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Review: Nopa
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While on a trip to San Francisco we decided to swing by Nopa for some lunch. Upon our arrival we were quickly seated in the upstairs dining area and started to look at the menu. Unfortunately the bacon flat bread pizza from The Best Thing I Ever Ate was not on the menu so we had to go a different direction. I ordered goat cheese bread pudding, whiskey braised pork with jalapeno biscuits, and of course a side of bacon. I thought about ordering a specialty beer but at those prices, it was not going to happen.
Before I talk about the food, I am going to say this now, our server was awful. He wasn’t rude just sort of indifferent. He never told us his name, never looked us in the eye, and barely asked us if we liked the food. I thought for a minute that maybe the hipster theme translated to the service but then our food was brought out by someone else. This server was friendly, talkative, and excited about the food. Too bad we only saw her once because she would have made us feel much more welcomed. I will always knock a restaurant for bad service especially one that is going to cost me more than $50 for lunch. They should probably work on that.
First my bread pudding arrived with the goat cheese on the bottom. While I wasn’t overly impressed by the presentation, the flavors were pretty good. The bread pudding was moist but I was surprised that the goat cheese was mostly at the bottom. I expected the cheese to flow across the entire dish but alas, you had to dig to it. I really liked the pickled beets perhaps better than the pudding itself. Enjoying the vegetable side will be a theme in this meal. The arugula was completely unnecessary.
My entree came out next with my side of bacon (Not pictured but decent). I was very surprised by the presentation. I was not expecting it to come out as a kind of stew. I really like my pork but this was a little bland. It was cooked really well though and melted in my mouth. The only thing that was truly memorable from this dish was the brussel sprouts. These were slightly charred and delicious soaked in the pork broth. Tasty veggies aside this was a disappointing entree. The two biscuits also left me a little wanting. If you call somethings jalapeno cheddar than it better be just that. These biscuits just tasted like normal biscuits where I was hoping for cheesy and spicy flavors.
I was expecting so much more from our trip to Nopa but sadly it was only mediocre. At the price point I was hoping for a more engaged server and better flavors but it seemed that all I was paying for was a nice seat at a sleek modern eatery. While I do love my beets and brussel sprouts when they are the things I remember best from a meal that included pork and goat cheese, you have a problem. The meal just did not come together how I would have hoped and I will probably not return to try it again.
Overall: 5/10
See if you like Nopa and tell me I was wrong, check out their website here
Related articles
- Nopa (justonefille.wordpress.com)
- NOPA: Behind The Scenes With Chef Laurence Jossel (thebolditalic.com)
- Lighten meal with Asparagus-Goat Cheese Souffle (triblive.com)
- Beet and Goat Cheese Hummus (abeautifulmess.com)
Guest Review: Devi
The Foodie and the Fatty
Guest Blog by Kafele J. Khalfani (@kafele)
As Steve is a foodie and I am a fatty, I go where Steve tells me to go to eat. Last night, I tried Devi (www.devinyc.com 8 E 18th Street New York, NY 10003). Steve normally has a recommendation for every restaurant. The reco for here was a Hot Pepper Stew. It wasn’t on the menu, despite Steve’s demand to fire them, I stayed for dinner.
Clearly seeing that I was going to eat them out of house and home, they recommended we do the Three Course Tasting Menu, which I somehow did twice cause…well, yeah.
Devi is having their liquor license renewed so they don’t have alcohol. I did have a lovely Ginger Ale Chiller that was awesome. It was like ginger ale with a kick. LOVED IT!
We were then given a complimentary shooter. I have no idea what the waiter said it was because (1) it was loud (2) I can’t hear and (3) his accent was thick. I think I heard pomegranate. I drank it hoping I wouldn’t be sentences to months in the Underworld like Persephone. The shooter was hot and spicy, like an angry gazpacho. LOVED IT!
First appetizer was a paneer & zucchini tikka. It looked good. It tasted fine, but it’s not something I would have again. Mainly because I don’t like zucchini and I have no idea what paneer is. Also my date ordered it. MEH.
