Nockerl

While I see your point and understand your argument I just believe we need to have manners. I think part and parcel of the meal experience is not just the self enjoyment of a meal but in breaking bread together (unless of course you are dining alone, in which case one is free to use their sleeve rather than a napkin ) and to do so we wait for those absent from the table to return. Now if this was TGI Fridays then the food just comes whenever the kitchen figures out how to prepare it. But this is a high caliber, expensive and supposedly well trained restaurant. The onus is on the restaurant staff to see to my comfort, my enjoyment and to those I am with. I am paying top dollar to hopefully enjoy a certain level of experience. The restaurant better make damn well sure that everything is perfect. We were the guests we should not have to change the manners that we adhere to. The restaurant should be reacting to us and our needs. Lespinasse was not soterribly busy this past Tuesday that the captain could not have advised the kitchen that one of our party had removed herself from the table and held those dishes. Or for heaven's sake put together a damned cheese course for us.

The following is from the other dinner guest who asked me to post this: I certainly appreciate the mannerly behavior that caused you to be stuck with lukewarm plates. I tried to time my departure from the table in the most considerate possible way, but I clearly miscalculated. The restaurant did not handle the situation at all well, but you gentlemen...all three of you...did. Despite any arguments on the thread about the validity of such good manners (here in America), I want you to know that I both noticed and appreciated it. Perhaps it is old-fashioned, the way it is old fashioned when you hold the door open for me, or I pour the cream in your coffee, or serve you first at the dinner table...or the way we introduce two aquaintences with their full names...give up our seats to an elderly person...One could call it old fashioned-- or good manners. But think, really, where would societies be-- any society-- without the conventions and traditions of manners? Even nomadic tribes have manners, even war-ravaged lands...it is a human condition to guide our behavior by a set of niceties, and the following of those conventions implies respect for the people involved. So, I thank all of you, and regret that your already piss-poor dish got even worse!!!

"Brittany Langoustine, Puree of Fennel and Artichokes, Pine Nuts and Balsamic Vinegar" Here is where I started to question the meal. The Langoustine tail tasted of a large sweetwater prawn and had a similar texture, almost, but not quite, mushy to the point of off-putting. Nothing about it was special. The Fennel and Artichoke puree was. I don't know. You cook the stuff in stock you puree it and you add butter, maybe cream and season. Nothing concentrated, kind of blah in color taste and texture. The chopped and sauteed cress/spinach/arugula, which ringed the plate in four separate piles, tasted mostly of spinach and contained a few toasted pine nuts. A cordon of reduced vinegar and maybe some Beurre Blanc(??) complete the dish. This tepidly desultory and ultimately boring combination of ingredients was my first inkling that this meal was not going to be the sterling magic that I had anticipated. Nick Much agreement here. The four piles of salad were so forgettable that I forgot them until you just reminded me. The worst thing about the puree was the color. Battleship grey I think to say the langoustine was like a sweetwater prawn is to insult sweetwater prawns. Bad bad bad bad and bad

Whole Foods on River Road in Edgewater has a fairly extensive and well rounded cheese section.

YOUSE A GENIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! (brooklynesque enough for ya?) And totally correct. That is were all that intensity came from. well I'll be a son of a B*tch

I think I've had the brand, though it was domestic.....

It was a French restaurant. French protocol, I believe, would have had you eating the food while it was hot. It's a real burden to the kitchen if someone leaves the table at an inopportune moment, but it's the restaurant's responsibility, in a restaurant of this class, to see that the food is served when everyone is there ready to eat. I don't know when the diner left the table or why the servers were caught off guard and the service failure is apart from my comments on when diners should begin eating. There's no question in my mind that you eat when the food is served to you. If there's a delay in one dish, you eat as it arrives. I should not wait for the last plate to be served, nor will I tolerate anyone else staring at his food while I wait for my dish. This was a different situation, but there's no intelligent reason for everyone to bring his, or her, enjoyment down to the lowest level because of the restaurant's error I wonder if there are any Frenchmen our there who can support my interetation of French manners. I disagree that it would have been rude to start eating once you ageed to let the waiters place the food on the table (not that I really believe you could have done anything about it at that point). Bux, I hear what you are saying. And while this is a French restaurant none of us were native Frenchmen and were raised most probably with the notion that waiting is the proper thing to do. However, the diner left the table with ample time for the waitstaff to inform the kitchen to hold the firing of the food. The dish in question was a barely cooked duck breast that would not have suffered by being held in the kitchen. Not that anything could have done much to make this dish much more disappointing than it already was. A higher temperature may have helped it a tad if anything

that seems to be the gist of your post. however, i think it's pretty standard that people wait...here in america at least. or maybe i'm just too darned polite. Would have been rude and I know for a fact that she would have noticed!

