Carolyn Tillie

Did you read my recent experience of The Dining Room at the Ritz here? Definitely one star and quite far from two... Concur on the rest of your sentiments except Zuni -- it really is hit-and-miss with my last two visits more on the miss... A little more consistency is needed there but Incanto is a great shining star in this city.

Not entirely - Bushi-Tei has had their star removed, thank goodness... as well as Dry Creek Kitchen (another "gee, someone else realized how mediocre this place is" moment) 7 new: Ame Coi Cortez One Market Redd Madrona Manor Martini House

Yes, please share... I have never done the Whole Beast meal, but I *am* finally doing the Fifth Quarter meal scheduled next month and I can't wait. I think I'd choose Pig -- but that's just me.

Good call.

Here is my review of Bix -- I have returned often, mostly for their steak tartare, beef marrow bones, and potato puffs with caviar. One of my favorite restaurants in the city and if you go, you MUST order a Sidecar!

Carolyn, have you written about your SPQR experience on eGullet? I quite enjoyed my first visit to A16 (and my first visit to Rome this summer, for that matter), so it's a place I've been thinking of trying in the near future. ← Yep - here! And I'm going back on Wednesday with a friend after the Opera!

I didn't even know this thread existed... Seriously, read through the last several pages of my Discovering San Francisco thread as I have been dining solo about 80% of the time for the past year. Most recently that I can recommend would be the following: Plumpjack Kappa Myth and Coi (in their respective bars) Kiss Sushi SPQR While Gary Danko is fine for a one-off visit, I have gotten bored with the fact that the menu has changed little over the past several years and the bar can get a little loud and crowded.

Apparently, yes. But based on this site it looks as though it has been served during optimal months.

Like most of us, I have very mixed feelings about buffets. I had a weekend guest from Portland and my friends had guests from Japan and the Philippines so we decided to pool our resources for a host a farewell party at Top of the Mark. Sadly the morning was a little foggy so the intent of showing off the skyline was somewhat lost on our friends. No worries, the food made up for it. I honestly was not anticipating much as I had been warned that "the caviar wasn't very impressive but the lox and house-cured gravlax was great. Oysters were decent too! They only serve one glass of champagne on the house so we brought two bottles..$25 corkage." Well I found the caviar to be quite delightful and our glasses of champagne were refilled endlessly throughout the entire meal. The lox and gravlax were great and the other fish enjoyed included tons of crab, oysters, and large shrimp. Two carving stations included a turkey and a rather decent prime rib. This standard upscale buffet also provided the standard omelet and waffles made to order. For cold service, there was a huge bounty of pre-made salads, a large platter of prosciutto with melon, cheeses which included Humboldt Fog, and roasted vegetables. I bypassed the mounds of bread products (sweet rolls, pastries, and small baguettes) as well as huge bowls of fresh fruit. The hot service included lamb chops, standard (but quality) breakfast meats, herbed potatoes, wild mushroom benedicts, chive-shirred eggs, and roast chicken. The dessert portion showed some freshly-made warm bread pudding, large cakes like green tea cheesecake, chocolate decadence, and creme caramel. I opted for smaller finger-sized eclairs, tarts, and macarons. My friends had never seen a chocolate fountain and enjoyed dunking some fresh fruit in that novelty.

We had the same impression. It was good, but not memorable. The only thing I remember was the server touting the Omasake wine pairing that was grown in the Russian River region of Napa. They had tough competition since we ate at Kiss the night before. ← Between the two, I would take Kiss any day of the week... And for those who may not understand Stan's comment, the Russian River is not part of the Napa region...

In my honest belief, it depends on *which* ethnic cuisines you are referring to... Japanese? More authentic in Los Angeles. Same for Mexican. Chinese? I'll take San Francisco's Chinese restaurants. And Korean, actually. German? You can't beat that little village on the corner of the 405 and 110 near Torrance. Indian? Possible split - I miss the Little India in Artesia but maybe it is because there is such a beautiful concentration of Indian in SoCal (like in Northridge as well). Middle Eastern? San Francisco, definitely.

