Gadarene

And now I notice -- and had missed the first time -- that you've been to Amass and loved it. Your blog post writeup was great; I wish I'd had your experience there.

I was looking forward to Amass so much, and I was so disappointed. I'm not sure whether I caught them on a bad service night or not, but it was not a good experience overall, especially when compared to noma and Radio (and Studio and Geranium). I was seated by myself at a two-top right next to the kitchen, underneath the stairs from the entryway (this makes my table sound dark and cramped, but it wasn't; the space is a huge warehouse, and it's quite pretty and airy), and for whatever reason I didn't seem to have a dedicated server assigned to me to do things like take drink orders or pick up plates from previous courses or replenish my silverware (which came from a box on the table and there didn't seem to be enough to last the whole meal, but nobody ever told me which ones to use with which dish, so I had to work it out -- which is fine, I'm an adult who is capable of such things, but i certainly seemed to be down a fork and a knife by the end of the evening, so apparently I guessed wrong). The most frustrating thing about the evening was absolutely the pacing; despite being literally as close to the kitchen as anyone can be, I felt forgotten-about for large stretches of the night. I sat down at 8 pm and had made plans to meet a friend sometime around 11 for a drink; perhaps ambitiously, I figured I had enough time, comfortably, to order their extended menu -- six set courses plus three courses devised that day -- since service at all the other Copenhagen restaurants had been quite brisk when dining by myself. Instead, I ended up having to ask for the check as soon as they brought the last course around 11:30 and run for the door (where I then waited half an hour for an Uber that would pick me up, but that's another story). But yeah, the pacing: there was a party of eight next to me who were eating when I sat down and who were still there when I left (the two dinner options are the set menu and the extended menu). There was another two-top in front of me that was occupied when I got there; at around my fourth course, the diners at that table finished their meal and were replaced by another couple, who also ordered the extended menu. They got their ninth course at the same time I got my ninth course (a different person, mostly kitchen staff, brings out each of the courses, so they certainly could/should have noticed that my pace was lagging behind). Sometimes I would wait for over half an hour for a course, sometimes shorter, sometimes it felt like longer...and all the staff were moving pretty quickly from one place to the next, so it was hard to catch an eye. Just frustrating and tedious, particularly when I had nobody to talk to -- I also couldn't really spend my time watching the kitchen, since I was facing parallel to them and had some janky muscles on my side that threatened to cramp up if I turned in their direction, though that obviously isn't their fault at all, just my misfortune. Anyway, the food: all of the set courses sounded AMAZING and were varying degrees of fine. Certainly not memorable. I think there was one that verged on unpleasant, whether in taste or texture, but I don't have the menu or my photos at hand; it may have been an egg dish where you had to mix the whole thing up and the flavors just didn't cohere for me and it felt gummy besides. Maybe when I get home I'll post my photos and try to figure it out. The three "extended" dishes were all actually phenomenal, head and shoulders above the others (to me) in terms of complexity of flavor profile, execution, and overall deliciousness. I would happily go back if more of the dishes were like that...but not if they were portioned out over the space of 3+ hours with long periods of tedium in-between. I feel like I must, MUST have caught them on an off night for whatever reason, since I'd independently heard several people, including my server at noma, gush about it being one of their favorite restaurants in the city. It was a Saturday night and, while lively, didn't seem so busy that the kitchen was unable to keep up or anything. I dunno. I guess I got unlucky; hopefully my experience isn't representative. (On a more positive note, I really do have to give a more detailed review here of my noma dinner. This is me trying to make a commitment to myself not to be lazy about it.)

...Which obviously doesn't mean I don't share in your appreciation and gratitude for all the great chefs and restaurant owners, cooks and back of house, waiters and bartenders and hostesses, to be clear.

