This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Elliotte Rusty Harold.
Original Post: When the Best Just Isn't That Good
Feed Title: Mokka mit Schlag
Feed URL: http://www.elharo.com/blog/feed/atom/?
Feed Description: Ranting and Raving
Last night Beth and I had dinner at what Zagats rates as the single best restaurant in Orange County. I won’t name names, because they were nice enough, and I don’t want to slam them. The food was good. The service was good. The wine list was excellent, though unfortunately neither of us was drinking. The seating was wonderfully spacious and private, far better than anything you’ll find in New York, where any restaurant worth eating at has crammed the seats together closer than RyanAir. But at the end of the meal our general reaction was, “That’s the best restaurant in the county?”
The meal was OK, but hardly memorable. It certainly didn’t rise to the level of world class restaurants like The Gotham in New York, Commander’s Palace in New Orleans (at least pre-Katrina; I haven’t eaten there lately and I’ve heard it may have gone downhill), or ‘t Fornuis in Antwerp. Food-wise I don’t think it matched the much less pretentious local Chaparosa Grill. Only one dish, the tuna tartare appetizer, really impressed us; and that was offset by a salad that just didn’t work. The remainder of the meal was about average for a nouvelle cuisine restaurant in this price range.
I suppose that’s only to be expected. When in New York, I wouldn’t expect to find the best restaurants in Westchester County or Long Island. Then again, for years one of the best restaurants in New Orleans was on the West Bank. Maybe we’ll have to try eating in L.A. next time. But still, you’d think there’d be room for one world class restaurant somewhere in the O.C.
Maybe the problem is that Orange County is Mecca for people who can’t tell the difference between expensive and high quality (or don’t believe there is a difference). Just watching the cars go down Pacific Coast 1 is enough to prove that. The restaurant is located in a hotel; and when we walked past the faux Roman statues, columns not actually supporting anything, and ostentatious fountains, all wrapped in genuine imitation marble, all I could think was, “This must be where People Like Us shot the nouveau riche tasteless segment.” Driving up to the valet in my 2008 Prius, I felt distinctly underdressed. At least I didn’t pull up in one of the $750 clunkers I used to favor. (On the plus side, in sunny SoCal dressing for dinner means putting on a collared shirt and slacks. There may not have been a tie anywhere in the restaurant, and there certainly wasn’t a jacket.)
Interestingly the restaurant pulled a couple of tricks like sending us home with a breakfast cake for the next morning that I’ve only previously encountered at the now-closed Ducasse, another restaurant that confused expense with quality. However, Alain Ducasse at least had the cooking chops to match his extravagance. This one, sadly, did not.
Previous Topic
