Gary Danko with Bob for his birthday tonight. Sharing our courses, it started out nice, the fois gras was delicious, paired with carmelized onions and fuji apples in a deep reduction, just spectacular, but the lobster salad was not very lobstery, despite the generous amount of lobster, and way too salady. The seared scallops were delicious, but again another problem with the lobster–upstaged by lima beans? This is not right. My venison was delicious, but Bob’s pheasant resembled turkey so closely that we thought that somebody was up to something fishy in the kitchen. The cheese course included an outrageous blue from Tasmania that was one of the best cheeses I’ve ever tasted–deep, pungent, spicy, just great. It seemed like the whole meal was defined by one hit and one miss per course. Dessert was the same as the other courses with a chocolate souffle that was overcooked and lifeless, and a heavenly cheesecake with citrus and sorbet that stimulated the taste buds and the imagination. Since the meal was so all over the place in terms of flavors, we chose a light Languedoc, which was very pleasant and well balanced, although ultimately lifeless, just earth and fruit. We had a hard time finding a wine for under $100, having mistaken the page numbers for the prices several times before finding a suitable range of wines to choose from. I want to be dazzled for this much, instead I was only tickled.
Tales of Post-Twinkie Ennui