My Date with Michael Mina

Continuing our holiday tradition, Tony and I decided to try out Restaurant Michael Mina. It opened this past summer in the Westin St. Francis hotel to much acclaim; Michael Mina is a celebrity chef, he carried many of his signature dishes from Aqua to his newest restaurant and reviewers gave it highest ratings. We had big expectations walking in...not all of which were really met.

We decided on the seven course tasting menu, accompanied by Schramsberg champagne, or sparkling wine for you oeniphiles.

Caviar. The first course was a layered affair: a fried potato thing (looking suspiciously like a tater tot...mmmmm), smoked salmon, creme freche, a healthy dollop of caviar. It was quite scrumptious.

Tuna Tartare. As this course was being prepared, Tony reminded me that at our last holiday dinner, I had beef tartare with a quail egg, which may or may not have lead to my near death experience the next day. I digress. A mound of tuna with a raw quail egg was placed in front of us. Waiters combined the ingredients, also incorporating toasted garlic (cut into perfect squares), some herbs, olive oil with spices and oddly enough, pine nuts. This last ingredient actually distracted from the dish. I ate the pine nuts separately, then ate the tartare. Tony thought that the spices in the olive oil tasted a bit like seasoning salt.

Mussel Souffle. Miniature ramekins containing a souffle were set in front of us; in synchronization, the waiters opened the souffles with a spoon and poured a bit of chardonnay creme sauce with saffron into the souffle. It was absolutely delicious. The density of the souffle perfectly absorbed the sauce, which had strands of saffron floating in it. This was one of my favorite dishes.

Lobster Pot Pie. I grew up eating stouffer's pot pies; I can still taste the cream sauce and the rich pie crust. Michael's lobster pot pie topped my memories. The waiters placed a steaming crust covered pot in front of us, and my first thought was "How am I going to eat this?" I then wondered, "why is my crust all puffy and why is Tony's deflated and what does that say about us?" Still unsure about the second, and the first was solved for us as the waiters proceeded to cut off the crust, plate it, and then scoop out the rich cream sauce, winter vegetables and piece of lobster onto the plate. The dish was simply delicious, another favorite.

Quail. The quail was served with truffled macaroni and winter vegetables. I thought that the quail was a bit dry and that the macaroni tasted watery. On the other hand, I'm a huge fan of winter vegetables, so considered that part of the dish to be quite tasty.

Beef. A very rare beef rosette was accompanied by a rich reduction and potato something with cheese. Quite tasty. By this stage, we were both getting very full, so it wasn't that the food was tasting bad, it was just hard to truly appreciate it.

Dessert. The tasting menu featured some type of banana thing, so I lied and told the waiter I was allergic to bananas (sounds much better than telling him I think that bananas are vile and can't even stand the smell). They kindly substituted a brioche with sauteed apples and a hot buttered rum drink. We also had some delicious tea, flavors of oranges and flowers and cinnamon and spices.

Post-Dessert. Chocolate candies on a stick, one milk chocolate with nuts, the other dark chocolate with a spurt of very cold cherry.

Michael Mina was outstanding, without a doubt. The service was simply amazing. Around the fourth course, I mentioned that it would be nice if the courses were a spaced a little bit further apart; a waiter must have overheard us, because the next day, I realized that from that point, everything slowed down. Definitely among the best service I have ever ad. The attention to detail was also amazing: everything was double plated, with white napkins sandwiched between the two plates; the garlic was cut into perfect little squares; and so on.

But at the same time, Tony and I were heavily critical of the food. We had eaten at the French Laundry several years ago (which Michael Mina is compared to), and thought that it was the most perfect meal ever. We had high expectations, and while the meal was impressive, it just wasn't good enough.

Would I recommend Restaurant Michael Mina? Definitely. Would I go back? Perhaps. It was still excellent. I suppose it's hard to please to foodies expecting perfection - at least for us, it was fun trying.

2 things...

I'm a little busy trying to finish up some work by Friday, but have a couple of quick comments:

It's eggnog season. Best enjoyed with either brandy or rum. Possibly both, if you're adventurous.

The iPod rocks. Such a cool device. And very cute when nestled in its little iPod sock.