These
notes cover:
A
city with good shellfish and, oddly, baked beans, which are traditional there.
Aujourd’hui
Food rating: 2/10
The main restaurant of the
Four Seasons Hotel. Oddly this is rated the highest
in Zagat and was voted best restaurant in
Azure
Food rating: 3/10
The dining room at the Lenox hotel. A surprisingly boisterous
crowd on the evening that I visited, which avoided the dread “hotel dining
room” feel but was not ideal for power meetings. The menu is moderately ambitious, with even
an amuse guele – here a simple salmon croustade. Two scallops were attractive presented and
pan fried well (3/10). For the main
course, medallions of tuna were seared rare and encrusted with peppercorns in
reasonable balance (sometimes this combination can be dominated by the sharp
taste of the pepper) and featured good tuna (4/10). ”Lemon dessert” was technically less
impressive, but still pleasant (2/10). A
somewhat limited wine list oddly had no dessert wines at all.
L’Espalier
Food Rating: 6/10
Phone:
+1 (617) 262-3023
Set
in a pretty Victorian town house, l’Espalier is the
best restaurant in
On
my last visit I started with butter poached
Last visited October 2006.
Back Bay/Financial District
Phone
+1 (617) 542-8111
Trendy newcomer, though suffering a bit from confusion – this
time mixing Indian with French. The result is really a set of American dishes
that vaguely features spices, rather than a true blend
of the two stated cuisines. Still,
ingredients were good e.g. Divers scallops and some fairly fresh sea bass. The setting is striking, an ex-bank with a
very high ceiling and plenty of marble.
Downstairs they have retained the original vault door, which leads to a
lively bar. Last
visited February 2002.
Downtown
Phone:
00 1 (617) 426-1234
An ultra-trendy establishment in the financial district. There is an attractive bar and
lots of wood panelling as well as clever lighting to draw the upwardly
mobile. Michael Schlow’s
cooking is somewhat inconsistent but can deliver e.g. a very fine diver’s
scallop was sweet and had excellent texture, though the vegetables accompanying
it were nothing special. There is an
excellent wine list, with many wines by the glass. Pricey, as you are paying for the rather
precious service. Last
visited July 2000.
No 9 Park
Food Rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (617) 742-9991
With
an attractive view over Boston Common, this restaurant combines modern décor
with up to date cooking. A diver’s
scallop was excellent as a starter, while a dish of pork cooked three ways was
also of good quality. The various dishes
sampled were very consistent, suggesting that Barbara Lynch runs a tight ship
here. A chocolate tart for dessert was
less good, but still perfectly acceptable. Portions are sensible sizes, and the
service was pleasant. Well worth a
visit. Last visited August
2000.
Kingfish
Food Rating: 1/10
1 Faneuil Hall,
The second restaurant of Todd English, who owns the very successful
Olives. In a
street market, this looks like a tourist place but does above average
seafood. I had an excellent scallop on a
bed of baked beans, though a tuna burger was less good, with rather soggy
chips. A decent wine list, but as befits
a celebrity chef-owned place, the service has lots of attitude. On a sunny lunchtime in a completely empty
restaurant I asked to sit outside – “we don’t seat singles outside”, was the
response, with a look as if I’d asked to sleep with the chef’s daughter. After a discussion with the manager I was
grudgingly granted a seat in the sunshine, and the world did not seem to come
to an end as a result of this request. Last visited August 2000.
Legal Seafood
Food Rating: 2/10
Phone:
(617) 426-4444
There are
actually several branches now just in
Mistral
Food Rating: 5/10
Phone:
(617) 867-9300
Trendy dining room with a chic clientele- clearly a place to dress up in
Sel de La Terre
Phone:
(617) 720-1300
A large, low-ceilinged dining room in the wharf area. The mostly French wine list is
not cheap, though Mas de Daumas
Gassac 1996 at USD 55 is a relative bargain. Caramelised onion, spinach and smoked bacon
tart was nicely made with Comte cheese (3/10) while pork medallions were
tender, crusted with foie gras
and served with tender puy lentils and a good rhubarb
and onion jam (3/10). Accompanying
Rosemary pomme frites were
excellent.
One
to skip in
A
new place is Salamander, which despite a good review in Conde Nast is really only
1/10. Wok-fried soft shell crab was good
(2/10), but a tamarind and line glazed wild salmon fillet was ordinary (1/10)
and at USD 90 a head with no dessert this is not good value. Last visited May 2001.
Food Rating: 6/10
Phone 001 (303) 442-4640
A
little out of town up a hill with a great view, this elegant dining room manages
to escape French stereotypes and produce original, modern American
cooking. A bonus is the classy service
and the stunning wine list – a fine selection of Kistler
Chardonnay is a bonus.
These
notes are based on a two week holiday in March 2000, with a previous visit to
To stay. In
To see.
Charlie Trotters
(Near North/Lincoln Park
Phone: 001 (773) 248-6228
This
is very famous (he modestly calls himself the “best chef in the world”) but
very ordinary indeed on our visit. I
have heard other good reports, but clearly the kitchen is not able to
consistently deliver.
Four
Seasons Hotel (7th floor)
Phone:
(312) 649-2349
In
the excruciatingly expensive and frankly disappointing Four Season hotel,
Seasons has all the hallmarks of hotel dining.
