ve had, as it did remain "lobster-y" in texture and also was visually quite cool. On reading the menu description I was concerned that the mustard sand would overwhelm, but in the context of the dish it was balanced. I enjoyed what happened to the texture when it combined with the lobster, it's got good "mouth feel". Unfortunately my "sea foam" seemed to just disappear from the dish after just a few moments - though this itself would be a pretty cool effect, if there were a way to get the flavor to remain. I thought this could also use a more defined "sea" flavor. Maybe do it with a lobster stock? flank 'stack' – several layers of flank steak (a very flavorful but somewhat inelegant cut) were molded together, again using TGM, so that they functioned as one thick steak, which was then cooked to a perfect rare temp and cut into thin slices. Some cloves of roasted garlic were pressed in between some of the layers to flavor the meat. Accompanied by a baby corn sprinkled with butter powder, and also a cold “corn shot” of a very concentrated and flavorful corn broth. The TGM technique worked, and the steak was absolutely perfectly cooked too - beautiful. I thought the flavors of this dish could use more refinement and excitement - not much to it other than the roasted garlic in the steak (which, when you ran into it, I thought was overwhelmingly strong), corn (and baby corn at that, which I think is underflavored), and butter (though I like the butter powder, made, I believe, using tapioca maltodextrin which enables a fat to take on a powdered form). The “corn shot” was very cool, a translucently clear liquid with this incredibly concentrated pure corn flavor. Although I thought both the “block lobster” and the “flank stack” were successful dishes, I'm still not completely sold on "meat glue" as a high-end dining tool. I am intrigued by some of the other tricks I've read about which use it, like putting crispy chicken skin on a fish, but I’m still not sure it really enhances the texture of the original product, and remain concerned that - to borrow from another favorite show clip - perhaps it's all ultimately a bunch of four-assed monkeys. http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103344 hamachi – a filet of hamachi was cooked sous vide with a white anchovy pressed into the top of it, which imparted some of its flavor and also just sort of merged with and melted into the hamachi in the cooking process. The fish was plated with an artichoke butter, which really captured artichoke flavor; an olive “streusel”, with black olive flavor and a crumbly texture; and feta “dust.” Nice Mediterranean flavors. What I'm still not sure about is my feelings for the texture of sous vide fish. The natural flake of the fish seems to merge and meld somewhat, creating a sort of homogeneous texture that I’m not sure I like. pb&j – Peanut Butter Jelly Time! This was a classic combination, with a nice reinvention of the form. A peanut croquant (a crispy cookie/cracker type thing) topped with a frozen peanut cream, accompanied with raspberry “pearls” and a raspberry fluid gel, and a sprinkle of maldon salt. The “pearls” were made using a spherification technique in which agar agar is added to the berry-flavored liquid, which is then dropped into cold oil (different from other spherification techniques which rely on a reaction between sodium alginate and calcium chloride). I liked all the flavors and textures. And the salty dessert thing just absolutely does it for me. I can't resist it. cereal 'loofah' – An absolutely fascinating dish. The technique that dessert chef Fabian described was really interesting, involving soaking cereals in water so that the flavor was extracted into the water, then using that water to make a light-as-air sponge (the “loofah”) with a coating of the cereal around it. Like the lightest, most ethereal Rice Krispies treat you’ve ever had. Topped with some requeson cream (a soft, ricotta-like cheese), a lavender “gum,” along with a cassis & pepper flavored fruit jelly, and gelled honey. A little flavored marshmallow on a stick was a nice final touch. Some more general thoughts on the menu, the food, the layout, service, etc. -> Collectively, it was certainly plenty of food and I thought both in the number of dishes and the portion sizing this represented a pretty reasonable value for an $85 tasting menu. Plating was consistently well-done: every dish was elegant and visually interesting without being over-fussified or silly. The chefs are working with local purveyors for several products, particularly some great micro-herbs and micro-greens that make their way into several dishes, but I'd love to see an even stronger focus on local product for any number of reasons - it makes for good food, and it's societally and environmentally worthwhile. There’s sometimes a perception that this style of cooking is antithetical to the trend of focusing on locally sourced, quality ingredients (maybe because that trend is often tied to the “let the ingredients speak for themselves” philosophy of cooking), which I think is a real misperception. I like the idea of a communal table. I do think there's an element of shared experience to this kind of meal that really adds something. The lounge space that they used I think can work effectively for this purpose. It's nice that it's isolated from the main restaurant but still has plenty of space. It also makes the chefs’ interaction with the diners a lot easier, and for every dish the chefs came out to offer an explanation and in many instances to complete the cooking or plating tableside. The waitstaff did a great job, again particularly given this was a first run. Service was smooth and unintrusive and frankly did pretty much everything I could hope for efficiently and while barely being noticed. They provided wine pairings for the dishes (5 different wines all told, I believe) and there was lots of room on the table for the glassware. The "block lobster" pun got me thinking about how it is surely not a coincidence that so many of the chefs that are working in this arena also enjoy making puns in their menus. I think there is some similarity between the linguistic processes involved in a pun or other play on words, on the one hand, and in the gastronomic processes involved in the re-invention, re-purposing, or ingredient-pairing that happens in much contemporary cooking. I’ve heard it said that what’s funny to us about a pun (at least to some of us, some folks hate them) is the juxtaposition of holding two inconsistent concepts or ideas in our head at the same time (also, interestingly, a common characteristic of surrealism). This is possibly in some way analogous to what you see in a lot of this style of cooking, where a traditional dish is re-structured or re-purposed so as to be something different from what it was originally (a sauce in the form of a sheet or a foam), or one ingredient plays the role of another (watermelon as tuna), or ingredients that you didn’t ever consider together are combined. In any event, it’s reflective of the fact that the chefs here are not taking themselves too seriously, and like to have fun. If you read some of the chadzilla stuff linked to above, you’ll see that the idea of “Paradigm” is not just experimentation or weirdness for the sake of it. As Chad put it, “We are not looking to be an expression of 'molecular' dining (so go somewhere else if that's what you want), but simply to use things we've learned to make simple good food.” Notwithstanding that disclaimer, you will probably see techniques and presentations here that you’re unlikely to see many other places in Miami, even though Chefs K and Chad are the first ones to note that they are playing with ideas that are not exclusively their own invention but are being used by chefs around the world. But even for this first test run, I was pretty impressed by the maturity and restraint that the menu demonstrated – there was very little “look what we can do!” type stuff, and the techniques and flavors were very purposeful. In addition, as you can read in Chad’s explanation, one of their focuses is on generating “umami,” the “fifth taste” that the Japanese have known of for about a century but which only recently seems to be getting more serious consideration in the West. If this continues to be a theme of the restaurant, I think one of the things they can do is to talk more about how the approach to each dish is designed to work toward that goal. They're going to be rolling this out Thursday nights only, reservation only, 7pm seating. For more info, their contact is: Steven Rauscher | Director of Food & Beverage 305.692.5645 | srauscher@trumpmiami.com If this kind of stuff interests you, do check it out.