D.C. is a good city for food (though it still lacks very many small, chef-driven places, and most things are at least a little more expensive than they should be relative to the quality of the dish, and there are still large stretches of the city without many non-chain dining options at all, or even dining options period...head up 16th Street sometime and count the food places). D.C. is certainly a better city for food than it was when I got here 15 (shudder) years ago. In my opinion, though, D.C. is not a great city for food. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Not when placed up against so many other cities, here and abroad, that offer both interesting and reasonably affordable options in dense abundance. Charleston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin, Houston, New York, LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco (okay, not so much with the reasonably affordable), Portland, Seattle. Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Lisbon, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, any number of places in Spain or Japan, assuredly many other cities that I can't think of off the top of my head. Maybe one day D.C. can overcome its wild income disparities (so much of the city is either too poor to have a consumer base, or too rich for property values/rents to allow for interesting small restaurants) and lack of population density and various other structural, institutional, and inertial quirks and become more like those other cities, but we're not there yet. We're better, but we're not nearly there.

Yeah, Little Serow remains one of the best damn deals in town, as far as I'm concerned, and that's what I understand Bib Gourmand to be about. Certainly I could easily spend much more on food at Zaytinya, China Chilcano, Oyamel, Doi Moi, Red Hen, or Kyirisan, depending on what I order; those places aren't necessarily cheap. (And drink recommendations at Little Serow are guaranteed to be consistently interesting and delicious and, usually, pretty reasonably priced.) Agree about being puzzled by Rasika's exclusion as well.

We can agree to disagree on all counts. My surpassing sense from my Noma experience was that Chef Redzepi (who served us the bread course so unobtrusively that nobody noticed it was him) and the rest of that team care more than anything else, by an order of magnitude, about the flavor of what they are putting on the table, and how happy it makes people when they eat it.

Oh, wow...I could not disagree more about Noma. It exceeded my expectations in every respect, from food to juice pairing to service -- so warm, happy, and consummately thoughtful, to a person -- to atmosphere to the 45-minute tour of the facilities after dinner (as the chefs blasted Don't Stop Believin' from a stereo in the kitchen to unwind). For my tastes, it was truly stunning.* (Particularly in contrast to Minibar, which felt moribund and gimmicky both times I went there -- which was, admittedly, before they changed locations.) *Which reminds me that I still owe a detailed Noma review in the Copenhagen thread.

If Noma doesn't deserve three stars, then Minibar definitely does not.

That's a very curious list overall. I don't think I've ever heard a single thing about Plume. Tail Up Goat is great and one of my favorite restaurants in DC by a large margin for its conviviality and interesting menus, but I'm sort of surprised to see them over, say, Little Serow (and definitely over Komi); I always enjoy, but rarely LOVE, the dishes at Tail Up. I just ate at the Dabney last night, and it was quite good, but again...putting it up against some of the non-starred places I've been to in other countries (man, La Pubilla in Barcelona, for example) and it suffers by comparison. Also a bit surprised by Sushi Taro's inclusion. I've long felt that the omakase counter in the back is one of the great meals in the city, if not the greatest, but my experiences in the main dining room have been more muted. I wonder how much the chef's counter omakase played a part in their rating.

Wow, Blue Duck really surprises me. I've never had GREAT food there, and last time I was at the bar the snapper crudo I ordered was literally inedible -- there were bones throughout and the meat of the fish was too tough and chewy. They apologized and brought me a new order (which I wasn't sure I wanted at that point) but didn't comp it or anything, which is fine, but still...I thought attention to detail and consistency was a Michelin hallmark.

Disfrutar remains one of the greatest dining experiences of my life.

Shouldn't working for tips make it more likely that a bartender would want to be personable and provide a memorable experience, though?

Also, waitstaff in multiple fancy restaurants now have high-fived each other as they've crossed paths during service. I think they must have fun at their jobs.

Copenhagen must be one of the only cities in the world where chefs and servers, upon hearing you're visiting, routinely ask "oh, where have you been so far?" and then geek out about how much they love those restaurants too. (Or -- worse! -- judge you, with a moment of polite silence, for not maximizing your available eating and drinking slots at the best possible places.) Both Geranium and Noma also offer beautifully pre-printed pages with their recommendations for other restaurants and bars to enjoy in the city, which I'm not sure I've ever seen from restaurants of their caliber.

