Testing Fearing's - Living Up to Its Name?

I've been hearing a lot of hype about the new kid in town, Fearing's at the Ritz Carlton, so I decided to give it a try one night. I came with high expectation due to all the good things I've heard about it.

Our server was very courteous, knowledgeable and had recommendations for us, which was good. Throughout the night I noticed the service there (at least from our server) was impeccable. Although I did hear someone else dropping some silverware at the other end of the restaurant, so maybe the other servers are not as good ...

The amuse bouche was very interesting- something I've never had before. Langoustine with Quinoa -- with what? This was the first time I've heard of Quinoa, which apparently is a crop grown in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
My appetizer was a thoroughly amazing dish. Foie gras with caramelized pear on the left. It happens to be one of the best foie gras dishes I've had. The caramelized pear adds an outstanding touch and really brought the dish to a whole different level. The scallop was very well prepared, fresh plump and juicy, and the papaya salad adds a unique flavor.
The other appetizer we got was the Tsukiji market yellowtail, which was good and was definitely good fish but we thought the preparation was nothing special. And the portion is small for the price. The foie gras was a much better deal.
For the main course I ordered the prime rib:The piece of meat itself was very high quality. Better than Lawry's I must say. I had asked for medium rare, and while this was just fine for me, it was a little on the cold side and my companion called our server. We stated that the meat was too rare and cold and it should normally be served on a warm plate to keep the meat warm while we're eating. Our server took it back and heated it up, and gave it back to us warm.

Oh, I should mention, the croquette was outstanding!

The other main entree was the steak and chicken-fried-lobster.

So at the end, they let us order two desserts on the house, as an apology for the cold prime rib, which was nice of them. I will not hesitate to say that the service we received was excellent.

The pecan pie was good. Also had the pear cinnamon cake, which tasted good but was a bit dry.

Fearing's
Ritz-Carlton, Dallas
2121 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75201
Phone: 214-922-4848

Dessert-ed Out, For the First Time

I never thought it would ever happen, but when I went to Bouley it happened for the first time: I had too much dessert. (I don't know if that's a bad thing?)

There were seven of us, so I got to at least see a lot of the dishes and heard the "umm" and "ooh"s across the table.

The meal started with some beets, compliments of the chef.

Next were the appetizers. I ordered the seared foie gras, which was good, but nothing special. It didn't beat the tuna sashimi and foie gras dish from Le Bernardin the night before that was still on my mind.

The best appetizer was in fact the Organic Egg Steamed with Black Truffles. I highly recommend it to anyone (who doesn't completely hate eggs).

For the main dish, I ordered one of the entrees from the tasting menu: Squab with Foie Gras wrapped in cabbage leaves. There was definitely more foie gras than squab. The foie gras this time was better than the appetizer, and the squab was delicious, too bad there was only one. I should also mention that the mashed potatoes had black truffles in it! Yumm.
A few people ordered the rack of lamb, which I got to try. The lamb was excellent, not overcooked, very juicy and tasty.
So at this point, we weren't stuffed. Some even said they were still hungry, and I was still thinking of going to eat a bit of sushi later that night. So we ordered dessert, each one of us ordered one. After the order was placed, they brought us some fromage blanc sorbet with concord grape sauce. Absolutely amazing, refreshing.
So now some are saying that this was enough for dessert for them. Too bad we already ordered. I ordered the Valrhona chocolate souffle, just because it was valrhona chocolate if nothing else. Very, very chocolatey, but the delicious ice cream will help cut the richness.Someone else ordered the Chocolate Frivolous, which looks like it has (valrhona?) chocolate souffle in it also.
So everyone's full at this point. But oh, wait. Another free dessert from the chef! This time it's Flan with some pineapples. Again, amazing and very refreshing. I must say we all loved the free desserts more than the ones we paid for :) Even those who do not like flan really liked this dessert.
Completely stuffed. But wait, there are still petit fours >_<
I couldn't manage to eat them, I'm sure they were good but I cannot tell you, I'm sorry ...
And sushi later that night? Forget it ...



Bouley
120 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Telephone:(212) 964-2525
www.davidbouley.com

The Grand First-Posting

It's only luxuriously fitting and fortunate to have my first review in the travel blog to be of a three-star restaurant. I was lucky enough to visit Le Bernardin in New York and take a lot of good pictures.

You cannot order a la carte at Le Bernardin: either get one of the tasting menus ($135, or $190), or get the 4-course prix-fixe menu ($107). We opted for the 4-course menu since we have another dinner engagement later that night, and since there were two of us both ordering different things, we can manage to get a tasting of a lot of dishes.

The only way to evaluate a three-star restaurant, really, is to see whether everything about it deserves three-star. The service, I must say, was impeccable. The decor was very nice without any gaudiness, and it has a quiet and calm atmosphere. You can't call it 'cozy,' it has a more professional feel but I like the quietness - such an escape from the bustling city.

The night started with a complimentary octopus salad.


For our first appetizers, we ordered: 1) the calamari
and 2) the tuna sashimi and foie gras on a slice of baguette. This was an amazing dish, the sashimi was delectable, and raw fish+foie gras? What a great idea! :D
Second appetizers: 1) lobster with sweet corn sauce. The sweet corn sauce was a very pleasant surprise. I've never had sweet corn sauce and had no expectation, but it really worked. and 2) Crab cakes with cauliflower and dijon mustard. (It wasn't exactly a crab "cake", more like lumps of crab ... even better :p ). Again, another pleasant surprising combination. The cauliflowers? An awesome touch! The combination was amazing. I never knew I liked cauliflowers ...

For the main dishes we ordered : 1) Lobster with tamarind sauce. I'm undecided about this dish. The lobster was definitely fresh and prepared well. The tamarind sauce, though, kind of worked but not completely? I feel like the lobster would have been better served with something else.
2) Striped Bass with langoustine. I actually really liked this dish. Reading the menu I probably would not order it, but I'm glad my friend did! The broth/sauce was delicious and the fish melts in your mouth and juicy . Dessert: Passionfruit. The sorbet was really good, but I thought the vanilla-yogurt mousse was alright. The other dessert we got (not pictured) was the malted rum milk chocolate ice cream, which was actually very2 good! Definitely the better of the two dessert!
Petit Fours
Le Bernardin
155 West 51st Street
The Equitable Building
Between 6th and 7th Avenue
New York, New York 10019
Telephone: (212) 554-1515