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Chez Panisse Cafe - Lunch March 30, 2006 Top quality ingredients prepared to highlight those ingredients and done so with impeccable technique will never go out of fashion even if the specific ingredients in fashion at any specific time change. I am happy to say that even with recent personnel changes in the kitchen Chez Panisse Cafe continues to produce marvelous preparations of impeccable ingredients. To finish off our short Northern California eating binge, Molto e and I decided on lunch at Chez Panisse Cafe prior to his mid-afternoon departure from Oakland airport. We arrived a bit prior to our 11:30AM reservation to find the restaurant still closed. This enabled a quick exploration of the surrounding area. The line for pizza across the street was already long. As tempting as it was to join that line, we stayed the course and I am glad we did. Chez Panisse entrance Entry. Up or down? For lunch, always up. The setting Menu masthead close-up A bowl of olives. Octopus braised in the wood oven with aoili Pizza with tomato sauce, pancetta and egg Artichoke and Cardoon Salad with almonds and Marash pepper James Ranch lamb leg with roasted parsnips, spinach and pounded marjoram Fried Wolfe Farm quail saor with wild rocket and polenta Meyer lemon cream puffs with caramel and creme Chantilly Hazelnut ice cream with Cognac cream and biscotti Molto e will provide comments on the individual dishes. I will just say that everything was simply outstanding. A few kitchen shots: Upstairs Downstairs

Gee, Doc...it's only about 4 city blocks, if that. Maybe you were suffering from your previous gastronmic extravaganzas? Just giving you a bad time...It is a bit of a walk from either Napa Valley Lodge or Yountville Inn (the latter being farther), but it's not more than 1/2 mile, and Yountville is REALLY quiet, with no traffic. ← Perhaps we should have walked from the Lodge! It is certainly doable. I think part of our concern was not really knowing the distance and wanting to make sure we got there on time. We did make sure we walked to Manresa the following night from our hotel, The Tollhouse Hotel and were glad we did.

Warm date cake, pineapple and vanilla bean ice cream Chocolate Risotto with sour cherries, gianduja The desserts were my favorites of the trip. I particularly enjoyed the risotto. It's creamy consistency lent itself well to the chocolate. I will take sour cherries with anything. With chocolate, mmmm - gianduja too. By this time of the evening we had struck up a conversation with our neighboring table that included an important wine personage from up napa way and a well known food editor of a California daily. Their menu was essentially the same as ours. They seemed to enjoy themselves as well. Chef Kinch came out to chat with us at the end of the evening as we closed the restaurant. He is as bright and thoughtful a person in the flesh as he appears in print. It was a lot of fun talking food with him in person as his knowledge of food and other things is vast. We discussed some of our thoughts on the dinner as well as the greater scope of food and restaurants. I am very happy that I finally made it out to Manresa. I am even happier to say that the trip was worthwhile. Chef Kinch's talents are prodigious. He is a thoughtful chef with a thoughtful, challenging cuisine. I believe we had a pretty good sampling of his current ouvre that night and his skill and artistry were indeed impressive. We still had one more small course to go...

and here it is... It is delicious and presented in a way to really highlight the cheese.

Thanks, Molto. You are correct. It is nice dining with someone who has a memory. My sentiments on the dishes presented by Molto echo his. All i would add is that I love fresh peas and pea shoots. To me they are the essence of spring. The John Dory with sweet pea bouillon evoked that sense. Squab and our boudin noir, salt roasted beets with homemade vinegar I love squab. I loved this squab. It was perfectly cooked. The accompaniments went well with it. At this point I would like to comment about wine. Unfortunately we failed to take a listing of our wine pairings. We had a tasting flight to go with the courses. The pairings worked quite well. I just wish that I could give proper credit and relay them here.

Thanks. Chef Kinch should probably put a warning that this is done by trained professionals - do not try this at home.

I've never had the egg at Arpege, but have had other renditions elsewhere. As with this one and a couple other variations I have had, it can be a great dish and worthy of emulation and homage. I have never had foie gras anything like this before. This was a fascinating and delicious dish. Assorted spring fish, dried sardine consomme This dish was brought out with the consomme' added tableside. The flower sprig (I forget what kind) was there to add aromatics, though it was not to be eaten. This was a lovely dish with the fish lightly cooked by the broth. Beet "gazpacho", cured mackerel and osetra caviar salad This was another beautifully presented dish with delicious, balanced flavors. Bluefin "tete du fromage", its cheeks on the plancha The flavors were strong, but to me this dish was all about texture. The "head cheese" was simply unctuous. The cheeks were different than any tuna preparation I had had before and fascinating. The next dish was the single most interesting one of the evening for me. Scallop and its tripe, black truffles Another first for me was having the rest of the scallop in a preparation. I have had scallop and its roe before, but not the whole body. This dish reminded me of the first time I had first growth chablis at a blind tasting of 23 white Burgundies. At my first taste I was turned off by the unusual (for chardonnay to my experience at the time) mineral flavors, but the more I tried it the more I liked it so that by the end of the tasting I was craving it. I could see that happening with this dish. The flavors were strange to me, but ultimately haunting. I would love to try this again.

