Well let’s see.
I have been to:
11 Madison
Le Bernadin
Latelir - Saint German - only went there because a hotel I was staying at was the Saint German on Rue Du Bac. Great food. Great experience. Need to go back.
Daniels - Been plenty of times. 1st time we ordered a $3,000 Screaming Eagle. They poured and my friend said “fine”. So I got my glass and as I brought it up to nose thought it smelled funny. Well, when it hit my tongue it tasted like dust.
I told my friend to hold on and have another taste. He had another swallow and blew it off saying he’d worse.
I laughed and said “not $3,000 worse”.
So my other friend who is a celebrated chef took a taste and she told both of us not to drink another drop. She called the Somalier over and had him check it out.
This guy must have some idiot loser. He said that it seemed fine.
My Chef friend said “You wouldn’t drink that! Take it back and give me the wine list”.
She was pretty sharp and the must have figured he needed to enlist higher authority, especially for some jerks who just wanted to sip an expensive bottle of wine(LOL, had a wine the night before that was $20,000 and found in some shipwreck) I lost all respect for Somaliers right there.
So the Somalier returns with this really nice looking guy and I think he’s the manager.
All I heard was his last name and I just shut up. My friend introduced herself as Chef”**” and he said he had heard of her when he passed through San Francisco a week ago.
She goes on tells him about her wine cellar, at her restarunt and describes the incredible selection and that it cost over $2 million to stock.
She tells him we know wine and that our other friend was fine with it but we aren’t.
So they get to pleasantries and after a few sentences he takes a sip.
I have never seen a look like that on any of the respected chefs I met.
But, he smiled and said we could not drink this wine.
He excused himself and came back with an Auraju and asked to enjoy it on him.
Just the nicest guy and we finished off another bottle of wine with a Howell Martin Volcanic Hill(favorite, favorite, favorite)
Everytime we went back we said hello to Daniel and I still think that is one of the best dinning experiences I have ever had.
Been to Aqua, not that one but the one in San Francisco so many times. My friend designed the restaraunt for another friend of ours. They liked it so much they had him design “Charles Nob HIll”. Sadly Aqua is closed and I believe they will open in a new location.
Michael Mina replaced Aqua and every restaurant he has ever opened is just great.
Been to the French Laundry. Greta dinning experience and Chef Keller is terrific. Not my thing though. Too many courses. But if someone else is buying?
Manresa - Terrific place and they have this weird foam drink. Had one once. Not into it.
Coi is an awesome dinning experience and I ate the one in LA first(Koi) before I dinned there.
Speaking of LA Three great restaurants, just go: Patina, Nick & Steffs, Campanile. Thank me later.
Still there are plenty of terrific restaurants such as Jean George, Nobu, Grammercy Tavern, Masa but, my two favorites are Gary Danko’s in San Francisco and Auberge du Soleil in Napa.
I’m going to Gary Danko’s next week and Auberge du Soleil in September.
That’s my two cents worth.