Far East Visited 5/23/2015 3 Forks

Far East 5055 Nicholson Ln, Rockville, MD 20852

I'll keep this short and sweet.  It's a perfectly acceptable dim sum restaurant if you want no muss and no fuss.  When I go home, I typically go to the behemoth known as New Fortune.  That place is the size of a football field and push carts are everywhere but the food can be hit or miss.  Sometimes the food is barely warm and sometimes it's spot on.  Since I usually don't have a lot of time when I'm home, I stick to what I know but my dad suggested getting dim sum here and I figured it was worth a shot. 

The one positive I will say about this place is that it's way less crowded than New Fortune.  We easily got a table at 11AM and even as it approached noon, the place never got super crowded.  The decor here is seriously lacking though - I mean there is zero personality.  They do have push carts but they didn't seem as frequent as other places I've been to.  They have all the usual suspects here:  shumai, steamed shrimp dumplings, chicken's feet, turnip cake, sticky rice, etc, etc - all priced between $2.95-4.50 per dish.  The overall quality was pretty good - everything was warm, tasted like it should and it didn't look like the dishes sat on the carts all morning making the same rounds.  I noticed that they were constantly coming out of the kitchen with hot food which was re-assuring.  I did particularly enjoy the shrimp rich noodle crepe - this is my favorite dim sum dish and it was fresh tasting and the shrimp was nice and plump on the inside. 

All in all, this is totally fine place to go for dim sum in the MD area, although it does lack charm or character. New Fortune is kind of what you expect from a typical dim sum place - crowded, loud and overwhelming but if you're just down for some dumplings and want to be closer to Rockville than Gaithersburg than Far East is a totally acceptable alternative.   Total bill:  $60 for 4 people 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

MP Taverna Visited 5/22/2015 3.5 Forks

MP Taverna 470 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 111211

This was a tough one to review because there were a lot of things that I really did like about this place and some that I thought were good but not great.  If I were still giving out 1/4 forks, this would be a solid 3.75 rating but since I'm not, I had to choose between 3.5 and 4 and 3.5 won out at the end but I would definitely say that depending on what you order, it could be a strong contender for 4 or even higher. 

Vince, Aaron and I were way overdue for our Williamsburg outing and finally were able to nail down a date and since we all lived within walking distance of MP Taverna (and since it had literally just opened the week before) we were eager to try it out.   I will give 5 forks for the space and decor.  It's a huge and lovely space on the corner of Driggs and 10th and it makes you feel like you're not really in a crowded busy city with its spacious seating.  The menu is a very solid line up for Greek food - I haven't been to Kefi yet but this is from Chef Michael Psilakis who has a stellar reputation around the city for great Greek food.  Greek food is one of my favorite under dog cuisines that I don't think gets enough love or attention.  We all wanted to try everything on the menu - the one thing we wanted to try but couldn't was the whole baby animal!  If you call 5 days in advance, you can order a whole baby goat, lamb, pig, pork butt or fish.  Next time!  Instead we opted for spicy feta dip, tzatziki dip, seared scallops, octopus, loukaniko sausage, lamb chops, mixed grill of the day, cauliflower, and thrice cooked smashed potato.  Yes - we clearly over ordered but who the hell cares? 

Surprisingly the scallops came out first along with the dips.  It was seared in brown butter and it's one of those dishes that was good but didn't blow my mind.  I mean it's pretty hard to f*ck up scallop and as long as you don't overcook them, it's always delicious.  As for the dips, I was a big fan of them - it's usually my favorite part of any Greek meal.  The pita bread was nice and soft and warm and the spicy feta had a real serious kick to it.  It had nice chunks of feta mixed in with spicy roasted red pepper.  If the spicy feta dip was great, the tzatziki dip was fantastic.  It was cool, refreshing and a very nice complement to the spicy feta dip.   I could seriously just have a trio of dips for dinner and be a happy camper.  Next was what was one of my favorite dishes of the night, the octopus.  Octopus is really one of those dishes that can go either way.  At it's worst, it can be chewy, dry and just very unappealing.  At it's best it's wonderfully tender and incredibly tasty.  Luckily it was the later here.  They served us 3-4 very big pieces of fabulous octopus that all 3 of us really enjoyed.  It's definitely something I would order again here.  Next I tried the sausage which was made with pork, orange peel, fennel, leek and other aromatic herbs and seeds.  It was grilled nicely and the addition of all the different herbs really added some great flavor to it.  On to the meats and sides - and yes at this point, I was getting really stuffed but I wasn't going to complain.  The lamb chops were a bit on the small side which was a disappointment.  They were at best 3-4 small bites but the bites were tender and juicy.  As for the mixed grill plate, I was also a bit disappointed.  Maybe it's because I didn't really read the menu to understand what was on the mixed plate but it was just more sausage, more chops and a few more bites of a meat.  I'm not saying it was a bad dish but after having tons of similar dishes before this, I'm not sure if this dish really added anything for me.  As for the side dishes,  they were also stellar.  The thrice cooked smashed potatoes were amazing.  They were basically fancy potato slices but they were so incredibly addictive.  I had 3 and if left alone with the dish, could have eaten the entire thing.  As for the cauliflower dish, it was a nice way to get some kind of vegetable in my system for the night.  

