Restaurant Reviews | Living with MCL

Quality vs Quantity

Cycling, Food & Wine, Life, Restaurant Reviews No Responses »

Apr 222007

One thing I learned when I first started riding a bike competitively, about 25 years ago is, it’s not so much the quantity of the miles you ride, it’s the quality of those miles.

The problem is, I see too many people adhering to just the opposite.

I see them at the gym all the time, people getting on the exercise cycle or treadmill, and then reading a book or magazine while they pedal or walk, both at very slow speeds.Â I could no more read a book or magazine when I exercise, than I could walk on water.Â Sure it may be better than sitting on the couch at home and doing nothing, but I still wouldn’t call that exercise.

And as far as I’m concerned, the same goes for food and eating.

Every since going to France, several years ago, coupled with my love for the Food Network (especially Iron Chef America), I have gained a greater appreciation for how food is prepared and presented. I no longer care how much food is on my plate, more importantly it’s how the food is prepared, presented, and of course how it tastes.

Last night was a good example of such a meal. We went to the Riviera at the Fireside for dinner with some friends.Â Now at one time, I may have considered this a great restaurant, but now it’s just not what I want when I go out to eat.

I had Duckling a “L” Orange which was OK, but far from great. The plate consisted of a leg and a breast, bones included, and some rice and vegetables tossed on the plate. There was absolutely no thought to the plating. At least they could have deboned the duck, making it easier to eat. (You can read my entire review of the restaurant over at LA Wine Blog.)

The only reason I still enjoyed the meal, was the company of good friends, and the bottle of 2003 Laetitia ‘La Colline’ Pinot Noir, which I brought from home. It was one of the best pinot noir’s I’ve had in a while.

Now if everyone in the US could only take a lesson from a competitive cyclist about exercise, and adopt the same attitude towards food, as those in France and some other countries, we might all be a lot healthier.

Getting the most out of life

Life, Off Topic, Restaurant Reviews 4 Responses »

Dec 172006

When you’re sick, and you know your time is even more limited than most, you expect more out of every endeavor you pursue, and when something doesn’t pan out like you expect, your disappointment is always compounded.

Our trip to Italy in September, was one example, and last nights dinner at Delius Restaurant was another.

Every Christmas the chapter of the professional organization I belong to, ASM International, and for which I am the chairman, holds it’s annual dinner for executive committee members. For the last 4 years, we have held it at Delius Restaurant in Long Beach, and for the last 4 years, it has always been great, but this time it was a tremendous disappointment.

For those unfamiliar with Delius, it is a prix fixe dinner restaurant with only one seating per night. Seven courses are served, from appetizer to dessert, including a selection of cheeses.

Business has apparently been quite good for the owners, Dave and Louise, as they are moving to a new location with a lot more room. They are also expanding their business, by including a small dinner menu in their wine bar, where you can come in, without reservations, and eat, plus they are either starting or expanding on an existing catering business.

And I think that all manifested itself last night in a much lower quality of food and service.

The first course was good, a crispy topped seafood pie, but after that it was all down hill.

Every one had to send their soup back, because it was served cold, and the filet was served a little rare for my liking. Plus the same size cheese plate was served regardless whether you were at a table for two or a table for eight. We were a table of eight.

Although the same as last year, the dessert was good, but that didn’t make up for the fact the wine selection, which has always been very good in the past, was a tremendous let down last night.

We weren’t even able to have wine with our filets, because they couldn’t come up with anything from the list, which was a recurrent theme that evening, by the time we had finished our meal. It was ridiculous.

We were told by one of the servers, that since they were moving in March, Dave was trying to keep the wine inventory low, so it would be easier to move.

That’s the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard. At least four months away from a move, and he doesn’t want to replenish his stock of wines. How do you run a business like that?

I was not happy, and it will be awhile before I return.

It was also apparent to me that neither Dave nor Louise were on sight during service, choosing rather to work their catering business.

Now I could be wrong about that, but one of the servers had to call Dave, when I expressed displeasure after being told that my 6th selection of wine was unavailable, and Louise never came out to greet the customers, as she has done in the past.

