mikec

ajay, I can see how VIP's (celebrity, regular, big spender, friend of the chef) might get treatment that is above and beyond what the "average" diner would receive. However, I have trouble with the concept that one needs to order an expensive bottle of wine in order to get the standard treatment at a restaurant. I would think that most people who go to a high end restaurant aren't ordering expensive wine. For arguements sake, let's use the figure of $150/btl as the lower boundary of what we consider expensive. I would be really curious to know how many tables order a bottle of wine that costs more than $150 at one of the high end places in NYC on a given night. I'd be surprised if it were anything more than 25%. Now maybe I'm wrong on all my numbers, but if 75% of the customers on any given night got substandard service and/or food, I suspect that such a place would be out of business in a relatively quick period of time. Obviously everything here is just speculation. Mike

At my last meal at Daniel, I consulted with Jean Luc Le Du about the wine. I told him what dishes we were planning to order and that I thought a white wine would go well. I also told him of some of the characteristics that I like in white wine. To top it all off, I even said that I was thinking of wine X (which was at the top end of my budget). To my great surprise, he said "while that would work well, I would suggest wine Y". The surprising part was that wine Y was less than half the price of the wine I pointed out. It turned out to be a stunning match for the food that we were having. I think that the bottom line is that there are some restaurant staffers who love what they do and there are others that do it for the money, etc. This can be applied to the busboy all the way up to the owner. The fact that the wine that I ordered at Daniel was by their winelist's standards, inexpensive didn't change anything about the service or food. Both of which were some of the best that I've had in NYC. Much like FG said, there isn't a guy standing in the back relaying wine orders to the chef. "Psst, the couple at table twelve ordered the cheap chardonnay...overcook their fish!" Mike

1) stay away from these threads 2) go 3) make up your own mind 4) post about your experience Tommy, We actually ate there once before. It was about six months after the restaurant opening and had a bad experience much along the lines of what Steve P and Jaybee have described. However that was a couple of years ago. Since then several friends whose opinions I respect have told me about their great meals there. Makes the decision even tougher.

Frankly this is pretty depressing. My wife and I have reservations for Babbo next week to celebrate our anniversary. Previous anniversaries have been celebrated at March, Gramercy Tavern, and Daniel. For some reason, nothing really is tickling my fancy right now. I don't think that I've ever seen such divergent opinions on a restaurant. Either you love it or hate it. What to do...?

Sandra, Thanks for the review. My wife and I lived near Danal for about 5 years. We went a couple of times and always had a pleasant meal. However, I have a problem with Danal. The problem is that the air conditioning system is virtually non existant. Anytime the outside temperature was over 70 degrees, Danal was sweltering inside. I suspect that this is due to a poor AC system and their open kitchen. Mike

Rachel, You're the second person who has used the term "punch list" in front of me recently. Is that just another term for a check list? Or is it something else, some sort of contractor language that I need to be aware of when dealing with the guy working in my basement right now. Mike

Charles, For an NYC apartment, you've got a great kitchen. What you need is a bigger TV so you can keep up with all the sports on TV while cooking. Mike

I saw this article too. I actually cut it out and saved it for future reference. One day my wife and I will redo our kitchen and I hope to poach a number of ideas off of McNally's kitchen. Of course I have to keep in mind facts such as my budget will most likely be much lower, my kitchen is about 1/8 the size, and I'll have to win the lottery first. Besides that I'm all set though.

Rachel, That sounds better. I think that what you are describing is butane, but I'm not sure. I just had this mental picture of lugging the Weber down to the basement. Mike

Rachel, I've been following this thread for a while now. Hopefully in the next year or two, my wife and I will redo our kitchen and dining room. Thus it has been interesting following the ups and downs of your remodeling. A few things... The quote above...I'm not clear on it. Are you suggesting bringing a propane tank into the house? I doubt that is safe. But maybe I'm misreading you. The other thing is that you seemed to like Charlie and his crew. However it seems that you had problems with the staff at HD. Hindsight being 20/20, if you end up doing any future work could you hire Charlie directly? Would this save you any money or hassle? I hope that the job is done soon. My wife and I are about to start on finishing the basement in 2 weeks. The guy we are using is finishing up a friends place. He does good work and is very reasonably priced. However he seems to take his time on the job thus I'm bracing for a 4 week project to take 8.