SIDE NOTE: Yes, I was on a date. And he was the world’s slowest eater. At one point I had to ask if he wasn’t hungry or if he was a slow eater. He wasn’t that hungry at which point I heard the announcer from Mortal Kombat say “FINISH HIM” and I destroyed the rest of the food.
Second App was a Chicken Kastoori Kebab – totally awesome. Huge piece of chicken. Well-seasoned and with a side salad made from what my date called “the stuff they put on the burritos at Chipotle”, which the rest of us call avocado. (Please note, he’s kinda cute so I’m letting that burrito comment slide). LOVED IT!
The entrees were a Chicken Vindaloo (pretty much an Indian staple) and Tandoor Grilled Lamb Chops. The Vindaloo was good. Enjoyable. Just enough spice, good sauce. Nom. Nom. Nom. LOVED IT!
The Lamb Chops were also good, but they suffered because I had some AMAZING lamp chops at Enoteca Maria (http://www.enotecamaria.com/wp/) a few months ago that brought me to tears. Enoteca Maria – - one reason to come to Staten Island. But Devi’s chops were good. LIKED IT
Totally bombed on the dessert picks. Pista Kulfi is an indian ice cream with pisachop and rose milk. The best way I can describe the ice cream would be a milk flavored Italian ice with soy juice. And I hate break pudding. But date ordered Emperor’s Morsel “Shahi Tukra”. It was like if you eat French toast before you put it in the pan. Not their fault, but boo to desert. DOUBLE MEH.
The ambience of the restaurant was a very subtle Indian. Overhead light fixtures, drapes in the back part of the restaurant for some booths. The uniforms of the waiters. Music was loud enough that you couldn’t hear people at the next table unless you really tried.
Wait staff was attentive and quick. Clearly they have an optimistic view of water glass refilling as I was never at glass half full. The manager was great and made lots of recommendations for what to eat. Also made recommendations to save money. LOVE IT!
Overall Review: 7/10
Check out Devi’s menu here
Related articles
- My 5 Foodie Links (theflyingfugu.com)
- The Spiciest Dish in the World (and How to Make it) (theflyingfugu.com)
Review: Big & Little’s
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On my final day in Chicago a few months back I was able to stop by Big & Little’s Restaurant. This place was on Tripple D and I have been wanting to eat their food ever since. Big & Little’s is a interesting blend of a corner burger place and a high end bistro. I was extremely excited to try what they had to offer. When I arrived a only had to wait in line for a short time but that was only because I missed the rush. Only a few minutes later and I would have been in the line out the door so lucky me. I was also lucky that I had some cash on me since they do not take cards. I ordered right from the dishes on the show, I mean who could pass up on pork belly and foie gras?
I only had to wait a few minutes for my food to arrive and I used that time to charge my dying phone. Soon I was sitting in front of two awesome looking dishes. First on the menu was a pork belly po-boy. Overflowing on a bun were over a dozen pieces of pork belly perfectly cooked, fatty, and gloriously greasy. Each bite of pork was unbelievably flavorful and paired extremely well with the crunchy pickles. The lettuce below the pickles was also a good addition. Since the pork belly was decadent, as expected, the crisp lettuce helped to cut through the richness and allowed me to keep eating. Lastly, the bread was chewy and tied the entire sandwich together in a nice package. I think the best thing of this sandwich and the next dish was how generous they were with the expensive ingredients. With a pork belly po-boy I think I would have been happy with half the amount of pork they gave me but I’ll never turn down more.
Perfectly cooked pork belly
Now if the richness of a pork belly po-boy was not enough, the next dish put me over the edge. I was literally sweating when I finished but it was so worth it to try the foie gras french fries. There were really only two ingredients in this dish but what a combo! Who would have thought that you could pair the decadence of goose liver with the humbleness of fried potatoes. Definitely a knife and fork kind of side dish. Basically, though the foie gras was served in large pieces, it made sense to smooth it out into some sort of a condiment for the fries. Ketchup just didn’t seem appropriate. The look of it after doing that was not picture worthy but it surely made the fries delicious! This was my second foray into foie gras and definitely a much better experience.