I'll give a much fuller review when I get back, but I'd had a long Labor Day weekend planned in Copenhagen since June. I made a bunch of reservations at various places -- am in an Uber heading to Amass right now -- but there was nothing available at Noma, so I put myself on the online waitlist. Last week they emailed me to tell me that seats for a party of 2 (I'm here by myself) had opened up for lunch on Thursday, which was the morning I arrived. I'd already booked Geranium for that spot with a sizable deposit, so it wasn't TOO painful to email them back and say that I now had plans on Thursday, but if they had any openings for Friday or Saturday for a party of 1, please keep me in mind. They then emailed me back 20 minutes later telling me that they had one seat for Friday dinner, which I jumped on. It was a truly superlative experience in all respects; it exceeded every expectation. For my personal tastes, it blew 3-star Geranium out of the water. And the 30-minute tour of every inch of the Noma premises after dinner only enhanced things (the staff have a foosball table and one of the most beautifully warm staff rooms that I can imagine). I'm actually going to try to get one of the walk-in seats at their casual offshoot 108 tomorrow; apparently it shouldn't be that difficult if I show up when they open, and it's supposed to be pretty great in its own right. If I do, I'll report back.

Noma is a transcendent experience. Wow. (I'd been on the waitlist, and last week a seat opened up at the communal table for dinner tonight. Never have I considered money for a fancy dinner to be better spent.)

Very brief Copenhagen report after day 1: Geranium: excellent food, impeccable service, extremely expensive (even beyond the general Copenhagen sticker shock), I can see why it's a 3 star Michelin restaurant for many reasons Radio: excellent food, much less expensive (~$60 for a five course fixed menu) -- you don't get the wild flights of imagination with the food, but the flavors are right on, and it has a cozy, neighborhood-y feel that belies the level of attention paid to the dishes Salon 39: I highly recommend this cocktail bar. Great ambience, delicious drinks, and improbably one of the best bloody marys I've had in a very long time; will be going back

Yay chains. (He says, flatly.)

They're definitely getting buzz, anyway. All publicity is good publicity? (I spend waaaaaaaay too much money on fine dining, and I have zero interest in ever setting foot in their door. And I was predisposed to be excited about this restaurant, because the chef seemed like a really good guy who made delicious food when I saw him on Top Chef.)

Holy cannoli. At this point, there has to be a non-zero chance this is all some kind of performance art aimed at skewering high-falutin' foodie culture, right?

It's right next to the 42 and the Circulator! Won't somebody think of the poor buses?

I wonder if that's an automatic 20 percent service charge or just an illustration.

This is just hilarious, by the way. Are they going to be sourcing bottles specifically for one customer based on what they say they like? Or changing the meal to match the customer's preferred pairing? If not, why in the world does this conversation have to occur beforehand? (Other than to be aware up front who's willing to shell out the big bucks for a pairing and adjust their level of care to the diner accordingly, of course.) One of my favorite things to do at restaurants whose quality and attention to detail I trust is to put myself in the hands of the sommelier or the bartender or whoever and ask them to recommend interesting things for me based on the dishes I'm having and (if they ask) my general taste in wine; I've found so much great stuff that way. But it's not a complicated process and certainly doesn't require them having to track me down over the phone. Here's how it goes: Me: Could you recommend a glass of something white or rosé (e.g.) to go with this next course? Them: Hmm...I think I've got just the thing. Me: Thanks! <Optional-but-always-appreciated addendum: Them: Here, taste this and tell me what you think ~or~ Here, taste these two things and tell me which you like better ~or~ So this wine is really cool, let me tell you a little about it...> What's so special about their pairings at Shaw Bijou that the "personalized" aspect of wine recommendation needs to be any less straightforward (and, more importantly, to involve telephonic interaction beforehand)?

Wow, do I ever disagree.

Yup, I've regularly made reservations for Maketto. But in that area, Toki Underground probably still merits a mention.