John - I do not read French but I am especially interested in the review on Bushi-Tei as I dined there for the second time last week and was completely underwhelmed (despite a first visit that was quite good). They have a Michelin star which boggles my mind...

If your whole trip is only Wednesday through Sunday, than bear in mind that traveling from Napa to Monterey will eat up at least half-a-day -- and that is if you take the "fast" route which has little in the way of exciting eating en route. The Monterey Jazz Festival is over so I don't know what is left but if you care to head into San Francisco instead (a one hour trip, tops), there are a number of great jazz clubs including Jazz at the Pearl, Biscuit and Blues, Rassela's, AND the beginning of the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

There was a little skuttlebutt about Plumpjack Cafe when Chef James Syhabout decamped just weeks after receiving a Rising Chef award to return to his Manresa alma mater. The restaurant was handed over the Syhabout's sous, Tyson Greenwood, and for at least a few dishes, Greenwood is proving his worth. I sat down alone last evening, a little overwhelmed at how many dishes I wanted to try. I spied what was described as a caramelized foie gras which sounded intriguing but so did the soup. In chatting with my waiter, he let me know that he would be more than happy to serve me half-portions of both soup and salad and so I ordered the foie and an entree as well. While the foie was described as caramelized, it was actually two large slices of a thin torchon. Very creamy and well-accompanied with greens, cracked pepper, fresh apple slices, barley, hazelnuts, and a very lightly sweet fruit sauce. I am so used to (and frankly bored with) foie being prepared in an overly sweet manner and this was an extremely delightful start with the barley, nuts, and pepper adding great complementary components to the hint of sweetness in the sauce and perfectly prepared foie gras. This was started with a Riesling Auslese, the name of which I did not bother writing down. The next course was a pea tendril soup with pickled huitlacoche. It will be absolutely impossible for me to not overemphasize the brilliance of this course. I was completely stunned, first with the presentation -- a small bowl of black pickled huitlacoche served as the waiter poured the magnificently dark green rich soup over the rare offering. I have never seen a green like this before in any food offering. The intensity of the soup was sparked by a spice which, when I asked, was informed to be a Spanish paprika. I can't remember having a soup of this complexity and brilliance before. Next I had a half serving of salad of wild arugula with Pink Lady apples, Endigia endive & wweet Vermouth vinaigrette. Nice enough for a salad, but hardly awe inspiring. I ordered a main entree knowing full well I would be bringing it home for lunch. In this case, Sonoma game hen with collard greens and mushrooms. I'm sorry I didn't jot down the mushroom breed as it was a most flavorful component on the plate. There was a sauce of some sort but not enough to add much to the dish. The game hen was well-prepared, juicy, and tender and I am always pleased with the addition of otherwise bourgeois vegetables like collards. Besides, I was still thinking about that soup... I finished up the meal with a poached pear, honey yogurt, and burnt caramel madeleines. This was paired with a Bonny Doon late-harvest Roussanne. This was a very nice dessert in that -- again -- it was not too sweet. Normally, an ice cream would be served with the pear but the addition of a slightly tangy, obviously house-made frozen yogurt served to heighten the sweetness in the pear. Also, the miniature madeleines were obviously baked immediately upon ordering as they were warm and tender to the touch. A word on service; as is often true, I was solo and the staff were very accommodating in offering me half-orders on a number of dishes. Also there was something I had never seen before; when I sat in the booth, facing the interior of the restaurant, the empty chair across the table from me was seamlessly removed. I didn't realize it until half-way through the meal but that is actually a very nice touch to not be reminded that one is dining alone.

Very nice report - I'll have to make a special Napa trip to explore... Curious that I could have sworn I saw a Chowhound review which indicated the chef is already serving a limited few dishes that include meat, but I can't find it now. During my last Manresa visit (while Fox was still there) many of the vegetable-only dishes were some of my favorites and makes this restaurant that much more intriguing.

