***I'm posting my entire review here as Yelp has a 5,000 character limit in their review section.***
Excellent service, muted but elegant decor, but few dishes sparked my palette
Boy, last week was like hell on Earth frozen over. I got here a little early, not knowing how the traffic condition is. It wasn't too bad, but this place is totally indistinguishable from anything else on the block. If not for the lit up sign on its window, I would not have known where it was.
I came in, and was instantly amazed by the decor. Very modern, with simple yet elegant use of black and white color scheme. There's a coat check as soon as you walk in. The only thing is the coat check was already having issues with the number of coats that were already in the closet. This can be a potential problem, as I went on a Thursday (not the busiest).
Since I was the first one here, I sat at the cozy bar and got a Hitachino Nest White Ale. It's a Japanese beer and I have to say its one with the cleanest taste. I drank my fair share of Sapporo and Kirin Ichiban over the years and I have to say this is the best Japanese beer I ever had. At $9 a bottle, it better be.
I made a few more observation of the bar, It is plentifully stock with all kinds of liquor, wine, and beer. The rest of the dining area looks quite spacious, with a one piece sub ceiling that gives room for plenty of recessed lighting, except for the center which is opened to allow an elevated ceiling look. Simply magnificient. In addition to the recess lighting, there are various glass tube lamps that hang down from the ceiling, a bit like stalactites from a cave, and there are some tiny resemblance of that in the slopes of the wall, as they all curve a little inwards. Finally, the pièce de résistance, are the walls themselves. There are flowers and plants designs on them, except instead of just paint or picture frames like most restaurants, the designs are actually embossed on the walls. According to one of our waiters (and he looks a little like Danger Mouse), he said there was some guy that came in and spent a few weeks to sandblasted down the rest of the walls to create the embossed effect. Ouch... must have been really expensive.
When everyone finally got here, the bartender at had no problem sending the tab over for my beer, in addition, he would bring my beer over. How nice. First time I got service like that. It wasn't like the table was far, but those are the little things that keeps customer happy.
We got the $125 tasting menu, here's what I thought:
Complementary/not listed in the menu:
Soft bread/bread with filling - taste good, don't know the ingredients or the filling
Bread (Baquette, cranberry walnut toast, and one other kind, didn't try it) w/ french butter and seaweed butter - the french butter is light and mildly sweet, the seaweed butter had a light fishy taste. The baquette was good wither either butter, but the toast was best by itself
Bogues Bay Oyster with toasted buckwheat and nutmeg oil w/ grapefruit confit - It was delcious, so clean and the buckwheat gave the oyster a nice crunch
Tasting Menu:
Foie Gras (beet borscht gelee, blood orange) - a bit strong, good with toast, but not great (you gotta try foie gra w/ fig jam)
Sweetbread (burrata, black truffle puree) - taste interesting. If you have no idea what sweetbread is, don't look it up. I know that will probably get you to look it up, so let me just say, its not for the faint of heart. I eat just about anything, so let me just say, its taste like very tender chicken. The burrata and truffles didn't have much affect on the taste
John Dory | Octopus (Brown Butter Pear, White Port Jus) - The Octupus was soft, cooked just right. But the winner is the John Dory. Its a fish, which by itself is excellent. But combined with the Sea Urchin White Port Au Jus, it blew my mind!!! Had you ever had a dish that taste just like something else but you know its not? This is it. The Sea Urchin juice taste like crab "mustard" (as some ppl call it, not sure the exact term), and the John Dory has the exact texture as crab meat. Combined the both, and I felt like I was eating crab in every bite, but without having to deal with any shell. It was the best dish of the night, and best dish I had in months.
Pheasant (Cassoulet, Red Cabbage, Sweet Potato) - We were admiring the cutlery in how fancy it looks. But when it came to actual use, we had a bit of trouble with the pheasant meat. It might be the knife, or it might be the pheasant being overcooked, either way, that's not good.
bean and chorizo stew w/ a quail egg - Rather on the salty side, the quail egg yolk was nice and delicious.
Brillat-Savarin (Sour Cherry Pâte de Fruit, Chickpea) - Here's another dish that taste like something else. The Pate taste like Haw flakes (a Chinese sweets) and a hint of celery. The cheese was creamy, but a little on the strong side.
Orange Crème - (Amaretto, Orange, Vanilla-Tamarind) - tasted okay, but not very memorable, mostly because of the next dish
Total: $150+
Was it worth it? No. But I would consider coming back to get the 3 course pre-fixe just for the John Dory.