The wood is dark, the lighting sombre, the waiters formal and rather
over-present. The food was variable,
with fairly classic dishes executed reasonably well, with some flashes of
Modern American cooking also appearing in Mark Baker’s repertoire. However this is a lot of money (USD 140 a
head or more) for what is essentially competent but fairly ordinary
cooking. The wine list is excellent,
though nark-ups are generally fierce. A Guigal Hermitage was the bargain pick, and there are some
Austrian dessert wines. Last visit July 2000.
Tamayo
Food
Rating: 4/10
Phone: +1 (720) 946-1433
This is Mexican Jim, but not as you know
it. Not a burrito in sight, but instead
a simple, well designed dining room serving genuine Mexican fare. Freshly made chips are served with either
good guacomole or lively salsa, and the quesadillas
are an entirely different affair to the gooey things that you may have
encountered elsewhere. Here they are
served as a flat flour tortilla on which a variety of toppings are placed e.g.
excellent rare tuna with a little black bean and wasabi
sauce and a smear of salsa (5/10). For
the main course I tried chicken mole, the Mexican savoury chocolate sauce. Here it was dark and intense, laced with plblano chilli spiciness, served with carefully cooked
pieces of chicken, a little rice and some plantains. Service was reasonable. As good a Mexican meal as I have eaten
anywhere. Last visited
December 2002.
Eduardo
de St Angel
Food
Rating: 4/10
Ft. Lauderdale, North
of Broward Blvd., East of US 2822 East Commercial Blvd (between Bayview Drive & 28th Avenue) Fort.
Phone: 001 (954)
772-4731
I have no
idea what is maybe the best Mexican place in the
Food rating: 6/10
Phone: 001 (808) 396-7697
Food Rating: 5/10
903 Westheimer (Montrose),
Phone: 001 (713) 524-3839
Ruggles is far and away the best
place in town, serving South Western American cuisine. The menu is extensive, and there is a
tendency to add one too many flavour to its dishes,
but in general this is kept in check and the strong execution and good
ingredients overcome any reservations.
Service is good, and the wine list excellent.
Nit Noi
Food
rating: 2/10
2462 Bolsover(Morningside)
Phone (713) 524-8114
Simple
but reliable Thai place in
There
is also a branch nearby (
Places
to avoid in
Phone: 001 (305)
294-7100
This is
really the only good restaurant in
LA
is a bit of a tricky place for restaurants.
There are plenty of places that will charge you lots of money and that
are full of wannabee movie types, but few where the
food also delivers.
Crustacean
Food rating: 2/10
9646 Little
Phone: 001 (310) 205-8990
A
lively Vietnamese place with an under floor fish tank on the threshold. A large dining room with an
upstairs, all completely full. We
had a very pleasant set of seafood dishes e.g. a soft shell crab with spices,
and some tiger prawns served in their shell.
Nothing amazing, but well executed, and not trying to be something it
was not. There is a decent wine list,
including several
Ivy
Food rating: 1/10
Phone:
001 (310) 274-8303
To
think – just the previous night Julia Roberts dined here! That is about the limit of the appeal of this
over-rated place, which is all about people watching and serious staff
attitude. We arrived on time for a
Linq
Food rating: 4/10
8338
Phone: 001 (323) 655-4555
Another place to be seen, but delivering better food than most. Linq
has grey marble walls, a fireplace at one end of the narrow dining room and
lighting so subdued that you virtually need a torch to read the menu. My spring rolls of pork and prawn were
capable enough, a light batter and a pleasant sweet and sour sauce (2/10). Better were crab cakes, well made with a
salad that featured fresh leaves and a good dressing, a sweetocrn
salsa and a home-made tartare sauce. (4/10). For main course, Chilean sea bass was well
timed, with a lemon grass and coriander sauce, some green beans and a wasabi mash, with a couple of julienned
carrots (4/10). I had three generous
pork medallions wrapped in bacon, served with a surprisingly good barley
risotto and a red wine sauce (5/10). A
raspberry and almond frangipane tart (4/10) was better than an apple tart with vaniall ice crean (3/10). Service was good. Overall, probably objectively the best food
we ate in LA. Last
visited March 2001.
Matsuhisa
Food rating: 1/10
Phone: 001 (310) 659-9639
A
casual setting, with plain wooden tables, yet this was the place that later
spawned the wildly successful Nobu in
Service
was brisk and the place was packed; at least the bill is low here – USD 90 for
two including beer. Last visited March
2001
L’Orangerie
Food rating: 3/10
Phone: 001 (310) 652-9770
This
grande dame of LA cuisine is showing her age. The dining room is lovely, with wide spaced
tables, excellent quality tablecloths and cutlery, one wall looking out to a
climber-covered trellis, an orange tree in one corner and a stunning flower
display. The current chef, however, is
obviously out to make a culinary mark and delivered some seriously misguided
dishes in the attempt. This is a pity as
he showed good basic technique. Also on
the positive side was an excellent sommelier from
That
the kitchen can deliver when not on a herb crusade was
shown by a very capable chocolate soufflé, classically cooked and served
(6/10). Sadly a chocolate cake was much
less good, cloying and with poor texture (1/10), served with a crème anglaise that had lots of black flecks of vanilla but
managed to taste not what jot of vanilla; presumably, poor quality vanilla was
used.
