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| - We were up and down on this place as the meal progressed, but finally came down to no. We decided to order one of the small plates as an appetizer and then two dinner plates for the main course. We started with a small plate of fried mushrooms, and they were spectacular -- shitakes fried until crispy around the edges and served in a garlic-shallot vinaigrette.
Then the main courses came. My wife ordered whitefish. The bite she shared had a distinct fishy taste, but the celeriac was perfectly cooked. Can't say I tasted the other flavors listed on the menu: katsou dashi and preserved lemon salsa verde. I sampled the broth, and what I mostly tasted was salt, same with my dish. I had the ricotta-herb dumplings. These also came with a bunch of thinly sliced shitakes, and a good thing because I had only three dumplings of about an ounce each -- and I shared half of one with my wife. My dish was marked as a "large plate," but only the serving plate could qualify as large.
This points up the main problem: portions were much too skimpy. I'm not looking for a plate that's piled high, but there should be enough food to satiate the appetite. My wife's fish portion looked like 3 to 4 ounces. If there had been a bread plate or a side of pasta, or even a few more dumplings in my dish, it would have been a satisfying meal. But there was none of that, nor enough vegetables to make up the difference. Even half an hour after we left the restaurant we were still hungry.
With a couple of cocktails, the price for two was about $72. Given the too small portions and lack of interesting flavors in most of the food, it is doubtful we'll go back especially at that price.
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