The Napa Valley Lodge was very reasonable and comfortable. While within walking distance to TFL, it is a good walk.

The turnip-brioche and foie gras royale had a visual simplicity that belied its textural and flavor complexities. We were next brought out two oysters, including one of Chef Kinch's signature dishes. Warm Oyster with apple, coulommier Oyster in urchin jelly Once again, I think we were given bad advice by our waitperson. We were told to have the warm oyster first then the one with urchin jelly. The warm oyster was spectacular. It was full of rich flavor. The coulommier added additional richness, that was nicely cut by the little bit of apple. The one with the urchin jelly in contrast was tasteless. This turned out to be my biggest disappointment of the evening. had the order been reversed, I think it would more likely have been more enjoyable. Once again, I would have liked a "do-over". Thanks, Chris. Although we did have a nice sit-down chat with Chef Kinch at the end of the meal, we didn't really venture back into the kitchen again.

The Shisu dish was one of my favorites. It was delicious in addition to being visually beautiful in its elegant simplicity and form. I enjoyed every aspect of this dish.

After the petit fours and cocktail, there were some simple appearing plates to start. Butter with salt was very nice butter with I thought a starkly beautiful presentation. This is one of those details that can often be overlooked, but shouldn't at a restaurant of this caliber. Anticipating a big meal, I refrained from too much bread as good as it was. Chestnut and foie gras croquettes How can so much decadence fit into such atiny package? This was crisp on the outside with warm blissful liquid on the inside. Sea Urchin Shooter Unfortunately, I think we received bad advice from our waitperson with this. She suggested that we take it all in one gulp. It was quite flavorful and tasted somewhat like a complex "Bloody Mary", however, I couldn't get any real sense of the value of the sea urchin in there. I would have loved a "do-over" here, but we had plenty more "fish to fry"

Manresa March 29th, 2006 Manresa has been at the top of my Restaurant wish list for some time. The Medical meeting I attended was a very good excuse to get out to California so I could make it down to Los Gatos to dine there. Having had some good discussions with Chef Kinch here on eGullet had also whet my appetite as I knew him to be very thoughtful with eclectic tastes. It was also going to be interesting following on the heels of The French Laundry. Molto e and I drove down to Los Gatos from Yountville early enough to stop for a dim sum lunch at Koi Palace in Daly City, but that is food for another post. It had rained most of the way down, but fortunately began to clear as we arrived in Los Gatos. After all the eating I had been doing I needed to get out and get some exercise so I walked from my hotel into charming downtown Los Gatos, where I discovered the most amazing orchid shop called My Orchid. (Unfortunately I cannot find a web link). Of course, I was excited and couldn't wait until 8PM to get my first view of Manresa so I continued until I found it. Although he was busily engaged in prep work for the evening, Chef Kinch was kind enough to receive me and allow me to take a few photos in the kitchen and the restaurant. Not wanting to distract him too much from his task at hand, which at least partially probably involved my upcoming dinner, I didn't linger too long and headed back up towards the hotel. The front of the house in daylight. Chef Kinch at the stove Mushrooms in a stockpot. Browning meat Intense activity More intense activity. I was impressed with the earnestness of purpose demonstrated in the kitchen. Not wanting to be too much of a distraction or disruption I did not ask too many questions. The dining space is comfortable and lovely without being over the top or pretentious. These shots are of the window tables in the anterior portion of the dining room. When we arrived at 8PM we were taken to a two-top in the back portion of the restaurant adjacent to the wine rack. I don't know if this was by design or not, but we were thankful that this table had perhaps the best lighting for photography in the restaurant. That is not to say that it was particularly well lit for photography but it was relatively reasonable. One interesting aspect of the wine rack was that there were small holes through which one could get glimpses of the other dining room. Between that and the activity in our room I could sense that the restaurant was quite busy. Shortly after we sat we received our first of what turned out to be 9 amuses, the delightful Petit fours "reed pepper-black olive". These were sweet but held a welcome purity of flavor. Molto...

