taion

How much variance can there be? Taking the order, bringing the cutlery, food and drink in the right order and at the right temperature, clearing the plates all with reasonable timing has few options for variance, only incompetence. Especially if the food is pre-plated in the kitchen. I don't want my waitperson to sing, dance, provide advice, perform a psychoanalysis or otherwise exhibit variable behaviour. They are not part of the entertainment; they are a mechanism for ordering and delivering. I don't want to form a long term or even a short term relationship. I just want them to moderately competent at their job. ← There are a lot of ways that good servers have improved my experience at restaurants. If I've been to a place often enough that the staff recognizes me and does little things like bring out extra amuses or sets up my tasting menus to be more weighted toward new dishes and other dishes I haven't tried before. Even on a first visit, a good server can distinguish himself by noticing, for example, that I'm taking an interest in the food and making more of an effort to tell me about the food. That aside, though, I've personally gotten quite a lot out of at least getting some sort of relationship with the staff at places I go to regularly, and I leave larger tips accordingly – it is not that I was unsatisfied with the experience I had when initially visiting the restaurant, but more that on subsequent visits, I had an even better experience. That is due to the service.

Are there really no cases where it's appropriate to question a customer over a poor tip? I recall one occasion when, after dining with a group of companions and having been forced to do a complicated tip split involving multiple credit cards (but some people paying cash), our server came back shortly before we left to ask if she did something wrong. We asked her why, and she noted that we had left a very meager tip – entirely by accident, as we had messed up the math when figuring out who got to take what change or whatever. We gladly fixed the tip. It was a little awkward, but not exceptionally so, and I was happier to have not accidentally left a bad tip (though I guess if the server hadn't told us, I never would've known, but still). What if it's clear, or at least likely, that a poor tip was left by mistake? Especially if the party is still at the table, is it really never acceptable to bring it up? I would certainly prefer not being kept in the dark if I've messed up my math! The other thing with tipping is that, unlike at a retail store, where if you buy a given TV, you will get exactly that TV, service at a restaurant both has substantial variance and is a bigger part of the experience. If a server is more helpful or friendlier than usual, or if my party receives anything comped, I feel obligated to leave a larger tip. I guess, on the flip side, though, variable tip sizes are what encourage different diners receiving different levels of service, so maybe that's not so much a good thing.