What was even more surprising was when Dave came over to me, he said that most of the wines I did ask for were actually available, but the servers didn’t know where to look.

SAY WHAT! If you don’t want to be on sight to attend to your business, you had best have competent people to act on your behalf. That certainly was not the case last night.

Eating at home is beginning to sound more and more appealing everyday. For $200, I can have a Joseph Phelps Insignia, along with the best cut of filet, vegetables, cheese, dessert and still have change left over to rent a DVD or two.

Traveling overseas?

Life, Off Topic, Restaurant Reviews No Responses »

Nov 132006

I think everyone should be required to travel to at least one foreign country. It’s important for everyone in the world, to experience first hand how the rest of the world lives! You can never gain a full appreciation of how the rest of the world thinks, how they look at life, and the cultural differences that exist in the world, unless you experience it first hand.

My wife and I have been to Tahiti, Fiji twice, Bonaire, England, France and most recently Italy. I’ve also been to Okinawa, Japan (where I lived for a year and a half while in the Army), as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Phillipines (when it was safe for Americans to go there) and Saba.

While there were some problems, for the most parts, the good points always outweighed the bad. And even the bad experiences represented a learning experience.

Most importantly though, visiting other countries, gives you a greater appreciation of just how good we have it in the US, as well as pointing out some of the inequities we must deal with also.

By inequites, you probably think that I am going to talk about health care. Well, you guessed wrong. While health care is a big issue of mine, what I want to talk about in this post is Continue reading »

Back from San Francisco

Restaurant Reviews, Vacations 1 Response »

Sep 052006

And none too soon. I think it was a good thing we only went for the weekend. San Francisco is just a great city. The shopping, the food, the wine, just the ambiance is something you can’t help but enjoy and over indulge in.

Saturday our flight got in to Oakland about 11 AM. By the time we collected our luggage, got the bus to the Bart station, and checked into the Argent hotel, it was about 1 PM. We took our luggage up to the room, and not wanting to waste any time, immediately headed down to the Ferry Building to check out the farmers market, and have some lunch.

After about an hour or so at the Ferry Building, it was time to head for a wine bar to unwind. Our first choice, London, was closed, so we then headed up to Enoteca, a Cal-Italian wine bar close to our hotel, where we met two other friends and their son, who arrived a little later. After having a few too many wines there, we still had time to kill before our dinner reservation at Foreign Cinema, so we decided to head to a local beer place, that has some local brews on tap.

After having a taste of the local brews, it was time to head over to the Foreign Cinema. I’m pretty sure it was a great restaurant (I [may have] had a little too much to drink!), although I do remember being a little disappointed in the wine selection. Of course that didn’t stop us from finding a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Brunello that were pretty good.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel. We decided to take a cab since the buses seem to run infrequently at that hour. After being rejected by several cab drivers, who refused to take more then 4 people at a time, we managed to find one cab driver willing to take 6 old drunks back to their hotel.

After an after dinner drink at the Argent, and before heading to our rooms for the night, Naomi mentioned she wanted to go for a run in the morning, and I, being the glutton for punishment that I am, agreed to go with her.

She worked my butt off. Starting at 7 AM, we ran from the Argent to the Ferry Building, across to Pier 39 then on down past Ghiradelli Square, and up into some fort, (Fort Mason (?) I think), and then back through China Town to the Argent. It had to be at least 6 miles, and probably more.

Had I known what was in store for me, I wouldn’t have gone, but I’m still glad I did, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have enjoyed stuffing myself as much as I did at Yank Sing’s Deem Sum restaurant. It was really good, but it sure slowed us down for the rest of the day, since we ate way too much. The food kept coming so quickly, we didn’t know we were full till it was too late.

Some how though we made it through the day, after some additional walking, shopping, and even a little nap, and then all met up again for a late dinner at Boulevard restaurant.

Now I am sure Boulevard was a great restaurant. The food was outstanding, the presentation was spectacular, and the service was first class. We never wanted for anything. I had the duck which was cooked perfectly. It was tender, and the juiciest duck I have ever had without it tasting fatty. Oh, and the wine list was extensive, and the prices were not unreasonable, considering the restaurant, and caliber of wines. I would definitely go back, and recommend it to anyone.