We ended the night just the way we started - with too much food on the table. We got the grilled pineapple, brownie and then the restaurant kindly served us the creme brulee on the house.  Of the 3, I enjoyed the creme brulee the best but really at this point, I was super full and 3 glasses of wine and 1 cocktail in.  

The service was pretty good - the waiter was friendly, seemed to know the menu pretty well (except when we pressed him on the whole animal) and the sommelier and GM all came by to ask us how we were doing and made sure we were taken care of.  I let Vince pick out the wines and they were all very solid choices and they had a very extensive beer and wine list that would make any drinker happy. 

Overall, I really did like my meal here it's just that I didn't walk away thinking this was the best Greek meal of my life.  I would absolutely come back here and definitely order any of the dips, the octopus and a side order of the smashed potatoes.  I didn't try the Greek salad but that's also usually one of my go to Greek dishes, that I would want to try here at some point.  Total bill:  business dinner so I'm not sure but overall the prices there were relatively affordable and reasonable. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mu Ramen Visited 5/16/2015 3.5 Forks

Mu Ramen 12-09 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

Mu Ramen is one of hottest new ramen places going on right now but with the exception of a few dishes, it's probably only worth going to once the hype has died down.  It's from a Per Se alum and it also received a glowing review from the NY Times and several other food blogs, which is why there was a line 30 people deep before the place even opens.  I got there at 5:25 (5 minutes before it opened at 5:30) on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon and there was a line out the door already.  Unfortunately, Janet and I missed the 1st wave of seating and had to wait another hour before sitting down, which was actually fine because I wasn't all that hungry at 5:30.

The place is pretty tiny with only communal seating and a few seats at the bar, so if you're not one of the first 20-25 people in line, you will have to wait at least another hour.  The menu here is fairly simple, 5 appetizers and 4 different ramens.  My first impression was that the prices were a bit high considering that we were in LIC - the ramens ranged from $15-18 and if you wanted extra toppings they were $2-4 more.  But we were already here so we just went to town.  I had to get the U&I (MP which was $24 that day) even though Janet wasn't a huge fan of it.  We also got the Okonomiyaki ($14) and the "MUssels" ($14) while I got the Tonkotsu ($15) ramen with an egg ($2) and Janet got the MU ramen ($18) with an egg ($2).  I'll start with the U&I which is the primary reason I gave this place a 3.5 fork rating vs. a 3 for rating.  If you like uni, this dish is exquisite.  I mean, it's something I would want for one of my last meals ever.  Yes, it's offensively priced at $24 for a small bowl but you get 3 fantastic and fairly large sized tongues of uni that are incredibly creamy and briny and heavenly.  It's paired with ikura (salmon roe), spicy maguro (spicy tuna), sushi style rice and sprinkled with sesame roasted seaweed.  I've had uni before in my life but never in 1 bowl of deliciousness as this one.  It's what really saved this meal for me.  Next we got the okonomiyaki which was deep fried chicken wings stuffed with foie gras and brioche.  It tasted like the salt and pepper chicken dishes I've had in Asian restaurants before and while I love anything deep fried, this one was a bit too salty for me.  It was good but the combination with the foie gras as a bit too much for me - it didn't really need the froie gras nor did it add a whole lot to it.  Next were the mussels which was sauteed and served with a spicy dipping sauce.  It was a solid bowl and the mussels were a good plump size - I just wish for $14 that there were more of them.