Monday's Columbus Day was a gorgeous day in the city and I thought touring the Navy vessels as the latter part of Fleet Week might be fun. Sadly, there isn't much I'll do that involve standing in a queue for two hours so finding myself near Butterly [Pier 33 @ Bay Street, the Embarcadero, San Francisco = 415.864.8999] for a light lunch. Despite an interesting cocktail menu, I was drawn to a three-glass Riesling sampler, what they call the Butterfly flight; Domaines Schlumberger "Les Princes Abbes" Alsace 2004, Gainey Vineyard Santa Ynes Valley 2003, and Saint M Dr. Loosen Pfaltz Germany 2005. These went reasonably well with the two appetizers I ordered; Duck Confit Spring Rolls served with a Chinese hot mustard & honey dipping sauce and Kahlua Pig with Butter Lettuce Cups served with hoisin sauce and toasted cashews with green onions. For Asian-inspired bar food, the spring rolls were quite good - very light, crispy wrappers, perfectly fried. Honestly, the meat inside could have been duck confit or pork or chicken. It really didn't matter. The sauce was interesting in that accompanied with the rolls, there was an obvious sweetness which I thought might overwhelm upon entry, but which expanded in the mouth to a pretty decent mustard spice. The Kahlua Pig with lettuce cups was very ample and between the two dishes, far more food than one person could possibly eat. The butter lettuce was a nice change from the classic head lettuce used in lettuce cup offerings. The pork was riddled with a fine dice of assorted bell peppers; orange, yellow, and red. both the pork and the hoisin was topped with toasted cashews which were so finely chopped as to actually look like finely grated cheese or Brazilian yucca powder. Not bad for an afternoon interpose because I stumbled on it, but hardly a destination restaurant for me.

Thank you, Grayelf! Your best walking distance restaurant from your location is Canteen. They have an ever-changing menu (daily) and you could go there at least one time for lunch and dinner. Another within walking range would by Myth which is dinner only - you must get the sweetbreads and the gnocchi or foie penne! Any types of food you are looking for? The Ferry Plaza is an obvious choice for Saturday morning - you can nosh through dozens and dozens of stalls...

Actually, there is an easy way to sell him on the employee concept -- as part-owner, he would also be responsible for all of the other problems like taxes, insurance, etc. Even just paying an attorney to write-up a partnership agreement would cost him and you money. You could hire him as a contract employee; you pay for the ingredients and he gets a percentage of the profit as seen by HIS part of the business. That will encourage him to make it better if he sees profit-sharing as part of the deal (although it could be an accounting nightmare for you).