And then, it was all over. The rest of the vacation was very uneventful. Our flight didn’t leave until 1:30 PM the next day so the morning, thankfully, was very relaxing. Got up late, had coffee, tea and danish’s in the room, showered, packed etc. before heading to the airport around 11 AM.

It was tiring, but enjoyable, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Even the early morning jog!

Dining Out

Life, Restaurant Reviews No Responses »

Jun 192006

We used to go out to dinner a lot. Well that is if you consider once or twice a week a lot, but over the past year though, that has changed.

One reason for the change was my aunt coming to live with us. She doesn’t eat much, and it’s hard for me to justify spending $25+ on a meal for her, which she barely touches. The second reason was building the barbecue in the back yard. It was something my wife always wanted, and it’s a work of art. How can we justify not utilizing it as often as possible? Thirdly, we like to drink wine, and any more, it ends up costing $8 or $9 just for a glass of mediocre wine, and a lot more if you buy a bottle. And if you bring your own bottle, the restaurant charges you $15 or more for corkage, on top of what you paid for the wine.

But now I can add one more reason not to go out so much, and it’s just that the quality of food, and the overall experience has deteriorated so much.

Saturday night we went to a new French restaurant in town (Second Street in Naples) called Fringales. It is a prix fix menu which consisted of one appetizer, one main course and desert, for a total cost of $25.

I should have known there was a problem when we walked in, and noticed their entire collection of wine located on both walls of the room (the place is too small for a wine cellar). When I asked the waiter for a wine list, they didn’t have one. What kind of “French” restaurant doesn’t have a wine list?

The waiter appeared knowledable, and asked what kind of wine we liked. The usual response for us in that case is Pinot Noir. He indicated he had one, and went to the “wall” to pick it out. He came back with a French wine, which was labled Pinot Noir. That should have been my second clue. Any French wine that says Pinot Noir can’t be good. It should have said Bourgnone, which is the area French Pinot Noir’s are grown. Who knows where these grapes came from? The waiter said it was a good wine, so I took his word for it, and agreed to the $38 cost.

Not only wasn’t it that good, but it was overly warm. It was in the 80′s that day, and since they don’t have air conditioning, the wine was at room temperature, that is, it was in excess of 80Â°F. I should have taken that opportunity to return the wine, but it wasn’t spoiled, so I chose to stick it out, hoping the food would be worth it.

The saga continues. The first thing we noticed was the bread was stale. When we told the waiter about it, and asked if he had fresher bread, he simply said that’s all they had. It was all like that. Not, oh I am sorry, let me see what I can do for you! Even if all they had was stale bread, at least he should have apologized.

For appetizers my wife and aunt ordered salads which were edible, and I order the smoked andouille sausage. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t what I got, and it was pretty awful. It was cold, and I think raw, but I’m not sure about that.

Alas dinner came. My wife and I had ordered the filet mignon. The first thing I noticed was there was absolutely no thought to the presentation. The plate came with the steak, covered in a green pepper sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans, all just placed around the plate. Ok, so maybe I’m being a little picky, but this was a French restaurant, and the French pride themselves on their food prepartation and presentation. Well, in France they do. At least the steak was prepared properly, and aside from the sauce being a little salty, wasn’t too bad.

The total price for the meal was $140 which included a $12 tip and $5 for two coffees which I am sure the menu said was included. The hosted said no it wasn’t, and felt it necessary to add that no restaurant in the world includs coffee with the meal. I’m not so sure of that, but I wasn’t about to argue.

So would I go back? If you have to ask that question, you need to read this post again from the beginning. Not only wouldn’t we go back, but I’ve just become more soured on restaurants in general.

We can go to Costco or almost any grocery store, and get great wild salmon, steaks, lobster, or almost anything else we want, open a great bottle of perfectly chilled wine from our cellar, and prepare a far better meal on our outdoor barbecue, for no more than a third of what that meal cost. Sure there might be some clean up required, but that’s why we have an automatic dishwasher.

So thumbs down to Fringales!

Just come over to our house for a great barbecue. But don’t forget the wine!

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