lfabio2007

Well, I'd be happy to find a good porchetta sandwitch outside of Umbria, myself. Lacking that, I think the roast pork sandwitches in Philadelphia are a great alternative.

...as I was saying...

See, I tend not to wonder out loud . That's probably my failing, but I'll make sure to try. As to going with other regulars, sure: I even promise I won't get lost on the way to the report. Let me know when .

I have been culpably absent because I'm buried in work, but I'll say: we did Kaiseki, they said they 'don't do Omakase any more'. Dinner was very good, but not to the caliber of what I see above. How did you persuade Matt Ito to do Omakase?

To quote an article on Wine Spectator a long time ago: 'mighty tasty'! Thanks folks, the food was good, the company was even better. More detailed post to follow tomorrow.

'Now don't say nothin' If you don't have something nice to say' I think I'm going to carefully avoid that, as usual it seems. We went to Cochon (ex-cafe sud, still missed) a couple of weeks ago now. The food was very good, I have to say. It just wasn't.. quite... Pif. We started off with a pork belly special and the chicken livers. The latter dish was much praised and work has already started on replicating it. The pork belly on the other hand sported a particularly good sear and a creaminess that might have come from SV cooking... and very little flavour. What gives? As a main, we had the duck, which again, was good, with a nice crisp to the skin and white bean ragout that outshone the duck itself, but .. nothing more, and the pork shoulder over lentils, which displayed severe undercooking both of the shoulder (still tough) and of the lentils (which were actually CRUNCHY...). Excellent combo, great concept.. execution... not so great. My mood, admittedly, wasn't improved by a vile bottle of ...stuff, from Burgundy (I know, I should know better, but Moore's was already closed and I didn't feel like going back home). Therefore, we subsequently avoided dessert, got back in the car and drove home. From the reviews here, we seem to have had a strongly atypical experience... comments?

We were there today for lunch. A multi-dumpling tasting revealed another egullet hit: we particularly liked the shangai dumplings (item 1 on the menu) and the pork+chives dumplings. Something noone mentioned are the prices: I'd love to know how they make do, we spent $15 ...

serpentine, let's say that we have different opinions of the integrity of the food restaurant review industry, from Michelin onwards, and of the process thereof. With that said, it has been my understanding, confirmed by T'sT as of last fall, that the table is an all-or-nothing deal.

I understand your point and I agree with the fact that the 'capacity' issue is central to the current reservations problems. I also never intended to imply ‘cynical manipulation of the public’ by the owners. However, I will remain a bit doubtful as to whether to ascribe the PR mismanagement entirely to naivete given the fact that the two ran Django for quite a while. How could they not have seen something like this coming? I understand the lure of having a full house: it pays the bills nicely. Still, my understanding was that Talula's was not meant to be a restaurant to begin with, so arguably the 'farmer's table' thing shouldn't have been central to the business plan. And yet, it seems that they preferred insuring a full house to trying to manage what capacity they had. Let’s call it, at the very least, ‘not thinking things through’. Let’s add, perhaps, a little greed, or a little need to pay the bills, neither of which are particularly bad per se. In any case, let’s not call it something that was carefully thought through to insure that the prospective clients had the best experience possible. My issue is that I believe that’s what ‘being a restaurant owner’ is about and perhaps I was expecting better. Incidentally, the history of reviews and restaurants is complicated, people will be able to comment more competently than I, but reviews have been killed before. Besides, it would’ve probably been sufficient as you said to insure that no word was made about the reservations policy, something that given their relationship with Laban they probably could’ve managed. Finally, as to the NCA: if I were buying Django, I would know full well that I am buying the name *but not* the chef. So I wouldn't consider a long NCA much of an asset. It’s been over two years and they’re far enough that the overlap is going to be negligible.

Well, personally, if I were that cordial with mr. Laban - which they are - and been made aware of what was going to be published, I would've asked not to publish the 'review' or at least to tone it down significantly, if nothing else to avoid having to be 'flustered' and 'apologetic', to no gain (incidentally, what kind of completely retarded NCA did they sign?). As to intelligent people, Vadouvan: I agree with what you say - indeed, I said nothing about the quality of the food in my post, if you'll notice, so I hope I still qualify as 'intelligent'? - except for one detail: you mention that reservation waits are about PR and we're in agreement there. But. But PR is managed very easily, except in this case it apparently wasn't; especially if as HD73 says they're now 'flustered' and 'apologetic' about the whole affair. In any case, rant over.

If I may add my own two cents, I'll agree with philadining's point about unreasonable expectations. If one fosters this kind of marketing (it doesn't just happen: it is a choice and one that you must work at, see review in the inquirer), then one creates a certain kind of expectation in the diners. And if the diners have some experience with Serious Restaurants, my impression in that they will be very sorely disappointed. I didn't make it to Django before it left. My one try at T'sT failed fairly miserably due to scheduling conflict. But I was in no rush to try again when I learned of the 'latter part of 2008' and even less so now. T'sT is not alone: I won't touch Blue Hill at Stone barns for the same reason and Yasuda (NYC) is very close to making it to the list. Am I being unreasonable? Perhaps. But as philadining said, as much as we all appreciate the finer points of cooking here, it's just dinner. One year in advance? Maybe at Ducasse or at Gagnaire's, perhaps at Blanc's in Oxford if you're feeling different (you can get in all of these in less time, FWIW). Not at Bryan Sikora's. No offense.

As a late reply, I'd tend to agree on the 'give up anywhere else' unless 'anywhere else' is about 85 miles roughly north-east. We were back to fuji, though we didn't do omakase. Unfortunately we weren't at the bar and I have to say... the bar is better. Significantly.