Coffee
was fine (5/10) but one of the petit fours chocolates tasted of- guess what,
star anise. The chef worked with Alan Passard, but in what capacity I cannot surmise. Such basic errors in taste matching would
never occur in a good restaurant in
La Serenata de Garibaldi
Food rating: 3/10
1416
Phone: (310) 656-7017
It
is a sad reflection on the up-market restaurants of LA that I enjoyed this meal
as much as any, expect perhaps that at Linq. This offers some genuine Mexican dishes as
well as the more familiar burritos etc, and it does it very well. A seafood cocktail came as a sort of cold
soup, with nicely cooked shrimp in a spicy salsa- like consommé, laced with
coriander and full of tomato flavour with a tang of lime (4/10). I had an excellent quesadilla of chicken,
served as a single large sphere, packed with tasty chicken. A fillet of beef with rancheros sauce was
correctly cooked, while a fish enchilada was also excellent. Try
Spago
Food rating: 3/10
Phone: (310) 385-0880
Spago, which has now moved premises since its
appearances in Julia Philip’s great book “You’ll Never eat Lunch In this Town
Again”, is actually quite good (3/10) though the desserts, made by a very nice
girl who used to cook at the deeply ordinary Charlotte’s in London, are
modest. The original Spago
was in rather unassuming premises in Hollywood, and finally closed at the end
of March 2001; it had slightly better food than the new incarnation (4/10) but
Wolfgang Puck has long since given up cooking and is bent in world-domination,
with his name popping up adorning ever more unlikely restaurants these days
(“Wolfgang Puck Express???). Last
visited November 2000, with the original Spago last
visited in March 2001, just two nights before it closed.
The party town of the South, with some history thrown in, and lots of
excellent food. Though
To
stay, there are two good choices. The
Food
rating: 6/10
312
Exchange Alley (at 615 Bienville), French Quarter 70310
2225
Phone:
001 (504) 523-1504
By a whisker the best place in town, based on three visits now (one in
1999, two in 2000). There is a welcoming bar area with a piano
and a relaxing dining room with reasonable spaces between the tables. Shrimp and crawfish cakes were served with Mesculun greens and an excellent chipotle
mayonnaise with a nice tropical salsa.
Seafood jambalaya is of a high standard, as was the seared yellowfin tuna, seared and served over asparagus and a bed
of noodles with a pepper wasabi sauce, and some snow
peas thrown in to add yet another flavour (the norm in the US seems to be to be
the more flavours the better). Desserts
are weaker, as was indeed true of every restaurant we visited, though the crème
brulee was fair.
Very competent, friendly service, and a fairly
priced and well-chosen wine list. Last visited March 2000.
Emeril’s
Food
rating: marginal 6/10 (just, 5/10 would be a more solid mark)
Warehouse District
Phone: 001 (213) 528 9393
(a five minute cab
from the French Quarter – don’t walk this as it is a distinctly dubious, though
up and coming area).
With
celebrity chef Emeril appearing every day on the food
channel (he was certainly not present in the restaurant on any of the three
visits I have paid here) this has become the hot spot in town, with
reservations at a premium and attitude to match. A much less likeable place
than the Pelican Club, though a well oiled machine. If you reserve you can sit at the food bar,
which is just a blowtorch away from the chefs preparing the main courses. The first time I went they were chatty and
gave us extra dishes to try, but on the last two visits it was just flat out
cooking with no time for chit chat, and no free nibbles. It is fun to see them working though. A kale gumbo was a weak dish, just a basic
vegetable soup (1/10) but barbecued shrimps were much better (5/10). Double cut pork chop is ridiculously big but
excellent, covered in a chipotle glaze and served
with sweet potatoes (5/10). A grilled
salmon on a bed of creamed corn garnished with crab and with julienned vegetables was very good (4/10). They did produce the best dessert we had in
Brigtsens
Food
rating: 6/10
Phone 001 (213) 861 7610
Basically
a residential house converted into a restaurant, this place badly needs a bar area,
as through the evening there were groups of people milling around the narrow
hallway waiting to be seated or indeed to be seen at the erratically manned
(actually womanned) reception desk. The dining room sis cosy enough with some
eccentric paintings, but the food is actually very good. Fried catfish with mild chilli sauce (5/10)
had very nicely cooked fish and a piquant sauce. Pumpkin soup was superb, maybe
the best single dish we ate in
Bayona
Food
rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (213) 525 4455
Cosy
restaurant, with a pleasant courtyard area for drinks (useful, as the table was
not ready for some time after the time we had reserved). We had the unusual spectacle of a clearly
drunk maitre d’, who managed to pour water into a half full wine glass but was
at least very apologetic and produced a new bottle of wine. Good wine list, including the lovely Zind Humbrecht
Gewürztraminer. Corn biscuit with shrimp
was pleasant enough, with nicely cooked shrimp (4/10). A double cut pork chop (i.e. twice the size
of
K Pauls
Food
rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (213) 524 7394
The
best jambalaya in town (though I guess the Pelican Club might argue with
that). This is hearty, full-on Cajun
cooking with no butter spared. For lunch
get there as early as possible, as the restaurant is usually full by
Food
rating: 2/10
Phone: 001 (213) 948 6233
Based on two visits, one in 1999 and one in 2000. A sad deterioration of what was
once a very good restaurant. Unusually shaped small dining room, with very friendly service. Sadly the chef has become greedy, opening a
second restaurant in town (Gamay) and now drifting
between the places. Maybe Alain Ducasse can do this, but this guy is not Alan Ducasse. My
enchilada (special of the house) was of Taco Bell standard (0/10) while a salad
of crawfish remoulade was better, having a nice
mustard dressing (4/10). Stella’s
snapper was adequate, but in a totally bland creamy sauce with tasteless button
mushrooms. My fried chicken with rosemary
was harmless (1/10) while passion fruit sorbet had a lumpy texture (2/10). It is very clear that the chef here is a pale
imitation of the person who set the place up (I had marked this 5/10 in 1999). Coffee is very good.