So rich and tasty!
Big & Little’s Restaurant is an unassuming little place with some big bold flavors. One of my all time favorite meals and no service or ambiance to bump up the experience. They rest on their flavors and that is definitely not a bad thing. I was more than happy to spend upwards of $30 for my meal of rich and decadent items paired with street food favorites. I would stop by again without hesitation and try their other po-boys. The oyster po-boy especially. Next time you are in Chicago or if you are there right now run to Big & Little’s, you won’t be disappointed!
Overall Review: 9/10
Take a look at the Big menu for their Little place here
Review: Kopp’s Frozen Custard
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On the way back to Chicago from a wedding my friends Renee, Gavin, and I stopped by Kopp’s to grap some burgers and frozen custard. Kopp’s is mostly a fast food place with upscale custard. When we arrived I was super excited to see that one of the specials was grasshopper fudge custard! We ordered our food and, once we received it, took up residence on a bench around the corner of the restaurant. I first ate the burger which was pretty good. It was a relatively standard with a thin patty with thick cut vegetables and a chewy bun. It tasted good but it was not the reason I came to Kopp’s.
The vegetables are so thick you can’t even see the patty
After finishing the burger I dove into the custard. Grasshopper Fudge is everything I like in ice cream. Mint and chocolate custard with fudge swirled into the mix. This was the first time I ever had frozen custard and it will not be the last. The custard was an interesting combination thick and creamy. I could take the cup, turn it upside down, and the custard did not move at all. Yet when I took a bite it was probably the smoothest dessert I had aside from pudding. The mint sang through and balanced extremely well with the chocolate. Each spoonful also brought a little fudge to the table which added to the richness of the entire cup. I polished off my cup of custard without any hesitation and could have gone back for more.
It just looks creamy and delicious!
I am glad that I finally made it to Kopp’s, the custard was everything it was made out to be. The burger was good but definitely not the star of the show. I imagine that is why it is not called Kopp’s Burgers and Custard. Next time you are in Wisconsin you should swing by and hope they have grasshopper fudge on the menu. You will not be disappointed!
Overall Review: 7/10
Check out all of Kopp’s custard options here
Review: Le Pichet, the 100th Restaurant!
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On a summer trip to visit the kids up in Seattle I finally reached my 100th restaurant. After a few votes for different options and some logistical decisions with three children, we settled on a lunch excursion to Le Pichet. Le Pichet is a french restaurant that specializes in Charcuterie, which is the art of salting, smoking, and curing meat. You really can’t go wrong with a plate of cured meats for lunch. The only issue with this visit was that the items on the list were not on the lunch menu but we made due anyway. We sat outside on a sunny day and ordered our meal. For the table we went with the Grand Assiette, or in layman’s terms, huge plate of meat. After a few minutes the appetizer arrived with the chef’s selection of eight different varieties of meat, cornichons (My favorite pickle) and lots of bread.
Smoked and cured meats galore!
Basically this plate had everything. Duck liver terrine, Serrano ham, salami, pork pate, chicken terrine, and the most intense, Langue de Boeuf or beef tongue. All the meats had their own unique flavor but my favorites were the Serrano ham which is a Spanish highlands salt cured ham, the duck liver terrine, and of course the beef togue. All three had a dramatically different flavor and texture. The Serrano ham was sweet and salty, that you could tear apart piece by piece. Texturally was chewy but not too tough and melted in your mouth from the long curing. The terrine had a serious duck gaminess but it was smooth and creamy. Eating the liver gives you an intense flavor of the animal and you could definitely tell you were eating duck. The nice additions to the terrine were pork and green peppercorns. These two ingredients added more depth of flavor, especially the peppercorns. Now we get to the beef tongue. I had never eaten tongue before and was excited to give it a go. No way around this the tongue was some serious eats. Intense flavor and really chewy; undeniably beef. It appears that the more unique part of the animal, the more intese flavor you will get. I could have eaten those three all day and, well, I decided to order more.
