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jca76

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Everything posted by jca76

  1. we went to rose's last weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday. she had made one of the "group dinner" reservations for eight people, where you get a "tasting menu" of dishes culled off of the regular menu for $75/person. i'd not done a large group reservation at rose's before, having never been particularly interested in the roof garden (given that the cost seemed disproportionate for the experience, based on descriptions here). we were at a long table (four on each side) in the back of the upstairs bar area, rather than the farmhouse table on the first floor near the bathroom (which i believe seats three on each side and two at the ends), which made conversation from end to end rather difficult due to distance and noise. the $75 cost here was still more than you would pay for food if you ordered (even quite heavily) a la carte, but it seems like a reasonable enough mark-up for the guarantee of a reserved table. unfortunately, i don't think the food at rose's is well suited to being structured as a tasting menu -- i.e., one dish at a time in succession. the main advantage of sharing-oriented small plates restaurants is the opportunity to have multiple dishes on the table at once, so that they can be compared/alternated between, and the last bites can be allocated according to who preferred what. (plus, many of the dishes feature the sort of bold flavors that contrast well with each other when there is variety on the table, but work less well in prolonged isolation.) moreover, gaps between dishes were too long, especially in the beginning when we were quite hungry. without knowing what was coming, i ended up eating a bit too heavily at the beginning. while dietary restrictions were accommodated, we didn't get any choice in the dishes. (and sadly we didn't get the two dishes that i most wanted off the online menu: the trenette and squash blossom rangoon, two of the few dishes we hadn't previously had.) from what i recall: CAVIAR & COCONUT -- the sweet-salty combo is tasty, but i would like a third element (finger lime for acid? something for crunch? just something). small bowls for each person. OYSTERS & GRANITA ("happy oysters", cultured cream, spicy aji limo granita) -- a delicious reminder of how much i have always liked their oyster and granita combos. surprisingly spicy (keep in mind we hadn't seen the menu before they arrived). GRILLED CUCUMBER (yogurt & anchovy) -- herby-fishy excellence. probably the most subtlety impressive dish. SMASHED POTATO (bagna cauda, cotija, hard-boiled egg) -- more anchovy brininess, which i like, the sort of haute drunk food at which aaron excels. LYCHEE SALAD (pork sausage, habanero & peanuts) -- i much preferred when they used the old morningstar fake sausage as the vegetarian accommodation. the house-made tempeh doesn't work as well in flavor or texture, although i'm sure it's much more natural. i still enjoy the salad, but it doesn't wow the way it used to (and some of the garlic slices in my portion were burnt). individually portioned rather than a larger bowl for sharing. RIGATONI ALLA VODKA (squid & thai basil) -- probably the most delicious dish of the night in the i-can't-stop-taking-bites way, bold vodka sauce flavor. not clear why this couldn't be vegetarian without the squid but our one vegi got the HERB PISTOU (spaghetti, jalapeno & pinenuts), which i found to be a bit too dry in texture and flat in flavor. acid and/or salt needed? BBQ SPARE RIBS (fish sauce caramel, tarragon) -- meat eaters cleaned this plate, looked great. the pescatarians got a plated version (i.e., individual filets) of the WHOLE-GRILLED DORADE (spring pea curry, sushi rice, snow pea gremolata), which was just okay, more muted than i would have expected from the description. we also got a side of some sort of grilled shredded lettuce and avocado salad, which was fine but sort of an odd accompaniment to the fish; maybe intended more to complement the ribs, which weren't a plated dish? desserts were a grapefruit sorbet that i found too pithy-bitter to enjoy, although others liked it. i loved the rich, almost butterscotchy custard in the POPCORN BRULEE, although i thought the whole popcorn kernels over the top were more distraction than anything. i would have preferred it if (1) the popcorn was broken up into bits, so that it was better integrated, and (2) more heavily salted, as i love a salty-sweet contrast. sorbet was individually portioned while the brulee was shared between two people. the big-table reservation worked well for the two couples in our group who have kids (and therefore value having a set reservation time when getting a sitter), but i otherwise wouldn't recommend this format as the way to experience rose's for people with the flexibility to come under normal circumstances. the bf and i left feeling very full and yet not entirely satisfied.
