On Thursday, Betty treated me to a dinner at Tru for my birthday. In 2004 we had dinner at Charlie Trotter's kitchen table in celebration of my graduation from cooking school and we have been to Spiaggia for a private party, but normally we don't get much more expensive than Boka or Topolobampo. So for Tru, I got all decked out in my one and only suit and we headed out. When we arrived we had to wait for the valet to verify our reservation before he would take our car. Once that was done, we entered the restaurant.
The entrance was very dark, we were met at the door and once they checked our reservation we were led to our table. The dining room was also dimly lit, but with spotlights shining down on the individual place settings set up on tables with white linens. I didn't really think of it at the time but I believe only the three positions on the table where we were sitting were lit, the fourth wasn't. I noticed throughout the evening that everything seemed to be pre-staged for each table. For instance, when they needed flatware for our table they would open a drawer at the service stand and pull out a platter with the three sets of silverware our table required.
Once we were seated, a waiter arrived at our table with menus printed just for us (They each had "Happy Birthday Chris" on them). He offered sparkling or still water and inquired if any of us would like to start off with a glass of wine or cocktail. Since we were planning on ordering a tasting menu, I opted for the wine pairings while Betty chose a single glass of wine. I wish I could remember the names of the wine pairings, but I wasn't taking notes.
The food started off with a gougère, a choux pastry made with cheese. We were then offered a choice of breads, brioche roll, chapeau roll, pumpernickel roll and parmesan crisp. My favorite was the chapeau roll, which seemed to be made of a standard french bread dough. Salted and unsalted butters were provided, but a carafe of a really good olive oil would have been nice. The anuse bouche was a savory panna cotta with a paper thin tuile and dusted with caramelized fennel powder. I wasn't sure about taking pictures, so I didn't pull out my iPhone until the first course was served.
The first course was listed as "
white sturgeon "caviar", avocado, hazelnut". The "caviar" was served in a caviar tin atop a bed of avacodo puree with crackers and a mother of pearl spoon. I believe the hazelnuts were between the "caviar" and the avocado puree. Obviously, this isn't actually caviar. Instead it is the essence of sturgeon mixed with other ingredients and made in to a caviar like shape through a process called
spherification. Follow the link for details on the spherification process, the term was coined by Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame and is quite interesting. I'm not really a big fan of real caviar, so I wasn't disappointed at all with this "caviar". Everything worked well together and the presentation was playful. I'd give this first course an A.
The second course was a corn soup garnished with creme fraiche and bacon bits accompanied with cheese pastry straws. Unfortunately I have not receive the copy of the menu they were going to email to me, so I can't give you the menu description. If it finds its way to me I'll edit the post with their description. The waiter suggested drinking the soup directly from the cup, using the gold wing as a handle. The soup had a great corn flavor and was VERY HOT! The only way to drink it was to wait a few minutes between sips for the top layer to cool off a bit. I wasn't really fond of the cheese pastry straws, to me they tasted like old oil. Betty apparently wasn't too fond of them wither since she quietly moved her second one to my plate. The soup alone would probably rate an A, but due to the cheese straws I'd have to give this course a B.
The third course was listed on the menu as "
wagyu beef ravioli, foie gras, chive". The wagyu beef in the ravioli consisted of meat that had been braised and shredded, they could have been from the shank or short rib. Since they have braised short ribs on their prix fixe menu I'm guessing that is what it was. I overheard a waiter telling another table that the short ribs were braised for 72 hours, I'd REALLY like to try that some day! The foie gras medallion was grilled, I'm not a big fan of foie gras but this was really good. The remaining garnish was chives and edible flower petals. After the bowl was brought to the table, extremely hot beef consommé was poured over. Once again, this dish was excellent. Very intense beefy flavor in the consomm, tender wagyu beef in the ravioli and foie gras that had a nice caramelized crust yet was still creamy inside.This dish was easily another A. Heck, let's give it an A+
The fourth course was listed on the menu as
"alaskan halibut, young carrot with ginger". The halibut was poached, possibly in butter, and was cooked perfectly. It was just to the point of flaking, moist and seasoned just right. It was served with three preparations of carrots, the baby carrot with micro parsley, a reduction of carrot and ginger and a carrot foam. Once again, I didn't see many problems with this course. Everything was cooked perfectly. Betty wasn't sure about the foam and Jenny ended passing most of her halibut to me. Oh well, I was making out like a bandit that night. Even if others might not have enjoyed this course as much as I did, I'll still give this course another A.
