marcus

My experience at Bouley is that the a la carte is significantly better than the tasting menu. More complex dishes with more careful preparation. The menu is very static and changes only very slowly, so it is difficult to go back frequently, even if you like the food, which I generally do. Steve P -- I would think that it might be worth your while to go back, considering the frequency that you eat out. I don't know of any restaurant in NYC that is significantly better or more interesting than Bouley, although admittedly this is not saying a lot. Its certainly better than Blue Hill.

My only point regarding aperitifs is that they are genuinely optional. I recall that one of our most frequent posters used to believe that she would incur the displeasure of the restaurant staff if she didn't order one. I personally find that half a bottle of wine is on the border of how much alcahol that I wish to consume at a single time.

The distribution system in France is such that you will likely spend more for Bordeaux in Bordeaux at retail than you will in the US. There is a very famous shop in Bordeaux that has everything, unfortunately I forget the name. I would suggest that you go on the web and make a list of the US prices for 10-20 top growth wines from great years and then do a comparison, in order to calibrate.

I would nominate Monterey Park, CA as possessing the finest collection of Chinese restaurants in the US. I haven't tried all that many, but find that it provides a significant step up from Flushing. My favorite has been Lake Spring Shanghai.

Saveur -- Don't be overwhelmed, there are really very few rules, just be yourself. High level restaurants in France really want to please you and your normal behavior is perfectly sufficient. In fact, these restaurants, although the service may appear reserved, are more intent on satisfying your requirements, than apparently friendlier restaurants in the US and they pride themselves on satisfying special requests. Don't hesitate to make your requirements known regarding ingredients that you may not like or allergies, etc. You also do not need to go out of your way get their attention and convince the restaurant of your worthiness, a strategy that might be necessary in the US with its cult of celebrity and restaurants that need to practice triage because they need to serve more people than they can adequately handle. There is a real pride in craftsmanship tradition in Europe where they will try to do their best for everyone and not just the favored few. Just a few words of advice. Your should order a complete meal, either a menu or an appetizer, main dish, desert and wine. Many restaurants, even 2 star ones, offer a menu d'affaires, business menu, at lunch. This consists of either a main dish, or a main dish with an appetizer or desert. If it is on the menu and this is what you want, you should feel free to order it. If you don't drink, its ok, but you probably should mention it to the staff, and at least order mineral water. Tap water, carafe d'eau, is becoming very common in France at all levels of dining, but ordering mineral water, even if you also order wine, will probably be more comfortable for you. Although most French do order an aperitif, it is completely optional, Patricial Wells has written that she doesn't favor it, and I personally only do it about half the time and only if I feel like it. Coffee, after dinner drink, cheese course, are also optional. When I go to a restaurant for the first time, I am most interested in experiencing the best that the restaurant can offer in order to decide whether I want to go back. In the large majority of restaurants in France, in my opinion, this means ordering a la carte. You will get fewer dishes but each dish will be more elaborate with more distinct ingredients. In a small number of largely avant garde restaurants, there is a progression of small dishes and the tasting menu is the thing. You can often figure this out by reading the carte, if you're unsure, you should ask an indirect question such as, which dishes best express the style of the chef. Note that ordering a la carte can be significantly more expensive. Tipping is a subject that has been heavily debated on the site. You should be aware that approximately half the French do not leave any additional tip and tipping is absolutely not required by etiquette. There have been posts that Troisgros has actually refused to accept tips. If you do tip, 3-5% is more than enough, this is what I generally leave. Remember you are tipping on top of a prix nets, that is, each price has embedded in it VAT of 19.5% and service charge of 12-15% which represents about 25% of the total. This is not to say that the restaurant staff doesn't appreciate overtipping, of course they do as they do here, but I would be guided by my normal practice. If you tip 15-20% in the US, you should tip no more than 3-5% in France, more would be an indication of insecurity. If you are a genuinely big tipper and tip 25% or more in the US, then a tip of 10% in France would be perfectly appropriate as a consistent expression of your own practice. I want to make one more comment on the subject of doggie bags. This is absolutely not a French practice and they would never do it. However, I did it once with very good results. It was at Paul Bocuse and my wife and I couldn't finish the second course of the poulet en vessie. We asked for a doggie bag and the request was handled promptly and courteously, beautifully wrapped, and given to us in a bag that we still take on trips with us. It made a great lunch the next day.

I've never eaten at the Palme d'Or, but the recent word of mouth is generally not too positive. In addition, although they retain 2 stars from Michelin, the Gault Millau guide dropped them from 17 to 16 a couple of years ago. I ate recently at Villa de Lys, one star Michelin and 17 from GM (was 18 in 2002), unfortunately not open Sunday or Monday, and was very impressed. It was clear however, from reading the carte, that ordering a la carte was the better option, which we did. I would be very interested in a comparison of these 2 restaurants.

