Oh, that was lovely - wonderful description and photos of an amazing meal! Thanks for posting it!
Really high praise by an extremely knowledgeable writer.
Super creative and lots of use of elite ingredients. The 9 essential flavors dish(es) looks incredible. The squab too. I could do without foie xlb and caviar on asparagus.
Meal of a lifetime may be apropos title too - it looks like a great experience to try once, and then I think I’d rather be back to my favorite styles, dishes and restaurants, or in the case of the author, the next 8000 Chinese restaurants. Doesn’t look like this could be a regular thing at any restaurant and yet at the same time it is thoughtful and rooted unlike the many expensive poser spots that seem to do this sort of Michelin showmanship every day (albeit not Chinese). Kudos to the chef and the team for what they have accomplished. What an experience and thanks for sharing this @Artzlin
Why not ? Good creative cuisine is enjoyable every day
Seems like a host of unusual ingredients that might not be simultaneously available or in volume for continued service. Also such a special artistic expression. Would it be special in the same sense if it were cranked out every night ? I don’t know. It certainly seems more special served to this author.
For me and my crew we just don’t go for this kind of fancy fancy stuff often, especially that many courses. It would be the meal of a lifetime for me. In fairness some folks are different and that’s great.
I think the tasting menu will be a regular thing, but perhaps not that particular menu. Probably pulled out a few stops on that meal. I don’t know how it was arranged but it was smart getting David Chan.
I checked reviews of the tasting menu from prior years and it’s like some of the dishes are different and some are the same. That makes sense from a couple of points of view. First to the extent they like to locally source, the menu would vary depending on what’s available at the time. From the diner’s perspective, I asked myself that while this was the meal of a lifetime, would I want to eat the exact same menu anytime soon, and I concluded not really.
This is how I feel about a meal at the French Laundry.
For over a decade my spouse and I used to invite friends to join us for a modified Chinese banquet, usually 4-6 people total, ordering certain dishes we really enjoyed, plus one or two courses that were chef/seasonal specials.
Doing that every 12-18 months felt perfect. If we still lived in The City I’d love to get back to doing that. ET sounds like that would be a great setting.
Photos on Eater of the new Empress by Boon look pretty good, too!
@chandavkl high praise for Eight Tables, from someone whose opinion we all greatly respect! Thanks for the excellent post.
