Quick Review: Dulce Patria, Ciudad de Mexico

Dulce Patria was a great recommendation from the concierge @ the W Mexico City. My wife and I were just in town for an overnight stop before continuing on to Havana in the morning. After a somewhat long day of travel (car to ORD, wait around, flight to ATL, connect, flight to MEX, go through customs, taxi to hotel in evening rush hour traffic), we needed dinner. And we had just a few key criteria in picking a place. It had to be close, and had to be relaxing. Dulce Patria fit the bill.

The walk is 5, maybe 8 minutes through Parque Lincoln and a block or two of the sleek Polanco neighborhood. First impression of the restaurant is its sharp, contemporary exterior. It was pretty quiet when we walked in @ 7:45 on a Tuesday night the week leading up to Christmas. By the time we left ~9:15 it was buzzing. Since we had to be back @ MEX ~8am we were not ashamed to be eating so 'early'.

The first thing we noticed inside was the service. It was team service. Like SWAT team service. Every glass, utensil and napkin was placed, replaced, adjusted, etc. seemingly every minute. Honestly it was almost too much. One of the servers literally swooped in and moved my knife a millimeter back into its proper position after I had accidentally nudged it while putting my drink back down. If these guys were getting paid by the touch, they were racking up the pesos. On the positive side, one of them was quick to advise my wife about not leaving her purse on the heated floor and brought over a stool for her to rest it on. Good call, since we weren't expecting a heated floor. Especially since the air temp outside was probably ~70F.

Maybe anything would have tasted great after a long travel day, but the horchata con mezcal was amazing. It was like a rather sophisticated adult milk shake. Tasty.



Food was mostly good. Los antojitos (the starters) we tried were mixed. The quesadillas (which are more like empanadas in Mexico and I need to remember this because I've ordered them more than once expecting US style quesadillas) with huitlacoche were nice. The corn dish, esquites, was less pleasing. I like corn. A lot. It's very hard to serve me something corn based and have it not be a raving success. The esquites here were just okay. But as I've learned since esquites is a dish that lends itself to customization and interpretation (perhaps similar to how every has their own custom mac and cheese recipe). So try esquites if you see it on the menu. Just maybe don't try it @ Dulce Patria.



For my entree I went with a enchiladas con platanos en mole, which were very flavorful and rich. That richness could have used a bit more citrus or something to balance it out and break things up a bit. But on pure flavor, I'd get those enchiladas again.



Links: Reviews on TripAdvisor
DulcePatria website which is honestly kind of useless as of the date of this posting.

Quick Review: Edgewater Beach Cafe (Chicago)

Inexplicably and inexcusably it took us over 9 years to try this place even though we live no more than 100 yards away. A couple weeks ago we finally had circumstances align for what we hoped would be perfect trial conditions : a snowy Friday night when we could make the short walk over here, grab a window table inside this allegedly quaint neighborhood place and have a nice meal while enjoying the picturesque wintry scene outside.

Maybe we had built up our expectations too much, but the actual experience left us feeling only okay.

First, and through no fault of the restaurant, the view of the snowstorm through their windows wasn't that great. Streetlight glare plus exterior building light glare just kind of washed it all out. So much for that.

Focusing on the food, service and atmosphere, then, here's my take:

Atmosphere was pretty sleepy. This wasn't one of the live performance nights, so it was just the three or four quiet tables eating in a mostly quiet room.

Service was pretty helpful. One guy seemed to be running the whole show, waiting on the tables and handling the bar orders. He was friendly.

Food was good. The menu is limited and the prices aren't inexpensive, so the food quality is a make or break element here. My wife enjoyed her shrimp cachonette and tournedos of beef. My onion soup gratinee and filet mignon were tasty too.

Bottom line, though, is if I'm going to spend $130 for dinner in Edgewater, I'm going to head over to Francesca's. Twice. I'm glad I tried EBC, but it's hard to justify the premium prices unless you really, really value a dark, extremely quiet atmosphere.

Quick Review: Pasteur (Chicago)

Saturday night @ 7:45. Place was packed. Unfortunately, their computer system wasn't working so everything was s-l-o-w-e-d down considerably. But we'll call that a growing pains fluke.

Interior is really well done. Immediately transports you far away from Edgewater. Decor is sophisticated. And whether it was intentional or just a lucky outcome, the acoustics are kind of amazing. Tables are pretty close together and on this busy night it was loud. But somehow my wife and I could talk with each other comfortably and not feel like we were hearing everything being said at the tables on either side of us, which is no little detail in my world.

Food was strong.

