Deericious!

Finally, a trip to Chez Panisse and boy was it worth the wait. (Again, reservations 30 days in advance, to the exact calendar day. This requires some planning ladies and gentlemen…) Although Chez Panisse has a more affordable, ala carte cafe upstairs that serves a variety of the season’s best dishes, the establishment is famous for its restaurant (downstairs). There, diners are offered a prix-fixe menu that changes daily, featuring only the freshest in-season ingredients - mostly purchased from local vendors and farmers. You may have heard of executive chef and owner, Alice Waters - she’s penned many Chez Panisse cookbooks that you’ve probably thumbed through at the local bookstore. The prix-fixe menu is posted online each Monday for that week so what is being served on the night of your reservation is really the luck of the draw. Be open-minded and trust that everything served at Chez Panisse is absolutely fantastic. (I even set a calendar reminder the week of our reservation to check what was on the menu for us!)

An apertif: proseco with limoncello, my favorite (4*).

Ravioli fritti with cherry tomato salad (3* for the ravioli - the ricotta filling was good, the fried pasta part was a bit dry, 4* for the tomato salad).

Spicy shrimp and squid saute with roasted peppers and sweet corn (5* - the squid was cooked to Perfection with a capital P!).

Grilled rack and loin of James Ranch lamb with little turnips, stewed garlic, summer squash, and green beans (4.5* - this was astonishing since I don’t usually eat/like lamb.) Wherever/whatever James Ranch is, I’m a fan! BTW, garlic can be stewed?? Alice Waters and her staff of chefs are geniuses.

Roasted Blossom Bluff Orchards peaches with plum ice-cream in creme anglaise (4.5*). Simple, yet with complicated - we almost licked the dish clean.

Yummy! This was one of the best dining experiences ever. The restaurant looks like a cozy house, the staff treats you with the utmost professionalism and courtesy, and the food is phenomenal. If you really enjoy good, high quality food in a relaxed setting, you’re sure to have a great time at Chez Panisse. I’m going to mark my calendar now to make a reservation for sometime in the next 30 days or so.

Being the Morimoto-lover that I am, I jumped on the phone to make a reservation the minute I knew I’d be visiting NYC (back in May). Reservations at the Morimoto sushi bar must be made 30 days in advance, not surprising for the hip digs in the meatpacking district. This is Morimoto’s second restaurant, the first being in Philly - which we all know I will probably never visit because hey… it’s Philly. J/K. The structure is huge, with uber modern design - very NYC. Downstairs boasts a modern-looking bar where good-looking people hang out for drinks while waiting for their table.

We were promptly seated at the bar, right in front of Morimoto-san! It was a while before I realized that I might be scaring him with my gazer-beam stare and had to turn away instead to focus on the day’s menu. We selected our favorite sushi/sashimi dishes as a basis for comparison, then ordered the really unique, creative dishes on the menu. I found the sushi and raw dishes to be mediocre, nothing compared to the great sushi you can find in LA (Sushi Sushi, Mori, etc). However, the Iron Chef really proves to be a master of creativity in appetizers, cooked dishes, and presentation. Most memorable were the lobster ravioli appetizer (4* check out the big chunks of lobster!), pork kakuni in a bed of rice porridge (4*), tacoyaki (3.5*), seafood stew in savory broth (4.5*), tofu cheesecake w/ yuba and sugared ginger candy (4*). Look at the pics and see for yourself!

Dinner was definitely worth the $200 tab, but only because I had a front row center view of Morimoto himself - he made our spider roll and uni sushi! Oh, and Vera Wang was seated at a table right next to us. Sorry guys, I was too shy to snap a picture of the Iron Chef, but I did get an autographed menu as a souvenir. =)