USA
These
notes cover:
Boston
A
city with good shellfish and, oddly, baked beans, which are traditional there.
Aujourd’hui
Food rating: 2/10
The main restaurant of the
Four Seasons Hotel. Oddly this is rated the highest
in Zagat and was voted best restaurant in Boston, the evidence for which was
lacking on this visit. It is all very
pleasant, with a grand hotel dining room with plenty of space and competent
service. To start with pan-fried scallops
were fresh and well timed (3/10). For
the main course a risotto was of merely adequate texture, the stock used
lacking any real conviction (2/10). A
chocolate ice cream was made from good dark chocolate but has a slightly grainy
texture (1/10). Overall
2/10 only. To be fair, the lunch
menu is quite fairly priced.
Azure
Food rating: 3/10
The dining room at the Lenox hotel. A surprisingly boisterous
crowd on the evening that I visited, which avoided the dread “hotel dining
room” feel but was not ideal for power meetings. The menu is moderately ambitious, with even
an amuse guele – here a simple salmon croustade. Two scallops were attractive presented and
pan fried well (3/10). For the main
course, medallions of tuna were seared rare and encrusted with peppercorns in
reasonable balance (sometimes this combination can be dominated by the sharp
taste of the pepper) and featured good tuna (4/10). ”Lemon dessert” was technically less
impressive, but still pleasant (2/10). A
somewhat limited wine list oddly had no dessert wines at all.
L’Espalier
Food Rating: 6/10
Back
Bay, 30 Gloucester Street (between Commonwealth
Avenue & Newbury Street), Boston, MA, 02115-2509
Phone:
+1 (617) 262-3023
Set
in a pretty Victorian town house, l’Espalier is the
best restaurant in Boston. It has three tasting menus (one
vegetarian) as well as an a la carte.
Service is formal but very good – dishes are remembered, wine is topped
up. The menu tries, however, too hard to
impress at times by mixing too many, and sometimes inappropriate, flavour
combinations in each dish. You can just
hear the chef saying “now, if I just add one more unusual taste….”, which is a shame, as the basic technique is quite
good. The wine list is very classy, if
limited in its selections outside the US and
France, and if you have the tasting menu you can have a selection of wines
chosen to match the courses for USD 55. Tasting menus go from USD 75 – USD 175 each,
and the a la carte would be around USD 95.
On
my last visit I started with butter poached Maine lobster, which was
fairly tender, served with seafood chowder and topped with a few slices of prosciutto (5/10).
Next was an excellent slab of foie gras terrine, which had smooth texture and plenty of deep foie gras flavour, offered with a
jelly of Sauternes and some rather dry Mission figs (7/10 except for the figs). Next was a dish of very well timed, moist and
plump divers scallops, tender red cabbage that avoided being too tart, an apple
raita (why?) and a more appropriate saffron
cauliflower puree (7/10). Main course of
marlin was nicely cooked, with miso broth, bak choi and tender ubon noodles (6/10). Cheeses
were from a mix of the US and France. I tried Gariotin
d’Alvignac goat chees, “Constant
Bliss” soft cows milk cheese from Vermont, Epoisses
from Burgundy in excellent, runny condition, an aged Gouda and Tomme de Brebis from Vermont,
finished with a Spanish blue. Dessert of
chocolate millefeuille was made with Valrhona chocolate and was served with praline ice cream –
a very rich dish that could perhaps have been better paired with something to
cut through the richness of the chocolate e.g. a passion fruit sorbet (5/10). Breads were of a good standard, as were petit
fours. Service from my waiter Ray was as smooth one
could wish.
Last visited October 2006.
Mantra
Food Rating: 3/10
Back Bay/Financial District
52 Temple Pl. (bet. Tremont & Washington Sts.) Boston, MA, 02111-1315
Phone
+1 (617) 542-8111
Trendy newcomer, though suffering a bit from confusion – this
time mixing Indian with French. The result is really a set of American dishes
that vaguely features spices, rather than a true blend
of the two stated cuisines. Still,
ingredients were good e.g. Divers scallops and some fairly fresh sea bass. The setting is striking, an ex-bank with a
very high ceiling and plenty of marble.
