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above average, but cooked in vegetable
oil which does not impart the character
of duck or beef fat. This is surprising as
Mendes’ chef de cuisine, Dale Osborne,
was formerly with Heston Blumenthal
whose recipe for fries is outstanding (in
Dallas, Graham Dodds’ fries at Hibiscus
are a ringer for Blumenthal’s).
A dessert of homemade milk ice
cream with honeycomb and local honey
was far too small. If it had been served
in a helping the size of a mixing bowl I
would still not have shared. It was that
good.
The wine list and service was exceptional, although the prices are high.
My purchase of a glass of 2010 Riesling
Smaragd ‘Loibenberg’, Tegernseerhof
from Wachau, Austria ($26) in the bar
got me noticed (Riesling drinkers are
all certified insane) and the sommelier
came up at dinner to swap wine stories
and sample some off-list bottles such as
a 2010 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Clos
des Brusquières.
All this cost a pretty pound ($500 for
two) but you could do it for $300 with
less of a wine splurge. We left via the
pretty courtyard that leads to the gate
staffed by a uniformed doorman. Outside, the paparazzi waited to remind us
of the celebrity haunt that we had just
visited. Maybe my next reservation will
be after a whole new bunch of celebs
emerge -- if I make it today.
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