marcus

My experience with Cantin has also been very mixed. In no way is it even close to the overall quality and selection at Barthelemy. In addition I found that as an unknown American visitor, she actively tried to stick me, and succeeded in doing so, with less than the best stuff. I wouldn't go back.

I consider Venice to be the most wonderful place in the world. When I first ate at Antico Martini in the early 70s it had 2 Michelin stars and the meal was memorable, I remember the Crespelli. I haven't been recently, but I do like Vino Vino, the tavola calda/wine bar that is attached to the restaurant. But what do I know, I find that Italy operates overall more efficiently than the UK.

Joe H -- Have you been to Naples. When you compare Pepe's to Italian pizza are your comparing it to Neapolitan pizza or Roman or other types, all of which are quite different. This thread has long ago derailed from the discussion of Naples pizzerias, and you offer a glimmer of getting it back on track. Nina -- I also like DiFara's, but it too has little similarity to Neapolitan pizza.

I don't know anything about Jonathan Waters, but when I had dinner in the Chez Panisse restaurant a couple of months ago on a Saturday evening, there was nobody in the restaurant available to explain the wine list other than the waitperson. She was not sufficiently knowledgeable and made a poor recommendation. Isn't this a responsibility of the sommelier to train the people? Overall I found the wines on the list to be too young, does anyone believe that a 1998 Chateau Rayas is ready or a 1996 Chave. Why would anyone find a 1981 Leoville Barton for $210 to be appealing. Overall, although the average price on the list was relatively low, the wines were priced at full restaurant markup, although certainly not as onerous as many restaurants in NY. Overall, my reaction to the wine list was that it was perfunctoy.

Price seems a little high to me assuming 1.5-2oz pours. The only truly expensive vintage is the 82. The 90 which is the next most expensive is not included. The selection is also a bit disappointing. I have all of the good Margaux from 78-89, and I can't imagine leaving out the 78 and 79 which are very interesting wines which kicked off the Margaux renaissance. Also the 83 is one of the most interesting Margaux as is the 90. 82 is great, quite fat, but only at the very front of its plateau of maturity. 86 is not ready at all as expected, and 88 is disappointing. I agree that the 85 should have been included. I also like the 89 a lot, to me this is one of Parker's biggest misses, he gives it an 89, versus 99 from WS. I this case, WS is much closer to being right.

I find the Espresso guide useless for just the reasons that you state, they elevate the worst in Italian cooking. However, my experience with Gambero Rosso has been much better, although they clearly missed the boat on Aimo and Nadia.

I haven't read through this entire thread, but has anyone mentioned that Michelin reduced Aimo and Nadia to one star in 2003. Usually I rely much more on Gambero Rosso, but Michelin may be ahead on this one. My meal here about 3 years ago was entirely mediocre. They had some extraordinary values in French wines, including a Leoville Lascases 1986 for under $90.

Cabrales -- I have eaten at Bocuse three times, early 70s, early 80s and mid 90s. The first 2 meals I consider among the greatest that I have experienced. The 3d was still very good, but a step down in both quality of the dishes and service. Paul Bocuse was in the restaurant, but acting primarily as a greeter, it was not clear whether he ever set foot in the kitchen. Clearly this is a restaurant whose best days have passed, but I would expect that they can still do a good job on their signature dishes. The second meal was the time that I had the loup en croute and the poulet en vessie at the same time. As I recall, the loup came out on a platter and was sliced in half and put on two plates. I don't remember all of the ingredients, but I am sure that the recipe is well documented and easy to find. The cream sauce was enriched with either lobster of langoustine. At this point in time, I remember my impression more than the details. I do remember the croute as being secondary. Getting back to your dish selection question, I am not a fan of Daniel's bass with potato crust, but this does not necessarily reflect on the rouget dish at Bocuse. With regard to the poulet, you need to check, because depending on the chickens available, this dish is sometimes only available for 4. In any event it is served in 2 courses with a rich cream sauce accompanying the breast serving, not quite as rich as the loup. This is clearly not a good menu construction combination with the loup en croute, but intense interest could legitimately overcome this concern. It will cause considerable gallbladder stress. We could not finish both dishes and asked for a doggie bag, a real no-no in France, but they were very accomodating and packed everything up nicely. Paul Bocuse gets his cheese from Mere Richard in the Lyon Halles, and you can make a separate trip there to try their St Marcellin, my vote for the best cheese in the world. At the restaurant, he offers a soft cow's milk cheese as an alternative to the cheese board, which may be more interesting. I once asked for and got both, but also got a dirty look, these are definitely intended to be alternative. On our tastes not being aligned, I base this on your approach to reviewing a meal as exemplified in your reviews, and your final conclusions with regard to key restaurants such as ADPA, Bras and Haeberlin, which are among my favorites and which you do not appear to regard. I am also not a fan of Blue Hill, although I've only been there once. In fact, the only major restaurant where we have genuinely agreed is Trotter's and possibly Le Bernardin.