And finally we move to the ramen.  Mine was basic pork based ramen with pork jowl, bamboo shoot, mushrooms and scallion.  Listen, it was a good ramen, the noodles were soft and the broth was light but flavorful.  I really enjoyed it but I don't think it's really worth $17 and a trip out to LIC when you can have just as good ramen in the city for less and that's closer.   Janet's ramen had an oxtail and bone marrow broth topped with brisket, pickles, bamboo shoot, cabbage and scallion.  The brisket looked like corn beef and while she enjoyed it, she also echoed the sentiment that it was overpriced (her ramen was $20!) and that she still liked Totto Ramen and Ippudo better.

All in all, I'm still glad I checked this place out and for me, it was worth the trip to for the uni dish.  I thought that the appetizers were better than ramen dishes here.  In a place like LIC where they still don't have a huge selection of restaurants, I'm surprised that they didn't lower their prices to make it a more neighborhood friendly destination.  It felt like everyone there had trekked from the city or Brooklyn to try it out, so I'm curious after the hype dies down, how many locals will continue to support a $18 ramen?  Who knows, but maybe as long as they serve that uni dish, there will still be people lining out the door.  Also on a good note, it looks like they changed their policy from cash only to accepting credit cards which is great because you can easily run up a pretty hefty tab here.  Total bill:  $117 for two with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Betony Visited 5/12/2015 4.5 Forks

Betony 41 W 57th St., New York, NY 10019

Betony is not a typical place that I would go to:  it's fancy pants, it's in Midtown and it's got this snotty corporate feel to it.  But it was also named Best Restaurant of the Year by Esquire magazine in 2013, awarded 3 stars by the NY Times, from the team at Eleven Madison Park and is on a host of other Best of Lists including the James Beard Awards, so it's hard to say no when I was invited to dine here with a friend and work colleague who works at Food and Wine.  Being friends with someone in the biz is great, especially at places like this.  Getting a reservation was no problem, the service was beyond attentive and the GM came out and personally greeted us to say hello. 

It's not that I don't like places like this but it's that they intimidate me.  It's almost too high brow.  The service is impeccable and the food incredible smart, well thought out and innovative.  The menu comes in 2 formats:  4 course tasting ($95) or chef's tasting ($195).  Vince and I opted for the 4 course tasting with the pig's head for two ($25 extra) as our main course.   Yes, you read that correctly, pig's head.  That was the whole reason why we went here.  For my "first" course, I chose the cured hamachi, for the "next" course I got the seafood ragout and then for the "then" course the pig's head. While we were waiting we were served several amuse bouche dishes - unfortunately the only one I can really remember is a chilled pea soup, which was excellent.  I also remembered the outstanding and incredibly addictive warm dill bread.  I love a nice piece of warm bread but the combination with the dill was out of this world, I'm glad they only gave us 1 piece because if they had a basket of it, I would have housed the entire thing and ruined my appetite. 

The cured hamachi was served with spring onion and black rice and simply delicious.  The fish really melted in your mouth and had a very clean feel to it.  Big fan of the dish.  Next the seafood ragout, which was a potpourri of fantastic shellfish in a very clean and light broth.  I loved the bites of mussels and squid in it - I just wish the dish was bigger because it was about 2 1/2 mouthfuls and then I was done with it.  But in hindsight it was good that there wasn't more because the pig's head was definitely more than enough food.  They carve it table side and it's a pure work of genius. Obviously for those of you who are vegetarians, this won't be your bag but if you eat pork, it was fantastic.  They give you pieces of the jowl, cheek, tongue and ear along with generous helpings of the crispy skin along with it.  It was fatty and delicious all at once.  In my book, you are a true connoisseur of good food if you know where the best parts of the animal come from and it's usually always the head.  I will say that the ear was my least favorite part and just a few bites of the tongue was enough for me (it's got a very distinct taste that if very different from the rest of the pig).  The skin was out of this world - very crunchy with just enough fat underneath to really hit you in the arteries.  The dish was served with a bunch of other side dishes but honestly I was a bit tipsy from the the cocktails and wine we had that I can't remember any of it now but I do remember them being good.  As if this wasn't enough, we still had dessert to finish up and we got some kind of dessert that Vince determined (and I agreed) tasted like fruit loops - but in a good way!

