Thinking in a Bizarro manner: When will McOmakase ever materialize?
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Other than arpege which of the top French restaurants is doing alacarte and tasting? Or are you saying all of them are now tasting menus in France
pierre gagnaire, l’ambroisie, le cinq still do a la carte, but the prices on single items are insaaaaaane
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But l’ambroise doesn’t have a tasting menu. I thought he was saying places doing tasting plus ala carte. It’s fully ala carte. Also terribly priced lol. Just went in December, one of the most disappointing meals I’ve had.
I was (probably not very clearly) thinking about places that have just ALC or both ALC/TM. My peeve is with places that have no options but the TM.
It has been a long, long while while for some of these - and perhaps I wasn’t speaking of “the best of the best” in Paris - but I was thinking of places like L’arpeggios, L’amboise, gagnier, guy Savoy, Lucas carton, le grande vefour.
I remember @President_Mochi reported taking his wife to this for her birthday. He said they had a great time & meal.
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It’s great! Done it a couple of times hope they bring it back!
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Went tonight and thought it was pretty great but not outstanding. Dishes were hit or miss.
Highlights:
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snap pea labneh with potato chips (very flavorful, great way to start the meal)
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red abalone with uni chawannushi
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brioche and butter
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Quail (best course of the meal)
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“French toast” with Mara des bois sorbet (one of the best desserts I’ve had in a while)
Duds:
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Kaluga caviar with bluefin tuna
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Dungeness crab w/Thai curry (all the ingredients and components were good but, in my humble opinion, Thai curry is best left to a Thai restaurant)
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White asparagus w/caviar and potato & leek veloute (some of the asparagus was really salty, and the various components didn’t come together like I’d hoped)
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Dover sole (pretty bland tbh)
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Snake River wagyu cap (I’ll be honest, I don’t think snake River does the trick at this price point—I think an A5 strip or ribeye better suits this menu)
And the scallop aguachile was great but nothing special—super fresh, but didn’t hit like i hoped
Overall, it was a great dinner and I enjoyed my time there, but i think the menu could be more consistent, and the various peaks (quail, abalone, etc.) didn’t quite make up for that lack of consistency. I’d give it somewhere between an 8.5 and 8.9 out of 10.
Some miscellaneous notes:
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didn’t ask for a baguette so can’t report back on whether they serve them now or not
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I recall earlier in this thread @J_L mentioned not getting the spot prawn. We also did not get the spot prawn tonight. Even more odd is that a couple tables nearby did get it. I heard another table that didn’t get it ask if it was a supplement they could order, and they were told that the guests who got it were old friends of the chef, so they added an extra course for those guests. Not a great look, imo—seems like you could do something more low key for the old friend than an extra course cooked tableside next to other guests who aren’t getting that course (I remember a similar thing happened at Mori-horo not long after it opened, some guests got shabu-shabu, others didn’t, and it was… odd?)
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Service was excellent, no complaints there at all
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Ooof on the spot prawns. Yeah that’s not the way to take care of “chef’s old friends”.
Bummer about the dover sole. I love a well cooked dover sole.
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I don’t understand why anyone who read this topic would go there.
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Chef Manzke has a good track record of putting out delicious bites at Republique. It’s no surprise people would be geeked about him opening a fine dining tasting menu sort of restaurant.
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Sure, but after reading this, if I were into that kind of thing, I’d put off going so long as I was seeing consistent reports of hit-and-miss food and weird lapses in service.
Maybe if I ate >$300 dinners two or three tines a week I’d go just out of curiosity.
I love Republique and the tasting menu there really blew the socks off of my middle American in laws. I would have been all over this place if not for this very thread @robert
Another fantastic meal on friday. Took a couple of out of town friends. Food/service was great. Did not get spot prawns but was not expecting spot prawns, pretty sure that’s off the menu now outside of the above-discussed quirk.
if you like the republique TM, this is just a higher level of it.
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Not a great look, imo—seems like you could do something more low key for the old friend than a baguette next to other guests who aren’t getting that baguette
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If I knew spot prawns were an option sheeeeeeeeshhh
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