Archive for the ‘in Philadelphia’ Category
Fall Fits Cochon like a Pigskin Glove
a says: October 2011, Dinner, Party of 3. My mother was in town, so we wanted a nice dinner out but nothing too expensive. This likely meant byob and unfussy food. v and I have hit most of these places in Old City several times and wanted to show my Mom something new. I narrowed it down to two finalists, Chloe and Cochon, and after some debate, we decided on Cochon since they recently switched to a fall menu. (I realize Cochon is not located in Old City but it was close enough for our purposes, and more importantly, it never disappoints.) Readers of adsz are already familiar with our (a, v, t, g, and kp) amorous relationship with Cochon’s brunch but we felt their dinner service deserved some love, also.
Holy flying pigs did they deliver. We arrived to find the place almost empty, not a complete surprise on a weekday but undeserved considering the Cochon experience. There are always a few menu additions so we waited to hear those before making a final decision – v and I were leaning toward pork (duh) and my mother, toward escargots and gnocchi. The specials for the night only confirmed our initial inklings of pork and snail-filled bliss. Among the important information provided by our waitress was this lovely nugget: for $30, a patron could have 3 courses and a complimentary beer. OH. MY. GOD. Each course’s options were limited to a few dishes, but get this, escargots were a first course option and PORK BELLY (t’s “Pork Caps”) was a second course option, even though it wasn’t on the menu. After dinner, I sent t the picture below and this tidbit: “Yeah, that’s right, the PORK BELLY dish is in full effect @ Cochon… and it was amazing.” (update: It looks like the $30 prix fixe menu is only for October, their anniversary month, so get on over!)
My mother ordered the fried oysters and the vegetarian gnocchi, an off-menu option, which comes with roasted vegetables. I went with the $30 prix fixe and chose the escargot, PORK BELLY, and poor boy dessert (and Great Lakes Burning River pale ale). v only ordered an entree, slow-cooked suckling pig, since we knew a lot of food was on its way. Cochon is never one to be fussy with plating but everything looked lovely when it came to the table and the flavors soared from there.
"PORK BELLY"
All protein was cooked perfectly, with the PORK BELLY soft and tender less the crispy, crunchy skin. The sleeper dish of the night was definitely my mom’s gnocchi which had the perfect pillow-y consistency paired with harmonious flavors. v has had her share of homemade gnocchi and has even made some herself – none have compared to the consistency of these light, fluffy, tender gnocchi. The fried oysters with fennel were somehow light (for the night) and refreshing, and the escargots were solid. A slight edge for escargot flavor might go to Bibou but the surrounding pancetta, garlic-butter sauce at Cochon made us ask for extra bread to sop-up every last bit.
One knock on the meal from v, the lentils under her pork were “overpoweringly” salty and did not compare to the tour de force that are Bibou lentils. We ended with the poor boy dessert which was some mix of bacon ice cream, shortbread, and caramel gooeyness served warm in a ramekin. This was better than I expected as I don’t think of Cochon as a dessert place, and put a smile on each of our faces. v thinks this dessert was reminiscent, but not as delectable as the caramel budino at Barbuzzo.
I went with a Graf Hardegg “Vom Schloss” Riesling 2008 which I thought could hold-up to pork while matching well with the appetizer options. We’ve had this in the past and it has always served us well with its medium body, off-dry crispness. The apple and citrus flavors cut through the richness of the pork and escargots. The Great Lakes pale ale was a nice treat to start dinner and clear the palate. Oink.
t says: Loving the Pork Caps.