Apps: Fried chicken dumplings were delicious, vegetable tofu rolls were interesting (touch of mango works wonders here). One regret - why no sticky rice?

Entrees: Beef curry was a great balance of heat and sweet; Pasteur beef steak was a hit, too.

Also, they have a Lebanese red wine available by the glass. It's a little lightweight / thin, but I appreciate the opportunity to try a Lebanese red wine nonetheless - that wasn't something I expected when I walked in the door.

Winter Vacation '08 - Paris - The Eating, Part IV (Sourire de Saigon)

We found Sourire de Saigon on our last trip to Paris in 2006. It was total chance that we found it, as it was directly across the street from the apartment we rented. And we loved it.

So it was a given that we would be eating here again on this trip, even though we had to hoof it a good bit further this time.


View Larger Map
Map of the walk from 7 Villa Guelma, our rental apartment, to Sourire de Saigon @ 54 Rue Mont de Cenis

What you don't necessarily get in that map visual is that you're dealing with a couple sets of serious stairs in the middle of it. For us this meant a return trip uphill with bellies full of Vietnamese food.


Imposing staircase, Montmartre

But on the way down you get to spot the restaurant's lights like a beacon of deliciousness.


View of Sourire de Saigon from above

We arrived a few minutes early for our reservation, so we walked downhill a bit more, getting a view from the other direction.


This angle illustrates just how in the middle of nowhere this restaurant is

We still had a couple of minutes before our table was ready, so they set us up with two glasses of champagne while we waited.



There is something about the red / violet light motif they have going one here that I really like.



It's chic, but soothing.



We ate here twice during this trip and both times the food and service were fantastic.


View of the bar, which is a tiny, one-man operation

One slight drawback of the low light ambiance is that the pictures I tried to grab with my BlackBerry were just too dark to be useful. And while I'm willing to risk being something of a conspicuous dork to get photos, I wasn't willing to put the flash on here. So there is no photographic evidence of our main courses. But I did get some shots of the side dish that fascinated us in 2006 and continues to fascinate us now: Riz Gluant (aka, 'sticky rice').


Riz Gluant - aka, the best damn rice I've ever had

They bring it out to you in these wooden cylinders and peel it open for you in a banana peeling / corn husking kind of fashion (it's far more elegant than it sounds, though, as it's performed in almost a ritualistic fashion by deft waitresses outfitted in colorful, traditional Vietnamese dresses).


A sad attempt to capture the flambe in action

There was one mild disappointment, though, which was the flaming dessert we ordered. It sounded much better than it tasted, as it was some kind of pineapple croquette soaked in a liqueur. Had the makings of something tasty, but just really didn't work for either of us.


The disappointing croquettes

Nonetheless, if we ever make it back to Paris I am sure we'll look this place up again. The atmosphere is cool, the food is amazing and we highly recommend it.

More shots from inside Sourire de Saigon


Buddha statue near the bar


French / European notables featured in the menu, none of which I recognized, exposing my cultural ignorance. But I'm glad they went with the pictures in the menu approach rather than the pictures all over the wall approach.

Even the bathroom is cool


Interior door of the bathroom


Not sure what the symbolism is of having the Chairman supervising your business in here


Good to see they keep the sink tidy


And apparently they are fans of Tintin

Winter Vacation - Paris - The Eating, Part III (Kastoori)

Kastoori is another place we found on our first trip to Paris in 2002.



It is ~100 yards from the hotel Les 3 Poussins. Somehow I have managed to not have any pictures handy of the triangular plaza it faces, which is a shame because that setting really adds to the charm of the restaurants in this little strip.


A = location of Les 3 Poussins; K = location of Kastoori; click image for Google Map of location

Neighbors and families congregate in warm weather on the benches and kids pretend to be Zidane or Henry, occasionally bouncing balls off some defenseless Smart car or scooter parked nearby. Lends a nice atmosphere to the whole casual dining experience here. But you'll have to trust me on that since pictures are nowhere to be found right now.

EDIT: Hold the phone. Light bulb went off and I grabbed a screen grab from Google Street View (I love The Internets). This is facing north toward the plaza, Kastoori is up on the right, about where that larger tree is.


Click for larger image


View of interior from our table in the window, at the end of the evening - we were the night owls closing the place down

We have a tradition of going out for Indian food every December 29th in honor of our first date (which was at since-closed Jaipur Palace in Chicago).


Colorful, cushioned banquette

We have something of a love / hate relationship with Kastoori, having had a mixed bag of experiences with them. On the one hand, the service can be spotty. A couple of years ago the guy told us "15 minutes, you'll be next table" and when we came back from a quick stroll we saw he totally slid people in front of us - just not cool.