Downstairs they have retained the original vault door, which leads to a
lively bar. Last
visited February 2002.
Radius
Food Rating: 4/10
Downtown Boston/Financial District
8
High St. (between Federal & Summer Streets), Boston, MA, 02110-1604
Phone:
00 1 (617) 426-1234
An ultra-trendy establishment in the financial district. There is an attractive bar and
lots of wood panelling as well as clever lighting to draw the upwardly
mobile. Michael Schlow’s
cooking is somewhat inconsistent but can deliver e.g. a very fine diver’s
scallop was sweet and had excellent texture, though the vegetables accompanying
it were nothing special. There is an
excellent wine list, with many wines by the glass. Pricey, as you are paying for the rather
precious service. Last
visited July 2000.
No 9 Park
Food Rating: 4/10
9 Park Street, Beacon Hill (between Beacon & Tremont
Streets), Boston, MA 02108-4807
Phone: 001 (617) 742-9991
With
an attractive view over Boston Common, this restaurant combines modern décor
with up to date cooking. A diver’s
scallop was excellent as a starter, while a dish of pork cooked three ways was
also of good quality. The various dishes
sampled were very consistent, suggesting that Barbara Lynch runs a tight ship
here. A chocolate tart for dessert was
less good, but still perfectly acceptable. Portions are sensible sizes, and the
service was pleasant. Well worth a
visit. Last visited August
2000.
Kingfish
Food Rating: 1/10
1 Faneuil Hall, Boston
The second restaurant of Todd English, who owns the very successful
Olives. In a
street market, this looks like a tourist place but does above average
seafood. I had an excellent scallop on a
bed of baked beans, though a tuna burger was less good, with rather soggy
chips. A decent wine list, but as befits
a celebrity chef-owned place, the service has lots of attitude. On a sunny lunchtime in a completely empty
restaurant I asked to sit outside – “we don’t seat singles outside”, was the
response, with a look as if I’d asked to sleep with the chef’s daughter. After a discussion with the manager I was
grudgingly granted a seat in the sunshine, and the world did not seem to come
to an end as a result of this request. Last visited August 2000.
Legal Seafood
Food Rating: 2/10
35 Columbus Avenue (Arlington St.) , Boston, MA, 02116-3907
Phone:
(617) 426-4444
There are
actually several branches now just in Boston of this pleasant, simple seafood
place. Don’t expect original cooking but
the fish is fairly fresh and the preparation consistent, so in my experience it
usually delivers what it promises at a fair price. Last visited June 1999.
Mistral
Food Rating: 5/10
223 Columbus Avenue at
(Berkeley St.), South End, Boston, MA, 02116-5113
Phone:
(617) 867-9300
Trendy dining room with a chic clientele- clearly a place to dress up in
Boston.
However the reason to come is not the glamorous waiting staff but Jamie Mammano’s fine cooking.
I started with a tartare of tuna (described as
“sushi grade” – I would not wished to have tried the “not good enough for
sushi” grade) that was shaped into a cylinder and was indeed of a high
standard, laced with ginger and soy, the texture nicely balanced by some
shredded crispy wonton (5/10). For main
course I had wild sea-bass, nicely timed and which had excellent flavour,
served on a bed of puy lentils with a delicate
creamed horseradish sauce (5/10).
Dessert was at a lower level, a reasonable apple tart with vanilla ice
cream (2/10), and somewhat lukewarm coffee (2/10). However the savoury dishes were very good indeed, and the service was of a high standard. On my most recent visit a main course of
scallops with a citrus sauce was superb.
Last visited May 2002.
