Posh Nosh Porn (fancy restaurant sharing)

The use of quotation marks in menus to suggest a kind of playfulness with or twist on the underlying idea is pretty common in posh restaurants.

I would happily pay over a hundred "dollars" for that experience.

Neat pics, Athryn. Every time we drive past the sign on the way out to Shenandoah, I make a mental note that I need to take my wife to the Inn at Little Washington. I really should remember to do that one of these days.

I completely missed this thread, so I started one myself. No need for two threads, so I'll move my post over here.

This years Christmas present from my girlfriend was an all expenses paid visit toMaaemo, Norway's best and one of Europe's hottest restaurants at the moment. I have been trying to book a table there for a long time without success, but with 8 tables and one sitting per evening it has been impossible. I have no idea how she did it, but we got a table for last night.

A little background info: Maaemo is relatively new, they opened late 2010, and they received 2 stars in the Guide Michelin in 2012 (which is extremely rare, to go from a startup to two stars in little over a year is virtually unheard of). The focus is New Scandinavian cooking, and everything is organic and/or bio dynamic. They are often compared to Noma in Copenhagen.

They have one menu, which consists of 10 courses, with a drinks pairing. They also have an non-alcoholic drink pairing consisting of organic juices. I went for the wine pairing, but my girlfriend went non-alcoholic so i got to taste both.

The 10 courses are of course a complete lie. A quick recap shows that we had 26 (!) tastings during our three and a half hours there.

So was it good? It was way, way beyond good. The food was magical, but what really surprised me were the drink pairings. I had 2 beers, apple cider (best drink I have ever had) and various wines, mostly white. The service was incredible, immaculate and very, very friendly. I ate at Gordon Ramsay in New York this summer and the service there was so stiff in comparison. At Maaemo they made you feel like family.

Some of the highlights of the evening included:
(Not the best quality photos, apologies for that, but the lighting was a bit harsh. Also, some ingredients are really hard to find translations for).



Pickled Skorsonneroot (A wild celeriac root) with junipher. This came under a glass dome filled with smoke. The smell was amazing and the wonderful burnt aromas combined with the sweetness of the Skorsonneroot was amazing.
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Smoked cheese with Chicken crisps and cress. Again a wonderful smoked aroma, but much more rounded and lingering.

Sea Urchin fished the night before. More or less au naturel and a wonderful taste of the sea.

Sour cream porridge with dried reindeer heart. Sour cream porridge is a traditional comfort food in Norway, and this was an amazing version.

Chanterelle and chicken liver pate. This was one of my absolute favourites, a wonderful, lingering taste of mushrooms and chicken liver. I could eat this one all evening.

Their first signature dish and the dish that really put them on the culinary map. Langoustine fried in spruce butter and covered in an emulsion made from the tips of the spruce shoots. This is without a doubt the single best thing i have eaten in my life. Words can not convey the depth of flavors or the aftertaste that just kept on going.

Another of their signature dishes, called simply "Wheat". This is simply homemade bread with a special butter called Rørosbutter and served with a Danish wheat beer. So simple, yet so utterly amazing. And the bread is served on a millstone from the mill where the wheat is ground into flour.

Burned leek in bone marrow with quail egg and salted calf tongue. Wow, talk about complexity. There were so many different tastes in this simple dish that they completely overwhelmed me.

Reindeer with raw Jerusalem Artichoke, ash and last years truffles with a spicy müesli topping.
The only meat dish and by god i wish i could cook meat like this.

Wheat vinegar ice cream, mead jelly, burnt marzipan and dried porridge of rye and porter beer.

And finally the dish they tried to take off the menu, but the customers revolted and they had to put it back. This is the most ridiculous dessert you will ever eat, called "butter, butter and more butter". It's a hazel nut crumble with molasses in the bottom, ice cream made from Røros butter and browned butter on top. You would never think that it would work, but once you have tried it you will never feel the same.

These were just some of my favourites from our visit, there were plenty more (the oyster emulsion in mussel gel comes to mind), but I'm not going to photobomb the thread to death just yet. That will have to wait until they change to their spring menu (and i can bribe my way to a table).

That looks absolutely awesome, and yes, very much like Noma - cool that new nordic cooking has gained that much traction.
While I love both new and traditional French or Italian cooking, it's absolutely amazing what these people are doing with locally sourced stuff, old breeds and plants most people had stopped considering eating.
(of course I have read the first newspaper comment on how Noma was just a new form of Nationalism).
My brother's restaurant isn't quite as complex (they still serve on plates), but since they're outside the capitol, they have decided to do even more on the sourcing and only use locally produced ingredients (Noma is quite willing to travel to the North of Norway for a good urchin) down to the cheese, where you get a card with a picture of the specific cow that gave the milk.

Since my brother was a head chef in Oslo for quite a few years, I must aski him if he knows the people involved (he'll certainly know of them).

Seems like Copenhagen has both Oslo and Stockholm creamed when it comes to Michelin-starred restaurants - although Stockholm does have one more two star restaurant.
Way to many I haven't been to, though.