I tried the lamb couscous, which I found acceptable and a very large portion, considering the price of $12. However, the couscous were a bit too soft and the broth should have been richer and more aromatic. OK as a neighborhood restaurant with good price performance, nothing more. This restaurant has been seriously overpraised by Asimov.

I've had the loup en croute twice, am not at all familiar with the red mullet dish. However, I would choose a bass over a red mullet for a main dish in general. I consider the loup en croute and the poulet de bresse en vessie Bocuse's greatest dishes, much greater than the truffle soup, and I once had them together in the same meal, which was a mistake because they both have rich cream sauces. I would describe the loup en croute as brilliant, oppulant and rich, and overall astounding. However, I don't know how it would withstand a microanalysis, as that is not my approach to eating. I would consider the loup en croute to be of the same time period and sensibility as Haeberlin's salmon souffle, old fashioned by today's fashions, although the dishes certainly are also significantly different. These are my two cents on the dish, although I generally find that our tastes are quite orthogonal. Loup en croute is probably as far as one can get from a dish at Blue Hill.

Authentic Neapolitan pizza is soft, pliable, a bit chewy and always easy to cut. It is not overly dry and not brittle. It is never served sliced. The edge is thicker than the interior, and although most Neapolitans eat the entire pizza, lighter eaters often cut off the edge. The more that I reat about Otto's, the less similarity it seems to have to real Neapolitan pizza.

The Gault Millau website indicates that the 2003 guide will be available on Feb 13. The rating score of 13 in the GM is very transitional and is used for a restaurant that has some culinary merit, but problems as well or for a simple restaurant that is one cut above ordinary. I would expect wide variabiltiy in 13 rated restaurants and would not criticize GM if I were dissatisfied. Ambassade d'Auvergne has been undergoing a long slow decline for probably the last 15 years and is no longer good at all. Even their signature aligote was bitter the last time that I had it. For many years it received a 15 from GM and then was demoted to 14 and now 13. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 12 sometime soon. Bux -- I would tear up the "gourmet card" of anyone who found La Regalade too heavy and greasy. I think that there are a range of reasonable disagreements among knowledgeable food lovers, as is illustrated here all the time. However, I view this as beyond the pale. I would recommend that they find a restaurant that serves organic pablum.

The food at l'Ardoise is very special and quite inexpensive, and the restaurant has a convenient 1st location. The service and decor are minimal and the tables are turned over more rapidly than any other restaurant that I know of in Paris.

The questions regarding wine and food are addressed by Robert Parker in his Bordeaux book. His view is that the greatest wines, which are highly complex, and the greatest foods, which are also highly complex, do not go well together. He points out that there are chefs that keep these wines off their lists because they feel that they fight with their food and prefer fine, but simpler wines, such as Sociando Mallet. On the other hand, great Bordeaux will certainly go very well with a simply prepared steak. I agree. My own view is that great wine is best by itself without food, or with just an unsalted cracker. This allows for the fullest appreciation of the wine. I generally avoid wine pairing offerings, as they tend to treat the wine as the junior partner. I do order wine in restaurants, but choose the wines primarily based on their own merits, with minimal regard to the food selected. I won't go as far as order a Hermitage to drink with raw oysters, but most anything in between is just fine.

Have they announced the wines being served. Without this info, it's a crap shoot. However, Rhone wines can certainly be sufficiently expensive to justify a high price. Guigal single vintage Cote Roties can easily sell for 250-350 a bottle, as can Chateau Rayas. La Chapelle 1961, undoubtedly not in this tasting, sells for well over $1000.

French workers are very conscious of their rights, and it is inconceivable to me that a restaurant at any level that employed French workers, as opposed possibly to illegal immigrants, could get away with not distributing the service charge. I also believe that withholding the service charge would be illegal. I have also never heard anyone before make this suggestion that fresh_a has made. I would be very interested in learning more about this, but I must admit that I am sceptical. To me, overtipping is an indication of insecurity. However, I can understand and sympathize with why someone like fresh_a. who's job is based on receiving tips, would tip more in return. In the course of many meals in France at all levels of restaurant, I have tried to observe what the French diner does. This is much easier today, as most people are paying by credit card and credit card slips in Europe typically do not give you the option of adding in the tip, so you need to leave it on the table. Even in high end restaurants, close to half do not leave anything extra. In Belgium, virtually no one will leave anything extra. My observation is that those who tip in France, leave something in the 3% range, 5% maximum.

It takes a very dedicated and experienced wine connoisseur to find the nugget of interest in a wine such as this. The vast majority will find it thin and harsh. Not only won't it be worth the $45 dollars, but they probably won't enjoy it at all and wish that they had drunk something else.

Perhaps you may be willing to be a bit more specific here. Understanding that there is great variability, what is the average tip for these services, is it $20, $50, or $100. Also, do guests typically tip when a service is rendered, or in total when they checkout?