Sel de La Terre
Food Rating: 3/10
255 State St. (Atlantic Ave.) Boston, MA, 02109-2617
Phone:
(617) 720-1300
A large, low-ceilinged dining room in the wharf area. The mostly French wine list is
not cheap, though Mas de Daumas
Gassac 1996 at USD 55 is a relative bargain. Caramelised onion, spinach and smoked bacon
tart was nicely made with Comte cheese (3/10) while pork medallions were
tender, crusted with foie gras
and served with tender puy lentils and a good rhubarb
and onion jam (3/10). Accompanying
Rosemary pomme frites were
excellent.
One
to skip in Boston is the seriously overrated Hammersley’s
Bistro, which despite a charming gay waiter could not disguise poorly
cooked tuna and overdone vegetables.
This gets a bizarrely high rating in Zagat’s,
but unless you come just to look at the very handsome waiter, avoid. Last visited February 2001.
A
new place is Salamander, which despite a good review in Conde Nast is really only
1/10. Wok-fried soft shell crab was good
(2/10), but a tamarind and line glazed wild salmon fillet was ordinary (1/10)
and at USD 90 a head with no dessert this is not good value. Last visited May 2001.
Boulder
The Flagstaff House
Food Rating: 6/10
1138 Flagstaff Rd.(on Flagstaff Mountain)
Boulder, Colorado 80302-9510
Phone 001 (303) 442-4640
A
little out of town up a hill with a great view, this elegant dining room manages
to escape French stereotypes and produce original, modern American
cooking. A bonus is the classy service
and the stunning wine list – a fine selection of Kistler
Chardonnay is a bonus.
Charleston
These
notes are based on a two week holiday in March 2000, with a previous visit to New Orleans in
February 1999 for Mardi Gras, plus memories of a brief
trip here in March 1986.
To stay. In Charleston we
stayed in the Woodlands Resort, about 25 miles north of Charleston (17
miles North of the airport). You would need a car realistically. There is a Relais et Chateau in the heart of Charleston
(the Planters Inn), which would be the alternative if you did not fancy
driving. The Woodlands was very
peaceful, in acres of peaceful woods and with a fine swimming pool. The rooms (we stayed in a suite) were
spacious, and ours had a (fake) log fire.
Service was very good, though breakfast service was very slow, and
indeed the whole pace of things here is relaxed. The concierges were very helpful but not
overly bright e.g. two of them were incapable of pointing out where the hotel
was on the map, even though it was actually clearly marked. The restaurant is
the best place to eat for miles around – 5/10 on the basis of two dinners here. The dining room is in an attractive
conservatory, the kitchen serving American cuisine. The place is fairly formal, with good
ingredients and capable execution. There
is a very good wine list with an excellent sommelier (Stefan) when we visited,
who had worked at the Waterside Inn.
To see. Charleston is beautifully preserved, with a lot of history by American standards
and many, many historic houses open for tours.
There is not much nightlife, and I was actually unable to find anything
at all on the web regarding food when I went, except for some very sad stuff –
Happy Lobster et al. Hence no food
recommendations, though the solitary Mexican place on Market Street,
where we dropped in for lunch, was surprisingly acceptable. With a good guidebook you could do a lot of
walking tours here. The plantation
houses are a bit of a con, with Middleton Hall actually just a pile of bricks
and some admittedly extensive gardens, but at a whopping USD 42 to visit. There is a “Passport” which gets you into
multiple plantation houses and several historic houses, which looked good value
– needless to say the concierge at the Woodlands hotel knew nothing about
it.
Chicago
Chicago is
not really a tourist destination but is a Mecca for lovers of modern
architecture. You can take a boat trip
from Navy pier and do a one hour architecture cruise for USD 15 led by an
architecture student, and there are many walking tours also. If you have a little time try going out
(either train or a 20 minute cab ride) to Oak Park, a suburb where Frank Lloyd
Wright spent most of his career. There
are many of his building in the area and several guided tours.
Charlie Trotters
Food Rating: 5/10
(Near North/Lincoln Park
816 W. Armitage Ave.(Halsted St.) 60614-4308
Phone: 001 (773) 248-6228
This
is very famous (he modestly calls himself the “best chef in the world”) but
very ordinary indeed on our visit. I
have heard other good reports, but clearly the kitchen is not able to
consistently deliver.