I've read this thread with some amusement, as it reminded me of a meal I had a few years ago. I was with the rest of my family (including two then-quite-young children, probably 7 and 4) in a very large overpriced diner/deli type place for breakfast. The place is cavernous - easily seats 200. We are sitting about 30 yards away from the (not "open kitchen" but also not closed-door) kitchen for a not-so-busy breakfast service. And all we can hear is a blue streak coming out of the kitchen (from one person) which is non-stop and inescapable. "Where's the f*@&ing french toast?!" "When are you going to get the g!dd#%n omelet on the plate?!" "Sh#T!!" And it doesn't end. It just goes on and on, and gets louder and more colorful. (And mind you, this is not exactly a high-pressure service - we're talking a simple, not-very-busy breakfast). After a few minutes, I ask our server if she can maybe ask him to tone it down, as we've got young children out here. Needless to say, if she dared to ask she probably only got her head chewed off in graphic terms. And indeed it only gets worse. After another few minutes, I finally had to get up and head back to the entrance to the kitchen, and said "Look, it really doesn't bother me, but I've got a 4 year old here who's started asking me where her f*@king eggs are. Do you think you can quiet down before she learns something else?" It finally quieted down. I don't work in a professional kitchen. I can say as a frequent visitor that I think the increasing prevalence of open kitchens clearly makes colorful language less common during serving hours, at least. This isn't very different from my job - when I'm among co-workers whose sensitivities I know, I'll use language appropriate to their sensitivities - if I'm with clients I'll certainly watch my language.