  2. glad to hear that they are ramping up a bit. there were no hot specials as of sunday (when rick was there). i don't know whether they lost staff during the closure, but jeffrey coincidentally left about a week before the flood, and i don't think they've replaced him with another chef yet.
  3. rose's is now rolling out same-day reservations. the description from the website: "Here is how it works; After we’ve chatted with everyone in line, our same day booking system will open up and show all remaining availability for that evening (currently available Monday through Thursday, after 5:30pm.) Then just click the rough time you want and voila, your dinner at Rose’s is booked! Seating times are not an exact science so please bear with us. We will do our best to seat you at your preferred time but occasionally guests can linger longer than expected. If this happens, we will do our absolute best to make sure your wait is no longer than 30 minutes max (if at all). " the bf and i were there last week (for the joint dinner with tug and taro, which took reservations), chatting with our server about how we don't come in as often as we'd like because we're deterred by the potential for a long wait. she commented that the night before had walk-in space from around 7:30 on. i wonder if the demand for the later end of weeknights (always our go-to anyway) has fallen to the point that this is their attempt at a solution to empty seats. the warning about up to thirty minutes of wait time is interesting; are they anticipating hiccups in the process?
  4. i've been to a number of three-star restaurants in both the u.s. and europe. some of them are that transcendent, and some . . . aren't. in my experience, michelin has a strong bias in favor of formality/old-school service (at least outside of asia), which the inn would satisfy nicely. (i recently read a quote from rene redzepi where he referred to michelin as the "toilet guide," because ratings are a reflection of how nice your bathroom is. seems like a pretty good encapsulation of the problem. i've done a fair bit of eating in copenhagen, and its only three star, geranium, is by far the most formal restaurant of the top tasting menu places but has never surpassed my experiences at two-starred noma or kadeau -- and kadeau only got a second star after a change of location to a fancier setting.) while acknowledging that i've only been once and a few years ago at that, my memory of the inn is that it doesn't really merit a third star -- nor do many places that have received them, in my opinion -- and i'm not surprised that it got one. perhaps the real problem is that the scale is too compressed: there is a huge range within the three star band. maybe the inn deserves three stars, but my favorite restaurants deserve five.
  5. das is the ethiopian restaurant in georgetown (right over the bridge) that used to be zed's (not sure if there was a change in ownership/kitchen with the name change). i haven't been in years, but zed's was a favorite . . . probably fifteen or more years ago? (if i recall correctly, it was the first place that i ever had shrimp at an ethiopian restaurant, which appealed to a pescatarian who sometimes likes variety beyond a veggie combo.) it is no surprise to me that in a city full of ethiopian restaurants, michelin honed in on the fanciest both in decor and neighborhood! that is hilarious and totally unsurprising re taro and tom.
  6. Bib Gourmand list for DC is out. (I'm going to assume that the removal of 2 Amys is just due to its closure at the time of publication, and therefore avoid a rant.) Some excellent new additions, although the criteria for this list continue to be comically pointless given the proliferation of (not cheap) small plates restaurants where you couldn't really have a full meal under the cost threshold.
