Food Next - Restaurant Review

I decided to split this out of the "Dinner" thread for those that are interested.

Here is what we had. Some are my pictures, some are ones I found online. But all are the exact same dishes and same presentation.

Oeuf a le Beran (eggshell filled with egg custard, ground chicharrones and thyme-scented breadcrumbs, whipped chicken-jus sabayon and a topping of chives and lemon zest):





Seafood Plateau. This was epic. Could've almost been a meal for two in itself. It included a lobster tail and a lobster claw, several chunks of King Crab, six giant prawns that were probably 6-7" long, six oysters, twelve clams, six mussels, six slices of arctic char sashimi, two big pieces of seabass sashimi, and a huge service of creme fraiche with a healthy serving of caviar on top. The second pic doesn't really do it justice because of the lighting, but I didn't want to spend my entire dinner snapping pics, I wanted to enjoy the food.

That was our appetizer, and it is considered a double appetizer, so this was shared between us. If you had four people they would've brought two of these monstrosities.






Next was the fish course, skate wing with capers and brown butter. I'm not a huge fish person, but this was incredible.




After the fish course was the Guinea Hen. They brought us out an entire hen in the skillet as you see in the first pic below. Check out that garlic. :yum:

Then, they take it back in the kitchen, carve it up for you (this was also shared, so we each got half), and bring it out presented as in the second pic.









By this point my wife was tapping out. She knew if she started finishing every course she'd never make it through them all. So she ate maybe 1/3 of her part of the hen and they boxed up the rest.


After the hen was the red meat. She had lamb, which she said was awesome. I chose the beef tenderloin

The black stuff on top of the tenderloin? Sliced truffles. The stuff to the right under the garnish? Foie gras.

Very rich. Very awesome. About halfway through this course I had to start stuffing myself.




Finally, the dessert. She had lemon madeleines, I had this blueberry creation with vanilla bean ice cream.





Through all of this, my wife had the non-alcoholic drink pairing. So they had 4-5 different "mock" tails they had come up with for most of the courses. They were creative, and she liked most of them.


I had the reserve wine pairing. Basically they will pour you half a glass to a glass of each of these. If you finish it during that course, there are unlimited refills.

Perre Moncuit "Delos" Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne with the egg custard and seafood tower.
Martin Schaetzel "Cuvee Reserve" Riesling Alsace 2012 with the skate. (Most unique Riesling I've ever had. Was NOT sweet at all.)
Chateau de Boisfranc Beaujolais 2013 with the guinea hen. Very smooth and light red.
Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2004. This was the heavy hitter, by far my favorite.
Chateau Cantegril Sauternes 2011 with the dessert.


Through the entire night the service was excellent. You really don't have one set server, you have a team of 3-4, and occasionally someone from the kitchen will come out to present a dish. But all of the servers were easy going and friendly. My experience at places like this is that the servers respond to the way you are. If you are a pretentious snot, they will keep their mouths shut beyond the bare minimum, and leave you be. If you are easy going, conversational, crack jokes, and just generally show them that you are there to have a good time and appreciate them, they will often give you more detail about the dishes, the restaurant, or various choices they would make. So we always chat with the servers some, and they were awesome and friendly. In general, while this place was still very classy and obviously upscale, it was easily the least snobbish of the tasting menu places I've been to.

 

I want to go to there. Sadly, it will never happen. Looks like a great night, @Borla. Thanks for the write-up.

 

Ask questions about anything that caught your eye and I might be able to explain it or compare it to something you've had.

 

egg custard: egg pudding
ground chicharrones: pork rinds, though chicharrones can be made from other things, too
thyme-scented breadcrumbs: bread crumbs seasoned with thyme
whipped chicken-jus sabayon: sabayon (zabaione in Italian) is technically a egg custard, but is much lighter in texture and saucier than a standard custard; here, they used chicken juices as a flavoring in the sabayon
chives and lemon zest: I hope you know what these are
--- merged: May 3, 2015 at 6:27 PM ---
And my interest in a savory sabayon led me to this recipe, which sounds incredible Grilled Asparagus with Pepper Zabaglione Recipe -Mario Batali | Food & Wine

 

Here is an easy comparison @ralphie.

Not that it is made the same way, but the taste and consistency might be close to something you've had......

You know deviled eggs?

You know the filling that goes in the deviled egg center? Imagine something similar to that, but the consistency of pudding. Then take some crispy chicken skin (that is what these chicharrones were made from, fatty and crispy chicken skin) and crumble it up with some seasoned bread crumbs and mix it in.

Then top it off with chives and a tiny touch of lemon.

Not exactly the same as what we had, but that is probably a description most people can relate to.

 

That could be funny if done right.


But alas, no. They did replace any silverware we used on each course, and/or brought us the appropriate piece if we didn't already have it (like for the egg, or for the seafood tower). But not a complete changeover every time.