Nobu (Midtown Manhattan) 01/10

We've been twice to Nobu in the last few days. Architecturally and food-wise it is one of the most interesting restaurants in New York. Effectively in three sections, a ground level bar with cafe style

seating and up a large staircase, lined with Saki casks,
a huge noisy, stone floored room with an open kitchen along one side
and a smaller, much quieter, carpeted area incompletely separated by attractive dividers. These are mimicked below an attractive silver grey patterned material covered ceiling. Tables are large, plain wood, furnished with chop sticks, small stone rests and white cloth napkins.
The wall decor is simple with candles set on, probably fake, driftwood.
The menu is similar to Nobu in Melbourne but the food was different. We tried several appetizers which were all both attractive and tasty. A miso soup with tofu and mushrooms was really good
as was a raw tuna dishy. This blue fin tuna, from the belly,
had a finer texture and a more delicate flesh than the yellow fin we get in Australia. A bean dish, one only eats the bean and not the pod, was very moorish.
Black cod fish is served either with a reduced very rich black sauce, and green chilis or marinated in a sweet miso sauce, both about $24. both are served with nothing but a recommendation - The fish itself was a good sized almost boneless, fillet. The texture was delicate but it held together so that it could be readily flaked, a delectable main course. A shrimp salad,
I think they called it prawn salad, was pleasant enough in a light pink creamy mayonnaise sauce but nothing special. They also offer a sushi meal, a sushimi meal
or a tempura meal. This comes with a serve of lettuce salad, call it arugula if you like, with a nice light vinaigrette dressing and a miso soup.
Sandra had the tempura. The batter was far to heavy seriously deteriorating from the dish.

We drank hot Saki, which I am growing to like more each time I have it.

Service was very attentive after we clarified what information we expected. In all definitely a fine dining experience.

Felidia (Manhattan) 01/10

Lidia Bastanich, of TV and cookbook fame, has several Manhattan restaurants of which I think Felida, on East 58th Street, was the first. We like her cooking and chose Felidia because it was close to us. It's a cosy restaurant, on two floors 'though only the ground floor was needed the day we were there. The place is flooded with a soft pinkish light
which gives everything a slightly warm hue that looks strange on some of the pictures. Service was impeccable with prompt attention to requests but not in your face. A basket of very fresh baguettes was brought to the table with a creamy bean paste in place of butter.
Apart from the a la carte menu there is a great value pris fixe $29.50 menu with coffee. There is a good selection of dishes available and I had that while Sandra chose from the regular menu. We started with two appetizers. Ricotta filled rigatoni were an outstanding house made pasta with grated peccorino. It could not have been better. Sandra's chicken liver was equally but negatively outstanding it was inedible, the thin sliced liver was completely overcooked and burnt on the outside. The captain returned to the kitchen with it and came back to say that the chef was obliged by the law not to under cook chicken products and offered us a replacement dish. I am always struck by oddities, for example the fellow at the next table displaying his sock less foot.
I've no doubt he does own socks so what is his message, in the middle of New York winter? Linguini with duck and mushroom looked appealing. There were two prices on the menu $20 and$22. What was the difference? $20 is for a half serve!! We took the full serve
and shared another great tasting appetizer. Plenty of shredded duck and mushroom which seem to have a lot more flavour than at home. The chef, who I think must have been embarrassed also sent us a complimentary and very pleasing risotto.
I then had a mildly spiced plate of tripe, something I love, served with a small pot of creamy polenta. An offal lovers treat, the tripe a little chewy but very tender, the spices well balanced and the polenta worth imitating. Sandra had a tenderloin of veal served with an extremely tasty and tender cheek in a fine wine sauce. Palachinca, a pancake, filled with chestnut cream and topped with candied chestnut and cream ended the meal on a sweet note.
Coffee is served with cute little porcelain pots of brown and white sugar.
Champagne by the glass is one of the cheapest drinks here and we had a glass of quite reasonable Prosecofor $10.
Score: 14/20