Phone: (213) 99 8221,
This
was once a very fine restaurant (I had an excellent meal in 1986 here) but this
is now a tourist-processing factory rather than a restaurant. It seats 400 now, and is certainly efficient,
but the food is very ordinary (even 2/10 is fairly kind). A pleasant prawn renoulade, an adequate salad, a decent filet mignon. There are no errors here, but it is all just
ordinary, and not cheap. The wine list
is fair but more expensive than most.
The good chefs have long since moved on to set up their own places –
avoid. If you do go, mistakenly thinking
that Zagat’s guide cannot really be that wrong, it is
directly opposite the entrance to
Phone: 00 1 (504) 522-7261
Jazz brunch in a lovely courtyard. Tempting, isn’t it? Sadly the food is gruesome buffet fare, and
the jambalaya was so awful as to make a grown man cry. Instead sit in the courtyard of the adjacent Maison de Ville in peace and quiet and listen to the jazz
from there, then go and eat somewhere better, like a MacDonalds.
This
fun neighbourhood café had become a bit of a victim of its own success. It serves honest to goodness food,
specialising in hams, though the jambalaya is actually very capable. Sadly though, it has now reached the tourist
guides, and there are very long queues for lunch. Pleasant, but not really
worth a long wait for.
Nola
Phone: (213) 522 6652
Bistro
owned by Emerils, all very trendy with its wood-fired
oven but the food is seriously lacking. A
mini-pizza starter with pesto was distinctly burnt around the edges and had a
duly, chewy base (0/10). Stella’s
starter salad with a mustard dressing was better. Crawfish pie was poor, with tiny, tasteless
crawfish just deep-fried, and with a limp piece of pastry surrounding more of
the same (0/10). Barbecued shrimps were
better but still ordinary (1/10), with another set of strident, competing
flavours in the sauce and vegetables on offer.
The wine list is limited but has some good bottles. Service is cold but efficient.
300 Gravier Street, Central Business District
Phone: (213) 523 6000
This
is an American idea of what top French food should be like, if you have never
actually eaten in a top French restaurant.
The room is formal in the extreme, dark wood and absurdly subdued
lighting- I nearly asked for a torch when the menu arrived. Tian of crab was
well enough executed (4/10), as was a somewhat lifeless hare stew (4/10) but
the passion fruit soufflé was a disgraceful cardboard affair, the sort of thing
something does on their first day at catering college and learns to laugh about
it (0/10). Service was surprisingly
ordinary, with difficulty getting attention, and an unnecessary snootiness that
again is quite untypical of genuinely top restaurants. It was as if someone had seen a few cartoons
of a French restaurant and had a go at copying from the sketch. The wine list looked good, but the first
three (read it and weep, that’s right, three) wines I selected were “off”. Eventually trial and error found something
that remained in the cellar. Even the
snooty sommelier looked marginally embarrassed as he emerged yet again from the
bowels of the hotel empty handed. Deeply
expensive, and proof that Zagat’s really don’t know
what they are doing when judging cooking as opposed to price and surroundings.
Bistro
at the Maison de Ville
Phone: 00 1 (231) 528 9206
Cosy
(for which read cramped) dining room that has an appealing café atmosphere,
with red blanquettes along one side of the room in a French style. Service was distracted but everything
actually happened correctly, almost against the odds. Crawfish renoulade
was pleasant enough (2/10) but a tomato and asparagus salad was a joke (0/10),
with a couple of slices of supermarket tomato and some none-too al dente
asparagus. A dish of barbecued shrimp
was cooked OK but did not seem very fresh (2/10) while an ahi
tuna dish was also cooked reasonably, with acceptable vegetables but lacked any
interest. A chocolate crème brulee was actually quite nice (3/10) but the prices here
are much the same as the good places in
A vibrant, throbbing city. Be sure to go for a walk around the beautiful
Phone:
(212) 319-1660
A highly successful venture, so much so that the tables have a
distinctly crammed-in feel. There is a high level of ambition if Gerry
Hayden’s cooking, which extends to experimenting with flavour combinations that
do not always hit the mark. Trying the
pricey tasting menu, I was struck again and again by good quality technique
marred by mixes of tastes that did not really work well together. Last visited May 2002.
