Sneakeater

(NOTE to gaf: I obviously agree with you that the food at The Modern is extraordinary for a museum, but you've got to try the restaurant at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, so you can have another to add to your list.)

For whatever little it's worth, I've only eaten at the bar area, and my impression of the food there is almost exactly what gaf expressed. Although, looking at Rachel's post, I had the misfortune of selecting only unrecommended dishes.

That's interesting: the tripe was the next thing I was going to order when we decided we'd had our fill. Next time. The Portuguese wine list really is something to behold. (Well, to behold and order from.)

The dishes at Tintol are less salty than at Casa Mono. Where pertinent, they also tend to be less oily. On the whole, I'd say the cooking at Tintol is cleaner than at Casa Mono, if you know what I mean. As I was eating at Tintol, it definitely entered my mind is that I marginally preferred the food there to the food at Casa Mono.

Piquillos stuffed with brandade -- fine version of this familiar favorite. Pickled sardines -- excellent. Braised oxtail -- sort of chopped up with mushrooms etc. Lamb meatballs -- something gave them a delicious smoky flavor (although overall these were the worst of our selections). Fried deviled eggs -- what a treat! I want them at every cocktail party! Monkfish with peppers -- fine. Spinach with other vegetative matter -- I can't figure out how this was cooked. My dining companion guessed it was just marinated overnight in vinegar. Anyway, surprising and good. Flan -- dencer than any flan I've had before (and none the worse for it). Basque tort -- yum.

Fonda el Refugio is one of those classic old-line places with a sterling reputation that everybody is told to go to. Probably Rick Bayless has been going there since he was a kid visiting Mexico City. Which is not to say it's going to be exciting or even particularly great.

Tintol is billed as a Portuguese tapas bar. It's on W. 46th St. between 6th & 7th Aves. Much that was on the menu looked to me like familiar old Spanish tapas, and I didn't see any tapas (as opposed to entrees) that were identifiable, at least by ignorant me, as uniquely Portuguese. Nor do I recall being aware of any tapas bars when in Portugal. Nevertheless, Tintol has the best selection of Portuguese wines by the glass I've ever seen in New York, so it's Portuguese at least to that extent. Having said all that, this place is a winner. I won't go into all the of the multitude of tapas my companion and I shared. I'll just endorse her observations that everything was prepared with a great deal of evident care, the quality of the ingredients seemed high, and there was nothing -- not a single thing -- we had that wasn't completely delicious. I know there must be clinkers on their menu . . . but we didn't hit any of them. They also have a fairly limited amount of entrees on the menu. I can't wait to try some. Lunch for two was about $100 -- but we pigged out. You'll want to, too.

The short answer is, no.

I believe that each of their branches had a different number of exclamation points. It's amazing any of us can remember anything about those places.

You forgot the bottle of beer. (Although I guess Bessie Smith wasn't, strictly speaking, a guy.)

I was recently at a dinner party with a young man at the beginning of his twenties who is in his first year of living in New York. He told me he had discovered a great place in Chinatown. He couldn't remember the name. I asked him what it was like, and as he went on describing it, it sounded like it had to be Wo Hop. I mentioned that name, and he remembered that was it. I told him that people in their teens and twenties have been discovering Wo Hop for a very long time.

You are leading a truly charmed existence.

Off topic, but isn't this a problem at a surprising number of places (including many of a type where you'd assume they'd know better)?

Is it too boring to say Lutece?

Soon after the Maccionis first opened Osteria del Circo, I remember reading Egi saying how much they enjoyed having children go there. Even though they don't have a children's menu, one assumes they'd do you some favors on the pasta or something (assuming they were serious about that -- or, perhaps less likely, that the proprietors listen to their mother).

It's too bad that two years ago they didn't issue a crackdown on foam.

I'm curious. Do you react to concerts and dance performances that way? And if not, why do you think you react to restaurant meals that way and not performing arts events?

I want to make it clear that, if I thought in terms of NYT stars, I'd have no dispute with Blaue Gans's getting one star. I'd probably give it one star myself, if I gave stars. The only reason I'm going on about this is that, like at least one other poster here (eatmywords, to give credit where it's due), I was somewhat caught up with Blaue Gans's getting a star less than another of my personal favorite restaurants, Al Di La. Not because I want all my personal favorites to have the same star rating, but because I just don't see a star's difference between the two restaurants. (Not that I think Frank Bruni or anyone else is bound by my own judgments, of course.) I think we've hit on several reasons for one of those restaurants' getting one more star than the other. (And I know you say, Oakapple, that one of those reasons is that Bruni materially preferred one over the other.) Even if that's so,* to me, this whole comparison just shows the fragility, or inherent flaws, of star ratings. _____________________________________________________________ * Because believe me (and remember, this is my favorite restaurant I'm talking about), anybody here who walks into Al Di La -- well, you can't walk into Al Di La; make that who waits for an hour in the wine bar and then enters Al Di La -- and expects something a level above Blaue Gans is going to be very disappointed.** ** I'd be very interested in hearing whether other posters familiar with both restaurants concur. Maybe I'm just wrong (or idiosyncratic) in this opinion.

That was sort of the subliminal point I was trying to make. Or the point I was trying to make subliminally. Or something.

Actually, that's a better way of putting what I said about the "famous chef" downtick. It's another case of getting caught up by comparisons with prior precedent. Since THOR got two stars, Blaue Gans couldn't possibly get more than one.

Actually, I think they do -- if only to say "This really feels like X stars to me." You may say, "They never would have done that if the newspapers & Michelin hadn't done it first," but that's water under the bridge. I actually know someone who keeps a written log, and she assigns "snouts" (1 to 5) to each restaurant. ← I REALLY don't think that's your average diner.

To try to expand on that, if you asked someone how they compared two restaurants such as Al Di La and Blaue Gans, they'd probably give a brief verbal account that would be both more cogent and more nuanced than "One Star" and "Two Stars." I'm sure that if you asked Frank Bruni to compare them, you'd get that kind of brief, cogent, nuanced account. It's only when he has to give them each star ratings that you run into these problems where you have to try to figure out what's behind his ratings, because it doesn't seem possible he really thinks one is that materially better than the other.

Of course I think informed diners care. How could they not? (That's not to say they should, just that I think they [or at least some of them] do.) But I'm not trying to channel what I think diners think. I'm trying to channel what I think the reviewer might be thinking. After all, diners don't do anything as artificial as assigning stars to restaurants.

Yeah. God forbid there should be any critical commentary about restaurants on eGullet.

Then again, maybe not . . . .