Cafe Boulud (Manhattan) 01/10

Crowded, cramped and on the noisy side, this restaurant is much more casual than Daniels fine dining establishment that we wrote about last. Prices are in the good restaurant category and the food and service match that. The venue is simply furnished
and could not match the beautiful people.
Our table was so crowded
with a centre piece, candle, wine and water glasses, cutlery and crockery so there was hardly room for food. Undaunted we ordered a handsome meal starting with an appetizer of foie gras (2.5 oz) seared and barely cooked ($28).We are becoming addicted to this stuff, despite its history and origins. Served with bosc pears, tonka beans, toasted walnuts and sherry sauce it floods your mouth with a rich sensation beyond taste with its light and almost fluffy texture. Mushroom and barley soup ($16)was an excellent winter soup, full of goodies including parsley and garlic herb croutons. Braised Moroccan lamb shank with chickpeas,mint, preserved lemon and eggplant ($38) was cooked to super tenderness but was a bit boring, the flavours being extremely mild. They have half a dozen "Market Specials" each day and Sandra chose the roasted Monkfish with winter squash, dandelion greens, wild mushrooms and sauce meurette ($34)
which had her almost drooling. The meat had a very fine texture and tasted sweet, close to lobster. We completed the meal with a cheese platter
and a deconstructed tart tatin.
This is an excellent restaurant, somewhat misrepresented as a cafe, which, in a better appointed venue would compete comfortably with many of New York's fine dining establishments. I was not able to move my chair back far enough to prevent the flash washing out the subject matter which made the photo's worse than usual.
Zagat recently scored it 27 for food, 28 for service and only 22 for decor scores with which we agree.
Comments: To convert the menu prices to the real cost of the meal, which includes an almost mandatory gratuity of 18% to 20%, to A$'s add one third thus a US $100 meal translates to about A$133.
Score:15.25 /20

Gibraltor (Lancaster) 01/10

Released from bondage to the local area by our GPS we ventured to Lancaster to this highly regarded Mediterranean influenced modern American restaurant. They have a wall of awards,
dozens of rave reviews from the public and Zagat gave them a whopping 28/30 in 2008. Situated in College Square opposite a small university it is expensive in this area populated largely by students and the thrifty Amish who would be unlikely to eat in any restaurant.
The restaurant occupies a large space separated into three sections. There is a smaller area with bar seating on one side and the remaining space is partially divided in two. This shows a small section of the divider.
Tables are set with cloths and attractive coloured glasses.
with a row of booths down one side,
and an open kitchen at one end of the room.
The first waiter who approached us proved to be almost totally ignorant about their very extensive cellar and we were surprised when there was no sommelier. He sent another server, Abby, who was somewhat better informed and we enjoyed a bottle of Napa Valley pinot gris.
We started with two outstanding appetizers. King Edward Island mussels in a rich cream sauce
were lightly steamed. The mussels shells looked small but the mussels proved to be exceptionally meaty with excellent flavour. We then had caramelized foie gras and black truffle torchon with toasted brioche, dried fruit chutney and candied walnut with field greens and a sherry vinagrette which was out of this world. We were rather ambitious at this point. There was a whole lobster on their flyer but not on the menu. We negotiated to get a lobster mornay which was not the classical presentation. It was served in a rich buttery and creamy sauce but the cheese element seemed to be absent.as well as their massive sea food platter called a Gibraltar ($99). You can get one, two or three tiers. This illusrates the lower two tiers
Not only is the three tier platter larger but also it has more of the finer products - lobster, oysters of various kinds, crab meat an so on, as well as mussels (green lip from New Zealand), prawns, craw fish, calamari, baby octopus and baby clams It's a cold platter with all the seafood on a bed of crushed ice. Two plates with four little pots of sauce, vinaigrette, salad, ketchup and remolade with some rusks were provided to add flavour.
Whilst the ingredients were as fresh as possible everything was soggy, especially the mussels and the crab legs, which had been frozen, were soggy. Perhaps this was a result of them being washed before they were served. As good as it was this extravaganza was less satisfying than expected. It suffered from a lack of personality. It was a bit boring. It needed something to give it a lift, a serve of French fries or an accompanying salad.
The decision on dessert was difficult but we settled for a self saucing chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream, beautifully presented, slightly overbaked but rich and satisfying.
This meal raised a question we pondered about. Does a fine dining meal need to have not only fine ingredients but must it also have a structure. I grew up with a concept of dinner. A soup, a main course and a dessert. Generally the main would be meat with two or three different coloured vegetables or fish with one or two vegetables. Occasionally a salad was served before the main course. The meal had form. Fine dining establishments have menus with several choices of appetizer and anything from about six to 30 odd mains. Desserts are mostly on a separate menu. Do these collections of fine food make a fine dinner?
Score:15 /20

Josephines (Marietta, Pennsylvania) 01/10

Last night we dined at Josephines, recommended to us by several locals as the best fine dining restaurant in the vicinity. The 20 mile drive there was uneventful, thankfully due to the GPS naviguide, a necessity for tourists to get around here. As we dined we began to consider the difference between fine dining and haute cuisine, a French term literally meaning high cooking or grand cuisine. In recent years haute cuisine has come to refer to a style of cooking characterized by many small dishes prepared with numerous ingredients, frequently not usually seen together, and treated in unusual and sometimes highly technical and complex ways, by teams of chefs, to produce extraordinary gustatory experiences. Presentation and appearance of the dishes is crucial. Usually there is an emphasis on local products which can be bought fresh and have not had to travel far before reaching, if not their final resting place, at least the plate on which they will be served.
Josephines promotes itself as providing fine dining redefined When we entered this white and yellow painted house with its welcoming wreath on the front door
and its huge wooden supporting beams, occupying two rooms with a bar at the far end

we were warmly greeted by our waiter who, on hearing that we had been recommended by friends, assured us that we would not be disappointed. It is a former residence which for a time was converted to a cheap chicken and waffle joint before turning to fine dining 15 years ago.
" You got it" the waiter announced when, after some discussion we chose a Napa Cab/sav (Aquinas 2008), ($48)
which was excellent for our degustation meal($70).
We were in a slightly cool area of the restaurant despite the wood fire burning nearby
and after a short time asked if we might move to a warmer area in the restaurant. After checking his reservation sheet the waiter obligingly arranged that for us with his signature remark "You got it".
House made bread rolls, still warm from the oven, were great and came promptly.The meal began with a tian of Ahi tuna which had a light Kim Chi sauce stirred through it.
Kim Chi is most commonly a pickled vegetable, frequently cabbage, side dish in Korean cuisine.The Kim Chi sauce here lacked the tartness of Kim Chi pickles but was quite delicate. The dish was decorated with a little green there were also a few drops of sauce on the plate. This was as crisply fresh as it is possible to serve. Deservedly one of their signature dishes. Indeed the degustation menu consists of five courses of their signature dishes available for two or more guests. Our waiter consulted Chef/owner, Daniel ......and allowed us to swap one tuna for the oyster appetizer.
"You got it" he said, pleased. The two oysters were almost lost in the tasty but very heavy breading with a light cream sauce and a little alfalfa decoration. The next dish was lump crab cake with a Dijon cream sauce.
We have not often had crab cake, which varies widely around America. This one was phenomenal, about 4 ounzes of crab coarsely shredded and lightly bound with no pastry in evidence and seared on one side. This was very meaty, the taste undiluted by breading or pastry. The next course was braised boneless short ribs in a pomegranite and grapefruit reduction.
Braised for 6 hours it was so tender no knife was needed to enjoy it. The sweetness and sharpness of the heavy reduction matched perfectly with the full flavoured meat. The final main course was a slender piece of eye fillet, served with potato Dauphinoise and cauliflower.
This was disappointing. The fillet was sliced too thinly to be able to appreciate the texture and tenderness of the meat. It could not be cooked warm blue as it was medium rare as soon as the outside was seared. It was sprinkled with coarse salt making it seriously over seasoned and the surrounding Marche de Vin, wine sauce, was also extremely salty exacerbating the problem. The florets of cauliflower, with a white sauce, were all dente to the point of being almost raw and the Dauphinoise was not sufficiently creamy, the potato also being barely cooked and quite hard. We expressed our feeling to the waiter and returned one dish ordering another crab cake in its place. "You got it" he said, happy to please. The last course was another house speciality, homemade caramel ice cream, hand whipped with Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur originating in Jamaica.
It was characterized by a superb, delicate, lightly burnt sugar taste in the creamiest imaginable ice cream.Was this haute cuisine? Not by our definition. Was it fine dining? Yes and no. A serious failure in the last main cannot be overlooked however the remainder of the meal was very good. We would suggest a better description of the meal than haute cuisine would be rustic excellence. It just missed out on being fine dining because of the failed main course.
We would like to hear our readers views on defining haute cuisine and fine dining and is there really a difference between them?
Score: 15/20