  7. the bf and i checked out himitsu's monday "supper club" last night, which i ringingly endorse. seven course menu for $90 (pre-tax/tip), which is expensive but not insane given the quality and quantity of the food. i would even go so far as to call it a good value (in the expensive world of tasting menus -- all relative, of course). how are these reservations not impossible to snag? (there are currently tables at a variety of times available every monday in september, which is as far out as they're currently booking.) but come hungry: it was a lot of food. multiple dishes basically felt full-sized, despite the tasting menu format. (i wonder if this is something that they will tweak with experience.) and be prepared for spice; almost every dish was spicy to some greater or lesser degree. the meal began with the akami crudo (tuna, compressed honeydew, chile, white onion, and shiso), which was the only item that pulled from the regular menu (although subbing shiso for . . . cilantro? if i recall correctly from a dinner last week). as expected with crudo at himitsu, it was a bright, balanced combination of fish, sweetness, spice, and acid. one of my favorite crudos since they've opened. next up was a sort of shumai (although i believe our shrimp filling was a pescatarian sub for boudin blanc -- bits of southern influence on this menu) in a soy broth liberally studded with salmon roe. i quite liked this dish, but it was right on the edge of being too salty for me, and i'm a salt fiend. i imagine some diners will find it too much. the dumplings themselves were a bit too big for one bite but a bit too soft to easily scoop from the bowl with the provided fork. (plus, all that roe!) i should have asked for a spoon. maybe my taste buds were a bit overwhelmed by the shumai, but a sprinkle of finishing salt on the "tartless" tomato tart probably would have been fine with me. (again, salt fiend; not necessarily a technical flaw.) a thick slice of heirloom tomato sitting in a pool of tomato water, topped with little heirloom grape tomatoes (peeled, maybe slightly cooked to condense flavor or just really good to start) and dotted with a spicy yellow paste (more tomato?). i vaguely recall something crunchy -- fried red quinoa, maybe? very summery. (i requested a spoon for the tomato water.) next up, a little pyramid of perfectly fried panelle cubes stacked atop concentric pools of a peppery-garlicky sauce and cauliflower puree. (yes, i did use my fingers to swipe up the last bits of that puree. screw spoons.) tasty but starchy -- could have easily had half as many cubes, given how much food was still to come. back to the southern influence with fried catfish over coleslaw. the coleslaw was bright (not creamy), with raw slices of beautiful purple carrot (which are presumably the same as they use for the awesome roasted carrot dish on the regular menu), the catfish was well fried (of course), and everything was complemented by creamy hot sauce underneath. deceptively simple-looking, immensely satisfying to eat. i think i had three small fillets, and i ate them all. i wasn't hungry by this point, but i couldn't leave anything behind. (really, the bf and i should have packed one dish up for someone's lunch today and split one plate at this point. hindsight.) given the size, we would have expected the catfish to be our last savory but for the fact that we were paced behind an adjacent table, which received a beef dish after the fish. our sub: seared scallops (at least three, possibly four?), fingerling potatoes, charred okra, a pool of salsa verde. very good but also the least favorite dish of an excellent meal, not really more than the sum of its (well-cooked) parts. for those who remember the early himitsu desserts fondly or just lament the lack of dessert offering on the regular menu: the supper club includes dessert! and it is excellent: a (coconut?) forbidden rice pudding studded with roasted pineapple, slivered avocado, and roasted peanuts, and dusted in lime zest. satisfying and complex without being too heavy at the end of a very filling meal. possibly my favorite dish of the night. the meal was great, but between the large portion sizes, the spiciness, and more than one fried/starchy dish, i definitely left in second trimester food baby territory. carlie's cocktails never disappoint; i love how much sherry she uses. (there were also three levels of wine pairing available, and the regular drinks list.) and it was great to have a way to experience himitsu's food with a reservation!
  8. Going to Wolf Trap tonight, and given the rain, our initial plan of a pre-show picnic on the lawn is sounding less enticing. Has anyone eaten somewhere you'd recommend in the last two years?
  9. i believe that rick also did a stint at oberlin in providence, one of ben sukle's two restaurants. oberlin is great, and sukle's flagship, birch, is in my opinion one of the best fine dining (in food style, although the environment is casual) restaurants in the country, and hands-down the best value for the level of food.