I guess I should do a write-up of my meal there, just for the sake of posterity; by the time I left, the only other people who were around were a couple of friends of the house getting drinks, a bartender working on his resume, and the cook. Started with a Bangkok Margarita – the drink looked nice on paper, but the bartender free-poured, separated his shaker by hitting it against the edge of the counter, and strained by holding the two halves of the shaker slightly open rather than using an actual strainer. Predictably, the result was a drink full of small chunks of ice – not that it mattered; the ginger was overwhelming. After consultation with the server, I went for the 8 course tasting rather than ordering ALC, as it was supposed to be more "comprehensive"; going for the 10 course tasting would have been pointless, as they were out of foie (and a number of other things besides). The first course was a salad with arugula, goat cheese, and apples. A decent salad, but nothing exciting. Came with a prosecco. Second course was some sort of a creamy soup with white truffle oil and a sweet sauce or puree on the side of one half of the bowl, still with the prosecco; the soup was pretty nice, but it didn't really cohere with the sauce in any real way. I was also a little annoyed that it was the same wine as the salad course, as the server said that their wines were very carefully selected to pair with the food. The third course was bacon-wrapped day boat scallops with another arugula (I think) salad, paired with a Riesling. This was my favorite of the night; the textural contrast between the bacon and the scallops worked nicely, and there was some sort of a sweet sauce that worked really nicely with the scallop. The wine also paired quite nicely. I was actually told that they were out of that dish when the server went through the ALC options with me, but I guess they had just enough left for a tasting portion. Unfortunately, the scallop was lukewarm. The fourth course was "lightly cooked" salmon (I think it was poached) with yet another salad, plus a slice of cucumber on puff pastry. The salmon was pretty enjoyable, but at this point I was really quite tired of salad, and the cucumber with pastry made no sense to me. This came with a rosé; don't recall the wine going especially well or poorly. The fifth course, the last savory course, consisted of a lamb empanada with a Japanese-style curry, paired with a Malbec. This didn't really make a strong impression on me; it was pretty much what it was supposed to be. The three dessert courses were a coconut sorbet, some sort of toasted condensed milk cake with bananas, and a fig or date cake or something; the former two with a muscat, the last with a port. The toasted condensed milk was clever and cute, but neither of the other two were all that exciting. I think by this point, both the quantity of food and the depressing atmosphere were getting to me – the restaurant was maybe 1/3 or 1/4 full when I showed up, but by then I was practically the only diner left. I didn't finish the last dessert course; interestingly enough, the only other time I'd ever had one of Chef Ong's desserts was at Kurve, where I also didn't finish it (although I actually liked that one quite a bit – it was the devil's food cake with a bunch of chocolate, and I was feeling distinctly chocolate-deprived at that point). Interestingly enough, Andy Yang was actually there, I guess helping them close up. Chef Ong was around, too, but he seemed to have spent most of his time around Batch rather than in the restaurant. The one cook that was working was fun to watch, though, and cute, too (: I guess it's a little unfair to judge a restaurant on its last day of service, since it's not like the staff have anything to gain or lose from doing especially well or poorly; the food was enjoyable enough, roughly on the order of what I expected given the NYT 1-star review and comments earlier on this thread. Given the price point, it wasn't an especially compelling deal. Had they not been closing, I would have felt no strong desire to come back; I had considered going to p*ong at some point about a year ago but ended up going somewhere else, and feel no real regret at not having gone then, either. I can't help but compare it to Tailor, and Tailor just ends up being better – more ambitious, better execution, and a far better cocktail program. I also had an interesting time trying to explain to my would-be dining companion that it probably would have been more depressing had she actually been there; apparently there really isn't a good way to say "I'm glad you weren't there".

There wasn't a party; they just closed ): It was basically the most ineffably depressing dining experience I've ever had, and I'm actually glad that the friend of mine from work who I was going to go with had cancelled on me, because we would have spent the entire time bitching about work, which would have made it even more depressing. At least I have breakfast for tomorrow from Batch.

Ooh, shoot, thanks for the heads-up. Time to catch that cab, then!

Well, so they're closing after service tonight. I'm going to drop by in a bit, I think; might as well – price point seems to have dropped substantially from the last time I'd considered (but decided against) going.

Except for the whole tagging the #2 burger with the wrong restaurant name... it can't possibly have been the Burger Shoppe in FiDi, could it?

There are occasional stories about it on Eater, stuff like expansion plans and menu changes and soforth. This seems to just be the news cycle in operation, no? Artichoke is still turning out pizza that I enjoy quite a bit, but it's not really making that much news. A lot of restaurants are in that category.

Is the "rule" something along the lines of "the more often you go, the more courses you get"? That sounds dangerous.

Sneakeater's your father? ← Also surprisingly spry for one his age!

Is this that different qualitatively from the debate regarding reviewer anonymity? I do think it's appropriate to expect that readers of most of the food blogs to not expect completely unbiased coverage; if nothing else, though, they serve quite nicely to give interesting starting points for doing further research before dining out.