Seasons
Food
Rating: 3/10
Four
Seasons Hotel (7th floor)
120 East Delaware Place (between Michigan
Avenue & Rush Street), Chicago
Phone:
(312) 649-2349
In
the excruciatingly expensive and frankly disappointing Four Season hotel,
Seasons has all the hallmarks of hotel dining.
The wood is dark, the lighting sombre, the waiters formal and rather
over-present. The food was variable,
with fairly classic dishes executed reasonably well, with some flashes of
Modern American cooking also appearing in Mark Baker’s repertoire. However this is a lot of money (USD 140 a
head or more) for what is essentially competent but fairly ordinary
cooking. The wine list is excellent,
though nark-ups are generally fierce. A Guigal Hermitage was the bargain pick, and there are some
Austrian dessert wines. Last visit July 2000.
Denver
Denver has surprisingly
little to see as a tourist – it is popular with skiers, and the surrounding
mountains are very pretty in the autumn, when the aspen trees change
colour. The downtown area has a (shock
horror) pedestrianised main street, and there is a
charming bookstore called the Tattered Cover.
However a morning would satisfy most visitors’ curiosity. There is a pleasant old hotel called the Oxford in the downtown,
which is “historical” by American standards (built n 1891). Surprisingly, there is a good restaurant.
Tamayo
Food
Rating: 4/10
1400 Larimer St. (at 14th Street), Denver, Colarado 80202-1744
Phone: +1 (720) 946-1433
This is Mexican Jim, but not as you know
it. Not a burrito in sight, but instead
a simple, well designed dining room serving genuine Mexican fare. Freshly made chips are served with either
good guacomole or lively salsa, and the quesadillas
are an entirely different affair to the gooey things that you may have
encountered elsewhere. Here they are
served as a flat flour tortilla on which a variety of toppings are placed e.g.
excellent rare tuna with a little black bean and wasabi
sauce and a smear of salsa (5/10). For
the main course I tried chicken mole, the Mexican savoury chocolate sauce. Here it was dark and intense, laced with plblano chilli spiciness, served with carefully cooked
pieces of chicken, a little rice and some plantains. Service was reasonable. As good a Mexican meal as I have eaten
anywhere. Last visited
December 2002.
Fort
Lauderdale
Eduardo
de St Angel
Food
Rating: 4/10
Ft. Lauderdale, North
of Broward Blvd., East of US 2822 East Commercial Blvd (between Bayview Drive & 28th Avenue) Fort. Lauderdale, FL 33308-4206
Phone: 001 (954)
772-4731
I have no
idea what is maybe the best Mexican place in the US is doing in gastronomic tundra of Florida.
However this place is worth an excursion, serving regional Mexican
rather than Tex Mex. The food is of a
very high standard, the service charming.
A real find.
Eduardo Pria has been replaced in the kitchen
by his brother Luis, but the standard is apparently still high.
Honolulu
Roys
Food rating: 6/10
6600 Kalanianaole Hwy. (Keahole St.)
Honolulu, Hawaii 96825-1273
Phone: 001 (808) 396-7697
Roys, a 20 minute cab ride from Honolulu, is
by far the best restaurant in Hawaii (based on two visits, one in 1992 and another in 1997). Roy Yamaguchi is a French-trained Japanese
chef, and delivers genuine fusion cooking.
Seafood dishes are, naturally enough, the highlight. He has now opened other sites, but the
standard here remains high based on my multiple visits.
Houston
Ruggles Grill
Food Rating: 5/10
903 Westheimer (Montrose), Houston, Texas 77006-3919
Phone: 001 (713) 524-3839
Ruggles is far and away the best
place in town, serving South Western American cuisine. The menu is extensive, and there is a
tendency to add one too many flavour to its dishes,
but in general this is kept in check and the strong execution and good
ingredients overcome any reservations.
Service is good, and the wine list excellent.