Asian Double-Header
t says: I’ve fallen behind on posting … so let’s bring us up to speed on two nearby Asian fooderies, lightning round style …
Szechuan Hunan: Jo Jo’s Place (i.e. “Jo Jo Pwace”) was our favorite Chinese delivery. The fried chicken in General Tso’s was crisp. The shrimp was perfect (i.e. not overcooked – amazing!). They delivered at lightning speed (i.e. 20 mins)! But then … they started sucking … big time. Overcooked broccoli. Fishy-smelling shrimp. Cardboard-esque chicken. Even the white rice was bad! Well – enter Szechuan Hunan! Props: Solid no-frills Chinese takeout. Gone are the sins of Jo Jo. g’s faith in Shrimp with Broccoli in a White Sauce is restored (it’s not on the menu – just ask for it)! Slops: They don’t deliver as quickly as Jo Jo – but 40 mins isn’t actually that bad, right?
Wa Joe: On Chestnut was Korean restaurant called Miran. On one hand, g, dz, smn, and I were not that sad to see it go, as the previous manager was a tiny bit … curmudgeony. But the food was a notch above mediocre (i.e. “solid”) and reasonably priced! The four of us each enjoyed our dishes [despite the obvious reverse discrimination] so much so that we wanted to go back … except this time, it wasn’t called Miran anymore. It was called “Wa Joe”. It was opening week. It was game time … Props: Everything was nice and clean and sparkling new.
Brand new table-top grill (underneath the gleeming cover).
And, in classic Asian restaurant style, there’s a blatant typo … on the cover … can you spot it?
Something is misspelled.
The kimchi was pretty good – the right balance of spice and sour. The haemul paejun was decent, as was the dukbooki. Slops: The service was horrendously inept (e.g., refusal to refill water in a timely manner … even when asked; they dropped our takeout container onto the floor … and still gave it to us to use). There were only 3 banchan – ONLY THREE!! ha would have a fit had she been there. And, the dealbraker: the dolsot bimbimbap was quite bland – no matter how much of the special sauce I used. … which is surprising … because a bland dolsot is like a knife to my Korean heart. Maybe it was opening weekend jitters? I don’t know. Lunch Time Eats liked Wa Joe quite a bit – maybe they just happened to order the right dishes? Regardless, I’ll have to disagree with them and say that I would gladly go to Rotisseur any day over Wa Joe!
Only 3!!!!!
Honey’s Sit-n-Eat
t says: A long, long time ago (i.e. June 2011), g and I went to Honey’s for brunch. We went during a weekday, so there was absolutely no wait (g and I have relatively little tolerance for waiting). We were thrilled that we finally had our first chance to see what the almighty Honey’s Sit-n-Eat was warranted those soul-crushing Sunday morning lines.
June 2011, Brunch, Party of 2. g and I were celebrating my Birthday, so we had a day full of activities planned (not really). Regardless, we meant business. We arrived, we sat down, we perused the menu, we ordered. We went to work:
Pancakes for a 6-year-old ... or t.
Because it was my Birthday, I felt like I could ask for a special batch of pancakes to be made with all of the ridiculous things I wanted: chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and bananas. Their response: “no problem”. Awesome. Above you see a pic of the resulting masterpiece which was actually very good. A beautiful golden brown, it wasn’t the fluffiest pancake I had ever had, but because it’s approximately 50% of “stuff” that I requested, I guess it’d be foolish of me to dock them points for that. The pancake itself was pretty good, but really, it’s all about the other stuff – how can you go wrong with chocolate, peanut butter, and banana? Of course, I do have to give Honey’s the credit for even distribution of fillings and having just the right ratios to ensure that no one flavor trumped the rest. On the flip side: I’m not sure what the orange did on top – maybe if there was some kind of orange-twinged syrup, that would have been a pretty darn good addition.