If you're only here to sneer, then GTFO.

Juste, that looks amazing.

I get what you mean about service, there was a great sense of friendliness and fun at Fat Duck as well and it makes a huge difference. There's a common sense of theatre about both sets of food over and above it being amazing in its own right and I like that about it

There were some hints on the table around the theme for the next menu at the Fat Duck but I think I need to start planning a return visit to Norway.

No, the food looks great. But I reserve the right to laugh at pretentious menus.

Complaining about pretentiousness in a thread dedicated to dining in fancy restaurants. How novel.

Pepper Crusted Tuna Pretending to be a Filet Mignon IS a great name for a dish, though. And unlike Nute (I think?), I mean that unironically. It's like they hired Salvador Dali to write their menu.

Life is a dish, best served hot,
And a dish is a book with a menacing plot,
And a plot is a song, dipped in sauce,
That was simmered in a pan with a demi-glaze,
I'm just a kid, in a candy shop,
Of culinary dreams that can't be stopped

*happy sigh* This is my favorite thread, also I love the title it is ever so lovely.

So I finally dug out the menus from our first visit. When you go you get a personalized menu that looks like this (although probably not with this name):



The back:


It's real classy. And inside:


A listing of all your options for each course! They bring you some bread and some butter from the Vermont Cheese Company (omfg I LOVE it and I have only been able to find it around here ONCE in eight years!) first and then you place your order for ALL courses. And you get the wine pairings. I don't even like wine and I get the wine pairings. Then you try to remember what you liked and didn't like because by the fish course, hoooo booooy. The place is really quiet, they usually have a harp player there (last time we were there the guy was amazing. No one was paying attention and he played a harp version of Smooth) and we always end up giggling loudly and being like "DO YOU THINK ANYONE IN THIS FANCY PLACES KNOWS WE'RE TRASHED?" But it's okay because the tables by you are experiencing the same things.

Most delicious place I have ever eaten. Everything here is delicious. For each course they have a dish that you can pay extra for--we've never done it cause holy crap, what!--but someday I will totally win the lottery and do so. CAVIER FOR EVERYONE!

And yes. I get the chocolate pyramid.

Inn at Little Washington is great; not only the food, but the ambience as well. However, if you're in the DC area and like fine dining, Citronelle is ridiculous (and ridiculously expensive); the chef, Michel Richard, also opened Central, which is also great but far, far less expensive. That all being said, one of my favorite DC restaurants is Komi. It's worth the try...

Hanzii while I'd love to try your brothers restaurant, that is way out of the way unfortunately. However, next time I go to CPH, I will hit you up for some recommendations. Umami, MASH, etc., all great, but I've been to them before. Need more recommendations :)

Oh man, I'm torn between the poached pears and carmelized bananas. I love me some fruit desserts.

Can he at least get locked up in that Ninja Restaurant?

Last (and only) time I was in DC, my wife and I ate as many good places as we could (no toddler!)

We didn't hit fine dining places (I love the times that I can do a prix fixe menu), but I was pretty happy:

1) Founding Farmers - New American with fancy cocktails
2) Jaleo - Tapas

Very happy with both.

Both are quite good. Nearby Jaleo are a whole mess of good restaurants, like Zatinya (mezzo plates/mediterranean), and one of the best Indian places I've ever been, Rasika.

My law firm was not far away from there, so I took a lot of the summer associates to lunches at places I wanted to eat. Nothing better than eating at great places, and not having to pay for it.

Well I did have to listen to whiny law students, but I was willing to pay that price...

I literally ate myself sick there.

This thread caused me to spend entirely too much time looking at Michelin ratings, even though yeah yeah fuck Michelin ratings. Turns out I have been to a three star restaurant--Alinea. I was a law student at the time, so I would characterize the meal as "excellent but fiscally irresponsible."

This thread is relevant to my interests. I live in Oslo and have visited Maaemo three times so far. Followed their development on social media and was there on opening night. Awesome concept and it keeps getting better each time I visit - need to go back this year.

Last weekend I was in Copenhagen and really wanted to snag a table at Noma, but it was mission impossible. I was on their website the minute the reservations for January opened and clicked like a madman, but to no avail. All gone. So we ended up going to Kiin Kiin and Geranium, both of which were really good experiences. Geranium was almost at the level of Maaemo I would say, and exposes the same sort of new Nordic cuisine.

Well, most would be based on reviews from people I trust. I have two kids, so don't get out that much, and I'm not a lawyer or programmer, which is why I'm right now looking forward to my 2014 visit to Noma... I probably have more practical experience with fine dining in Las Vegas than Copenhagen.

Seems like Scribble is your man.
Geranium is quite new and is getting rave reviews - it's also placed on top of our national football stadium, so from the outside, you'd expect fastfood and beer. Kiin Kiin is one of the world's few Thai restaurants with a Michelin star.
(I've been to neither, but would very much like to - their reviews are great)

My brother is over from Dubai in a few weeks and I've managed to book a table at Alvin Leung's Bo London. Alvin is sort of a Chinese Heston, insofar as is self taught, and his cooking is molecular fusion. His Sex On A Beach signature dish is well... unusual in its looks.