Nit Noi
Food
rating: 2/10
2462 Bolsover(Morningside) Houston Texas 77005-2518
Phone (713) 524-8114
Simple
but reliable Thai place in Rice Village, not far from the excellent Ginger
Man pub. The pad thai noodles are particularly good, and in general
the classic dishes work well: try the papaya salad or the vast tom yum goong soup that anywhere else would be a serving for four
but, hey, this is Texas.
There
is also a branch nearby (5211 Kelvin Drive, Dunstan, 713 524-0283) that seems highly
consistent, not surprising as they apparently share a common kitchen.
Places
to avoid in Houston include Americas, which is pretentious and poor (1/10), while Café Annie has plenty of
dinner-jacketed waiters but also suffers from a complete inability to cook; its
high food rating in Zagat is incomprehensible. Papasitas served an
excruciatingly bad Mexican meal on my visit, though Papdodos
does a slightly better job of serving fake Cajun food (though their definition
of Cajun is loose, to put it mildly). Trulucks at least serves simple, honest steaks, reasonably
well
Key
West
Café des Artistes
Food Rating: 4/10
1007 Simonton St.(Truman Ave.)
Key
West, Florida 33040-3107
Phone: 001 (305)
294-7100
This is
really the only good restaurant in Key West (based on five visits, first in
1996 and then again in 1999). It does a
fairly light brand of French cooking, and the cosy dining room is supplemented
by friendly service. Sadly, though there
are lots of other restaurants in Key West, most are tourist fare. Stick to this one, based on my other
experiences in this beautiful location.
Los
Angeles
Los Angeles is an odd city. It has no real centre but is a vast,
sprawling place with a few districts like Beverly Hills and Bel
Air with manicured lawns and armed response units, and in between these
districts are areas that look something between a war zone and a scene from
Bonfire of the Vanities. Santa Monica is a pleasant beach area with
(shock horror in America) a pedestrian shopping area, where
people actually walk. Still, you can
park your car on the beach, just in case anyone thought this walking thing may
catch on. The beach itself at Santa Monica is spectacular, and it is easy to
see why this is the one used in Baywatch.
When staying in LA, I can highly recommend the Beverly Hills Hotel, a
pink extravaganza but with lovely rooms and excellent amenities. It has a classy pool and the kind of place
where everyone is on a mobile doing film deals, but the gardens are lovely and
the concierge service is excellent. The
Bungalows at the hotel are self-contained little houses with gardens, where
Howard Hughes stayed for many years, but the normal rooms are also excellent.
LA
is a bit of a tricky place for restaurants.
There are plenty of places that will charge you lots of money and that
are full of wannabee movie types, but few where the
food also delivers.
Crustacean
Food rating: 2/10
9646 Little Santa Monica Blvd. (Bedford Dr.) Beverly Hills, CA, 90210
Phone: 001 (310) 205-8990
A
lively Vietnamese place with an under floor fish tank on the threshold. A large dining room with an
upstairs, all completely full. We
had a very pleasant set of seafood dishes e.g. a soft shell crab with spices,
and some tiger prawns served in their shell.
Nothing amazing, but well executed, and not trying to be something it
was not. There is a decent wine list,
including several Alsace choices. A
very pleasant place, if a little pricey for the standard of the food. Service was excellent. Last visited March 2001.
Ivy
Food rating: 1/10
113 N. Robertson Blvd. (between Beverly
Blvd. & 3rd St.), Los Angeles
Phone:
001 (310) 274-8303
To
think – just the previous night Julia Roberts dined here! That is about the limit of the appeal of this
over-rated place, which is all about people watching and serious staff
attitude. We arrived on time for a 20:30 booking and were seated
around 21:00; no bar, just left standing around, as were plenty of others. You can sit either out-doors or inside. A soft shell crab was pleasant enough but
very plain, served with a bowl of “Cajun spices” on the side (1/10). A corn chowder soup was adequate but
uninspiring (1/10). A grilled salmon was
fair, served just with a baked potato (2/10) while a slab of tuna also turned
out well from the mesquite grill, but with some appalling French fries that a
burger joint would have rejected. The
wine list is fairly priced e.g Stags Leap Merlot at
USD 55, but weak coffee and some cookies that came as a dessert were below shop
standard. Pricey and purely for the
“must be seen crowd”. Last
visited March 2001.