Huevos Rancheros.
g went for huevos. Surprise. By now she has built up quite a huevos repertoire, having had it at all the major brunch spots that offer it. She has a hard time choosing a favorite, but what she does know is that this one just didn’t have the avocado, enough beans, or enough runny yolk to seal the deal. Plus, if I remember correctly, the tomatoes weren’t really cooked down much – it was more like a salsa. Bummer. Well, at least nothing was bad – she did a number on the dish. (Personally, I think her favorite is the one that cm and k make … just sayin’ …)
Conclusion: Honey’s allows me to choose my pancake toppings. That’s awesome. But, after that, I’m not sure why the place is so revered. The place is kind of small (which I don’t mind) and cramped (which I mind a little bit) with a lot of hipster-appeal (which I mind a little bit more) and a super-long wait on the weekend (which I mind a lot). Given the breadth of other brunch options, I’m just not sure that they were able to show me something I’d actually wait for. End result: I’d gladly go there on a weekday without a wait so I can have my pancakes my way (and g could explore other menu options to see if anything else strikes her fancy), but certainly not on a Sunday.
Revisiting Sean McPaul’s Talula’s Garden
t says: Talula’s Garden has seen some very big press and changes recently. First there were a slew of mixed reviews, from a 2-bell review by Craig LaBan and 3.5 star review by Trey Popp to the food-fights of comments on foobooz posts every time they Talula’s was mentioned. I wasn’t really sure what to make of the disparities except to say that g and I enjoyed Talula’s very much under the helm of Chef Santoro. But then Craig gave three bells (just today) to Sikora’s a.kitchen, a place that we felt was unremarkable – Trey Popp semi-agreed with us, awarding only 2.5 stars. How bizarre – I guess everyone has their favorites – and g and I are Aimee fanboys. Now that would have been enough up-and-down, but there’s more. Right after Talula’s made Bon Appetit’s “Best New Restaurants in America” list, there were chef-changes-galore going on, from Santoro to Talula’s Table’s Moon, and now to Sean McPaul. So basically, in the setting of some fairly high volumes from the Bon Appetit review (basically, it’s been nearly impossible to get a reasonable dinner time unless you know well in advance), they needed to change captains. Yikes. g and I feared for the Garden and hoped that they could deliver the food that was expected of them. To make matters worse, we, ourselves, really couldn’t quite get in there to see how things were going … until yesterday. So now that the dust seems to have settled – how are things? Here’s the quick-and-dirty (because I know we’re all tired about reading about Talula’s).
October 2011, Sunday 6pm, Party of 2. g and I set out to visit Talula’s on what happened to be a nice warm night – the first in a week or two. As we walked across the city with a bottle of Sancerre in hand, ready to pay the $25 corkage in lieu of acquiescing to the alcohol mark-up (our biggest Garden gripe), we found ourselves in the mood for a good last hurrah for summer, intending to partake in some outdoor dining and some lighter fare (“light” for me, means “no big slabs of meat” … little slabs are still permissible). We took our seats outside in the perfect weather and this is what we got, what we thought, and a few pictures before it got too dark.
Tuna Crudo
We started with the tuna crudo. Why? Because if there’s a raw fish as an app, there’s a high likelihood that g will get it. Thick slabs of fresh tuna (good temperature, good consistency, clean flavor) with a few greens, cooked carrot (little firmer than the tuna), surprisingly mild onion, chunks of avocado, some avocado cream, and a few other things. At first, I was wondering if this was going to be too busy of a dish, as it didn’t really look, feel, or eat like a “tuno crudo” – it was like a cross between a ceviche and a salad. It was a “rustic” tuna crudo. But I tell you what – it was delicious. The fish delivered a note equal to and complemented by the accompaniments – it was summer on a plate. What a relief! I was worried that Craig’s “too fussy” comment was coming to kick me in the butt. Earth-shattering? Not necessarily. But a non-stuffy way to have delicious raw fish? Absolutely.
A Return to Gnocchi
The last time we went, a little part of me wept like a little baby when I found that Talula’s had removed the gnocchi entree from their menu (i.e. the gnocchi-and-mushroom dish). I needs me some pasta! Then, yesterday, I saw a new gnocchi dish – an appetizer in which the pan-seared gnocchi were accompanied by a bitter green and a ?telaggio? cheese. As you can see, we got it. When it hit the table, I must admit that I was a little uneasy that McPaul was playing with fire by making the gnocchi with some Italian-esque flavors in there (in my limited experience, farm-to-table gnocchi rarely go for the cheese-and-greens combo). Hell, it was a tomato or two away from a fight with Mercato or Barbuzzo … But this was damned good. I mean really damned good. Even g, who isn’t super-obsessed with gnocchi as I, was very impressed … and she’s Italian. Just the right seasoning, just the right flavors. This was a dish stripped down to a dainty loin cloth to show off some superb gnocchi cookery (you’d figure that’d be easy, right? trust me – I’ve had some bad gnocchi in my time).