Since the rest of the lunch menu was not that interesting to me I decided to go for a Tartine, an open faced sandwich with mustard, cornichons, and my two favorite meats. I went for the beef tongue and duck liver terrine. I’ve already described them so I won’t do it again but I was not disappointed with a huge sandwich of the two. The mustard added some tang and broke up the fact that I just consumed a ridiculous amount of cured meats. The one thing I have left out until now was the bread. A country bread, nice a soft on the inside but with a hard crust, it stood up really well to the rich meats and tangy mustard. All around the Tartine was a great sandwich and one I would eat again.
All in all Let Pichet was a great choice for my 100th restaurant off the restaurant list. While I was dissapointed that I was unable to get the Raclette Savoyarde, I was definitely not let down by their extensive collection of Charcuterie. I would recommend that you visit and put your fate in the chef’s hands, sort of like what you could do at a great sushi restaurant, you will not be let down.
Overall Review: 7/10
Take a look at Let Pichet’s huge Charcuterie menu here
Review: Nickel Diner
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The Nickel Diner in LA is a hot spot right outside of the Fashion District specializing in good prices on unique items. We stopped by on our way out of LA the morning after spending some quality time at Scarpetta in Beverly Hills. Sunday morning at the Nickel Diner appears to be the big brunch day and in such a small space we waited a while for a table. But, based on the much longer line that formed after us, I assumed it would be worth the wait. We were seated right next to the counter and the kitchen so we were able to watch them make our food. In my opinion, the best seats in the house. I ordered a blood orange mimosa, the BLTA & Egg, and their famous homemade pop tart.
The blood orange mimosa arrived quickly because it was the drink of the day. It was a unique tasting drink, I really liked the intensity that the blood orange juice added as compared to regular juice. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the drink. Next, my BLTAE arrived. I really like BLTs and adding some avocado and an egg seems like a great idea.
Now that’s a tall sandwich!
I was a little nervous for this sandwich to arrive because the server didn’t ask me how I wanted my egg cooked. I nievly assumed that since he didn’t ask he knew that a touch under medium was the perfect cook for an egg on a sandwich. Cooking an egg just under medium means that the yolk wont be solid but it also won’t be very runny. It will be at the viscosity of molasses which allows the yolk to seep into the entire sandwich without spilling all over the plate. Unfortunately, my assumption was wrong. The egg yolk was almost fully cooked, about halfway between a soft and hard boiled egg. How unfortunate! So, while I was missing the egg yolk flavor in the sandwich, the rest of the ingredients worked really well. The bacon was nice and crispy balanced well against the creamy avocado. The tomato and lettuce were both super fresh and tasted like they were picked from a garden right outside. Lastly, the bread. You can’t fail with some toasty, buttery, sourdough! My favorite bread toasted to crunchy perfection and topped with fresh and delicious ingredients. Not a bad dish for breakfast or brunch.
For dessert I went after their homemade pop tart. This dessert was very good but also very easy to describe. Just imagine a regular strawberry pop tart from the foil and multiply the taste a few times over. Fresh strawberries turned into jam stuffed into flaky pastry topped was a sweet icing with strawberry sugar crystals. You really can’t go wrong here, it brings back the nostalgia of your childhood breakfast treat (or just the one you at today) but adds the depth of flavor you would look for as an adult. I think the best comparison is the pictures of the Nickel Diner pastry and the actual Pop Tart. You try to figure out which is which.
All in all the breakfast at the Nickel Diner didn’t disappoint and I would come back here to check out their dinner options, especially the smac and cheese and bacon donut. I was a little disappointed by the cook of my egg in my sandwich but I guess that i what you get for not giving instructions to the server. One of these days I will get an egg on a sandwich or a burger cooked to my liking, or I can just do it myself at home.
Overall Review: 7/10
Take a look at the Nickel Diner here
Review: Primanti Bros
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While in Pittsburgh for a family wedding we managed to swing by the original Primanti Bros which was a stop by Adam Richman on Man vs Food. This place is known for it’s sandwiches stuffed with french fries and coleslaw just like the fat sandwiches from my college days. It is not known for it’s ambiance, so let’s get that out of the way and talk about the food. Primanti Bros has grown into a chain but I imagine all the stores look similar. It is a wood table and chair place with a nice old school looking bar. The menu is plastered all over the walls and you can only pay with cash. We grabbed a seat in the second section of the restaurant and waited to place our order.