By the end of the meal, I was happy, full and drunk - what better way to end a meal.  This review is most likely biased because I suspect we probably got more attention and some special dishes because it was booked under a Food and Wine connection but hey, I'll take it.  This is definitely a place to visit if you have a corporate account or looking for a very Midtown New York experience but not for an everyday occasion.   Total bill:  Unknown since I didn't pay

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Los Tacos No. 1 Visited 5/7/2015 4.5 Forks

Los Tacos No. 1   Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave.,  New York, NY 10011

I had heard about Los Tacos No. 1 from a co-worker from mine who is from Mexico - she had told me that the best most authentic tacos in the city were actually in Chelsea Market and I didn't believe her, so I had to try it out.

It looks like the word got out because the place was jammed packed when Holly and I got there but the line does move fast.  As a heads up, this place is not  actually a restaurant.  It's more like a stall or stand because there is no where for you to sit, you have to take your food with you and either find a table inside the Chelsea Market or if you can't deal with the crowds inside the market, find your way outside.  Either way, it's totally worth the pain.  The menu is pretty simple:  4 different kinds of tacos (carne asada, pollo asada, adobada, or nopal (cactus), the same kinds but in quesadilla form, guac or salsa and chips and then some aguas fresca.  Simple and fairly cheap - all the tacos were between $3-3.75 and the quesadillas between $4-4.75.  Since I didn't want to get in line again, I went to town and ordered 1 carne asada taco, 1 pollo asada taco and an adobada (pork) quesadilla.  Things can get a bit hectic when you order because you have to go to another line after you pay, where you give your receipt to the person making your food to tell them if you want flour or corn tortillas.  The next line can be a total clusterfuck so be patient.  Everyone is just standing around waiting to throw their ticket at someone behind the counter but once you get someone's attention, your food comes out quickly.  I opted to go for 1 flour and 1 corn tortilla on my tacos.  There is a variety of salsas for you to choose at the counter as well as limes.

Holly and I quickly ran away from the madness and luckily found 2 seats inside the market.  I was a bit skeptical at first that the food would be really that good but after my first bite of the carne asada taco, I was totally wrong.  It was absolutely fantastic - the meat was seasoned extremely well and very juicy.  The pico de gallo was delicious and salsa verde added some great zest to it.  The handmade tortilla was delicious and really held everything together.  I was very impressed with its authenticity - you didn't see a hint of cheese or heaping of sour cream on it but frankly it didn't need it at all.  The pollo taco was equally delicious.  As for my quesadilla, it definitely wasn't what I was picturing - I thought it would be a more Americanized version with lots of gooey cheese - instead this one was actually just like a larger version of a taco.  There was no cheese and it wasn't folded in half but the pork was juicy and delicious as well so who the hell cares how it's served as long as I enjoyed it?

All in all, the food is spot on here.  It's been a while since I've been to Mexico but I could definitely tell that these tacos were a notch above anything you can find in any of the fancier high end places in the city.  For all of you complaining that there's no good Mexican in the city, definitely give this place a try!  Total bill:  $14 with tax, tip and a drink

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Noreetuh Visited 5/7/2015 3.5 Forks

Noreethu  128 1st Ave., New York, NY 10009

While I wouldn't say that the food in Hawaiian is world renowned, it does have a warm and fuzzy part of my heart just because of how much I love anything related to Hawaii.  There are some traditional Hawaiian foods that I am a huge fan of (ehm, poke) but it's generally not a cuisine that you see around a lot.  So when this place opened up, my friend Van and I (she's also a big Hawaii and food fan) had to give it a try.   Apparently the place was opened by two Per Se alums which may explain why we was so hard to get a reservation - we couldn't one until 3 weeks out and at 6pm none the less.

The menu is broken up into snacks, starters and mains - the waiter had recommended 12 dishes which I would say is way to extreme and honestly a bit offensive.  We netted out at 2 snacks, 3 starters and 4 mains which sounded like a lot of food.  The cuisine is not quite traditional Hawaiian - it's more high end fusion Hawaiian - it's got elements of Hawaiian flavor with their own twist to it.  From the snack section, we got the corned beef tongue musubi ($6) and the silken tofu ($12).  From the starter section, we got 2 orders of the big-eye tuna poke ($17) and the kalua pork croquettes ($11).  From the main section, we got the spam agnolotti ($18), garlic shrimp over rice ($22), mochi crusted fluke ($21) and pineapple braised pork belly ($20).  So yeah - we went a bit overboard but there were 4 of us at dinner and from what we could see, the dishes were on the smaller side.