But then it got dark, so no more pictures.
Before moving onto our next course, we had a surprise course! The kitchen sent us the foie appetizer. How thoughtful of the Garden! It had been probably two months since had visited last, and even though Aimee wasn’t there that night, someone had remembered us – we did have some table visits by servers we had had in the past (or maybe we’re just flagged on opentable or something). Now I have to admit – g’s not a huge fan of foie, and I’m not a huge fan of cold foie. So when this hit the table, we flashed each other looks of despair, as it’d be rude to not try this gift horse. The dish was foie “parfait” that came looking like a large hunk of soft cheese flanked by a mini-salad, some sort of apple-y chutney concoction, and some bread. We loaded up our bread and hoped for the best. Holy crap. This was the best cold foie I’ve ever had – it reminded me of Fond’s “Apple Pie Foie” I had some time ago. The foie flavor was mild (which die-hard foie fans might not like) and, like the texture, oh-so-creamy. Furthermore, when coupled with that apple “thing” (really, I have no idea what else was in it), it was truly sublime. The dish wasn’t about “I am foie”, rather, “We are foie and more” – kind of like comparing a super-funky cheese alone versus a not-as-pungent cheese with the appropriate accompaniments. We ate every bit of it (actually, I was a bit greedy and ate more than g). It was yum. I’d actually order it again!
We then finished he meal with some familiar-but-new-ified dishes. We did the oxtail tortelloni which had beefy broth and tender pasta/meat as well as the new scallop presentation (g was there – we obviously did the scallops), which were once again beautifully seared and accompanied by some good veggies (in the past, they were accompanied by a puree). These were par-for-the-TG-course (we’ve written about similar dishes before, so we’ll stop here). And, of course, we ended on cheese – if you’re at Talula’s, you gotta have some cheese.
g and I feel that the “new” menu at Talula’s (or at least what we had of it) is just as good as the original, if not a half-step-or-two better. The new appetizers and the new-esque scallops that we had were delicious and showed a little less subtlety than I had seen from the Garden in the past, which I enjoyed. It was as if the songs are sung a little louder and with more harmony. Also, it seemed like there were fewer purees and more actual foods (or maybe it was so dark I couldn’t see them?) – but I’m not sure if this is a reflection of the new chef or the new season. At the very least, the new chef is able to keep Talula’s going at the same pace it was going when it received its first accolades. That said, we look forward to his future dishes, as if you really think about it, the dishes that were the newest to us were the most impressive. Are McPaul/Aimee/Starr going to be able to change Craig’s mind? Your guess is as good as mine – in the same review he went from “fussily precious” to suggesting it’s a contender for “restaurant of the year”. We’ll see.
Matyson gets some new visitors.
t says: g was super-excited by an updated Matyson menu – but we hesitated in making a reservation … a and v did not … neither did kp. It was good though, because now we know whether or not we should go – here’s what they have to say about their [separate] visits.
kp says: I had the Pork Belly with Kimchi which was not okay. The pork belly itself was described as having some spice (gochujang); however, it really had no flavor and no definetly no heat. The cucumber kimchi was not kimchi at all – no sour or heat, just a cucumber that may have been semi pickled – and not even crispy. The cilantro was some kind of micro kind that again had no flavor. The only saving quality was the pork belly itself was crisped up nicely.