Another point re Citarella as a fish market, and I do agree with Robert Brown that their fish doesn't have the best appearance, and in my judgment, the ratio of fillets to whole fish is too high. My understanding is that Citarella is a wholesaler as well as a retailer. Even though they undoubtedly deal in higher end and better quality fish, they are still drawing their supply from commercial sources. These come from boats that spend long periods of time at sea, so the fish is not extremely fresh, and then it is trucked in from New Bedford and further, there is no commercial fishing fleet any closer. If this is the source of supply for the restaurant, then it can't be the best obtainable. Restaurants such as Le Bernardin obtain their supply from artisanal sources such as day boats, which yields much superior product.

I had lunch at Citarella just before Christmas and the meal made very little impression, competent but not memorable. The service was professional, but rushed and impersonal. I started with the scallop appetizer, the scallops were good, but lacked the intense sweetness with a hint of brine, that the best have. The main dish was striped bass on a bed of spinach and potatoes. The vegetables made no statement at all. The fish was very good and well prepared, certainly much better than I had at Chez Panisse, but didn't have the luminous freshness of just caught. I would normally not order a desert at lunch, but did because of the pastry chef's reputation. I have no recollection of what it was, which says alot by itself, but I do remember being very unimpressed. It was overly complex and striving, but didn't achieve. This is not a restaurant that I would go back to.

Restaurant reviewing has established itself as a serious activity, and we should move beyond this fog of defensiveness, to view it in and of itself and in equal comparison to its most relevant analogs, which are the performing arts. The similarity is that they are all ephemeral and each performance differs. The reader understands and makes allowances for the fact that their experience will not be exactly the same as the reviewer. In the case of restaurants, there is even additional variabiltiy in performance, from dish to dish, diner to diner and night to night, so the reviewer does need to visit the restaurant multiple times and maintain absolute anonymity, but I do believe that the analogy largely holds. Restaurant reviewing has achieved respect, interest and credibility in NY, at least, going back to Craig Claiborne. I would assert, but admittedly without any proof, that Grimes' restaurant reviews receive more readership attention than the average review of a play, dance, or opera. I don't subscribe to the view that because something may be temporal it is inherently inferior. In a sense, it is more in tune with the true nature of our existence. This brings me to what I find to be the interesting distinction in looking at the process of reviewing in general, and that is reactive reviewing versus proactive reviewing. The vast majority of reviewers are reactive. This includes William Grimes, Patricia Wells and Ben Brantley. They will experience a restaurant or a play and place it in a categorical context, French or Chinese, bistro or haute, regional or eclectic, etc. Focusing on restaurants, their review will generally relate to how a restaurant compares to the model that the reviewer has in mind for its category. Although the reviewer may have some preferences among categories, this is not usually exposed in the review and is generally a minor consideration. I have a lot of sympathy with this approach, as I tend to like all cuisines and am looking for best examples. I have very little interest in attempts to compare the worth of one cuisine versus another, or in culinary relevance. Proactive reviewing is quite different and involves a reviewer acting as a proselytizer for a particular category. A prominent example in art was Clement Greenburg who was a proponent of abstract expressionism and a strong promoter of Jackson Pollack. There are other examples which are typically associated with avant garde movements. For restaurant movements, the best example that I'm familiar with is the Gault Millau guide's support of nouvelle cuisine during the 1970s. They showed "creative" restaurants in red and seemed to award them a 1-2 point higher food score. The reviews were also geared to hyping their favorite nouvelle cuisine restaurants. At this point in time, I don't see any proactive reviewing in food or the performing arts. It could be that we are living at a particular time that doesn't favor the avant garde. One could claim that Adria is leading a movement, but he doesn't appear to have found a champion in the media. I do believe that proactive reviewing has a role and I wonder whether others are aware of examples that I have missed.

I wouldn't do it. I've had the 66, a much better year, and it was unimpressive. Chateau Margaux was underfinanced during the 60s and 70s and was seriously underperforming. Even the 61 was not as great as it should have been, the last great vintage of the old regime was 59. The Chateau was sold to a rich Greek familiy in the late 70s which produced its first vintage in 78 and began its renaissance. One can claim that Margaux became the single greatest Bordeaux producer of the 80s, a great decade by any measure, especially since Latour was following some misguided detours.

I agree with you. Its what typically happens to ethnic restaurants as they mature in a foreign environment.

I think that we're approaching a he said, she said, kind of impasse here, but I view Shun Lee and Chin Chin about the same way that I view Royal China, I don't like any of them, which is that none are really Chinese, they appeal primarily to western or westernized clientele and are modified in that direction. I think that if you compare the pricing at Hong Kong style restaurants in NY such as Nice or Golden Unicorn with comparable restaurants in London, I think that you will see an enormous price difference.

Indian restaurants are certainly better in London, but I don't agree re Chinese. Which restaurants are being recommended? In my experience London often can point to a very thin layer of of quality restaurants in various areas which is then extrapolated to assert London's superiority versus other cities with much deeper quality such as NY for Chinese restaurants. Also, London Chinese restaurants are 2-3 times more expensive.