I completely agree - too many Miami restaurants have made the mistake of seeking to capture the high-dollar tourist/business traveler trade at the expense of the repeat-customer locals who ought to be the base for a successful restaurant (y'know, the folks who will still be coming in the summer). I do not think MGF&D is following that mold - the menu gets updated regularly, the chef is almost always in the kitchen, the prices have pretty much held steady despite the over-the-top national attention. It's tougher to get in these days but this is still - from where I'm sitting - a place that takes care of the locals and isn't trying to be trendy. The fickle "lot of people" you refer to I think are primarily the transients, not the locals. If you put out good food, and it's not astronomically priced, I think the local market in Miami will reward it. As the thread you refer to shows, we've been singing MGF&D's praises well before Esquire or Bruni ever heard of it. My point exactly.

Given your repeated reference back to this, it sure seems like the primary source of your unhappiness with the meal. OK - you didn't like the people sitting next to you and didn't like having to see them get comped - when all is said and done, what does that have to do with the food? I just really find that hard to believe. MGF&D may be a little tight, but it's not even remotely close to the most cramped places I've been to. Barton G? If that's right, then there's no argument - Atlanta can keep him. Casa Tua is an interesting choice to mention, because regardless of whether their chef is a TV celeb chef (I couldn't pick him/her out of a lineup either), the only people I've ever heard rave about the food there are people on television, and people who saw people on television raving about the food. Most locals have found it overpriced and underwhelming. I agree that all the glowing national press causes expectations to be set too high - I disagree that the food's "unexceptional". But to each his own - lots of people love it, some are underwhelmed, as you were.

Funny - I've been to Chez Panisse for dinner (upstairs a la carte cafe, not restaurant w/ the fixed menu) and I was seriously underwhelmed. I've also had the Zuni Cafe roast chicken and the MGFD roast chicken within about a month of each other, and preferred MGFD's version. I always fear that when places like this get such high national praise that the expectations become unrealistic. It's good, simple food. That's really all it sets out to be. It is not going to be such an over-the-top dining experience that you come out with your head spinning. I suspect my perception of Chez Panisse was influenced in the same way. I had heard so much about the legend of the place that I was probably expecting rainbows and stars to come shooting out of my salad.

MGFD has sometimes had locally caught pumpkin swordfish on the menu when they're running. I don't see much evidence that they are currently on any "avoid" lists. Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch has them as a "good alternative". It's only imported swordfish which is listed as an "avoid". The whole "Give Swordfish a Break" thing was nearly 10 years ago. More generally (and I'm not referring to this particular post), I'm somewhat dismayed by all the self-righteous blather about whether a restaurant is "local" enough or "green" enough. South Florida is, for better or worse, still finding its way towards supporting local, sustainable food products. I don't believe - based on what's available here - that a restaurant is ever going to be capable of pulling off a pure "locavore" menu, but finding what's local and good, putting it on the menu, and supporting the folks who produce it are still worthy steps.

There was a published review that was pretty glowing - my experience was decidedly underwhelming. Place was also absolutely dead, which I wouldn't hold against it other than that it rarely bodes well for food quality (low inventory turnover and all).

I don't quite get what "casual" has to do with it. You don't need tuxedo'd waiters and linen tablecloths to cook food from scratch (thankfully). MGFD is no more, or less, casual than a place like Chez Panisse or Zuni Cafe in SF - which handle food much the same way. I'm confident if you asked that your server would tell you what type of snapper they had. You very well may be right that they were not all the same variety. As you note, they pretty surely weren't yellowtail as I'm accustomed to them not being more than about 3-4 lbs. (but most restaurants locally would call a yellowtail a "yellowtail", not a "snapper"). As for what the point is of an 11 lb. fish - I have seen some pretty big bad boys coming out of the wood-burning oven and it is an awe inspiring sight. But my guess is, they probably have it for a night if there's a group that wants it, and if not, it gets portioned out for the next day's service as filets. Can't help you there - wish I could.

La Marea at the Townhouse? There's Bond Street Sushi at the Townhouse Hotel, and La Marea at the Tides Hotel - which I found to be pretty mediocre: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/469845 Danny, were you thinking of something else?