I agree that rating a restaurant based on a single meal is wrong. For Auberge L'Eridan, they are giving it a 20 for one year based on a single perfect meal, I believe because its the only perfect meal that they've ever had. I actually expect them to put it back to 19 next year and they may or may not give a different restaurant a 20, we will see. I see no implication that they had only a single meal at L'Eridan or that they are in general rating restaurants based on a single meal. In reading through the guide, I was generally impressed with their lower ratings with which I largely agreed. The total number of restaurants receiving 18 and above has been reduced from 46 to 35 which is huge for a single year.

Bux, I have some difficulty following your analysis. I have no idea as to whether your surmise that they are only visiting restaurants once is correct. However, I don't see how that affects scoring one way or the other, they seem like two independent variables to me. I also don't see how generosity, a mushy term, enters into this process. They have taken a significant number of their most highly rated restaurants, and on balance lowered their ratings. I don't believe that there has been a significant overall decline in quality in the last year, so I infer that they are either raising their standards (stringent), and/or applying their standards more strictly (rigorous).

I just received my 2003 GM and wanted to add a few observations. I approve of the way that they are taking a more stringent and rigorous approach to rating restaurants and in my view they are gaining credibility although certainly one can pick arguments. The 20 rating that they awarded is only for the Auberge de L'Eridan and the Ferme de Mon Pere continues to receive a 19. This seems strange. Overal they are awarding 17 restaurants a score of 19 or 20 versus 20 restaurants receiving 19 in 2002. At the 18 level, the number has been reduced from 26 to 18 and the 18 include 3 restaurants that fell out of last years 19 group, so this category has been particularly heavily pruned. In Paris there are 4 restaurants receiving 19, Pierre Gagnaire, Arpege, Ambroisie, Guy Savoy. There is a listing of the best chef by region, which indicates that they consider Pierre Gagnaire to be the best in Paris. Helene Darrozze continues to receive a 15 which in my judgment is most appropriate.

Actually, Roellinger is all about spicing and is a top end haute cuisine restauant that some consider one of the best in France, although I personally don't happen to agree.

Interesting, I've always viewed this dish as originally Neapolitan, but maybe not, or maybe it has arisen spontaneously in a number of places. It is served at essentially all of the many fish restaurants in Naples, my favorite is da Dora which is a much more pleasant restaurant than La Rosetta and actually does the fish better, but not the appetizers. In my experience this dish works best with the local fish Orata or Pizonia (spelling?).

The appetizers at La Rosetta are great, but they cost either 49 or 51 Euros the last time I ate there in June. No matter how much your order, they will charge you a 15% surcharge for sharing a dish such as pasta which I find offensive. If you order fresh fish in salt crust, which I recommend, be sure to tell them that you want only the fish, not any lobster, as otherwise they may put a piece shell on your plate, very little meat, in order to increase the weight and up the price. Also, they have a tendency to overcook, so a warning when you place your order is in order. I find that Agata and Romeo has become disappointing. The first time I went there, before it got its star, it was full of young Italians in jeans, the food was vibrant and Romeo was spontaneously friendly. The bucattini ala matriciana was truly memorable. The last time that I went back, there were only tourists in jackets and ties and the food was forced. The bucattini was no longer on the menu, the food was tired and Romeo had become dour. We asked for and got the bucattini, but it wasn't as we remembered.

There are very significant inequalities of treatement at Bouley, but I don't think that it has anything necessarily to do with dress. I think that it has more to do with how you relate to your captain. I have been on both sides, sometimes being rushed through a meal and other times being comped with numerous dishes superior to those on the menu.

I don't think that there's anyway to come up with an end to end sensible set of ratings when every restaurant gets a score. The genius of Michelin is that they don't attempt to distinguish among roughly 85% of the restaurants listed in the guide, giving all of these no stars. In the every restaurant gets a rating scenario, what inevitably happens is that the best restaurants are judged top down and the others bottom up and you end up with a collection point full of anomalies. In the NYT this has typically been 2 stars. Grimes has actually been tougher and has been moving this collection point towards one star, which to my mind is his greatest contribution, because on the nuances he doesn't have a great palate.

People seem to have forgotten about L'Impero, Asimov's distinguished contribution to the 3 star list, and a possible candidate for least deserving, although I also was intensely unimpressed by AZ.

Gotham is very tired and way over the hill.

After many years of eating in fine restaurants around the world, I find that my interest in luxury ingredients has diminished and I'm much more interested to see what a chef can do with market ingredients. Foie gras I find to have become a crutch and a cliche, not just in the US, but France as well, where it seems to be much more pervasive across a menu than it was in years past, and it is even showing up frequently on menus in Italy. When I see too much foie gras on a menu, I anticipate a negative opinion of the chef, when I, very rarely, see none, I am impressed. I have similar reactions to lobster, caviar and the like. In addition, I have never had the perception of tasting great foie gras in the US, whereas in France one does occasionally find it, especially in restaurants which have their roots in the southwest or Alsace. I would be interested in your view as to the culinary worth of these ingredients versus market demand and whether these ingredients, particularly foie gras, should be used when the very best product may not be available.