On the other hand, it's cozy -- maybe 25 people can fit inside.


View of snug dining room

The food, in our experience, has been pretty good more often than not. And you can keep on eye on the guys making it.


View of 'the kitchen'

It's BYOB, which adds to the feel-kind-of-like-a-local vibe that I particularly enjoy. And it was our first Indian place in Paris. Plus, on this Monday night the other Indian place right next door was closed, so we had limited options if we were going to keep our anniversary tradition going.


A surprisingly tasty bottle of Pinot Noir we grabbed just up the street. Snapped a picture of it in hopes of being able to find it somewhere online but no luck thus far.


Judy - enjoying the wine, enduring me

Our experience on this night was more good than bad. Service was decent if not especially warm and welcoming. And the food was really good.



Judy got a tikka masala, which was solid. But my dish was the big winner. I can't remember the exact name, but it was a specialty of the house. Something a la Kastoori. And it was chicken in a pistachio flavored sauce that was ridiculously tasty.


If you look closely you can pick up the green sauce - that was my pistachio dish, which continued the trend of me ordering better than Judy



For dessert we got one order of gulab jamun and one mango kulfi. I'm sure both were pre-made somewhere else, but I liked them. I'm usually not a huge kulfi fan, but this agreed with me. Judy was disappointed that the gulab jamun wasn't as hot as she likes it. I still don't know why some places serve it cool while others serve it hot. Will need to get to the bottom of that mystery some day.



Net - it was a pretty good meal, but we were a little disappointed that the place next door wasn't open, as the service is stronger and food is as good if not better (though it isn't byob, so it ends up a bit pricier). Just bad luck this year that the 29th fell on a Monday.

Winter Vacation '08 - Paris - The Eating, Part II (Corso)

After getting off to a good start with a pleasant dinner experience at Festivo on our first night of vacation, and a ~36 hour side trip to Brugge we got lucky once again on the third night with dinner at Corso.


View Larger Map

It is on Avenue Trudaine, which is just off Rues des Martyrs. This is another spot we had seen before and wanted to try but hadn't.

This blurry shot from my BlackBerry doesn't really do it justice, but there is a cool patio that flows out onto the sidewalk.



In winter it is covered with plastic and has some heat lamps so some people actually were eating out here, but it was mostly where folks were taking their smoking breaks. Must be quite nice in the spring and summer, though, when the plastic isn't needed.

We stepped in and got a little table for two along the window.



Once again we were fortunate to get a friendly server who spoke English and did not in the least make us feel stupid for not speaking French. In fact, the handful of staff we engaged with all seemed to go a bit out of their way to help us out.



We started with what was a breaded and fried mozzarella appetizer that was fantastic. This was not your TGIFriday's caliber mozzarella stick.



I went with a safe order of pasta in a cream sauce, which was solid.

While Judy enjoyed a seafood risotto.


Note - Judy is also showing off a new crafty thing she got into during this trip -- making felt flower pins.



One thing that was very cool about this neighborhood was right around the corner you had a spectacular view of Sacre Coeur, accented by the holiday decorations strung across the street.



We actually came back here on New Year's Eve hoping to get similar dishes, but I had forgotten that just about every restaurant in Paris goes rather fancy with their menu on NYE. Before we could abort the mission without feeling like total clowns we were on our way into a 6 course set menu. It was nice, but definitely tailored to someone whose tastes are more sophisticated and refined than mine. And I didn't want to queer the vibe for our fellow diners by breaking out the BlackBerry for more photos.

Related Side Note For Anyone Into Design:
While trying to find a website for Corso, I did find something about its interior being designed by Robert Stadler, for whatever that is worth. I know nothing about design. But there are some nice daytime interior shots of the space here.

Winter Vacation '08 - Paris - The Eating, Part I (Festivo)

Through a fortunate hotel selection for our first trip to Paris in March 2002, Judy and I became familiar with the neighborhood around Rue des Martyrs in the 9th arrondissement (profiled in 2005 by the NYTimes).

It was sheer luck then that I booked us at Les Trois Poussins. I found it on Expedia -- the price was right and the pictures seemed decent. This was in the day before TripAdvisor had built up 179 reviews on the place. So with fairly limited info I pulled the trigger and hoped for the best.

I panicked a little bit on the flight over as I read more about the area and was realizing that we were really close to the 'red light district' of Pigalle. I had visions of the old Combat Zone in Boston where my friends and I would occasionally venture for sport during high school and college. But once Judy and I were on the ground and wandering about the neighborhood we realized it really wasn't that big of a deal. We did see a few dicey places, but it was nothing you don't see in just about every big city.