  10. i'm not sure what you think that we should have done. we ordered a majority of the menu. if i remember correctly, we passed on the aforementioned boring-sounding salad, a (fried?) rice dish, and a few not-exactly-light-sounding meat options. my original point was the dearth of lighter dishes/lack of balance on the menu overall, which seems particularly noteworthy when it's a small plates brunch and ordering "the whole shebang" is an explicit menu suggestion. neither quadrupling down on cucumbers nor leaving without eating seemed like better options at the time.
  11. i loved the tete de moine when we had it about six weeks ago; the honey was truffled, which added a lovely earthy element, and the hazelnut puree underneath was nicely salty. (p&p has always done well with plated cheese courses.) it was one of the best dishes of the night, along with the beet beggar's purse, the abalone, and the fennel sorbet. i've always enjoyed p&p, but the last few meals haven't left us quite as impressed as the first few, for no reason that i can clearly articulate. but looking at my list of favorites from our january meal, maybe the answer is that the dishes are very delicious but lack the wow factor that i want to call something a truly amazing dish? cheese, truffled honey, and salty nut flavors are a great combination, but also not unusual. same with the pasta: beets, caramelized onions, egg yolk, and cheese make for unctuous delight, but not wonder. in contrast, a recent celebratory dinner at komi was the best meal i've had there in recent memory, and affirmed komi's place as my favorite fine dining restaurant in dc.
  12. someone at 2 amys has finally started posting their nightly specials online, if one is inclined to check for steak (or other favorites). they ran out of pizza last night, if you can believe that!
  13. i've have some very good dinners at hazel and knew that they served some sort of dim sum brunch (although i'll admit to not having checked their menu in advance), so it was my suggestion to friends for sunday. one friend booked a 1:45 table -- the only time available online for four -- so we were surprised to arrive at the half-empty restaurant and be told that the kitchen closed at 2:00. (this put some pressure on us to order quickly and copiously, lest we wind up without enough food. normally i would have put in a smaller order and then added if we were still hungry. our server was shockingly unhelpful, given the format, when we sought quantity guidance, vaguely telling us that dishes are "meant to be shared." we get the concept, but when there's an ~$11 price range on individual dishes, there is also likely to be a pretty significant size range. we ended up ordering more than we needed, doubling up on some things, and being vaguely annoyed about it.) my main complaint is that the menu is extremely heavy and carby; we ended up with tater tots, sweet potatoes (which i'm pretty sure were listed as fingerling potatoes on the menu, but i enjoyed the smoked tofu and something bbq-adjacent sauces), fried chicken, and pan-fried dumplings. garlic cucumbers were very tasty and the only light dish we ordered; the only other green option that i recall was an extremely boring-sounding salad (that may have just been listed as greens and dressing), so we passed on it. (the online menu is outdated, so i'm going off of my memory.) i liked everything except for a square dish of shrimp and eggs, which had a minced layer of spicy-sauced shrimp (with their fire panda sauce?), a layer of fluffy omelet, topped confusingly with bonito and a mayonnaise-y sauce. it was very fishy-briny and also mayo-creamy, which was . . . weird and not particularly pleasant for more than a bite or two. but even liking almost everything, nothing blew me away and we all left feeling a bit weighed-down and yet vaguely unsatisfied. i'll be back for dinner, but will steer clear for brunch.