I have had sommelier's reject wines, but only very rarely. If I were to find that a wine that had been approved had serious flaws, I would question the sommelier as to why he didn't reject it and very probably indicate strong diispleasure as to his job performance. I would also not permit him to taste the replacement bottle, after all, it would be like throwing away an extra bit of wine for no purpose. When I order an older bottle of wine, I do try to examine condition before allowing the sommelier to open it. That is, I ask to have the bottle stood on the table in order to look at ullage, condition of the capsule, position of the cork, signs of seepage, etc. If I have any doubts, I send it back. Brett, however, would not be a reason to reject the wine, as in many cases with French wines, even some very high end wines, it has been added intentionally by the winemaker. What you think of this practice is another question entirely.

My guess is that rather than being a shot fired in an intergalactic culinary battle between France and Spain, it is more likely a "bold" marketing move from a company that is in financial difficulty. Awarding a 20 will probably gain them additional press coverage, hype, and differentiation from their archrival Michelin, which has to be their real focus. I suspect that they are doing it with real regret, because they probably don't believe in giving 20s, but feel that they have no choice under the circumstances. They couldn't just go to 19.5 as they have been there before and it would be viewed as same old, same old.

I have seen tips left on checkout, but I think that the real point that you and ajay are exemplifying is that tipping is just not the thing in France any longer. We should probably all put aside our American discomfort with not tipping and just go with the flow.

Cabrales -- My first fine dining experience in France was at the Auberge de L'Ill in 1964 when it still had 2 stars, I believe that it was promoted in 1966. I was stationed in the Army in Stuttgart at the time. The meal was a revalation and led to my now long standing interest. When you hand a tip to the waiter who brings you the bill, it is no different than leaving it on the plate and it does get divided among the staff. I want to be clear that this is perfectly acceptable behavior today, and was not intended as a criticism. However, only when you hand over a tip directly, can it be politely refused in a person to person interaction. When you put it on the plate, they are not going to come running over to hand it back, that would be impolite. I don't believe that any French person would leave a tip, on the table or handed over, if they are not presented with a bill, which is the case when you are staying over in their hotel. The appropriate time to tender your optional tip is at checkout, best done in an envelope.

I think that the Gault Millau guide has actually improved since Christian Millau was forced out in a notorious scandal. As noted, Gault was forced out some years earlier in a power struggle. Millau was using and abusing his position in ways that make Tim Zagat's apparent transgressions minor by comparison. He would approach a restaurant that he was considering for promotion to 19.5 and in order to get the rating, they would have to hold a free dinner for him and his friends, in large number, costing the restaurant many thousands of dollars. However, once done, he was not in a postion to reduce the rating, so a large number of restaurants eventually collected at 19.5, diluting the ratings, and destroying their credibility. The new management has been much more professional, and siginficantly pruned out the deadwood and the top GM rating, which has been 19 until apparently this year, has been more rigorously applied than Michelin's 3 stars. GM can be quite interesting, however, they don't have the resources of Michelin, probably can't cover individual restaurants as completely or frequently, so there are anomalies that can creep in. With regard to Veyrat, I am at a disadvantage never having eaten at the restaurant. However, I would comment that as much as we may love French food and restaurants, we are not French and do approach it with a foreign sensibility. Also, many posters do not appear to like where Veyrat is with his cuisine today. However, my reading of the French food press, which is anecdotal rather than systematic, leads me to believe that the French consider Veyrat to be the most important chef working in France today.

Actually, most people who leave tips, do not tip at individual meals when they stay at an inn, they leave a tip when they sign the credit car slip on checkout. When I first started dining in France, only boorish Americans would leave their tips on the plate, the French all handed over their tips directly. However, today this is no longer the case, although many French who tip still hand the tip directly to the waiter. Tipping was also more common, today many European nationals do not appear to tip at all, although in France I could not say whether it was 40% or 60%, but would strongly guess that it is in that range. The interesting question that you stated does remain, has anyone else who attempted to tip directly at Troisgros, had their tip refused. I do remember that the last time I ate there, which was quite awhile ago, there was a prominant statement on the menu that etiquette does not require you to pay anymore.

It would be impolite for them to return the tip to you later. You should try handing it directly to the waiter when you sign the credit card slip and see what happens. It is not boorish to hand the tip directly, in fact it is more correct, and must be done when you are explicitly tipping more than one service person.

I was even more disappointed with L'Impero. The issue is the lack of an authentic Italian sensibility, I think that the ingredients problem is secondary. The restaurant is commercial and soulless. The cooking is competent, but ultimately unsatisfying. We tried the fresh made spaghetti with the basil tomato sauce that was so highly recommended by Asimov and the spaghetti was overcooked and the sauce lacked any brightness or impact, overall poor. Other dishes were generally somewhat better. I don't believe that Grimes would have given it more than 2 stars. I have eaten a number of times at Conant's prior restaurant, City Eats which was located with the Astor bar. I had found it promising although ultimately lacking and did notice that the chef spent an awful lot of time visiting with friends in the dining room. L'Impero is no better, and since its more ambitious, the end result is less satisfying. In addition, we experienced a serious service error in the dining room with the end result that we didn't have any wine with the meal.