This was the conclusion that I came to as well. It's the only way that I can think of to achieve the results that I want. Although I think that I'll stick to the broiler and leave the blowtorch back in metalshop. :)

I think that Coq au Vin wasn't the best example to use. Although what I'm describing happens with CaV I guess that its supposed to be the greyish, slimy result (even though all the pictures that I have seen have suggested otherwise. A better example would be the Chicken with two vinagers recipe from the NYT a few weeks ago. It sounds great, but the result was soggy chicken that tasted good, but looked terrible. While I'm not opposed to eating something delicious even thought it looks ugly, this dish didn't taste good enough to justify the ugly presentation. Besides, I'm sure there is a way to achieve both results. As far as Poulet au Vinegar, do you brown the chicken and then cook it to just shy of done before putting it back into the sauce? Because if it heats up and finishes in the sauce for too long, it will end up soggy. Thanks!

Everytime I make Coq au Vin or similar chicken dishes the recipe calls for browning the chicken (creating a nice crispy skin) and then removing it only to return it to the dish to finish by braising in liquid. Unfortunately, when cooked in liquid, my chicken ends up losing its crispiness and turning grey and soggy. What am I doing wrong, or what can I do to retain then crispy factor? Thanks. Mike

Chefette, Many major retailers have a "no pictures" policy. They think that you are... 1. Their competition looking to steal ideas 2. A lawyer 3. A thief As a wholesaler, when I "shop" stores to check out my competition, I often tell the store manager and present my business card. This way I won't raise any alarms when they see me standing in an aisle writing furiously on a pad and taking pictures.

I could be wrong, but you guys seem to be discussing gravlax (salt/sugar cured salmon). Lox, as I understand it is smoked.

Wow, I completely disagree. While I've only eaten at both places once, they were on consecutive nights last year and I thought that Peristyle was head and shoulders above Bayona. If its still on the menu, the stuffed quail was one of the best dishes that I had tasted in a long time. Further, I thought portions at Bayona were small and while the food was good, Peristyle's was great. Viva la difference. Mike

It’s hard to believe that six months have gone by so quickly. It was that time of year again. Time to head to the city of lights and I’m not talking about Paris (although I wish I were). It was time to go to Las Vegas again. This time I was only there for a few days since my four-week-old daughter was waiting for me at home. We arrived on Sunday night at 9:00PM New York time and went straight from the airport to where? You guessed it, Lotus of Siam. I will freely admit that I am in a LOS rut. I want to eat every meal that I have in Las Vegas at LOS. I guess it’s because I’m always concerned that my company will stop participating in trade shows in Las Vegas and thus I have to get my LOS fix. But if I really think about it, the reason for all of my meals at LOS is simple. The food is so incredibly delicious. As usual we started with the crispy fried rice with minced sour sausage and the wonton and bacon wrapped prawns. Both were outstanding and if I were forced to limit my choices at LOS, these two dishes would be in the top three. Interestingly enough, I asked Bill (the owner) how they made the crispy rice and either he really didn’t know, or he wanted to evade my question. Either way, I still don’t know if they use some sort of batter or what types of spices are incorporated. I also don’t know what kind of sausage is used and wouldn’t even hazard a guess. We are friendly with Bill and I’m going to assume that since his wife is the chef he truly doesn’t know how the rice is made. We also enjoyed a spicy beef salad with Thai eggplant. The Thai eggplant is green and has a distinct crunchiness to it. The lime, basil, and lemongrass flavorings are so fragrant and tasty that it’s hard to not fill up on this dish alone. Since Bill was not there when we ordered (we usually let him order for us) we took the opportunity to try the Pad Thai at LOS. Our previous attempts to order this dish have been met with disapproval from Bill who told us that we can get Pad Thai anywhere. He is right, we can get Pad Thai anywhere, but not as tasty as at LOS. It was very good, although it was my least favorite of the dishes that we ordered. It should be noted that my least favorite is still worth trying, especially if you like this noodle dish elsewhere. Bill suggested a crispy duck special for our last entrée. It was outstanding with huge pieces of duck and fried basil. I loved this dish which had a good deal of heat on it. For dessert we had the coconut ice cream with warm sticky rice. After our meal Bill sat down with us to talk about his native country and the deals possible for someone who is thinking about taking a vacation. I’ll tell you, I’m hooked. Now if we can just get a babysitter I’m ready to leave tomorrow. Another thing that I found interesting was that Bill told us that most of the dishes that we were eating were kept at a spice level of about three (out of ten). He told us that the roasted jalapeno chicken soup that we had the last time we were at LOS was an eight. I remember the soup well since it was easily the hottest dish that I had ever tried. He told us that our waiter typically eats his food at level fifteen. Frankly I can’t even imagine that kind of spice. Bill also told us of his plans for LOS and the possibility of expansion, but I’ll keep the details of that under my hat for now. I finally checked into the hotel at about 1PM NYC time and promptly fell into my first uninterrupted sleep since Madeline was born. :) The next night we had our corporate dinner at P.F. Changs located in the Aladdin hotel and casino. P.F. Changs offers good, but uninspired Chinese food in a fun setting. The price was right, the drinks were cold, and the food hot. What more could I ask when hosting a dinner for 17 people? Tuesday night was another meal at LOS. I was taking some of my co-workers. They were willing to try the food, but asked to keep it towards the mild side. Thus I ordered most of the same dishes and added a spicy chicken salad that was very good. I also order a medium hot crispy rice and sausage for myself. :) On Sunday Bill had mentioned ordering a frog’s leg special for my meal on Tuesday, but unfortunately he wasn’t there and there were no frog’s legs to be had. C’est la vie. Once again we had a wonderful meal at LOS and I will definitely be back in August.