  14. we had dinner on friday night with another couple, and my overall impression is that if del mar and kith and kin are any indication, the wharf is poised to become dc's version of the las vegas strip: large, loud, expensive restaurants by big name (at least for dc) chefs that are . . . a bit underwhelming. i was expecting expensive, but the tapas aren't special enough to justify the cost. we started with cocktails, which were all very good, although the menu options overall didn't have me craving a second round after our first set of orders. my favorite was probably the contigo, a manhattan riff with bourbon, sweet vermouth, and dry sherry. the nuez rosada was a delicious but unseasonable tikki-style mix of aged rum, almond syrup, braulio, and chocolate bitters; i would have preferred it on a rock rather than over crushed iced. finally, we had two of the tal vez, an autumnal mix of rye, pumpkin liquer, orange, cherry, which had a nice smokey element. the menu is somewhat confusing on first read, with many sections (raw bar, cold tapas, hot tapas, salads, etc.) and no real indication on how many dishes are appropriate per person. after consulting our server, we ended up going with an assortment of small plates and one paella. (the online menu doesn't seem to have everything that we ordered, so i'm reconstructing as best as i can on some dishes.) Erizo de Mar (Sea Urchin, Marques De Valduéza Olive Oil, Piment d'Espelette) offered half a dozen or so lobes of beautiful, briny-rich urchin, but i found that the fruity olive oil overpowered the urchin flavor in my first bite. i was very pleasantly surprised by the brightening crunch of cucumber with razor clams. bay scallops paired nicely with little dots of sauce, including a bright lemon one. gambas al ajillo tasted exactly like every decent iteration of the dish you've had before (although it did come with bread without our asking, and i don't believe we were charged for it). ensalada rusa was like tasty, fancy canned tuna salad; creamy tuna overpowered the other flavors. our meat-eating friends seemed to enjoy the jamon they ordered. (i feel like i'm forgetting something else that we ordered, but perhaps that's a fitting reflection of our meal overall.) Paella de Pescado y Mariscos (Maine Lobster, Wild Calamari, PEI Mussels, Pink Key West Prawns) was the most delicious and memorable dish of the evening -- high quality seafood, of course, and well seasoned rice -- but expensive at $98 for four smallish servings. the server did a poor job of distributing the paella into four servings, meaning that the bf got a comically small pile of rice compared to the rest of us. (luckily for him, i shared my portion.) i'm sure experience will solve that problem, but it was the sort of little service flub that one wouldn't expect from a restaurant that showcases paella for groups. (we didn't order any of the large fish dishes, but something being plated tableside at the table behind us smelled unpleasantly fishy, which seemed very weird.) service was a bit inattentive throughout the meal, from an initial wait to get someone's attention to order food to having the (too large) empty plates cluttering up the table as new dishes were dropped off to repeatedly having to ask for water refills. at one point, the (very nice and engaging) somm cleared a few of our plates himself because no one else had come by to do it during the course of our rather lengthy conversation about the wine list. nothing on the dessert menu sounded exciting, so we opted for the check, which came with dry little cookies from which only one of us took more than a single bite. i'm glad to have tried del mar, but now that my curiosity is satisfied, i'm unlikely to go back. (fiola mare easily remains my seafood splurge of choice within this restaurant family.)
  15. Yes, in an alley off of Florida; there is now a small sign at the entrance to the alley, so it shouldn't be as confusing for future diners. I've never had Zahav's hummus, sadly. (The cookbook is beautiful!)
  16. They only take reservations two weeks out; is it possible that you're checking too early? (For what it's worth, they've currently got a 9:45 for two this Friday, if you don't mind a late celebration.) If you go at 6:30, you might be okay; I've definitely gotten bar seats at around 6:00 on a Friday, but I can't recall how quickly everything else filled up.
  17. It's not single-seating; they take reservations at various times. They're always great about accommodations (we're pescatarian, and we've been with a pescatarian friend who was also pregnant at the time, further limiting her options), but definitely give them advanced notice. (Service is so excellent that I'm sure they'd make it work at the last minute, but why not get the benefit of advanced planning for such a special meal?) Enjoy!