Bernardin
Food
rating: 4/10
155
West 51st Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues)
Phone:
001 (212) 489-1515
This
mainly seafood restaurant gets stratospheric rating for the cooking of chef Eric Ripert. Yet on my only visit here I had good bisque,
a competent main course sea bass but a dessert that was completely burnt and
had to be sent back. I found the service
to have plenty of attitude also, though I suppose this
is
Chanterelle
Food
rating: 4/10
Phone: +1 (212) 966-6960
Chanterelle has a quite formal dining
room with bare walls and a high ceiling.
The rather hushed reverence is not matched by the service, which managed
to make a number of slips throughout my meal here. The tasting menu varied wildly in standard:
best was a butternut squash ravioli with a stunning
oxtail ragout and a little sage cream.
To balance this was some extremely chewy pork, which at least had a
reasonable sauternes and mustard sauce.
Most troubling was a wild striped bass that was cooked on the outside
but was raw inside: this was positively dangerous, with the waiter taking the
relaxed “ah, you prefer it cooked more” approach; in a place as litigious as
the USA this kind of slip could be expensive.
Cheeses were reasonable, including some from the
Daniel
Food
Rating: 8/10
Phone:
001 (212) 288-0033
Chef
Daniel Boulud is the most talented I have encountered
in
Food
Rating: 5/10
12 East 12th
This
popular establishment has very attractive dining room with high ceilings and a
lively bar along one side of the dining room.
I started with a very capable linguine with nicely cooked chanterelle mushrooms and spinach (5/10). This was followed by an attractively
displayed fan of slices of rare yellow-fin tuna, in the centre of which was a
roll of papardelle pasta containing decorative twigs
of rosemary (5/10). Passion fruit
soufflé was capable rather than inspired, the outer layer cooked just a little
too much, though the filling had excellent flavour (4/10). Service was good, and both bread and coffee
were fine. A very pleasant overall
experience, though prices are a little high with main courses at
around $34. Last
visited December 2002.
Food
Rating: 7/10
42
E. 20th
Phone:
+1 (212) 477-0777
Why
go to
Food
Rating: 6/10
1
Phone:
+1 (212) 299-3900
In
the ground floor of the Trump International Hotel by
Maya
Food
rating: 1/10
1191
Phone:
+1 (212) 585-1818
Popular Mexican restaurant that moves beyond the Tex-Mex into more
ambitious territory. There is a very fine home-made guacamole, but
beyond the novelty of not seeing burritos there are some problems e.g. with
ingredient quality. A lightly seared
tuna on triangular flour tortillas was rather tasteless, while a chicken dish
with mole sauce featured very poor, utterly bland and dull chicken. This would still be a pleasant enough place
until you look at the bill, which is high for food at this level – USD 58
before tip for two courses and two beers.
The atmosphere is relaxed and service hurried but fair. Last visited February 2002.
Nobu
Food
rating: 6/10
Phone:
001 (212) 219-0500
Much better than the
Food
Rating: 4/10
21 E. 16th Street (between
Phone:
001 (212) 243-4020
Of a
similar heritage to the Gramercy Tavern (the chef originally at Union Square
Café moved to Gramercy Tavern) this is another American restaurant with
excellent atmosphere and simple, enjoyable cooking where the ingredients have
not been tortured and where ordinary people mingle with the famous. Last visited April 2004
On
the over-rated side, the Shun Lee Palace is the second highest rated
Chinese restaurant in New York according to Zagat,
but would still be a 0/10 in the London Good Food Guide, featuring flawed
timing and heavy sauces. Also avoid Tabla, a sort of
Indian fusion place with a nice room but dubious and expensive food.
Rather
in time-warp mode was Café l’Europe,
Le Bec Fin
Food Rating: 3/10
Phone: (215)
567-1000
This features a seriously over the top dining
room that looks like an attempt at a room from
Candelas
Food Rating: 1/10
416
Phone: (619) 702-4455
(
“Modern Mexican” cooked by a chef from
Las Fajitas
Food Rating: 2/10
628
Phone +1 619.232.4242
A cut above the usual Tex-Mex, this simple restaurant serves some of the
familiar dishes but also goes on to offer genuine Mexican cusiing. For example chicken mole features the
wonderful and authentic savoury chocolate sauce that is never seen in Tex-Mex
places. The chef is really from
Georges at the Cove
Food Rating: 3/10
Phone:+1 (858) 454-4244
In the very chic
Food Rating: 3/10
Phone: (619) 239-2222
Terribly trendy place that could as easily be in
Mille Fleurs
6009
Paseo Delicias (Avenida de Acacias) Rancho Santa Fe, CA, 92067
Phone:
+1 (858) 756-3085
In the exclusive Rancho Sante Fe district,
nearer
Pamplemousse Grill
Food Rating: 1/10
514 Villa de la Valle, Solana
Beach 92075
Phone: +1 (858) 792 3591
In a rather dingy shopping mall location, the restaurant is smart
inside, serving American food despite its French name. Highly rated in the Zagat’s
guide, this is a true rip-off that should be avoided at all costs (and believe
me, the costs are high). It features the
single most expensive wine list I have ever encountered, wide in scope but with
wines not merely at two or three times retail price, but at four, five, six
times or more retail price. A simple Penfolds Bin 389 was only three and a half times retail
price, and that was the best value wine I could find on the entire list. Sadly, the food does not make up fro this
daylight robbery. A medley of starters
featured an acceptable crabcake, fair smoked salmon,
some tasteless grilled tomatoes with Mozarella and a chewy ravioli of mushrooms (2/10). This was still much better than the main
course, a disappointing fillet steak with a surprisingly tasteless mustard
sauce and wildly overcooked vegetables (1/10).