Astor for haircuts...yes. Try Gianni downstairs. You get a hot towel facial after the haircut. Definitely worth the 11 bucks. :) As for Molly's...not a fan. Always had a dried out, charcoal burger. Mike

In my last trip to New Orleans, Peristyle was the best meal that I had bar none. Bayona was good, but Peristyle was on another level. If its still on the menu get the stuffed quail!

Robert, Do you mean, have I given Italy a whirl? If so, then the answer is yes. Two of my most memorable meals in Italy we eaten at small trattorias in Florence. The first was called Osteria de Caffe Italiano. It was located behind the Bargello. We had a wonderful meal there with a pretty good bottle of Brunello for such a reasonable price. Actually the closest thing I've found to that restaurant outside of Italy is Lupa right here in NYC. We also ate at Rugero which was way past the Pitti Palace. We wlked there from our hotel not realizing how far it was. When we walked in my wife wanted to turn around. The place reminded me of a New Jersey dinner. We were the only Americans there. Actually I'm sure we were the only people there who weren't Florentine natives. Luckily the son who was our waiter, (Mom was the cook and Dad ran the front room) spoke very good English since our Italian wasn't up to the task. We were seated at a communal table. Wine choices were red or white, 1/2 liter or liter. We proceeded to eat one of the best home cooked meals that I've ever had with wild boar ragu, and all sorts of other Tuscan delicacies. I still have a copy of the bill, since it was so shocking. We ate and drank enough to put a lesser person into a food coma. The bill ened up coming out to ะ including everything. FWIW, its somehow sad that this type of restaurant is almost impossible to find in America. Mike

Charles, You should start a thread on eating at the bar in restaurants around the country. The best meal that I've had at USC was at the bar with you, Michael, and Allison. Granted it may have had something to do with the company and a wonderful bottle of wine. Charles & Bux, FWIW, I agree that there is something to be said for comfort and familiarity. However I believe that the comfort factor can be found elsewhere for cheaper. Also, I ate at a one-star in Provence called Le Croque Chou. The name of the town escapes me at this moment. While I had a very good meal, it was more in the homey comfortable way than the dazzle me with brilliance style of Michelin. I recall truly enjoying the meal. But then the farmhouse setting and the fact that the husband was in the back cooking while his wife and daughter ran the front room made it special. Steve, I think you said what I feel in a much more eloquent manner. Mike