We started with the musubi which in its traditional form is made with grilled spam over a block of rice and tied together with seaweed.  This one was more like a sushi roll but it had beef tongue, cilantro and peanuts in it.  Surprisingly the thing that I didn't like wasn't the beef tongue but the peanuts.  The beer tongue was actually quite tasty and had a similar consistency to grilled spam. The peanuts weren't bad, but they just didn't seem to fit with the dish.  The silken tofu was made with uni, ikura (salmon roe), shiitake and miso.  I thought it was going to be like a silken tofu cube but it was more like custard.  Obviously I loved the uni and ikura  - but there wasn't enough of it (there never is).  But once you got a taste of the mushroom and miso, it was a bit overwhelming.  Despite everyone's love for uni at the table, the overall dish wasn't a fan favorite.  On to the tuna poke - the dish that we were all most excited by.  This one was made with tuna, macadamia nuts, pickled jalapeño, and seaweed.  It was good but I love poke in it's purest form without much else beside sesame oil and soy sauce so the fact that this had nuts and jalapeno made it a bit too complicated than it needed to be. But the actual raw chunks of tuna was nice and tasty.  The kalua croquettes were served with cabbage and katsu sauce and this was a definite crowed pleaser.  The inside was a soft delicious pork and potato filling and the outside was nice and crispy and I'm always a huge fan of katsu sauce.  The cabbage was actually a really nice refreshing side to the dish.

Next we moved on to the main entrees which all came out together.  I tried the pork belly first - it was quite tender and actually pretty fatty on top but I didn't mind that at all.  It came with yams, mustard greens and peanuts (again!!).  I'm glad that I split it with the table because while it was good, it was definitely way too heavy of a dish to have on your own.  Next I moved on to the best dish of the night, the garlic shrimp over rice.  The shrimp were HUGE and drenched in garlic - so how could that not be delicious?  The shrimp were nice and tender and had real bite to it.   It was by far my favorite dish. I guess after that anything would be a bit of a disappointment but the spam agnolotti just didn't measure up regardless.  It was fine - not a terrible dish but it was an ok dish.  Lastly I tried the fluke which came with baby bok choy, kabocha squash, pinenuts, and black bean.  It was a nice white fish and I enjoyed the mochi crust to it but it could have used a bit more injection of flavor beyond the veggies and black bean.  Even though we ordered a ton of food, the portion sizes were fairly small and I was still pretty hungry at the end.  We ordered the bruleed pineapple ($10) for dessert which was exactly how you imagined it - half a pineapple with a sugar brulee top - it was very sweet and it felt very Hawaiian but I'm not sure it was worth $10.

Overall, there were some great dishes that are definitely worth coming back for.  While I do agree that it's best to share a bunch of dishes here,  you could definitely cobble a solid individual meal here if planned correctly (I'd recommend musubi, maybe poke and definitely the grilled shrimp).  While this place wasn't a traditional Hawaiian restaurant, it did remind me of Hawaii enough that I'm now craving to go back and experience the real thing.  Total bill:  $70 with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Almond Visited 4/26/2015 2.5 Forks

Almond  186 Franklin St., New York, NY 10013

A bunch of my friends were running a 5K in Tribeca early in the morning so we thought it would be fun to all get together after their race for some post race brunch.  I had heard of the Almond in the Flatiron district and didn't know that they opened up a new location downtown, so I was game to try it out.

Jenn, Eric and I got there right at 11AM and it was completely empty.  They were nice enough to let us in and seat us while we waited.  Since we were the only ones there, the service was very attentive and we split some donut holes and biscuits while we waited for the rest of our 10 person group to join.  The donut holes were nice and sugary and the biscuits were warm and buttery - so a good start to the day.  The menu was your basic brunch menu with a lot of egg products - multiple types of eggs benedict, omelettes, breakfast burritos, as well as sandwiches, burgers.  So it was a pretty solid line up for all your brunch/lunch needs.   I opted for the Another Kind of Benedict ($17) which was essentially eggs benedict with smoked salmon and I also got a side of bacon ($6).  Since there were so many other people at brunch, I'm not going to list (or remember) what everyone else got but I did see a breakfast burrito, croque monsieur, fried rice and a variety of other benedicts at the table.