My companion’s veal (essentially a schnitzel) was large in scale but
dull in taste (1/10). Last
visited October 2002.
Winesellar & Brasserie
Food Rating: 5/10
Phone: +1 (858) 450-9557
In an unpromising location in a dark alley in the suburbs, this turns
out to be a fine wine shop on the ground floor and a dining room upstairs. Table spacing is generous, and service is
classy. Yellow fin tuna tartare was very good, the minced tuna enlivened by zest
lemon and capers (4/10). Braised leek
and potato tart was pleasantly cooked, served with home-smoked salmon and a
well-balanced lemon and horseradish vinaigrette (5/10). Szechuan pepper and
coriander cured pork loin was tender and served with lightly cooked baby bak choi, Asian (for which read
shiitake) mushrooms and a curry and dry vermouth sauce, which tastes better
than it sounds (5/10). Pan roasted
Alaskan halibut was timed well, served with a garnish of
A restaurant town, though there are a lot of duds amongst the supposedly
top places.
Consistently best is the seafood of Aqua on
Aqua
Food
rating: 6/10
Phone:
00 1 (415) 956-9662
A seafood restaurant that successfully combines atmosphere with
excellent cooking. The kitchen here does not over-reach itself
but instead concentrates on fresh ingredients and an appealing menu – sounds
simple, but how few places actually succeed in doing this? This formula has led to considerable
commercial success that makes it hard to get a table, which is the main
drawback. Service is good and there is a
good wine list, with plenty of Californian selections. Last visited June 2002.
The
French Laundry
Phone: 001 (707) 944-2380
Actually
in the
Cheese
was not quite to the same standard, with my Longues
and Stella’s Brie both around 5/10, but it is very difficult to get good cheese
in the USA due to the ludicrous insistence on pasteurisation for most cheeses
(perhaps the US government would like to check the relative life expectancy of
their population with that of France before jumping to conclusions about cheese
import restrictions). A passion fruit ciboulet with matching ice cream with a biscuit was good
(6/10) but again not the league of the initial courses. Coffee was superb (9/10).
Service
is impeccable, with a visit the following evening notable for them having
prepared a separate menu so that no dishes would overlap with what we had, and
with a waiter quoting what dishes Stella had ordered the previous night;
impressive enough until you realise that it was not the same waiter! The wine list is very fine, and mark-ups are
less fierce than in
My
most recent visit brought an extensive sixteen course tasting menu, which goes
some way to showing the range of the kitchen, as follows. It is worth noting that the male and female diners
had different dishes for every course, 32 courses in all, as if to emphasise
just how broad the kitchen’s capabilities really are.
Puree
of fennel bulb soup, pickled medjol dates and
Jacobsen’s farm green almonds
-----------------
Granite
of green apple with Russian sevruga caviar
-----------------
-----------------
Monterey
Bay Dungeness crab, green asparagus and sauce bearnaise
-----------------
Poached
Araucana hen eggs, truffled
English muffins, truffled Hollandaise and grated Perigord truffles
-----------------
Salad
of French Laundry garden spring onions, picked pearl onions, broccolini and red onion “gastrique”
-----------------
Carnaroli risotto “biologico” with shaved Perigord
truffles and truffle emulsion
-----------------
Herb
roasted Dutch turbotine, spring fava
beans, morel mushrooms and whole grain mustard sauce
-----------------
Main
lobster tail with slow-cooked heirloom beets, black trumpet mushrooms and Mizona coulis
-----------------
Heirloom
beets with garden broccolini and Perigord
truffle crème fraiche
-----------------
Creamed
ramp top “pierogis” with French Laundry garden
shallots, cipollini onion, glazed ramp bulbs with
sauce soubise and chive-infused olive oil
-----------------
Fricassee
of roasted marble potatoes,
-----------------
Ricotta
gnocchi made with shaved Roquefort, 50- year old sherry vinegar and virgin
walnut oil
-----------------
-----------------
Cinnamon
sugared doughnuts with cappuccino semifreddo
-----------------
Kalrhona bitter chocolate soufflé,
plumped
Every
course had a small glass of matching win, which proved a lot to get
through. The meal started at
Last visited April 2005.
Gary Danlo
Food Rating: 7/10
800
North Point at
Phone:
+1 (415) 749-2060
This
is
A
starter of crab salad was shaped into a circular tower, topped with grapefruit,
baby leaves and a ring of dried apple crisp.
The crab was of high quality but was plain and perhaps would have
benefited from a dressing. The salad
leaves were fresh, and there were two smears of tarragon mayonnaise as dressing
(6/10). Ahi
tuna was seared and prettily presented in the shape of a butterfly. This was resting in a very fine citrus sauce,
along with pieces of avocado and some superfluous ennoki
mushrooms and a few salad leaves; the balance of the citrus dressing was
dazzling, having just the right level of acidity to balance the dish (8/10).