The 2002 New York City Zagat Guide came out this past October. Once again Union Square Café received a favorable review and as of September 1999, William Grimes of the New York Times gave USC three stars. I have eaten at USC several times and last night got invited to a business dinner there. I have a slightly differing view of USC, and thus I was looking forward to eating there. We started out with a couple orders of the hot garlic potato chips. They were great. I’d love to put these in a Ruffles bag and eat them on my couch while watching football. I struggled with my choice of appetizers. There were a number that looked appealing to me, but the ones that I really wanted leaned towards the heavy side and I was planning on a heavy entrée. I figured what the heck and ordered the porcini gnocchi. The gnocchi came in a small copper pan with some sautéed mushrooms and a crème sauce. I liked this dish, but would try something else for variety next time I’m there. The special entrée was the arctic char. I’m a big fan of arctic char. It has a similar taste to salmon, yet it’s somehow a bit more silky textured and has a drop more flavor. However I was craving red meat this night and I ordered the grilled strip steak. It came perfectly cooked to medium rare and had a mound of fluffy mashed potatoes topped with frizzled leeks on the side. It was a technically perfect dish. We ordered two more side dishes to share. The broccoli rabe looked good, but I passed since I was already getting full. However I couldn’t say no to the creamy polenta with mascarpone cheese. I think there may have been a drop of blue cheese in there too. It was topped with walnuts and was wonderful. Dessert was one of the meals high points for me. I was torn between the warm pumpkin bread pudding and the banana tart. I went with the tart. It was a like piece of pastry topped with bananas and then some sugar that was sort of burnt on in a crème brulee fashion. This was then topped with a scoop of ice cream. It was delicious. I started the meal with two glasses of German Riesling. I can’t recall the specifics, but it went very well with the chips. I’ll try to call USC today to get the specifics since it was a wine that I would order again. I was given the wine list and asked to pick a bottle of red for the table. As usual I was torn between ordering what I thought would be a crowd pleaser or what I would enjoy. This time I ordered what I wanted to drink. We had the 97 Felsina Chianti Classico Rancia Riserva. It was dark with dusty cherry fruit. It needs a good deal of time to open in the glass, but I found that it went very well with my porcini and steak. Felsina is a reliable producer year in and year out. The USC list always features a good selection of wines at fair prices. Not too many restaurants in NYC can say the same. Service at Danny Meyer restaurants is usually beyond reproach. However there were a series of small mishaps last night that thankfully didn’t affect the meal, but were atypical of the service that I have come to expect form Danny Meyer’s places. Many dishes were placed in front of the wrong person during all three courses and one of us had to wait for their entrée to come out a minute or two after the rest of us had been served. I realize that two minutes isn’t a long time, but it does make for an awkward moment. I have no doubt that any service issues were an anomaly. While I had a technically correct meal, my opinion of USC hasn’t changed and if anything has gone down a drop. To put it in simple terms, USC is ordinary. They just don’t seem to be cooking with any heart or spirit. The best dishes that I tasted were the side dishes including the garlic chips and the creamy polenta. I will say that the dessert was outstanding and the pastry chef there stands out. I have yet to walk out of USC or Eleven Madison Park and say wow that was a wonderful meal. I’ve never had a bad meal, just never an inspired meal. Given the price point there are other places where I would rather eat.

Rachel, Yes, that's the location. I was finishing up my initial post as I was running out to a meeting and couldn't elaborate on the restaurant. Chez Catherine offers a ุ three course prie fix menu. There are several options that require a small supplement. They are not a BYO. One of the people we are dining with is very close with the owners of the restaurant and thus we were allowed to bring our own wine. It is a small menu so picky eaters should beware. Although I will say that the menu is well rounded and I'm sure that even the pickiest eaters will find things to choose from. It is an intimate room that had surprisingly well spaced and sized tables. My one complaint with the room was that it was almost too quiet. I felt bad if we were talking too loudly. It is old school, and thus a bit of an older crowd. We started with an amuse bouche that was a veal and pork patty with raisins and what I would call middle eastern spices. It was very good. I then had a blue cheese fuillaite (sic?) with a salad of mache. It was melted blue cheese combined with puff pastry on a bed of tender greens. It was very good, but I would have liked the blue cheese to be a little more runny. Other very appealing appetizers included a lobster "pillow" which is essentially a large, free form ravioli stuffed with lobster. I was torn between the two appetizers and while mine was very good, I had a bite of the pillow and it was even better. As an entree I had the duck two ways. The breast was seared to a perfect medium rare and the leg was done as confit. I didn't taste anyone elses entrees although there was a red snapper special and a buch of different types of steak on the table. Desserts were great looking. I only tasted mine which was the lemon tart that left me practically licking the plate. We were also given the candied jellies that I love so much. The are basically French "chuckles", but so much better. As a finishing touch, each couple was given a small red box with chocolate truffles to take home. Chez Catherine is old school French food served in a caring manner. Is it as well plated as Jocelynes, probably not. Were the entrees as interesting as the rabbit civet with cocoa tagliatelle that I had at Le Rendezvous, probably not. But the overall meal was very, very good. To think that it's located in a Best Western in Westfield, New Jersey is kind of weird.

Bill, As I previously mentioned, the food at Blue Sky Cafe was good. Also, I don't want to condemn the service based on one bad experience that came on New Year's Eve which is clearly an atypical kind of day. I suspect that their staff wasn't prepared to cook and serve the six course meal. The three main problems that I had with the restaurant were as follows: 1. The mishandling of our reservation. It was rectified to our satisfaction though. 2. The poor service. Our waitress although very nice should know what courses have been served and should see how long we've been waiting. The mid-level near the kitchen where we were sitting wasn't that big. 3. Our coats being hung up in the bathroom. This is just not right. If that's going to be the case, don't say..."we have another place for coat's when the coatcheck is full." Although technically correct, I wouldn't consider the bathroom "another place". I assume that another place isn't accessible to the public. If I had known that I would have probably hung my coat over my chair or since we parked right out front gone and thrown the coats in the car. As far as the service at Mojave Grill and Chez Catherine. All I can say is that I had perfect service at Chez Catherine. It was formal French service, yet our waiter wasn't overbearing which made the service very comfortable. I have eaten at Mojave Grill many times. The service there is fine. The staff is attentive and friendly. I couldn't ask for much more. On any given day one can encounter varying service levels. Plus the differences in how people perceive certain things can easily color how we view subjective things like service and food quality. I would be interested to try Blue Sky Cafe again. Like I said above there were many positive things to like about BSC. The only negative that I can't attribute to a wierd night like NYE is the coatcheck. Take care, Mike