Now the entree was much better! Crispy Skin Red Drum Fish with black eye peas in a mild coconut curry. The skin of the fish was expertly crisped to perfection (almost as delicious as chicken skin). The meat itself was perfectly cooked through with delicate flaking. The black eyed peas (especially for a Southerner) was cooked to “just done-ness” (not mushy) with adequate flavors of hints of curry and coconut. The collard greens were not bitter whatsoever but could have used some kind of meat flavoring (bacon preferably).
I ordered the Coconut Cream Pie which was a heavenly dream. The filling itself was delicately fluffed and had crisped brown coconut that accented the creamy coconut. The macadameian crust was perfection with a beautiful full nutty flavor. The accompanying caramel was a nice sweet finish to each bite.
a says: Very good though v and I were not blown away. Many good flavors, all proteins/fish were well prepared, and they took some risks. However, the risks didn’t always pay off and we felt some dishes lacked harmony as did the courses of the tasting menu. Some flavors were from southeast Asia, some from the Caribbean, and some the near east – all quite good but not always coming together perfectly. I’m also pretty sure most would find the portions small. The tasting menu is a good way to taste multiple dishes and the whole table doesn’t have to order it.
cm+k do Amada for Resto-Week
cm says: some thoughts: overall a great meal. one of the better deals in restaurant week as each person gets to order 5 dishes. everything was very good but the favorites are outlined here.
-gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp) – shrimp served in sizzling hot oil flavored with hot peppers, lots of garlic, and lime. seems so simple but the shrimp burst with flavor. k’s favorite dish.
-ensalada verde (green salad) – another seemingly simple dish but oh so good. spicy arugula, asparagus, fava beans, green beans, avocado, and a light, bright vinagrette. even in a meal of stronger flavors a standout dish.
-escalavida – a quartet of veggies served with thin toasts topped with herbed goat cheese. onions cooked down to sweet greatness, limey eggplant with a deep flavor (even though i typically don’t like eggplant), confit tomatoes bursting with flavor, and melt-in-your-mouth roasted peppers. delicious.
-setas a la plancha (wild mushrooms cooked on grill) – probably my favorite dish. it is amazing the texture and flavor wild mushrooms could add. not your typical button mushrooms. grilled perfectly and served with an herbed oil, i could have eaten a boat full of these. these stood up favorably even against seafood and meat, i really do think mushrooms can be so great.
-scallops a la plancha – also cooked perfectly, so tasty. not too soft, not too chewy, perfectly al dente. also served with herbed oil and lemon.
-esparragos con trufas – grilled asparagus served with a soft poached egg and truffles. the poached egg melted into the truffle to become a luxurious sauce topping perfectly grilled asparagus.
-pastel de chocolate – flourless chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate-hazelnut caramel – don’t really think i need to describe it to know how good it is.
okay so the “favorites” were actually 7 of the 10 dishes but that is how good everything was. even the other 3 were eaten up quickly andhappily.
great meal as usual with mr. garces.
t says: Agh, g and I have got get back to Amada …
Revisiting Zahav’s Lunch
t says: Restaurant week came and went. g and I actually didn’t make it to a single restaurant [for restaurant week]. Very peculiar of us. It was mostly because I was really REALLY busy. Fortunately, I did get a day off from work, but it was a Friday … a day that g had to work. Bummer! Nevertheless, a and I went to lunch at Zahav, a restaurant that I had not been to since last year [for dinner or lunch].
9/2011, Lunch, Party of 2. When we arrived, there was almost no one there. Of course, we did arrive at 11:45am, so we reasoned that it was going to pick up as lunch really got going. We sat, we ordered, and I made fun of a’s very bright pink shirt.
What Zahav meal would be complete with salatim?
a and I agree that the salatim/hummus that start the Zahav meals are consistently the best part of the meal. If for some reason you manage to eat there without getting these, you’re really missing out. Above, you see carrot and beets in the background and eggplant and fennel in the foreground. Of these, the fennel was probably my favorite, as they managed to hide some unknown spice in there that meshed nicely with the licorice flavor of the fennel – it was unexpected and pleasant. I think a liked the eggplant concoction, but it’s hard to tell, as he (like I) was more than happy to eat any/all of the other three as well. Most visually stunning was the beet … which wins by virtue of exactly matching a’s shirt (ok, ok, I’ll stop with the shirt jokes).
