| | the most expensive meal i didn't pay for.
now that the tank and motorcycle are gone (and i'm trying to quit smoking...again), eating has become my #1 hobby. i've mentioned that lance is my best eating partner as chris does not have the patience for the frequency at which i like fine dining. anyway, after chris and i went to alexander's in cupertino for the first time a few weeks ago with some b-school friends of his, i showed lance the menu and he was all over it. the one thing that was regretful of that first visit was that we were too late for their "iron chef tasting menu" which sounded intriguing. basically, you give the server your list of special requests and the chef makes up a 5-8 course menu based on those ingredients. lance wanted to do that, so he even left work an hour earlier than normal (we usually eat around 8:30).
i will begin by saying that there is no doubt that alexander's is overpriced. even ignoring the wagyu, you probably cant escape spending at least $60/person. once our server (a nice guy named andy whom i requested again from last time) heard that we wanted wagyu, he upsold us on everything. lance couldn't give a damn as long as he had his wagyu filet. our tasting menu eventually included: dungeness crab rolled in granny smith apple "cigarette" amuse bouche, pickled peach with truffle asiago, tofu-adamame fried crabcake, caviar with poached egg, cream, and chives, foie gras (i got cold terrine while lance requested hot seared), maguro poke with octopus, asparagus cream soup, poussaint with veggies, strawberry yogurt parfait, wagyu (filet mignon for lance, ribeye for me), cheese course, and chocolate ganache dessert.
i should say that alexander's, with all of its friendly service, lacks refinement. i'm no expert at food, but even i can tell when the overall flavors lack a certain je ne sais quoi...delicacy perhaps. plus the tasting menu is not really a tasting menu. when they say 8 courses, it really is 8 (big ass) courses. i haven't felt so defeated by a meal since 2002 when i was suffering from jetlag while attempting a 13-course dinner at lasserre in paris. by the time we finished the foie gras tonight, i knew that i was being set up for failure. we did end up sending back one course: the maguro poke, which both of us agreed had the wrong consistency probably due to being held at room temp for too long. we've never done that before.
btw, alexander's is only 1 of 2 restaurants on the west coast that have wagyu from japan, which really has an incredible consistency. i'm not a huge fan of beef, but even i think it's wonderful. we found out tonight that the other restaurant is the wynn in vegas, which made lance feel vindicated because he loved our experience at alex while i thought it overpriced. then again, he had the wagyu there and i didn't.
as for chris, he was feeling sorry for himself when he got home from class tonight and realized i had left him spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. but then everything was ok again when i brought home 3/4 of my wagyu along with most of my pouissant and half of my cheese.
anyway, as is tradition, lance footed the bill (i cook for us on the weeks where we don't eat out), but it was more than we had ever spent (lance and i have been to FL together). in fact, it was so ridiculous that i felt downright guilty, which rarely happens. i told lance i would pay the tip. that in itself was more than the tasting menu at manresa. |
| | Posted 5/4/2007 12:39 AM - 209 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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