The fifth course was described as "
glazed veal ribeye, spring garlic, asparagus, wild mushroom. The portion size was a little small on this one, there were three thin slices of veal, a caramelized spring garlic, two asparagus spears and three types of wild mushrooms. The flavors were excellent and because the halibut portion in the fourth course was fairly large I won't hold the portion size against this course. I just with there had been more of it! I believe the sauce on the plate was a veal demi-glace. Everything was again cooked to perfection and seasoned just right. There is a reason placed like Tru don't have salt and pepper shakers on the table! I'll give this course another A.
Between the fifth and sixth coursed, the "treat" cart was rolled over and we got to choose a few small sweets. The offerings included truffles, house-made marshmallows, macaroons, fruit jellies and small chocolate tortes. Each of us chose several and everything was excellent. I had the chocolate torte (which was actually some type of white cake that had been soaked in chocolate liqueur)and a macaroon. Between the three of us we got to sample all the items on the cart.
Between the fifth and sixth coursed there was a little bit of a service bump. One of the waitstaff apparently thought we had ordered the prix fixe menu and presented us with the cheese cart and dessert menus. We sat there for about 10 minutes before our main waiter came over and politely asked if we wanted to change out dessert course or order any coffee or tea. Betty ordered a coffee, Jenny ordered a tea and I stuck with the remaining wine pairing I was expecting with the dessert course. As you can see, I jumped the gun a little bit and took a bite before remembering to pull out my phone and take a picture. The menu lists this course as "
raspberry sorbet, yuzu cremeux, crispy coconut". The sorbet by itself was overly sweet and the yuzu cremeux didn't seem sweet at all, but when you ate them together, as intended, they were superb. The crispy coconut were setting atop macerated raspberry halves with what I believe was raspberry coulis used to stick them in place. This dish was another home run, definately and A.
The final thing, which I didn't get a picture of, was a small chocolate torte with ganache frosting and two lit birthday candles sticking out the top. This was about the diameter of a quarter so there was no sharing this time! It was presented on a rectangular plate with "Happy Birthday Chris" written in white chocolate.
After the bill had been paid we walked toward the exit and admired some of the art on the walls. The staff presented us with small breakfast cakes to enjoy with coffee the next morning and held the door for us as we walked out. Our car was waiting for us at the curb as we exited, which was a nice touch. All in all, this was a superior dinner and one I'll remember for a long time (minus what I lost from drinking all those wine pairings!). As far as the wine pairings go, I though three of them really accentuated the coursed they were presented with, while the other three were good on their own but didn't seem to really boost the foods they were served with. This could just be my own biases when it comes to wine, I'm not a big fan of fortified or overly sweet wines which several of these were. Now I have to figure out where to take Betty for her birthday, I suggested Alinea but she shook her head no. Probably doesn't want me to spend that much money, but I may just make reservations anyway. I'll tell her that were going to Boka and just walk on by a few doors to Alinea. If Grant Achatz's next restaurant, Next, has opened yet I may take her there instead, but I would like to go to Alinea while it is still considered the best restaurant in the United States.
The pizzas were excellent though. They use a two step cooking process, first the dough is grilled then the pizza is put under a broiler to cook the toppings. The result is a pizza with a nice char on the bottom and a crust that has a great crispness on the outside but is nice and chewy on the inside. Unlike NY or Neapolitan style pies, the crust is thicker and can support the toppings all the way out to the end of the slice. Compared to other thin crust pizzas I like such as Coalfire or Sono Wood Fired pizza, there was a LOT more toppings. I was expecting something along the lines of Sono Wood Fired, where I can easily eat one pizza by myself, so we ordered two. By the time we were stuffed there was still the equivalent of an entire pie left. The pizzas we ordered were the big MART and the wild SHROOM pies. Big MART comes with a red sauce (choice of regular or spicy, I ordered mine spicy), house made Italian sausage, pepperoni and cheese. The spicy sauce had a nice kick to it, the meats were top notch and it was topped with a lot of a good quality cheese. Wild SHROOM had a base of whipped garlic goat cheese, mushrooms, thyme and topped with the same cheese as the big MAR. Both pizzas were excellent, we do plan on going back soon!