After a few minutes our waiter came by and we ordered. I decided to check out their #2 best seller, the Pitts-Burgher Cheese Steak, and a cup of their almost famous chili. Everything came out together and ready to eat. The chili was a seriously tomato based with a smattering of beans and meat throughout. I love chili and I love tomato soup and in my opinion this was a very good tomato soup. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good soup but in the end I am privy to the texas style chili with heavy amounts of spicy peppers and a lot more meat.
My sandwich was also pretty good, some serious after drinking food. The bread was nice and thick which held up pretty well to the wet slaw and cheese. So here is when I admit my failure to read menus carefully. I thought that this would be a real cheese steak but I neglected to recognized the play on words in the name Pitts-Burgher. Instead of thinly shaved meat I actually got a burger on this sandwich. I was not expecting that and honestly didn’t want it so my review is a little skewed. While the sandwich tasted good I was thrown off by the burger texture with the cole slaw and the non bun bread. The burger was also cooked all the way through which is not to my liking, as I am a rare kind of guy. I found myself wishing I had read more carefully and ordered the pastrami because this sandwich was not for me. Next time we are back in town I will try it again and order the meat I really like and judge it more fairly. I will say though that I have and always will love adding cole slaw and french fries to my sandwiches!
In the end this was a good restaurant with a strong following and I can see why. Cheap and sizable sandwiches for people going on or off shift or stumbling in after a long night of drinking. Pretty much the same reason why the grease trucks at Rutgers do so well but I will take my Fat Darryl over the Pitts-Burgher every time.
Overall Review: 6/10
Find one of the many locations of Primanti Bros here
Review: Tuck Shop
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In Phoenix we decided to go a bit off the path and check out the Tuck Shop. This restaurant is located in outside neighborhood of Phoenix and we definitely were a little confused when driving down blocks of homes. The Tuck Shop just sort of pops up on you and looks like it could be a large home. But don’t let outside appearances fool you, the inside was cool and sleek and the food was no joke.
I was there with three other people and so we were able to try a bunch of appetizers. Our waiter was the type I always hope for, friendly and with great depth of knowledge of all the dishes on the menu. Based on his recommendations we ordered the cheese curds, the grilled baguette with roasted garlic, the roasted brussel sprouts, and the piece de resistance the stuffed Medjool dates. All of these appetizers were awesome! The baguette literally came with an entire garlic bulb in olive oil and was incredible. The garlic was roasted to perfection and spread like butter over the toasted bread. The brussel sprouts were also really delicious, they were lightly charred and caramelized with a delicious white wine and mustard glaze. The nice addition were the crushed almonds, they brought additional crunch and texture to the dish.
Without a doubt though, the best appetizer was the recommended dish from Best Food Ever on the Travel Channel. The stuffed Medjool dates were filled with a combination of chorizo and gruyere chesse and cooked to a sweet finish. The sweetness of the date was balanced by the spicy chorizo and the cheese made the entire dish creamy and long lasting on the palette. These dates were the best things I ate that night and possibly the best dish I have tried in Phoenix to date. Check out some pictures:
Baguette and Roasted Garlic
Cheesy Cheese Curds
Crispy Brussel Sprouts with Almonds
Wonderful Stuffed Dates!
After our appetizers I moved on to my dinner order. Unfortunately, they did not have the recommended fontina stuffed meatloaf so I went with two other options. First, the Times Mac & Cheese with crispy prosciutto, breadcrumbs, and oh yeah, the up-charge of $4 for some lobstah! Not just lobster, lobstah…hipsters. The mac and cheese was creamy with al dente pasta. The prosciutto added the needed salt to the dish and well, yeah there was lobster. Cooked well and really tasty but I’m not entirely sure I’m sold on the combo. I know that the trend is out there to make this down home dish high class but I think you can make it decadent without adding lobster. But this is coming from the guy who had a caviar mix-in for his mashed potato bar at his wedding, so who am I to judge.