Do you recall the brand? Sounds bizarre but I'm wondering if it would go with BBQ? Or was it just plain awful?

Maybe the problem is (and I say this entirely without sarcasm) that the "gastronomic elite" who give these restaurants their reputation are so small, and therefore eat so infrequently there, that the reputation lingers on for lack of proper re-appraisal. Or perhaps (and now I rescind my previous parenthetical qualification) that elite feels that to rescind their past approval would be a form of self-criticism, therefore they simply decline to do so. Perhaps the problem lies with the fact that there are an increasing number of high end restaurants and the "elite" few are not able to be re-reviewed in a timely fashion. I think the one exception was Ruth Reichl's re-review of Union Pacific which occured less than a year (if memory serves) from her original one...... No one with the ability to reach the dining public at large (save e-gullet) is able to follow up on these places and give them a much need kick in the toque to keep them on top of their game.

you see, i should have gone. You missed out! COuld have had some real excitement. Then again I'd be way up if I had that Spaghetti and Meatballs for $8 that you ate...

You are bloody hell right. But Nick is a gracious man!

"Nova Scotia Scallop in the shell with lemon, olive oil and Beluga Caviar" A dish whose WOW factor would be better appreciated by serving it as an hors doeuvre at a high end Bar Mitzvah. Nick now now, that's not kosher.

"Egg 'en cocotte' with cepes" Here is another dish where I think most of us agreed. I think this and the partridge were the most successful dishes on the menu. A very gently coddled egg was set in a bath of mushroom foam. I seem to recall a few chunks of cepe. The egg yolk was just warm (a good thing). The textures were striking. the warm gooey yolk and the light foam were very pleasant together. I agree that the smell referenced more truffle oil than truffle. One thing that I noted was the strong mushroom flavor. Not truffle or cepes, but mushroom (the prosaic "champignon blancs"). It reminded me of over reduced mushroom soup. Its strength was such that I noticed an almost chemical artificial edge to the mushroom flavor. Now I'm being overly nit-picky here. I enjoyed the dish. technically and logistically, I thopught it the most difficult for the kitchen to pull off. Warm coddled eggs under a lid. displaying the yolk at a "just so" level of doneness to a table of five was something where many things could have gone wrong, yet none did. Thoughts? Nick i agree that the scent referenced more truffle oil than white truffle. As for a almost chemical taste, i disagree. What I did get was an intense mushroom flavor, cepes way in the back but possibly specials, reduced to within an inch of their lives up front. By far this, the most simple of the dishes was probably the most well executed and flavorful. I agree that the partridge was a close second in flavor, the foie gras in my bundle was a shade underdone imparting a slightly raw liver tone. The pigeon was the dish that required something more than a butter knife. Was the cutlery choice a vain nod to the kitchen's supposed mastery? Thankfully, all were skilled enough not to shoot the poor bird across the large round table possibly removing the eye of a fellow diner. The bright spot of the pigeon course was definitely the almost "risotto" like celeriac studded with a perfect brunoise and perfume of black truffle. In this instance the side definitely overpowered and out performed the main. Don't get me started on the duck. There are jars of red cabbage in the supermarket that I would rather have eaten. And at the risk of heresy, the wafer of black truffle adorning the cabbage was less flavorful than a communion host. As Wilfrid pointed out the tepid langoustine seemed tired after a long swim over from Brittany. It was mealy and dry resting atop a puree of artichoke and fennel that, in my opinion, was a muddy ball of confusion. Dessert was ok but at this level and these prices a little imagination and plain old execution would have been appreciated. The white chocolate disks sandwiched around a hazelnut mousse were one dimenional. Either all hazel nut or all white chocolate, no balance, or melding of flavors. The warm chocolate cake was amatuerish with an overly crisp exterior. The chocolate ice cream and chocolate mousse were adequate at best. And I concur that the service was less than stellar and at this level almost amatuerish. When Nick inquired into the possibility of adding a cheese course the head waiter simply stated that we've already put the cheeses away. A few minutes later he did offer to bring a plate of cheese over to the table but by then the damage had been done and Nick politely and graciously declined. Service (overall actually) left me with a somewhat sour taste. As we were getting ready to depart I asked one of our servers for a list of the wines poured for us (regrettably none of us had taken notes). The server declined but promised to get the list to me the next day and took my card. Needless to say it's now been 2 days and I somehow think that list will never materialize...... That's my rant