The hummus really needs no introduction ...
The hummus I felt was a little less powerful that I’ve had in the past. Apparently g somehow knows of the hummus-making guy at Zahav. I think he’ll need to step it up a little, cuz this time the hummus was very tame.
Sweetbread Nuggets
My app of choice was the sweetbreads. A very peculiar thing happened after I had ordered them. The waitress returned to the table and asked, “Your sweetbreads – they’re made from veal – is that ok?” I nodded. I turned to a and asked, “why do you think she asked that? Are they not normally made from veal? Or is it that the menu didn’t say it specifically and some people find veal objectionable? Or perhaps maybe she thought I didn’t know what sweetbreads were and wanted to make sure that I knew that I was consuming an animal organ, and not some kind of pastry?” When the sweetbreads did arrive, I must confess that they didn’t taste very “veal-y”. I remarked that while they were very tender, the texture and flavor were far closer to chicken than veal organ. I jokingly remarked, “they’re the best chicken nuggets I’ve ever had”. The puree (?zucchini?) and the corn salad were a nice way to add some lighter flavors in there, but I had the nagging feeling that they were chicken. When I came home and looked on the interweb, I found an entry for sweetbreads at Zahav for Restaurant Week which included “braised chicken” in the description. Now I’m just confused. I don’t know what animal it was, what organ it was, how it was prepared, or anything. All I know was that it was tasty. Weird, right? Maybe it’s made of people …
a had some tomato-based soup. My mind has blanked on its contents. I remember being shocked at how similar it looked to a plain ‘ol tomato soup. I’m sure he’ll chime in if he feels that it’s a sin to skip over his soup …
Funny thing happened … after they cleared our appetizers, the waitress came over bearing another plate and said, “This is on the house. We heard you saying just how much you love the cauliflower.” And shazam:
If cauliflower could kill ... we'd all be dead.
Ok, yes, the cauliflower is/was amazing. It’s always amazing. It costs them probably 50 cents to make, but if I could make it like this at home, I’d eat cauliflower every other night for sure. And the accompanying sauce I think is labaneh with mint and garlic and something else – ?dill?. But more important was why it was we were even having the opportunity to enjoy this cauliflower. We had no idea. a figured it was because he knows someone who knows someone who works there. That was a good thought, so we went with it. There were no survivors.
For our mains, a ventured the steak and I ventured the meatball-esque item, ?kibbe?. I neglected to take a picture. But to be honest, taking pictures of two relatively unadorned meatballs is kind of boring. What was also a shame was that it didn’t really have a great texture – the meat was tough – kind of like if I were to try and make a meatball at home (i.e. it’d be packed too tight and be overcooked), which is a little disappointing. This is obviously not how real Italians like g makes meatballs where it’d be browned on the outside, be cooked the whole way through, and still be soft on the insider … and most certainly not that crazy jello-jiggler meatballs like at Han dynasty. I think what would have saved the meatball is the flavor – it had some lamb in it as well as a brown jus. But to be honest, neither of those really added much (well, the jus added some much-needed moisture to the meat). Of course, I am in no position to say that Zahav did anything wrong – maybe they did it perfectly and I’m just not into authentic kibbe’s texture. Either way, I will not be venturing it again.
a’s steak was cooked perfectly I believe. But he, too, felt that it could only be “good”. Man – there’s just something about these entrees – if they can sexify cauliflower, why can’t they do the same to some meat?
And then … dessert …
This would be the true test for Zahav. They have had a strong history of desserts that satisfy me – but most recently lost their title when they came up with an uninspired baklava and pistachio cake. This time, it was good to see Zahav return to something near and dear to my heart: chocolate.