  18. Friends and I had dinner last night at the newly opened Maydan. I hadn't realized that it was opening night; the bf had sent a Post write-up to our group when we negotiating dinner options, but somehow I'd missed the timing. Front of house is still working out kinks -- more on that below -- but the food is already strong. So, the good first: the six of us ate our way through much of the menu's small plates, and everything was good or better. Hummus (tahina, chickpeas, lemon) was classic, and the baba ghanoush (eggplant, tahina, garlic) was nicely smokey. (Smokiness is pervasive -- unsurprising, given the giant hearth on which everything is cooked -- but many dishes also had a bit of sourness, which created a nice balance.) The pillowy flatbread was delicious, and while we were initially a bit skeptical that we were only given two rounds for the six of us, servers were diligent about circling with warm refills. Our favorite spread was the beet borani (yogurt, dill, black sesame), a vividly purple, bright, creamy puree. Baby eggplant (Georgian walnut sauce, pomegranate) was interestingly nutty, pleasantly a bit sour, and laced with softened onions. (I love onions.) Rounds of eggplant (orange blossom water, honey, vinegar, red onion) were nicely balanced sweet-sour-a bit of char. Halloumi (Dukkah (Egyptian spice blend), honey) was very tasty -- halloumi lovers, among whom I count myself, will be happy -- but like the hummus, on the classic end. Grilled carrots (lemon, harissa) were probably the spicest dish, enjoyable but a bit one note as a result. Shrimp and squid, both marinated in charmoula (lemon, garlic, parsley, saffron) and accompanied by lemon wedges, were well-cooked and appropriately charred. (The squid had the tender, fudgey texture that I associate with cooking sous vide before grilling.) Our carnivorous friends seemed to enjoy lamb and tenderloin (although some other cut was substituted in the prep that night) kebabs. Our server suggested that we order all the condiments (which are only $1 each), but we went with five of the seven: charmoula, zhough (parsley, cilantro, cumin, serrano), ezme (tomato, onion, peppers, pomegranate molasses), toum (garlic, oil, lemon), tomato jam (sesame, cinnamon), passing on the more familiar tahina and harissa. The most memorable were the toum, which was whipped -- I vaguely recall a mention of egg whites -- into a light mousse that reminded me of the texture of Nostos's excellent taramasalata, and the tomato jam, which was delicious but sweeter and more cinnamon-heavy than when I make my own, and consequently tasted less clearly of tomato. Interesting cabbage (olive oil, lemon, mint) arrived as an afterthought when I mentioned at the end of our savory dishes that we hadn't yet received it, where it served as a nice palate cleanser, like a mint-heavy (and mayo free, of course) cabbage slaw. (I bet it would have been excellent alongside some lamb.) We ordered the two desserts (there's no dessert menu), both very good: a delicious rose-water soaked cake, and honey-drizzled, phyllo-encrusted mozzarella dusted with pistachios, which sounds odd but worked (think bizarro brie en croute). Three people opted for the Filfuli (Pepper) with Ilegal joven mezcal, blood orange, ginger, paprika, honey, and soda; it tasted like a refreshing artisanal orange soda that I could enjoy drinking all day in the summer. Two ordered the Jnayney (Garden), with Greenhat gin, cucumber, fennel, dill, lemon, and arak; it was very herbal, with a primary fennel-seed flavor. I was the only one to opt for wine instead of a cocktail, going with the Georgian Vino Terra (Rkatsiteli), the only by-the-glass option of five wines in the "skin contact" category. I love skin contact wines -- be they refined or a deep amber glass of barnyard funk -- and consequently this was quite disappointing. It looked totally white (not disqualifying as a satisfying skin-contact exemplar, as I love SP68), but I would never have guessed it had any contact from the taste. (Overall, the wine list seem kind of expensive relative to food prices. While there was one white, one rose, and two reds in the $30-$38 range, everything else jumped to $51 and higher. The Vino Terra was $51 a bottle, and the next cheapest in that category is $67 before heading into the $80s. Not a list designed to introduce diners to the pleasures of orange wine. Contra Red Hen, which has six or seven orange bottles in the $45-65 range.) They were definitely experiencing new restaurant issues. The restaurant itself is at the end of an alley just east of La Colombe, but there is no signage on the street or even on the restaurant to indicate where to go -- it's not even obvious that a restaurant could be at the end of the alley from the sidewalk -- which led to a lot of confusion in finding