Based on this Chowhound review, I decided to head back to Bushi-Tei as my last visit was pre-Michelin ratings and also before the existence of an Omakase offering. In all honesty, I'm not sure why this received a Michelin star... There were two omakase offerings on the menu; one with meat and one vegetarian. I was intrigued with the vegetarian until I was told it was two courses with a dessert. That's it? I'll take the meat omakase which was five courses. An amuse was brought out - a sandwich of tuna rillette between two crunchy crackers which were actually toasted slices of their house bread. Putting *some* rillette on a single slice would have been sufficient but an amuse (which in my mind should be taken in one bite) of two dry hunks of bread with not-enough fish just made for too big of a mouthful. Sadly, there is no wine pairing with the omakase and so I was on my own in determining wine pairings for dishes that I had no pre-knowledge of. Big mistake. The waiter did tell me the first few courses were fish so I was fairly certain a white would work and ordered a Riesling (sorry, lost my notes on which one specifically). Also, this wine was served in a Pinot Noir glass... Bad. The first course was a layered monstrosity of a giant wasabi leaf, champagne-poached oyster, blue fin tuna tartare, some coconut-based hollandaise, fresh uni, and American sturgeon caviar. I say it was a monstrosity as there was far too much going on and either the oyster or the tartare (or both?) could have been entirely left out. The flavor of the uni, caviar, and coconut was predominate so something as delicate as a champagne-poached oyster (which couldn't be seen so maybe it WASN'T there!) was irrelevant. As was the tartare. The next course was a composed salad of fresh heirloom tomatoes, topped with dressed frisée, and surrounded by slices of sashimi of Arctic Char. Recalling my disastrous visit to Valentino in Los Angeles, I wonder why chefs insist on pairing tomatoes with raw fish -- the textures and flavors are so disparate and I'm curious if there exists any good examples of this sort of pairing as my two sojourns into that particular pairing have been exceptionally bad. The Riesling finished and not remembering what was coming next, I ordered a glass of Pinot Noir (standby knowledge - it usually goes with everything). The next course was a hot fish dish of grilled Red snapper with crispy skin on ratatouille and hollandaise. This was a real hollandaise but there wasn't quite enough of it to pair well with the grilled vegetables and dry fish. The last savory course was American Wagyu, perfectly rare, served atop sliced Yukon Gold potatoes and baby shiitake mushrooms. There was a very good sauce with it but I'm afraid I don't exactly recall its components. Regrettably, the sauce did not make up for whatever was done to the mushrooms which were stridently sharp and peppery. I didn't bother finishing this course. Dessert was an Orange "parfait" which was actually a scoop of creamy orange sorbet in some orange soup and topped with a small tuille cookie. This was paired with a sparkling sake which was a relatively nice pairing. Overall, the service was very good but I question many things about the menu. For starters, in reading through the standard offerings, there doesn't seem to be any evolution in the menu. Similar to my Gary Danko complaints, nothing is different than what I read when I first visited, 18 months ago. The addition of the omakase is week in its lack of wine pairings and I found the dishes overall to be ill-conceived although well-prepared. I don't need to go back.

I find this interesting as I'll admit some culpability in David Haskell's relationship with Chowhound; it began with my first visit in April when I began this eG thread. It was a first visit with my friend, "R" who is only slightly known in the L.A. food scene as a writer. But the fact that both he and I were analyzing our meal and photographing it made it pretty obvious we were going to document the event *somewhere.* In my usual course, I posted the exact same thing on eG, MF, Yelp, and CH (removing the photos for Yelp, MF, and CH). For whatever reason that has never been explained, Chowhound removed my post entirely as though I were a shill. Now it may or may not be known that I have had as checkered a past with Chowhound as I have had with eG and MF. In the case of CH, it goes back several years when I worked for Joachim Splichal's Patina Group and was summarily banned for shilling (despite giving several of his restaurants bad reviews - whatever!). It was only after FIVE YEARS that CH allowed me to start re-posting and that was then they were purchased by CNet and Jim Leff had less power. But that removal of the Bin review was very odd and inexplicable as I had no prior knowledge or relationship with Bin other than I had heard generally favorable reviews from people and sites I trust, so I wanted to try it. Since then, I have dined there two more times so the waitstaff and management know who I am because they read these sites. But I am as much a shill for a restaurant 500 miles away from me as I am for San Francisco's Aziza, Kappa, or any other local establishment that I eat at and am on first-name basis with the chefs or managers. And why CH would delete some of my posts and not others without explanation is still beyond comprehension which -- I think -- is what set David Haskell off so much. I don't maintain a private blog on restaurants, I post them here.

Maybe I'm missing something but I didn't get the impression from Nwyles' first post that the nice meal and the day at Disneyland were necessarily on the same day - just that he/she is in the neighborhood and besides the Magic Kingdom visit, a nice dinner is in order.

My guess is two-fold -- for starters, he was cooking at Providence on Saturday, Spago on Sunday, and at Bin on Monday so he may have been stretched a bit thin for the entire Los Angeles trip. In this case, it was at Bin that he was preparing the most extensive menu but that due to the limited size of Bin's kitchen (it is really tiny), he DID produce a menu to his preference. Changing a "standard" recipe (my bad verbiage of calling it a shortcut) does not necessarily mean that negative connotation you are implying. The case-in-point is the Low Carb-O-Nara. From my research on the web, those mille-feuille vegetable bits are not part of the usual serving in D.C. So, okay, the dish has been changed but it is hardly a shortcut. Reading through the cookbook, the Lobster Begula Caviar would normally have a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. It had neither which is why I am curious how the dish tastes in D.C. compared to what I was served. The L.A. version was spectacular so I tend to doubt his reputation suffered by changing that recipe.

????? ← Talked about here. Also, here is their website. So far, the best pasta I've found in the city. ← Okay. I see the confusion. You're talking about Vivande Porta Via. ← Ooops - my bad! Thanks for the correction. I usually just call it Vivande. Period.

????? ← Talked about here. Also, here is their website. So far, the best pasta I've found in the city.

Wandering up Fillmore last evening I stopped in at S.P.Q.R. [1911 Fillmore St. (near Bush), San Francisco; (415) 771-7779] right as they opened at 5:30 p.m. I quickly grabbed a spot at the bar and within minutes, the restaurant was 80% full and only a seat or two left at the bar. The bar attendant was attentive despite the fact that most of the bar-dwellers were close friends of the establishment. I started with a taste (half a glass) of Verdicchio while waiting for the night's menu to be finished printing. The list of Antipasti was extensive and I liked the fact that they were listed as a flat $7.00 each or three for $18.00. I went ahead and ordered three, not knowing if I would still be hungry or if those three would be a sufficient meal. I started with zucchini and ricotta involtini with tomatoes - three roll-ups of grilled zucchini stuffed with fresh ricotta on very fresh, diced heirloom tomatoes. Cold and refreshing, this was a very nice start and a good match with the Verdicchio. The second antipasti I ordered was the sweetbreads with celery, garlic, lemon, and oregano. Unlike the Scott Howard mushy offering of last Friday, these were incredibly crunchy and ample. At first I thought I was served the chicken livers as there were so many of them -- I was sure I was served the wrong dish. For $7.00, this was a really great bargain and knowing I had more food to come, couldn't finish the plate. My third antipasti was fresh shelling beans with pork sofritto. My Verdicchio was finished and I asked for a hefty red, the name of which I failed to get, but went well with the bean dish. I have to note that very nearby me was a professional photographer who apparently was shooting every dish that came out for the restaurant's portfolio. A few of my own dishes were shot before they came to me which was no problem, but the bigger problem was that I was seeing tons of dishes that I really wanted to try. Inasmuch, I decided to stop eating my bean dish about a third of the way through to order some pasta (I'm eating it for breakfast right now it is is making for a great left-over!). Chef Daniel introduced himself and based on what I had already eaten, suggested the radiatore with tuna, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, and capers. It was very good, but hardly a show-stopper as far as pasta dishes is concerned. I'll still wander up to Vivande de Portola for pasta cravings. I should have refrained, but I couldn't resist ordering a dessert -- the panino with caramelized milk, pears, shaved chocolate, and sea salt with a wine pairing of Cornarea 'Tarasco' Roero Arneis Passito, Piemonte, 2001. What a mind-blowing dessert! I first thought that it was a bit odd, this grilled sandwich, until I got closer into the middle with the gooey sauce and fresh pears. The sprinkling of sea salt heightened the dish and the wine pairing, a perfect choice. The restaurant WAS very busy and it seemed the bulk of those hanging around the bar were close friends and/or patrons of A16 as hugs and hand-shakes were abundant. There are more seats in the restaurant than when it was Chez Nous and even walking out took a little dexterity as the patrons are a bit closed in. I'm glad I got there early as the noise level upon my exit was pretty loud. Overall, I am really thrilled to have this place in walking distance. Three antipasti for $18.00 with a good glass of wine will make for VERY affordable and plentiful well-executed dinners for me. I'm happier with several small plates anyway and I have only begun to scratch the surface of what is available. Great meeting Daniel, as well -- I get the impression it will be very easy to become a regular here!