Sounds like a wonderful trip, Wendy. You certainly got me hungry. I am thinking of a quick foray in May for The Oval Room (I need to see or taste for myself how Matt is doing down there. We certainly miss his cooking and presence up here), Minibar, where I have yet to dine and if I can squeeze in an extra day back to Citronelle. I have a craving for that Lobster Begula again. There are of course a few other places I would love to either get back to again or visit for the first time, but unfortunately one can only do so much at a time.

Of this there can be no doubt. There is a long and growing line of TFL alumni making names for themselves all over the USA. As my recent meal at TFL can attest, the absence of both Thomas Keller and Corey Lee did not cause the kitchen to melt down. My meal was generally outstanding.

I'll second Saratoga. it is a happening town with plenty to see and do in the general area. The food is happening too with plenty to eat and many really good farms and farmer's markets to check out if you are into that.

I don't think it is a bad restaurant. I have certainly been to worse. As for the alcohol component, it appears that at least they do something very well. It certainly isn't a great restaurant though and it does not appear to live up to the hype.

The wine list is very good for the food and a reasonable value as well. We had the riesling, müller-catoir, kabinett, gimmeldinger mandelgarten, pfalz, 2004 for $56. This is a good buy for a very good wine. I love this winery and that is a decent restaurant price. I imagine that there aren't too many Vietnamese restaurants outside of Paris that can match their wine list.

The thread may have been from 2003, but the gyst matched my perception of the place as well, which is one reason I resurrected it. Another is that this, surprisingly, appeared to be the closest thing to a thread strictly on The Slanted Door. Perhaps we might have ordered better things, but items like the Shaking Beef are supposed to be amongst their "signatures". None of the food was "bad", but none of it was particularly good or memorable, either.

That would have to be the cheese. I found the textural combination of the cheese and the potato unpleasantly jarring, while the flavor combination did not mesh particularly well either. This one course, while a distinct negative could not deflate the other extreme highs of the evening.

Unfortunately I have not spent any time in Catania so I can not completely speak to your query. Taormina is the most beautiful spot, but perhaps the least interesting culinarily. Siracusa is fascinating and not far from Modica and Noto- two towns that would be musts if you are that close, especially if you are not interested in seafood. I would say that southeastern Sicily is perhaps the most interesting area culinarily that you mentioned, but don't sell Palermo short. It is a shame though that you aren't interested in seafood as Sicily has some of the best around, especially along the coasts.

I loved Aqua in las vegas, did not like Aqua in S.F. when mina was involved with both. This report makes me glad we didn't choose this for one of our dinners there. While I probably would have enjoyed it more than The Slanted Door, it would probably have hurt a bit more than The Slanted Door.

Somehow, I wish I read this topic before we went to The Slanted Door. The gyst of it reflected our experience (Molto e and I) as well. The location is great. The views are great. The decor is nice. I think it is likely better at night (the decor) than during the day. It has less of a "cafeteria" feel about it. It is obvious that a lot of other people haven't read this thread either as it was very busy on a Monday night. The food was good, but nothing special. It didn't have any real spark. It definitely felt like vietnamese food for an American palate. I had dinner later in the week at Le Cheval in Oakland. Le Cheval blew The Slanted Door's windows out in just about every respect. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at Le Cheval so I can't show pictures of the fried Dungeness Crab that I had amongst other delights. Oh well. But getting back to The Slanted door, it was good, but ultimately disappointing as I stated above. We had green papaya salad with tofu, rau ram and roasted peanuts crispy imperial rolls with shrimp, pork and glass noodles manila clams with thai basil, crispy pork belly and fresh chillies cellophane noodles with fresh Dungeness crab meat shaking beef cubed filet mignon with garlic and organic red onions spicy Catalan Farm broccoli with honshimeji mushrooms and pressed tofu Meyer lemon pudding cake Nothing really stood out one way or another. This was the definition of a mediocre meal. It is a shame to have a mediocre meal in San Francisco, which unfortunately was the second one that day (the other was Mijita, also in the Ferry Plaza Market).

Loved your report of the French Laundry! We had a similarly wonderful time, but had many differing dishes than you and Molto. Our report will come soon. ← I am looking forward to it. Who was running the kitchen that night?

Interesting thought, but I don't think it is her. She said she was from the Toronto area nor was she taking a lot of photos (if any) inside the restaurant. It was a very blog-like thing to do though, which is why it initially caught our attention and curiosity.

It's funny to feel so nostalgic so soon. Your trip echoed a lot of what Molto and I did only we did it over a little bit longer period I am impressed by your gastric handling capabilities! We will have our own reports on The Slanted Door (similar response), Chez Panisse Cafe and Taylor's Automatic Refresher soon. I thought the mushroom shop was amazing! I am very much enjoying your report and comparing notes.