We went to Osteria for the NYE dinner. I kept waiting to have the time to make a proper post but I guess that's not to be. So, short post it is: the dinner itself was outstanding but even more attentive, I have to say, was the service. The menu was as follows: stuzzichini lombarda pizza pizza al caviale (caviar) antipasti smoked swordfish bresaola with shaved fennel and winter citrus housemade coppa salami with pear mostarda scallops “alla piastra” with foie gras and jerusalem artichoke crema primi tortelli di zucca with sage and butter gemelli with calamari ragu, cardoons and parmigiano passatelli in brodo with egg secondi bollito misto with accompaniments oven roasted jurgielewicz farm duck with apples and celery root puree gratineed olive oil poached monkfish with lentils and romesco dolci la torta sbrisolona with cappuccino semifreddo gelato al vin brulee with apple frittelle baba al cioccolato with chestnut crema piccola pasticceria The pizza Lombarda, which I hadn't had before, was a particular hit. I think their crusts have improved quite a bit over the past months. The appetizer - we were genenrously given an extra, so we could sample all three - were all excellent but the best surprise for me came from the genuine and authentic coppa, made in-house. It compared favourably with the original article from Emilia. As to the primi, we had the gemelli and the passatelli. The gemelli were particularly good, with notable calamari. The passatelli were a little firmer than I would've liked them, but they vanished fairly quickly. To finish the meal, we had the bollito misto and the monkfish. The bollito was particularly good, although the sauces could've been a little more.. authentic, I suppose. The monkfish was OK but was overshadowed a bit by the quality of the previous calamari. To finish, the sbrisolona was great, if a little less crumbly than what you'd get in Mantua, and the apple fritters were too, judging by the speed at which they vanished. Now that philadining has posted pictures of the lardo pizza, I can sense a return visit approaching, though we wanted to try Cochon first... [Edited to apologise for the lack of pictures: unfortunately my ability with a camera is such that I'd do a great disservice to the food were I to actually take pictures]

If I may reply, I wouldn't say that Zento compares favourably to Fuji. Mind, I've only been to Zento once and Fuji does have its (small) issues, but what I had at Zento, while fresh and correct, was extremely... standard and almost seemed rushed in presentation. IMHO, etc, etc, etc.

...and of course the last night is today. Looks very interesting, I wish I'd found out say three hours ago.

Thanks dagordon. This merits further inquiry, we'll do omakase sometime this week.

Uhm. Mailed there, cc:ed to jdm, on the 21st about the tasting in January. No reply. Help?

So we went! And Renoir was very good, highly recommended, incidentally, as usual the museum does a very good job of actually presenting exhibits. Quite a few of my countrymen could learn a thing or two or 177. But I digress. We also went to the London Grill for brunch. There were eight of us, all told. Food went from the spinach/ricotta gnudi with bresaola and guanciale (good, but a little overdried by the oven) to a very custardy french toast (very much more custard than french toast) to a GIGANTIC beet salad to some standard fare eggs benedict. A good, no surprises place for brunch.

We have reservations for London Grill, thanks mr. Libkind! I'll report back Sunday.

We went back to Fuji not once but twice in the past fortnight. Both times we were at the bar and mr. Ito was there tending to the fish. The second time, his son (?) was also there busily preparing spider rolls. On to the food: as usual I limited myself to the sashimi, which was very good both times, I have to say. Some of my DPs mentioned that the fish is occasionally not the best it could be and I have encountered that once, as I mentioned before but the general quality is high. One thing I will mention was a special squid appetiser with butter sauce and teriyaki (??? the teriyaki sauce arrived later.. mercifully, apparently) which, had it been my own, would've been sent back due to expiration date solidly in the rear view mirror. I guess Venice is still too close - we just got back here last week. The steamed egg custard appetiser was a universal hit (in a cocotte, with shrimp and chicken, of all things), so was the Niyu-Men, with particular praise for the shrimp. As to the wasabi, there seem to be two kinds, one is the usual 'paste' and one is something different that comes out of what looks like a large toothpaste tube. It tastes definitely better: can someone shed some light?

I haven't seen a topic so I opened a new one. Any ideas for brunch after going to the Renoir exhibition on Sunday? When it was mentioned that Snack Bar stopped serving brunch (did they go back to it? It's on their website), matthewj suggested that it's a difficult segment to tap into. So there should be plenty of offers: where to go, considering there will be eight of us not all of whom are tremendously adventurous?

http://www.bakersonbroad.com/, it's actually in Souderton. And, we had stuff from Versailles. I tend to agree with the previous poster(s): the pastries are significantly superior to the bread, from my experience (experience including venturing there yesterday and having an apple minipastry on the go). The rest of the stalls - there were six I think? - were ..subdued, understandably, but we managed to get some arugula which at least resembles the real thing. We're planning to go next sunday too, if nothing else to find out if Versailles is close enough for regular trips for croissants or not (contrary to mr. Fenton, I actually liked their croissants...).

We went for lunch today and had the fried dumplings and the Peking duck, which came in the requisite pancakes first / stirfry second format. I have to say we were both very impressed. Much more, if I dare say so, than by Szechuan. We'll be back for the roast pork. (the update was, admittedly, a LITTLE tardy...)

As far as the baguette goes, there's a place in Sellersville, I'll edit and add the name, which has the closest I've been able to have to french bread. Their Epi is also particularly good.

Thank you monsieur le chef for sharing your recipe! Much appreciated.