Troublemaker I was reared on that Pastrami! Or maybe he can tell us how Peter Luger's should close because they aren't good anymore. Now why would I want to go and do that? Inflammatory remarks will get you everywhere

See, what you don't understand is that simply stating that one enjoys a restaurant or food that Mssr. Plotnicki deems inferior is tantamount to starting a quarrel. Just asking him about the thrashing I got for daring to compliment the Turkish restaurant Dalga..... Jeepers Batman!

Romano's, despite the name, has been owned by the same Greek family for many years. It is quite possible that they have the best but I always feel that saying someone makes the best is kind of pointless. How many "Best of NY" issues of New York Magazine leaves you scratching your head about who has the best burger or slice of pizza. Regardless, I didn't say they were the best, I said that they were my favorite. Have you ever had one? If not then take a ride out on the N train and give it a shot. I'be been going there for 20 years and have been very pleased with their blend of gyro and their thick rich tzatziki. You may try it and agree or scratch your head and think I'm crazy but don't belittle it until you've atleast tried it. I've no quarrel with you and merely started this thread to be a part of the site and to see what people like and where they go for gyros or doner for that matter.

Now aside from the fact that Turkish style might be better, what exactly is the difference between Turkish style and Greek style? And, by the way, I hope that only people who have a thorough and first hand knowledge of both Turkish and Greek gyro/doner kebab try and answer since otherwise you're wasting my time, and I'm not afraid to say it on the board Doner kebab is made by stacking alternating layers of ground lamb, sliced leg of lamb (which has been pounded thin and marinated, usually in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil and sometimes garlic) and often lamb fat on a large upright skewer, which is slowly rotated in front of a vertical grill. As the outer layer of the meat is roasted, thin slices are shaved to be served. Gyro, while similar, is made from ground meat only (beef and lamb). Gyro tends to be more highly seasoned with onion, garlic, oregano and thyme and sometimes lemon juice. What makes them different animals in my opinion is that doner uses sliced and ground lamb giving a somewhat different texture (slightly chewier) than the ground meat gyro. Also the use of both lamb and beef in the gyro gives it a less intense lamb flavor than the doner. I think this is a fairly significant difference and gives each very distinct flavor qualities. Suffice it to say that while both are primarily pressed ground meat, lamb in this case, they taste quite different from one another. Steve, do you prefer the doner over gyre because of its more intense lamb flavor? Does this answer your question?

Doner and gyro are, in my opinion, very different animals. So if your preferece is the Turkish style then I can see why you find Opa Opa rather less than. With that said, I've never been to Yatagan and look forward to trying it. !

Having grown up in Queens near Astoria I was lucky enough to sample Gyros from many of the local tavernas. The two that stand out and in this order are: 1. Romano's Famous Pizza on Broadway and 33rdst. 2. Tony Opa's on 31st Street off 30th Avenue. Both are what I think are outstanding examples of this tasty sandwich. Each has their own proprietary blend gyro made with ground lamb and beef seasoned with varying amounts of garlic, spices and oregano. Slowly cooked for hours on a rotisserie spit they each serve their sliced meat with copious amounts of thick, garlicky tzatziki studded with lots of cucumber and sans dill. Rounding it out is the warm, brushed with olive oil, slightly bready pocketless pita. I'm dying for one just thinking about it. So what's yours?

Look into the Sculpture park "Grounds for Sculpture" in Hamilton, NJ. Amazing place. I don't know if they rent it out for functions but you might want to look into it. http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/

Anything by Simca Verge's Vegetables in the French style. Patrica Well's book with Robuchon even though there are quite a few faulty recipes/

My pleasure......

Good point. If that's the case I think it could be made clearer. I'm thinking that they failed every inspection with the implication that there is another failed inspection every week that their name appears. I called the Record and it turns out that the Health Dept. calls in the violations to the paper each week. They only print the type of violation. They also print when the violation turns to satisfactory, conditional, etc. on reinspection. It is possible that Maharani was reinspected and passed on that particular violation but got a conditional on a different one. If this is the case then it would look like the same violation week after week being printed. I also think that for legal reasons they cannot list the actual violation until the establishment fails the reinspection and a fine is levied.

Might be that the list the offending restaurant each week until they get reinspected. That's my guess anyway.