the place. (When I mentioned it, I was told a sign will ultimately be put up.) I'd made a reservation online, but we weren't ultimately seated until forty minutes after our reservation time, while we stood around the vestibule and watched staff (as many as four people at one point) huddle around an iPad attempting to figure out what to do with us. We were eventually told that the system had automatically assigned us to a table that they subsequently realized wouldn't comfortably fit a larger group, so they were trying to figure out where else to put us, and then were waiting for one table to finish so that they could push two together somewhere else. (We were told that they didn't want to tell the people to leave, which I wouldn't have expected them to do, but being told that felt a bit like we were to blame for our own impatience thirty minutes after our reservation time.) Our table of lawyers joked after the fact that maybe we should have commandeered the iPad and seen if our LSAT logic game skills could have worked it out. The bar area inside was too narrow and crowded to comfortably stand inside in an attempt to have a drink. While multiple people thanked us for our patience, no one offered to get us drinks while we waited and nothing was taken off the bill in apology, and it never really felt like they were proactively solving the problem. Rather, it felt like they realized they didn't have a table for us despite our reservation, so we were stuck waiting for one to free up. (It's frustrating to feel like the staff's reaction to the situation was an apologetic shrug.) The space itself -- two stories with a giant hearth as the focal point -- is very cozy and cool, and I love the smoke smell that permeates the place (although less so when something obviously burned at one point). (And I wouldn't wear a coat or clothes that you don't want to smell like you've been hanging out near a campfire.) It appears that no one communicated to our (very nice) waitress that we'd been waiting for so long; when we sat down, one friend immediately tried to order hummus and baba ghanoush after a snap glance at the menu only to be told (politely) that the restaurant preferred to take our entire order at one time. When we pointed out that we had been waiting forty minutes to be seated and were starving, she apologized and said she'd put it in right away. Not a huge deal, but the awkward interaction didn't help our moods and could have been avoided. (Even better would have been a preemptive acknowledgement of our wait and query whether we wanted something right away.) Bottom line: everyone was very friendly, and these are the sorts of kinks that I expect time will help them work out. But they should think about how they'll deal with frustrated diners in the future, because there will definitely be times when a table lingers and the restaurant will be in the same boat. Oh, and I'll bet any amount of money that when Sietsema reviews it, he will complain mightily about how loud the music is; not a problem I usually notice, but it did impede conversation here. But once our hanger subsided thanks to hoovering the flatbread and dips, we very much enjoyed our dinner. We'll be happy to return.
  19. golden mermaid is back this week, and excellent as always. (i don't think there were any entirely new dishes on it, but many favorites. in particular, the lobster roe-yellow bean sauce, which may be my absolute favorite golden mermaid flavor, was served with squash and cabbage. i was a bit skeptical of the pile of steamed veggies, but they were great for highlighting the sauce.) of particular note: for the first time i've ever noticed, the menu notes that dinner is peanut-free, in case anyone has been kept away by a peanut allergy. (we asked, and apparently this is a coincidence of the dishes this time around.) gaap kai buu coconut husk / mud crab / shrimp paste dtam som o pomelo / lemongrass / shrimp yum khai khem crispy rice cakes / salted duck egg / cured roe lon khai gung yai pumpkin / lobster roe / yellow bean phat hoi lai manila clams / basil / green peppercorn miang pla tod whole fish! / rice noodles / naam jim