My
two scallops were unfortunately cooked for a little too long, being distinctly
crisp and served with some rather salty shiitake mushrooms (4/10). This dish lacked colour that a few salad
leaves could easily have provided. This
was a rather surprising glitch from the kitchen tonight. A further amouse bouche of chopped mushrooms topped with artichokes had too
much lemon juice even for me, though it had good salad leaves (5/10).
Stella’s
salmon was two medallions of wild salmon, cooked very well, moist at the centre
and with a lightly browned horseradish crust.
This rested on a bed of very finely diced carrots and very fresh
cucumber pickled with dill. There were
also five pods of edamame peas and a light mustard
sauce (7/10). My quail was cooked pink
and was stuffed with foie gras
and wild mushrooms in a simple jus (6/10).
We skipped the cheese board, since in the
A
pre-dessert of passion fruit sorbet was only pleasant (6/10). Pineapple coconut Napoleon was three layers
of puff pastry (the top one glazed) with a filling of pineapple cream and
finely chopped pineapple flavoured with vanilla. There was also a carpaccio of pineapple topped with a classy coconut
sorbet. This was all extremely good, the
fruit very fresh, the pastry light (8/10).
My passion fruit cake had reasonable texture but lacked real passion
fruit taste, and was served with vanilla ice cream and two raspberries as
garnish (4/10).
Coffee
was good. It was served with petit fours
as follows: a caramelised stack of nuts, a red jelly, a mini chocolate brownie,
a chocolate tart, a raspberry tart and a caramelised orange (7/10). The wine list was extensive with conventional
mark-ups, but the food prices were quite fair.
Service was superb.
Last visited
Masa
Phone: +1 (415) 989-7154
At one
time the best restaurant in
Boulevard
Food
Rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (415) 543-6084
A pleasing emphasis on a wide, appealing menu that concentrates on the
char grill and the rotisserie. Nancy Oakes’ kitchen prepares meat dishes
particularly well, but the overall standard is high. Ingredients are good e.g. divers scallops
timed very well, and an excellent pork chop on my last
visit, but sauces and extras are variable.
The dining area is relaxed and the service excellent. Last visited April 2005.
La Folie
Food
Rating: 3/10
Phone: 001 (415) 776-5577
A
nice feature is that you can make up your own four or five course tasting menu
from anything on the a la carte.
Home-made tomato soup with a central stuffed tomato had good intensity and
fresh flavour (4/10). This was followed
by good seared ahi tuna with a sherry vinaigrette,
asparagus and haricots verts (4/10). Less good was “line cauht
king salmon”, which was cooked for too long and has an utterly inedible fennel
sorbet with it (1/10). Quail and squab
were roasted and stuffed with wild mushrooms, wrapped up with overcooked
“potato strings”(3/10). Service was pleasant and relaxed, the wine
list long but expensive.
Charles
Nob Hill
Food
Rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (415) 771-5400
Formal
French place up on the hill, with a cosy dining room. The French dishes here are executed to a high
standard, and service is efficient.
Postrio
Food
Rating: 4/10
Phone: 001 (415) 776-7825
Part of
the Wolfgang Puck empire, this bistro manages simple Californian cooking. The mini pizzas are excellent, as are the
salads, and there is a good wine list.
The fusion attempts don’t grate as much as at most places that try, and
the dining room is suitably fashionable.
Chez Panisse
Food Rating: 1/10
Phone: 001 (510) 548-5525
Alice
Waters invented Californian cooking but this place is now a shadow of its
former self, still knocking out the dishes but this is such a time-warp it
almost feels like a tourist place these days.
Pleasant, and the cooking is at least simple, but only food history
buffs should make the trip over the bridge to
Food
rating: 2/10
4 Embarcadero Centre (
Phone: 001 (415) 781-8833
There
is an old saying about
Places
with high ratings to avoid in
Slanted
Door
Food
Rating: 2/10
Phone: 001 (415) 861-8032
Trendy
modern Vietnamese in its relocated Embarcadero setting, with a light, open
dining room overlooking the bay. The cooking
is reasonably authentic, with cold spring rolls, good baby bak
choi and a capable seared ahi
tuna with spices. They
much of being visited by Bill Clinton, a little odd given that the man’s
self-confessed favourite food is the hamburger.
Seattle
has several attractions to its residents: a fairly appealing town centre,
nearby hills and mountains, reasonable culture, which gives them something to
do during the rain (Seattle has as almost as much rain as Manchester). It also has some very nice restaurants.
Cascadia
Food Rating: 5/10
2328
1st Avenue (between Battery and Bell Streets), Seattle, WA, 98121-1617
Phone:
(206) 448-8884
New establishment by established chef Kerry Sear. An elegant dining room has high
ceilings and acres of wood panelling, giving a calm atmosphere. There are four set seven-course menus, each
reflecting aspects of a distinctly Northwest cuisine. I started with an excellent salad of chilled
Dungeness crab, featuring fresh crab, fine leaves and a celery root apple
relish (6/10). This was followed by a
half cured slab of salmon with crisp sweet potatoes but with a somewhat dull
green herb sauce (4/10). Better was
skillet-roasted crab cake with some juicy scallops, served with some grilled
potato and with an elderberry syrup, an odd idea that
actually worked quite well (5/10). Next
was a cylinder of bacon encasing some rainbow trout with a cornmeal stuffing
and some grilled yams; the bacon kept the fish moist, and the strong taste of
the trout was able to stand up to the bacon (5/10). The mian course was
tenderloin of tender local beef, served with rosemary garlic fries on a bed of
creamed spinach with grilled leeks (5/10).