While our appetizers had come out quickly, the rest of our dishes took forever to come out.  Granted there were 10 of us and the restaurant had definitely filled up by then, but still.  The service really started to go downhill at this point.  Finally our food comes and it was kind of underwhelming.  For $17, the eggs benedict wasn't anything amazing and while the egg was poached well, the entire dish just felt really blah in terms of flavor and presentation.  It felt like they skimped on the salmon adn tried to make up for it by having more hollandaise sauce and potatoes on the plate.  The bacon was also not fatty or crispy enough and it just felt kind of tough and flavorless as well.  Everyone else had made similar comments that their food wasn't all that impressive either and a few friends had mentioned that they weren't huge fans of the food in the other location either.

It was definitely fun to all of us to get together and I know how hard it can be to find a place that takes reservations for 10 people.  I guess for the price and location, I was expecting better food and better service.  There are definitely other places in the 'hood that are still pricey but serve a better brunch.  Total bill:  $60/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Park Avenue Spring 4/25/2015 4 Forks

Park Avenue Spring 360 Park Ave S., New York, NY 10010

I'll admit that I would have never discovered this place on my own because of its east side location but I'm glad that Lav had mentioned it for dinner.  Apparently the restaurant changes menus seasonally, so they change their name accordingly - so in a few months they'll call themselves Park Avenue Summer, although I'm not really sure why that matters.  But in any case, my first impression of this place is that the decor is STUNNING.  Really really beautiful - it almost felt like you were inside a botanical garden or something.  Just as I was going to comment that it would be a great place for a wedding,  I noticed that someone was having their wedding dinner on the private 2nd floor.  

As I mentioned the menu changes seasonally but honestly I'm not really sure what makes this particular menu very "spring".   My 2nd impression of this place was that it was pretty expensive, almost bordering on the line of offensively expensive - $15-18 for an appetizer and almost every entree was over $30.   But I'm willing to roll with the punches and see what it's all about.  I opted to get the rabbit wellington ($32) based on the waitres' drooling recommendation of it and Lav got the pea soup ($15) and small ricotta cavatelli ($17) without lamb and we got the leek gratin ($10) and rainbow carrots ($16) to start.  They start you with this incredibly warm and delicious bread and then add on addictive salty herbed butter - I really couldn't stop eating it.  Since I'm not a huge carrot fan, I opted not to try the carrots, but Lav mentioned that she thought that they were excellent.  I did try a spoonful of her pea soup and it was a great light spring soup that really drew out the essence of fresh peas.   I normally wouldn't have opted for the rabbit but since the waitress was such a huge fan of it, I was excited to try it.  It was made into 3 separate pieces of rabbit wrapped in an extremely buttery pastry puff with a layer of duxelles (mixture of mushroom, shallots, and herbs) in between and served with peas and carrots and a sherry cream sauce.  Talk about heavy meal.  It was quite delicious and it's been a while since I've rabbit but it tasted like any light meat (not very game-y at all).  It reminded me of pot pie in a way.  It was very good for sure, but not sure if it was as insanely good as the waitress was describing.  I had a small bite of the cavatelli and thought that it was missing some flavor or seasoning (maybe because it was served without the lamb it was supposed to have in it? The one dish of the night that was pretty disappointing was the leek gratin - it was just super underwhelming and very heavy on the leeks and it wasn't very creamy or cheesey either.   

As usual, we left room for some dessert and the mint sundae ($12) sounded amazing - fresh mint ice cream, devil's food mousse cake and lavender fudge sauce that they infuse in house.  It was a giant dessert and knowing that we left many bites untouched made me sad. The mint was refreshing and strong but not overpowering and the devil's food cake was nice and moist - there's just something comforting about the combination cake and ice cream.  Combined with the delicious bourbon cocktail I had earlier, I was 100% ready to be wheeled home after this meal.  

All in all, I did enjoy my meal there and the decor was breathtaking.  It's definitely not a place that I would go to regularly due to the unnecessarily high prices of the dishes, but maybe coming here once a season when the menu changes sounds like the right approach.  Total bill:  $75/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp