gfweb
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Posts posted by gfweb
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I've had decent meals at the Yardley Inn just downstream from New Hope.
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Fair Hill Inn (in Fair Hill MD) just over the PA border in Northern MD has changed hands. It used to be a nice place in the country with solid and predictable continental stuff. Now its been bought by three young folks with culinary ambitions, and from what I ate there last night, they also have the skills to match.
They plan on changing the menu monthly and have a fine and adventurous list of wines and bourbons. I had the mushroom tart, house made charcuterie, and the rib eye a la bourguignon. All were great; each was properly cooked and seasoned. My companions had the bisque, the shrimp and onion carabonara, and the duck...and had similar good things to say. www.fairhillinn.com/menu.php has the whole menu.
Particularly notable was the extensive cheese selection...about 16 I think, that were a fabulous end to the meal. It is too hard to find a decent cheese course anymore. That alone is worth the visit.
The Inn itself is about 250 years old but is in great shape. Dining rooms are big, quiet and decorated with understated whimsey. The service is better than you can expect for a year-old place near Elkton. It was prompt, knowledgable, but perhaps a bit over-friendly for my snotty urban self. In spite of that we'll be back soon.
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You thought Laban had problems, its just a silly lawsuit, these people should be saving the legal fees and buying better meat.
Look at what Frank Bruni is going through....
Bruni deserves it, I think. Did you see his recent review of some steakhouse/stripclub combo in NYC. Juvenile is the kindest adjective I can use. Hope I don't get sued! :-)
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I've eaten at the Fogo in Houston.If the Philly place is the same, you will love it. The "salad bar" is an artful arrangement of fresh and pickled vegetables, cheese, smoked fish and a few soups (one of which looks like sludge...I couldn't bring myself to taste it). Wine list has the big names (eg Silver Oak Napa 01) at big name prices. Wandering waiters bring the meats when you give them the OK.
Given the amount and tastyness of everything, I'd suggest going hungry and planning to take the time to spend a leisurely evening or afternoon there with friends.
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Deux Cheminees, Farmhouse (in Avondale), Dilworthtown
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Not a fair analogy. A restaurant is far more complex to open and get going than a doctor's office. In a restaurant, Murphy's Law has many more opportunities to prove its existance.
Besides which, a doctor's opening gaffs just kill people. A restaurant's opening mishaps will likely spoil one's entire evening.
Actually a very fair analogy, I think. The new doc example I gave revealed a person who was not suited to being a doc and probably shouldn't be in the field. Likewise, a restaurant that appears to show no regard for supposedly honored guests and lets food out of the kitchen that is as bad as was described is revealing things about itself that cannot be fixed by being in business for a few months more.
Very clever line about spoiling one's evening...good one!....but a good line doesn't change the issue being discussed.
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And publicly blasting a new restaurant in its first month is simply not fair.
Seems to me that there is a flaw in this reasoning. If you went to a doctor who just opened his office and found him/her to be rude, confused and with dirty fingernails...what would you say? Give him/her another year to work it out? No, you'd say this doc is no good and maybe dangerous.
How come it is different with a restaurant? If a place opens and takes money for food then I assume that they are ready to be judged. OF COURSE, they won't be at full-speed for a while, there will be many kinks in a new place...but if the basics like a right attitude about the customer and decent cooking aren't there early, they probably never will be.
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And about the slighting of J.-M. Lacroix... It sounds like there was plenty to like about the changes at this particular restaurant. But I've come to believe LaBan lets his personal biases show pretty regularly. I'd be interested in knowing just how the two got along.
I thought that Laban went to great lengths to stay unrecognized which would rule out a chance forthe two to not get along. Am I mistaken?
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Very good meal last night at Caffe Nonna, a strip shop restaurant near Christiana Mall and Delaware Park. Looks like nothing from the outside but inside it is a serious Italian place. Great wine list with lots of good Italian selections as well as a good -by- the glass menu. Veal is fabulous, beef is great. Worth the drive.
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Fairly disappointing dinner last night at Conley-Ward in Wilmington, DE. Lobster bisque was good. Crabcake ap was small, without discernable spices, and served sloppily as it had fallen apart somewhere between pan and table. Brazilian lobster tails tasted OK, but apparently "brazilian" is a synonym for 'small'. Sirloin was OK. Stewed mushroom side order was all fragments, not what I'd expect at a steakhouse with pretensions. Menu was odd in that sizes of steaks are not given. They are either "conley" or "ward" size. Server has to tell you how many oz. for each, and you have to remember all of them.
Wine list is good with lots of great reds eg Silver Oak napa 2001, but plenty of good stuff at lower prices. They have a fairly limited list of whites.
Did we just have a bad night here?
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No must haves as far as I can remember, I haven't had a bad meal there. So far it is all good. I'd love to know what you think.
Another place worth a look is The Farmhouse in Avondale. Solid regional cooking with some bistro-ish dishes as well.
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Having eaten at Sovana Bistro before, during, and after the Bryan Sikora tenureship, I must say that the before and after meals were not nearly as good as when he was there, which is interesting because he was not the one doing all of the cooking. Sovana has "grown up" a lot in the past few years (and the prices have too!) but we felt our last meal was no better than the Half Moon Saloon down the street (not knocking them by any means), and the seasoning combinations we found to be rather odd and discordant.
I've had some very spotty meals at Sovana. Sometimes its great, sometimes not. Katherine's, a BYO in Unionville (about 5 minutes from Sovana), is much better. The chef tends to spice-up a lot of dishes, but it isn't overdone by my standards (my wife says otherwise). The only deficiency here is the noise level which really needs to be addressed.
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I've de-sweetened the mashed SP for several years. I do put in a bit of sugar, but add cream and liquid smoke, changing it into a much more "mature" dish that the kids still like.
Best restaurant in Fernandina Beach?
in Florida: Dining
Posted · Edited by gfweb (log)
We ate at Salt recently, at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island....I was very disappointed. It isn't up to the old Grille's standards and the food fell far short of the price tag. Details?
All land animal entrees are served with no side dishs, as in a steakhouse. Sides are $8, but the portion is miniscule unlike that in a steakhouse.
$56 for filet and lobster entree.
Bison Rib Eye was plentiful, but tough and not cooked to our order, side dish of potatoes/cauliflower/cheese was presented elegantly on a long shallow rectangular dish that got the food to room temperature very quickly. Not good.
Duck was a tiny and fatty bit of meat. I've had far better.
Prawns and scallops w/ potato done three ways...was actually two scallops, one small 50 count shrimp, and a crab's claw meat...all sitting in what tasted like warm salty potato soup, with two other bits of potato in it.
So much was wrong or ill-thought-out that I doubt that the place just had a bad night.
Unfortunately, places like this live off of the expense accounts of visiting folks who are a constant stream. They need no repeat business.
Better places on Amelia are Le Clos, Beech Street Grille, & Embers.