A = Les Trois Poussins; B = Pigalle; red box highlights part of Rue des Martyrs



The point of all this background is that Rue des Martyrs turned out to be a great place with a number of nice little restaurants and shops. On each of our successive trips here we always end up gravitating back into this "hood". And this time we finally got a chance to try Festivo.



We had wanted to try it during one of our previous visits but never made it in as it always seemed pretty crowded.



But on our first night out this time we got lucky. We got a table for two right in the window and our waiter was great. I always worry a little bit about the response I'm going to get when I break out the "est-ce-que vous parlez anglais?" But this guy (1) did speak English and (2) was very friendly.



So I exhaled. Then we both settled in and had a nice meal. Starting with a preposterously large 'appetizer' of caprese salad. This seriously was enough tomatoes for 6 people.



The entrees were great. Not sure how appetizing these dim pictures from my BlackBerry make them look, but trust me, they were quite nice.



Judy got some linguine in a spicy honey pesto sauce (which she has promised to try and emulate back home because it was that good).

And I got a fairly simple gnocchi with prosciutto. But just because it was simple doesn't mean it wasn't excellent. It was. After a long flight, followed by the car ride and bag schlep to our apartment, followed by a 3 or 4 hour zonk out nap, followed by a ~20 minute walk down the hill, this was a spectacularly comforting meal.

Review: Tabla (NYC)

Note: I'm writing this three months after my stay. My posting activities fell off drastically in November and December. So, take this more as directional recollections than a highly focused critique.

The wife and I watch our fair share of Iron Chef America. And a few weeks before we were going to be in NY visiting family, we saw the battle pitting Bobby Flay against Floyd Cardoz of Tabla. That particular episode wasn't especially appealing to us since we aren't big snail eaters. But the description of Tabla sounded interesting so we wanted to give it a shot.



We aren't normally 'fine diners' (one exception being our anniversary dinner @ Arun's), and this wound up being a touch fancier, more formal and sophisticated than we expected. If we had known exactly what we were getting into we might not have followed through with our reservation. But I'm glad we did because it was quite good.

If I could do anything differently, the one thing that was a bit disappointing was our table placement. It might seem odd to complain about having too much space between tables at a restaurant (especially if you know me), but we were on kind of an isolated island, tucked into a nook at the top of the stairs.



If it were a corner with walls you might be able to construe it as private and romantic. But in their wide open layout it was more like being in no man's land. Unfortunately this vibe didn't hit me right away so we didn't request a move. And I got over it. A small-ish issue really. On to the food ...

... and we're off to a slow start because I can't really remember what this was. I grabbed a copy of their seasonal menu from the web site after we at there, but it didn't include this little starter soup. I'm sure it was nice ...



The naan was quite nice. Fresh out of the oven, cheesy, comforting.



This next one was a surprise. I ordered the vegetarian tasting menu, which was going to take me out of my comfort zone a bit. I'm an on / off vegetarian, and when I'm on I am the world's worst vegetarian because I like about 4 vegetables and two types of fish. So 'salad of baby beets' was something I just hoped to get through. Didn't expect to enjoy it. But with the Roquefort cheese and ginger, I have to say it was pretty tasty.



I did hit a little speed bump with the Stuffed Jack-B-Little Pumpkin, featuring "early fall root vegetables". Let's say some root vegetables were tougher on my palate than others. But nice presentation.



Another semi-surprise was the Chantrelle & Potato "Risotto". To say I don't enjoy mushrooms is an understatement (like I said, I'm not a great vegetarian). But I was able to work around the biggest pieces and did enjoy the overall taste of the dish, including the coconut broth.



Our desserts were the stand outs.

First, the Tahitian Vanilla Bean Cheesecake (with 'graham crumble, concord grape sauce and lemon eucalyptus sorbet). I thought this was great. Judy wasn't thrilled, but I loved it.



But she did like her white chocolate mousse. (Sorry, can't find the full detailed description on any menu.)



Finally, always a crowd favorite, the mignardises.



All in all, it was a nice night out. I am sure people with more sophisticated palates and fewer self-imposed dietary restrictions would enjoy it much more than I did. (And you can check out a pdf of their menu here to judge whether it's right for you.) Given my own limitations and our relatively isolated table, it wasn't great value in my mind. But the service was very good, the presentation was terrific and the overall vibe was very nice. Just not in my personal sweet spot when it comes to dining options.