Linq
Food rating: 4/10
8338 W. 3rd St. (La Cienega
Blvd.) LA, CA, 90048-4311
Phone: 001 (323) 655-4555
Another place to be seen, but delivering better food than most. Linq
has grey marble walls, a fireplace at one end of the narrow dining room and
lighting so subdued that you virtually need a torch to read the menu. My spring rolls of pork and prawn were
capable enough, a light batter and a pleasant sweet and sour sauce (2/10). Better were crab cakes, well made with a
salad that featured fresh leaves and a good dressing, a sweetocrn
salsa and a home-made tartare sauce. (4/10). For main course, Chilean sea bass was well
timed, with a lemon grass and coriander sauce, some green beans and a wasabi mash, with a couple of julienned
carrots (4/10). I had three generous
pork medallions wrapped in bacon, served with a surprisingly good barley
risotto and a red wine sauce (5/10). A
raspberry and almond frangipane tart (4/10) was better than an apple tart with vaniall ice crean (3/10). Service was good. Overall, probably objectively the best food
we ate in LA. Last
visited March 2001.
Matsuhisa
Food rating: 1/10
129 North La Cienega Blvd. (Wilshire Blvd.) Beverly Hills, CA, 90211-2206
Phone: 001 (310) 659-9639
A
casual setting, with plain wooden tables, yet this was the place that later
spawned the wildly successful Nobu in New York,
and later in London. This seems to be running mainly
on memories now, however; its high rating in Zagat is
incomprehensible. A tuna sashimi was
pleasant enough, as was a less good tuna sushi (2/10), but a course of UK Kobe
beef managed to be chewy (Kobe beef – chewy?!??). Little better was a fillet of salmon that was
dried out, served with a one-dimensional pepper sauce (0/10). Prawns with a wasabi pepper sauce was a little better, but again
the sauce tasted like gravy with a bit of seasoning (1/10.
Service
was brisk and the place was packed; at least the bill is low here – USD 90 for
two including beer. Last visited March
2001
L’Orangerie
Food rating: 3/10
903
North La Cienega Blvd.
(between Melrose Ave.
& Santa Monica
Blvd.) W. Hollywood, CA, 90069-4792
Phone: 001 (310) 652-9770
This
grande dame of LA cuisine is showing her age. The dining room is lovely, with wide spaced
tables, excellent quality tablecloths and cutlery, one wall looking out to a
climber-covered trellis, an orange tree in one corner and a stunning flower
display. The current chef, however, is
obviously out to make a culinary mark and delivered some seriously misguided
dishes in the attempt. This is a pity as
he showed good basic technique. Also on
the positive side was an excellent sommelier from Bruges, who was helpful and
knew his stuff. An amuse guele of crab had a rather sad gelee,
but neither could be tasted through a ludicrous dose of star anise, which
dominated everything (0/10). A starter
of langoustine was roasted with some distinctly crispy vermicelli but far too
much cinnamon, which overpowered the delicate flavour of the langoustine
(1/10). Cured salmon had a crust of herb
but, guess what, this turned out to be mainly star anise. Atop the salmon, which in itself was fine,
was about half a herb garden of thyme – again, the chef showed no sign of
balance at all, and what on earth was yet more star anise doing here? (0/10). My chicken
was better, cooked well enough and stuffed with some pepper slices, but has an
entirely unnecessary citrus zest that permeated the jus and did not work well
(2/10). Monkish was nicely timed, with
some pleasant pasta but was with a grapefruit and shallot sauce that was too
sweet – overcompensating for the grapefruit.
That
the kitchen can deliver when not on a herb crusade was
shown by a very capable chocolate soufflé, classically cooked and served
(6/10). Sadly a chocolate cake was much
less good, cloying and with poor texture (1/10), served with a crème anglaise that had lots of blac