  20. In contrast to funkyfood's experience the night before, our group of four went on Saturday night and were all pleasantly surprised. I'd enjoyed a meal or two at Ripple under Ratino (a bit of a step up from the end of Marjorie Meek-Bradley's tenure, although we still pine for the Logan Cox days), but Bresca ups the creativity a bit, in a good way. First, cocktails: the menu is a bit confusingly organized around a hexagon (a recurring decorative motif in the restaurant), requiring rotation to read them all. (The menu isn't online, so I'm not going to remember all the names/ingredients.) There are a mix of classic variations and more original drinks, and all were excellent with one glaring exception: a cocktail featuring oyster shell-infused vodka that tasted strongly (and not particularly pleasantly) of oyster (not brine, just oyster) and surprisingly little else. Despite listing a reasonable-sounding array of ingredients, the drink was otherwise so flat that we were debating whether an ingredient had been left out. My first order of the Vice Versa was excellent -- we all loved it -- and yet I can't remember more specifics than it was red, nicely tart, a bit floral, flecked with bee pollen for a hint of sweetness. (It contained bergamot?) The other couple with us loved the Viens Avec Moi (and ended up ordering a second one), but from my one sip, all I remember is that it was light and fruity (pineapple?) and definitely the sort of thing you'd happily drink for hours on a sunny day. The Bee's Knees contained truffle honey that added a pleasant earthiness to a classic drink that can sometimes veer a little sweet, plus it was served in an awesome (and kind of hilarious) bee glass. Variations on the Adonis and Old Fashioned and a rum drink I'm forgetting were all also delicious. The Old Fashioned was a bit sweet/floral thanks to the creme de Yvette, without being cloying and maintaining its spirit-forwardness. We started with the radish crudite (seaweed brown butter, fleur de sel, green goddess) and the pastrami beets (feta, rye toast, flowering cress), both of which we thought were excellent snacks. The radishes were more umami than your typical radishes-and-butter combo, and the green goddess dressing on the side (with little bundles of micro greens to dip) was delicious. (Although the bundles were a bit confusing: too large to really be one bite, only two so a bit awkward for sharing, and tied with a tiny string that had to be detached. It's entirely possible that we weren't supposed to just dunk them in the dressing, but if so, no one explained it.) As pescatarians who acknowledge that meat tastes delicious, the bf and I are the target audience for vegetarian dishes that lean heavily on meaty techniques, so we very much enjoyed the smoky-sweet-sour-salty combination of beets and feta. (I disagree with funkyfood on the cost of the beets; for $10, it was a long, thin slice of toast that could be easily cut into 2-3 bite strips to share. Not a huge portion, but about what I would have expected given the overall prices at the restaurant.) The bf and I also really enjoyed the ocean trout crudo (verjus, shiso, labneh, black lime); apply all the usually adjectives to good crudo (fresh, good salt and acid, etc.), and the shiso in particular is a flavor that I love and am not used to seeing in crudo. The late summer melons and tomato (burrata, tomato jam, puffed grains, rooftop greens) was a surprise hit. (Not because I didn't expect to like it, but because the composition was more interesting than I'd expected.) Don't expect a ball of burrata to take center stage; there were a few scattered bites of cheese to add richness, but the fruit is the star. Excellent quality produce (as expected for the end of a hot September), well dressed to balance the sweetness and pull out the tomato flavor with salt and acidity, speckles of puffed grain for texture. I wasn't sure what I was going to make of the pineapple carrot salad (grains, curry oil, spicy greens, date), but the pineapple was (contrary to my fears) just an accent to a plate starring delicious roasted carrots. The sea urchin linguini (truffle, chili, yeast butter, porcini) was the dish on the menu that I gravitated to first and disappointed me most. Despite listing a number of great ingredients, funkyfood is right that it was basically just buttery and kind of boring. I didn't pick up on truffle, yeast, or porcini. Nice chew to the pasta and tasty, but unexciting. The only carnivore of our group really liked the chestnut agnolotti (rabbit, sunchoce, pear, mustard seeds). Service overall was friendly without over-explaining -- no long spiels on dishes. Generally service was reasonably paced and appropriately attentive, with two small exceptions: We waited a bit long for our first round of cocktails -- which arrived shortly after our snacks despite having been ordered first -- but not overly so given their complexity and how busy the bar seemed to be. Our waitress disappeared for a bit after delivering the dessert menus (we ended up just requesting the check). But neither hiccup was egregious, and overall we were impressed with how well everything seemed to be running both in front and back of house, given that it was their second night. Bresca is a food-focused addition to the upper part of 14th (which can skew a bit scene-y at the expense of the food); we will definitely keep an eye on their menu and happily return.
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