Wild Ginger
Food Rating: 1/10
1401
Third Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98101
Phone:
(206) 623-4450
Ever-so-trendy
Wild Ginger has seen Jeem Han Lock move into larger
premises next to the concert hall recently from its original Western Avenue
site and achieve commercial success at the expense of what matters: the food. The vast, low-ceilinged, bar and dining room
now extends over two floors, and there is no doubting the popularity or noise
levels of the place. However
a reasonable beef satay also next to it had a
virtually inedible “Princes’ prawns”, marinated in galangal and coconut. The apparent speciality, “fragrant duck”, had
four distinctly chewy Chinese-style steamed buns, and rather over-cooked duck
that had too strong a flavour of star anise (0/10). Locals assure me that it was much, much,
better prior to its move. Service was
bustling but good. Last
visited January 2001.
Café Campagne
Food Rating: 5/10
1600 Post Alley (
After
some shopping in Pike Place Market this is definitely the place to come. This has a relaxed, bistro setting and
genuinely warm service, but above all the cooking here is to a very high
standard. I will remember the stunning
soft shell crab here for a long tome.
Presumably the main Campagne restaurant (86
Pine Street) is even better, though it does have a new chef as of 2001.
A very attractive city that has managed to preserve a lot of open space
amongst its many grand buildings. One slightly lesser known attraction worth a
look is the Library of Congress, which has spectacular marble. The Federal attractions are a bit fickle, as they can close without warning for official
business (both the White House and the FBI building did this on my last trip
here). The subway, an American rarity,
is modern and excellent. Avoid straying
from the main central areas, as this is the country’s murder, as well as its
political, capital. For food, there are
some decent places, but nothing exceptional.
Kinkeads
Food Rating: 4/10
Foggy
Bottom, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (I St., between 20th & 21st Streets)
Washington, DC, 20006-1812
Phone:
001 (202) 296-7700
Jumbo
lump crab cake was excellent, served with a very well-balanced mustard sauce
and a corn pimento relish (5/10). Black
pepper crusted tuna was served rare, with flageolet beans, some rather
tasteless portabellea mushrooms and a reasonable
pinot noir sauce (4/10). Tarte tatin was capable, the
pastry not great but the apple tatin filling well
made (3/10). The wine list is superb,
with obscure wines like the excellent Wachau Austrian
Riesling and with eight dessert wines by the glass. Last visited May 2001.
Butterfield 9
Food Rating: 3/10
600
14th *(at F Street), Washington DC, 20005-2008
Phone: 001 (202) 289 8810
Smart, modern décor, with a trendy atmosphere. The wine list expensive, with
few wines under £50. There are, however,
many dessert wines, including the excellent Bonny Doon vin de Glaciere. Sautéed crab cake was excellent, with fresh,
tasty crab, roasted in garlic butter, served with warm coleslaw and a little
bacon (3/10). Sesame crusted tuna was
also good, lightly seared, served with a fresh Asian salad, some crackers
flavoured with wasabi mustard, and a basil and tomato
aioli (3/10). Service was friendly and
efficient, while coffee was also good (3/10).
Last visited May 2001.
Citronelle
Food Rating: 3/10
3000
M Street (at 30th Street), Washington DC 20007-3701
Phone:
001 (202)
625-2150
An attractive dining room with a view into the kitchen. I tried a good soft shell crab (this
part of the world is known for its crab), served simply with a tasty tartare sauce (3/10).
Bread was poor, lacking in much taste (1/10). My sea bass was timed well, served on a bed
of tender puy lentils (4/10). The wine list has some quality producers but
has hefty mark-ups e.g. Bonny Doon Old telegram at a stiff $85. Pleasant but expensive. Service is good, if a little slow. Last visited May 2001.
Gerard’s Place
Food Rating: 1/10 (just)
915
15th Street (between I and K streets),
Phone:
001 (202) 737 4445
This
has a low-ceilinged dining room with tent-like drapes across the ceiling. Bread, often a telling sign in a restaurant,
was stale and poor (0/10). Soft shell
crab did not have particularly good flavour, with a sauce that was far too
citric (0/10). Sea bass seemed none too
fresh to me but was accompanied by good morels with a reasonable creamy sauce
(1/10). Coffee was fine. The wine list is mostly French but has no
half bottles. As ever in lesser
restaurants, although I left almost all of my sea bass (just one bite taken)
the waiter removed the plate with no inquiry at all as top whether there was
any problem with the dish. Given the
prices, this cannot to recommended, whatever Zagat
thinks. Last visited May 2001.
Marcels was 0/10 on my visit; my
tuna was actually cooked grey, something I thought only happened in school
canteens these days. Last visited May
2001.