The end of an era. It's sad to say, but now this place has lost its charm.
I've been a big fan for the past 6 years. But this was the most disappointing experience i've ever had... and i organized a trip of 20 including friends from around the world.
Everything was wrong this year. The tables were sticky. The service was terrible - almost comparable to a self serve cafeteria. The flavours were strange - a little too out there to even work. Dishes with too many competing flavours. Seemed like the dishes were simply conceived to make an outrageous point rather than a cohesive dining experience. Dishes were also hard to eat. The slight deviation towards more international flavours didn't work either this year. The quality of produce wasn't there surprisingly. The menu itself seemed rather lessened compared to previous years - i.e less of everything and all the good stuff that APDC is known for.
I wanted to keep these thoughts to myself, for respect to Martin Piccard, but the entire group felt the same way... and especially for those of us that do this annually, we all noticed the differences. It's sad to even think of this - the truth is this isn't an off year in our opinion - when you look at it over the years - the increased number of services days and services within the days itself has now taken it's toll on the restaurant - there is less love and more factory output - and this is just a result of popularity and a busy chef. C'est la vie.