It's an edible condom of kappa and konjac mixture filled with a honey and Yunnan ham mixture. The 'condom' is then placed onto powdered shiitake mushrooms. It's a gimmick dish with proceeds towards charity rather than something on the menu.

Bo London offers a 16 or 14 course tasting menu, and will report back afterwards!

Sylvia Rector of the Detroit Free Press writes about the restauarant photo debate, inquires whether local restauranteurs have the same objection.

I went to Bo London on Friday. The menu and dishes have changed considerably since the early reviews and we had a great meal, albeit expensive. Alvin Leung is much like Heston Blumenthal, self taught, modernist, on telly alot and plenty of concepts and creativity behind some unusual dishes.

Full write up and pics on my blog

Highlights were Dead Garden, a soil of morels, ginger snow, dried enoki's resting on a NO2 charged avocado mousse, the lightest I've ever had.



A scallop with an unusual "jolo" sauce made from a Chinese wine/liquor



Tomato done 3 ways, including a crazy tomato marshmallow with spring onion oil centre and one soaked in a pat chun chinese vinegar.



Wagyu beef on cheung fun noodles, with truffle soy.

A fabulous meal at Viajante today, 15 outstanding dishes from Nuno Mendes, a Portuguese chef who previously worked at Jean Georges and interned at El Bulli. It was a tasting menu format where you choose the number of courses and each is a surprise, the menu being printed up at the end of the meal.

Thai Explosion III. That's chicken skin on top of a Thai flavoured chicken mousse and quails egg. The bread course also came with a whipped brown butter with chicken skin and iberico ham, and was the best bread and butter I've ever had. I've decided everything should come with a sprinkling of crispy chicken skin.


Gordal olive soup.


Scallop and nitrogen frozen beach herbs.


A unusual dish of carrot for my veggie wife.


Iberico tail. The finest pork crackling known to man.


Black carrot and toasted caraway seed icecream. The carrot was aromatic and fruity from its cooking method, just a hint of carrot flavour but plenty of crunch. It was fantastic with the ice cream.


White chocolate and porcini mushroom truffles. Bloody hell, mushrooms and chocolate actually go together.

Ok, I go out to eat a lot.

We celebrated my wifes birthday at The Waterside Inn this weekend. A pillar of the UK fine dining establishment, restaurant of the Roux family, 3 stars for 28 years, where Liz and Phil Windsor go for their birthday meals, this place is fairly legendary. We had an awesome meal and evenings stay, the service in particular being impressive, its like a legion of Kwisatz Haderachs whose prescient skills anticipate your every need. I loved it, no modernist techniques, no suprise combinations, no dry ice, no nitrogen, gels or foams, no paintbrushed sauces, just classical French dishes cooked to perfection.

Parmesan cream, potato, asparagus, truffle, the best pastry straw you could ever eat.


Halibut poached in sea water, caviar, sea urchin sauce.


Artichoke base, saffron celeriac, puff pastry veil.


Petit Four's from the kitchens of Michel Roux, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France en Pâtissier. The current patron chef, his son Alain, is a trained pastry chef too, and the Inn is a member of the Relais Desserts. They take pastry very seriously.


Breakfast pastries.

After a few weeks off after the Waterside Inn I've booked up a number of places for the next month. This weekend saw a lunch at Roganic a pop-up from Simon Rogan a 2 star chef based in Cumbria. They focus on produce from their farm and foraged foods, and have a very modern menu.

Mushroom Creme Brulee
.

Raw Ox, Coal Oil, sunflower seeds, squash, turnip

Hedone was set up by a blogger in 2011, and won a Michelin Star in the 2013 edition, fairly remarkable progress although not unexpected seeing the deluge of positive reviews from the critics and bloggers. The chef and owner was also an ingredients consultant, and the idea behind Hedone is to source the best ingredients available and serve them in relatively simple dishes, something he achieves with astonishing results. One thing I didn't mention on the blog. If you're going to be a sweary angry chef, even if only for 30 seconds, best not do it in an open kitchen in front of the entire restaurant.

Today we were in Shoreditch, London's hipster central (one was spotted with crazy hair, a huge beard, a tweed suit including knitted jumper and plus-fours) at the much hyped and red hot The Clove Club for a lunch, an easier booking to actually get and at 3 courses something more suitable following the huge feast at Hedone a few days before.

Oh Liquid Parmesan Ravioli, how I adore thee. (Hedone)


Carrots. Just carrots, but what carrots they are. (Hedone)


Buttermilk fried chicken and pine salt from the let's serve food in evergreens brigade. (The Clove Club)

aka Excuse me? This salad is tough and tastes of air freshener and toilet cleaner.

Radishes, gochuchang, black sesame. (The Clove Club)