| rev:text
| - "Iron Chef loser". That's David Burke, and I got to taste this losers food first-hand with the restaurant bearing his name, and I'd have to break it down Iron Chef style:
Like the original Iron Chef, each chef can be awarded up to 20 points;
-- consisting of up to 10 points for taste
-- up to 5 points for plating (the appearance of their presentation)
-- and up to 5 points for the originality of their dishes.
Since it was New Years Eve, we did the prix fixe menu which consisted of either the 5 course ($125.00) or the 4 course meal ($95.00).
TASTE:
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Aside from the amuse-bouche, we were also served a brioche with butter served atop a brick of Himalayan pink salt (odd, but I received this also as an Xmas gift). This wasn't that impressive in regards to flavor, so was this mainly about novelty/plating vs. taste? If this was served atop Elvis collectible plates, it would have won a couple more points for originality.
This is what pissed me off the most, and I think it's what made me despise this place to some degree. It's that they served up the main dish as a "Kobe beef" dish which I really questioned at the get-go because most of the times it's not "Kobe" beef. Kobe is from the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan. Most times, this isn't what you're getting. Instead, what you get, including the place I worked at is wagyu beef, but it's usually Australian or American wagyu. We got American wagyu which is what Jay, one of our servers had stipulated to us, and if this confuses you, you can liken the naming of Kobe, like Champagne which should be called "bubbly" or hot tubs being called a "Jacuzzi". So, regardless what it's called, it sucked! It was no where near the quality or taste of Australian or Japanese wagyu. What I ate didn't taste like, and had nowhere near the marbling of the wagyu you can pick-up at Mitsuwa for some freak'n chump change ($59.99 a lb). If they would have just called it American Wagyu, than my expectations would have been lower and more appropriate, but of course it's all about the easily marketable recognition of "Kobe beef". Another sidenote: The "Himalayan salt" is actually also marketing mumbo jumbo because it's actually a product primarily from Pakistan.
I already went off on the Kobe beef being called "Kobe", but I never mentioned how it was also prepared overly salted!!, and I'm a huge salt-a-holic. This one was almost so bad that we should have sent it back because they also didn't bother to trim the meat properly, so I had a decent portion of my cut that was a huge chunk of fat. Yum, I got to eat huge chunks of salty fat.... I hope it was Pakistani salt.
The biggest redemption to the meal was definitely the fish dish. The roasted red pepper puree and the dish as a whole was very good, and I think everybody enjoyed this one the most.
The last bit of the meal to top things off was the dessert. I'm not a huge sweets/dessert fan, but I made an exception for this dessert because I can't pass up chocolate if I do eat sweets, and the crunchy texture of the dessert was probably one of the most impressive elements of the dessert. I should also say that the scoop of ice cream wasn't chocolate. Instead, It was some funky flavor. An Iron Chef trademark.
PLATING:
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The butter we had for the brioche was plated atop a brick of Himalayan salt that's pink in color, so it looked kind of cool, but I just thought it was such a waste if they didn't re-use the salt although I'm sure they do since salt is inherently antimicrobial.
What I did enjoy was the multiple vegetable puree's that were served with the dishes including the multitude of small little veggies involved in the plating. A lot of detail, and a lot of effort were put into these dishes that were tasty and looked good. Also, they used culinary foam...ooh, aahh.
ORIGINALITY:
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The beginning of the meal started with the amuse-bouche which is supposed to be a hint at the what's to come, but what was presented was an extremely unoriginal and extremely typical tuna tartare. After seeing that, I wasn't too optimistic on originality. I think this would be common place even in a mid-west suburban franchise.
The next unoriginal dish was the spinach salad with some sort or balsamic vinaigrette which possibly consisted of some gorgonzola cheese, apple slices, and candied walnuts. This was a huge f'n let down because it was so typical. I've even prepared this sort of salad numerous times, but I include sliced red onions for my tastes, and I prefer arugula over spinach.
Here's how I judged David Burke's restaurant:
-- TASTE: 7
-- PLATING: 3
-- ORIGINALITY: 2
TOTAL SCORE IS: a 12 out of a 20
The total bill was $601 for 4 people with an automatic 20% tip, so whose the loser now.... ok, it's not David Burke.
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