12-29-01 Met some friends for dinner at Mojave Grill in Westfield. It was a last minute thing and I expected to wait for an hour. Instead the place was empty. I chalk it up to the cold weather and the upcoming NYE celebrations. I've eaten at Mojave Grill many times before, yet we hadn't been there in a few months. Sometimes too much of a good thing can turn you away for a while. Highlights included the spicy ribs appetizer which I sampled. My appetizer was the mushroom and goat cheese strudel. It was very good, but not that Southwestern. For an entree I had the black bean ravioli with roasted corn, etc. I tasted all the entrees at the table and for me this was easily the best on the table. I also enjoyed the salmon with the lentil, mango salsa, but not as much as the ravioli. Matching wine with southwestern food is usually a waste of time. I've gone with all sorts of reds and a few whites. This time I brought the 98 Nigl Piri Privat Reisling which was as close to a match as I've gotten. Delicious Reisling, but I think that a beer will still be the reigning champ. :) 12-31-01 Dinner with friends at Blue Sky Cafe for NYE. I'll start off by saying that it was an "experience". We got there a few minutes late for our reservation which had been confirmed that afternoon. We were told that the reservation had been cancelled. What??? The staff was gracious enough to make room at what turned out to be a very good table from a location point of view. There was a small problem in the fact that the table was better designed to seat 7 people and we were eight including my pregnant wife and my 6'5" friend. We were seated about 30 minutes late. We were having the 6 course price fixed NYE menu. The kitchen was kind enough to accomodate two picky eaters. The food itself was pretty good. I enjoyed my cheese ravioli and the shredded duck salad. I also thought the other four courses were good too, not great, but good. The service was terrible though. After ordering all six courses, we got our first course 45 minutes later. The second course came 30 minutes after we were done with the first course. The third course came 5 minutes after the 2nd course was served and then the rest of the course were spaced out over a long period. We expected to be done by 11:30 in time to get back to our friend's house where we would celebrate the NY. Instead we finished dinner around 1:15AM. It wasn't even that big of a deal since we were having a great time catching up with old friends, but still there were babysitters who were expecting us back at a specific time. Also, when we quietly mentioned to our waitress that the food was taking a long time , she asked us if our second course had arrived yet. Wouldn't you think our waitress would know what courses had been brought out? I will go back to Blue Sky Cafe because it is not fair to judge them on such an atypical evening as NYE. The food was enjoyable and we all had a great time. There is one thing that was unacceptable though. Once the coat check is full, they put the "coat overflow" on hooks in one of the bathrooms. First, this is sort of gross. Second, my friend's cell phone was missing after the meal. It was certainly a shock when I opened the bathroom door and saw my jacket hanging in there. The staff told us they had "another place" for the coat overflow. I certainly didn't expect it to be the bathroom. As far as the cell phone, my friend should have never left it in his coat, but it still doesn't change the fact that it was missing when he got his coat back. The wine highlights that night included the 99 Nikolaihof Vom Spiedel Reisling, 95 Gallet Cote Rotie, and the 96 Sean Thackery Orion. 1-4-02 We are trying to get in some great meals before we have our baby. Friends of ours had told us if we liked French food we would love Chez Catherine. We got together with these friends and another couple this past Friday night. One of the couples is friendly with the chefs/owners and I was looking forward to this meal. The first thing that struck me was how small the room was. I was even more surprised to see how nicely spaced the table are given the size of the room. We had a table for six that could have easily accomodated eight. The food at Chez Catherine was as good as I've had in NJ. It was served in what I call a country manner. Attention was paid to plating the dish, but more concern was shown to how good it tasted. My duck entree was succulent and cooked to perfection. I would highly recommend Chez Catherine. I'll try to write more tomorrow. Wine highlights were the 97 Raveneau La Foret Chablis and the 91 Mondavi Cabernet. Both were great. Take care, Mike