It seems to be a special menu; I just checked the Per Se website and they list the menu for yesterday that is the traditional 9 course. How much was this special menu? Do you need to request it in advance? Looks wonderful (although the regular 9 course menu did have some things that weren't on your menu that also sounded wonderful (rack of lamb and the duck breast). I'm glad you all had a good time! ← The menu that they showed us at the beginning had the standard 9-course listing. They gave us "actual" menus at the end that showed the listing of what we actually got. There's a mistake there, though! The "tempura" was actually smelt rather than shrimp; I was killing myself trying to remember what exactly it was, since that listing looked wrong – I guess sickchangeup's memory is substantially better than my own here. I don't remember exactly what was on the menu shown to us, but I think the poularde was substituted for the listed duck breast course. I want to third the others in saying that the meal was absolutely spectacular. The highlights for me were, as listed, the custard, the scallop, and the smelt, but everything was excellent, down to the 6 (!) kinds of salt that were available. Textures and flavors worked together marvelously – nothing felt contrived (although we had a few giggles at the plate to course ratio – about 4 or 5 each for our first 3 or so courses), but everything was a pleasure to my (admittedly inexperienced) palate. The service definitely contributed to the experience in being both technically perfect and very friendly and personal – it was very amusing to hear about our captain's adventures in cooking from the French Laundry cookbook and the amusement the kitchen took at his less than complete success in doing so. I can confidently say that all of my expectations were solidly exceeded. Many thanks to the other eGulleters for letting me tag along (since I was too slow to get a reservation on my own!), not to mention providing such good company. This was also my first experience at a Michelin 3-star restaurant, and pretty much all I can think about now is how long it will be until I can afford to go again.

I still can't do a proper write-up, so here's a (very poor) picture of the menu we had.

Ooof. A perfect study in perfect excess. I need to... go pass out or something to finish digesting. But capsule summary – absolutely the very best meal I've ever had.

So who's bringing the camera?

Are they still serving the crudo with potato chips (crisps)? Not sure if the pun is intentional or not, but I couldn't help but find that an amusing touch.

I wouldn't object to a mini EG meet up. Any idea how many people the 1 tops seat? ← Aren't most of their tables 4-tops anyway? OT has a free table for 2/3/4 at 11:30 on the 8th... unfortunately I'm not having much luck convincing anybody to go with me ):

Curses! I wanted to get lunch there, but can't find any more free 1-tops on OpenTable. Probably better for my wallet anyway.

No, I don't think Sam's kidding - it's exactly what he said. And I still don't think you can walk into a restaurant with a bar and just expect to sit at the bar and have drinks with a minor - if you're not waiting for a table. ← It depends. I'd imagine you could at Tailor, but that's because the bar area is basically entirely separate. I've certainly never been carded there, anyway.

If it's any help, I went there last Monday and had a very enjoyable meal. The place was fairly busy, about 3/4 full when I showed up at 7 or so and mostly full when I left around 9. I hadn't been there before January of this year, so I can't give any context as to how they've changed, but I was very much a fan of the food. The food I had was interesting but not overly precious and service was fantastic for a bar-seating restaurant. The flavors were nicely distinct; there were some interesting pairings (the amuse had a croquette with apple sauce), but nothing tasted contrived. I was also pleasantly surprised that, despite having gotten the same 5-course tasting that I'd ordered on Monday only about a month ago in January, there was fairly little overlap (although the staff recognized me as having eaten there before, so that may have not entirely been just a function of the pace at which the menu changes). I'm definitely going to go back in the near future; it's just a question of when (most likely quite soon).

I actually asked for a cocktail pairing with the 8-course tasting the last time I ate at Tailor. Eben did something like one cocktail for every 2 courses or so, so it wasn't absurd, but it was more liquor than I think the wine pairing would have been. The time before that, I had the wine pairing, which was okay but not spectacular; on the other hand, that was something like a year ago, so things (plus my tastes in wine) may have changed. I preferred my memory of the cocktail pairing to my memory of the wine pairing.

From Tailor, the pork belly with miso butterscotch and artichoke.

The 5-course tasting is 50 and the 10-course tasing is 75. The wine pairing for the 5-course tasting is 45, but I don't recall what it is for the 10-course. As oakapple said, there's no website. The 5-course consists mostly of dishes off their ALC menu, but the 10-course has a lot of courses not otherwise available. I think the 10 course tasting is well worth the extra 25/person. Alternatively, ordering individual plates and splitting would also probably work pretty well.