Lobstah!
My last dish was the big recommendation from our waiter, the Pine AZ skirt steak. Those who know me well know that I am a sucker for shirts steak and mashed potatoes. Skirt steak was one of my favorite mom cooked dishes so I am a good judge. This steak was rubbed with a dry rub and then cooked in its own juices. It arrived super tender to the point where a knife was almost unneeded. Topping the steak were sauteed mushrooms that added a nice earthiness to the dish. Along side the steak were creamy parmesan mashed potatoes which added some needed salt to the entree. Each individual piece of this dish worked well individually and combined and I was more then happy to try them each way. This was a great recommendation by our server and even though I had so much before it, I had no problem cleaning my plate.
The Tuck Shop was a great choice for our dinner that night even if it was a bit of a trek from our hotel. Next time I am in Phoenix I will go back again and I recommend that you check it out too. Great service, nice decor, and good food made for a memorable dinner.
Overall Review: 7/10
Take a look at the Tuck Shop here
Review: Matt’s Big Breakfast
I’m finally starting to post after almost a month away and it is time to catch up with reviews from the NASPA conference in Phoenix. I traveled to Phoenix only a few days away from the LA marathon in March and was determined to start carbo loading early. My first stop was Matt’s Big Breakfast, a place I had patroned back in 2010. That time I ordered the item that Guy tried on triple D and it was really good. He ordered the chop and the chick which was a pork chop and two fried eggs. It was delicious, with a great pesto topping, I only wished I could have had more pesto but they may have given it to me if I had asked.
The restaurant is small usually with a 10 minute wait even for one person. I didn’t mind and hung out with the locals for a little bit before I was able to sit at the bar. The decor and ambiance is not much different than most other small breakfast spots but it is clean and welcoming. The staff was nice and took my order quickly and it was only a short while before my order of the hog and the chick was in front of me. Placed at my spot of the counter was beautifully cooked think cut peppered bacon, crispy hashbrowns, and two perfectly cooked over medium eggs. 
Everything on the plate was cooked really well and was a perfect breakfast. The eggs were right under medium which is where I like them and the hashbrowns were crunchy and crispy on the outside while still creamy on the inside. Somewhat like a potato latke, just without all the onion. By far the star on the plate was the think cut bacon. Sometimes when a restaurant says that the bacon is think cut it really isn’t and 
other times it is so thick that it comes out uncooked. Matt’s got it just right and peppered right to the edge of too much. Just where I like it. I could have eaten platefuls of this stuff, if only they were in LA at the end of the marathon.
The last thing in my order was the real reason I returned to Matt’s. Each breakfast arrives with a side of bread of which you have a few options. Bread aside, the start was the strawberry jam they served on the side. The jam is without a doubt the best thing in the restaurant. It is super sweet with chunks of fruit inside. It has so much flavor in such a simple concoction, I could eat a jar of it. Too bad they only give you about two ounces. I wonder if they bottle and sell it because I would buy.
All in all Matt’s Big Breakfast is a really solid breakfast joint in downtown Phoenix. No wonder it always has a wait. The peppered bacon was delicious and the rest of the meal was nothing to scoff at but, in the end, I would come here every time I visit Phoenix just for the strawberry jam. Check out Matt’s Big Breakfast the next time you are in town and let me know what you think.
Overall Review: 7/10
Check out Matt’s Big Breakfast and their peppered bacon here
Review: Spago Take #2
Take a look at my first Spago review here
After my first review of Spago, the general manager called me and asked for us to come back for another chance. We decided to give it another try especially when they sent me a $150 gift certificate in the mail. Now, I understand that they were really focused on us during the meal and some of the extras were unique to this one experience but overall it was a much improved night.
Our waiter, which was the biggest issue last time, was awesome. Ben was very attentive, explained everything very well, and checked up on us regularly. We didn’t want for anything the entire night. During the meal I paid attention to our waiter with other tables and somehow even though he was slammed, each table received just as much attention as we did. The ambiance was great and since we sat outside there was no issue with temperature. The music also seemed like it was selected just for me; I swear that I heard 75% of the music on my Pandora that day. It was a beautiful night and one worthy of our last meal in LA before moving away.