Here chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Come out, come out, wherever you are!
As you look at the pic above, surely you’d be confused. Where’s the chocolate? a looked at my plate, seemingly puzzled by the obvious lack of dark brown color. But I knew where it was. It was hiding behind a crust of finely shredded phyllo dough. But alas, not even the sturdiest of phyllo dough armors could prevent me from reaching my preciousssss (you gotta say it like gollum from LotR). In typical Zahav style, they accompanied the chocolate with a bit of bright fruit (apricot this time?) and I imagine that’s some kind of ricotta ice cream. Kablammo. That’s how to win me over. Once again, like the cauliflower, this is probably exceedingly simple, but sometimes you’ve got to play dirty and tug at the heart-strings.
a ventured the “other dessert”, as he knew I was going for the chocolate kataifi.
The "other" dessert.
It was a very delightful parfait involving blueberry and candied chickpea. Yea, you read that right, candied chickpea. I really think that made the dessert exciting. It was a very solid finisher and perhaps I would have taken more notice … had I not been spoon deep in chocolate on my side of the table.
Now here’s where things got weird. The brought us an extra order of dessert – the third item, the rugelach, which was good, but nowhere near as good as the two we ordered (the rugelach was a bit too dense/dry for my taste). But that’s not the weird part. Hmmm – that’s a vague sentence. I’ll clarify. The dessert being a little “off” was not a surprise (that’s what happened to the pistachio tart the last time I went with g). And the receiving a third item wasn’t weird because up until then we figured that this was part of a’s “connections”. The manager came over to our table and said something to the extent of, “We know that the last time you were here, maybe not everything was perfect – we wanted to prove to you that we can do better.” Of course, this is not verbatim (I don’t do verbatim), but that was the gist. And even that’s not weird. What was weird was that he was looking at me when he said it. It was as if he knew of my previous disappointment. Bizarre! After we thanked him and assured him that the desserts were delicious (we had not yet had the rugelach), a and I looked at eachother and began to put together explanations. I suggested that perhaps they had overheard our conversations (we’re pretty frank when we’re dining out – no food-related topic is sacred – we will talk about the props/slops of any restaurant, including the one we’re sitting in). a felt that unlikely. So perhaps they recognized my name from opentable – did I leave them a negative review? Oh snap – I did. Quite a negative opentable review. And I linked this blog! Yikes! But that was over a year ago – was I flagged in their computer? Do they do this for all people who dis’ them on opentable? Am I paranoid much? Yes. And in that moment a and I realized that service was spotless the entire time we were there. Our tables were cleared and re-set immediately within 30 seconds of the last bite being taken, and I can’t tell you the number of times they refilled my water even though only two sips had been taken. What was funny about all of this is that I also realized that the original scathing blog post was a g+t adventure. This was an a+t adventure. Did they now think that a was g? Is that why they pre-emptively placed our dishes in the middle of the table to share? Is that why a’s dessert had two dessert spoons (look at the pic)? Double-yikes! (No offense a, but you’re no g)
On our way out, I shook the manager’s hand and introduced myself. He introduced himself and was quick with his card. “Whenever you want to come here again, please let me know and I’ll personally make sure that all of your needs are met.” I’m pretty sure that was verbatim (a’ll correct me if I’m wrong). Even though well-intentioned, I feel like it came out a little creepy – it was only a smirk and wink away from being downright illegal.
In the end, the question remains – did Zahav redeem itself? Yes and no. Yes – the apps and desserts were of the appropriate caliber as I had had in meals before the one with g. The entrees, though – agh – the entrees! Give me something lip-smacking, give me something thought-provoking, give me something surprising/sexy. Give me something. Was it bad? Most certainly not, but am I going to automatically drag any/every diehard NYC-dweller/lover to Zahav when they visit for a night? No way … well, maybe on night 3 or so. That said, for a $20 lunch [during restaurant week], it’s a superb deal – probably tied with Amada for bang-for-the-buck.
after dinner sneeze 