Within five minutes 
of our arrival the manager was out with champagne welcoming us back to Spago, what a nice touch. We were waiting for menus but he told us that before they allowed us to order he had a few surprises in store. Little did I know that it would be an hour before we actually ordered. First he brought out ahi tuna wrapped in a cone with sesame seeds. Delicious! Next, he brought us a blini (Mini savory pancake) with creme fraishe, smoked salmon, an salmon roe. Sometimes I am thankful that Virginia doesn’t eat seafood because this was awesome. It tasted like Judaism on a plate! The last bite he brought out was by far the best. It was a bacon, yes bacon confit inside a savory puff pastry. Too bad Virginia eats bacon, I could have eaten dozens of those. It was an explosion of bacon flavor in a tiny individual bite.
After about an hour we ordered and just like the last time our food was amazing, but that is not surprising for a Michelin star restaurant. The menu had changed completely since the last time and the new options were incredible. As an appetizer I ordered the Maryland crab cake which was one of the best I’ve ever had. And I’ve had crab cakes in Maryland. The presentation was masterful with what tasted like basil puree (But maybe pea) in tiny balls along the edge of the plate and a small salad on top of the cake. The star of this dish was the crab, as it should be. There was almost no filler, just enough to keep it together and that was great. Surprisingly, what made it so good was the spice. The crab cake was spicy! The
saddest part of this dish was that I only got one but I definitely needed to save room for the rest of the meal. As a side note, Virginia ordered the agnolotti appetizer and the manager took the liberty of shaving summer truffles on top at no charge. I was worried because Virginia hates mushrooms but these truffles were light and she loved them!
For dinner I ordered the Cantonese style roasted duck with lo-mien noodles and Shiitake mushrooms. It was beyond ridiculous. The waiter told me that Wolfgang himself orders this dish when he eats at Spago and I see why. The duck was beautifully cooked and super crispy and the 5-spice rub made the flavors pop. Paired as the main contributor to the sauce were mandarin oranges. Sweet and cooked down well they transported me to a traditional but elevated Chinese restaurant. You wouldn’t think that this dish would be presented at Spago but it definitely was. The entree was so good that I could resist picking up the legs to get every little morsel off the bone. I’m sure I embarrassed Virginia but it was worth it. The lo-mien on the side was just as good but nothing could compare to what was on the main plate. Sorry noodles.
For dessert I ordered a raspberry souffle with raspberry ice cream and chocolate sauce. This was possibly the best souffle I have ever eaten. It was cooked perfectly, I don’t think it would have collapsed if I just stared at it for an hour but I could not resist. I dug in and took my first bite. It was so rich and sweet from the chocolate but the tartness of the raspberries surely shined through. For an additional chocolate note they served a sauce to be poured on top. Ben warned me not to pour it all in but I’m rebellious and ignored him. I am so glad I did. The sauce was unbelievable, thick, chocolaty, and sweet it added a whole other level to the souffle. And when it became too rich, you could go in for some raspberry sorbet and cold whole raspberries. Despite the massive amount of food I had e
aten I almost licked the plate clean. If I was at home or alone, I probably would have licked it but alas Virginia makes me act like an adult. Sadly, I did not get a good picture because it was dark out but you get the idea.
Overall a much better experience that the first trip and though we can not get back the night after my first marathon, this went a long way towards making up for it. Based on this night I would go back when we are in town. It didn’t hurt that though we ate so much, with the comped items and the gift certificate our final bill was only $73 and our bottle of wine cost $50. Not a bad cost for a five star meal. Something else really cool that I appreciate about Spago is that their menu changes constantly so every time you go you can have a completely different eating experience. For some restaurants this wont work but Spago puts effort into the menu changes and it shows. While this trip to Spago was without a doubt a 10/10, my final rating reflects an average of my two dinners
Overall Rating: 8/10
Check out their ever changing menu here
