Tres Chez Panisse!

Last Tuesday, I had the honor and privilege of eating at one of North America's premier eating establishments - Chez Panisse Restaurant. I am a big fan of Alice Waters - she's a phenomenal force in eating locally and seasonally, and food education, and she writes great cookbooks. I'm a big fan. And, while this was my first time eating at Chez Panisse, I've enjoyed meals at other restaurants where the chefs were Chez Panisse alums. Needless to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway, I had some great expectations for my christening into the world of "famous" restaurants.

And so what did I think of my dining experience?

Meh.

In case you don't know, Chez Panisse offers one menu every day and it changes daily. I made a reservation a month in advance having no idea of what would be on the menu the night that I dined there. Here's the menu:

Tuesday, January 12
Belgian endive and mâche salad with beets and farm egg
Wild mushroom ravioli with escarole
Grilled striped bass with anchovy butter and cabernet sauce, Chino Ranch savoy cabbage, and young spinach
Coconut tapioca with passion fruit ice cream and tangerine

The food was technically superb, truly. Let me tell you a little story. I hate mushrooms. Hate them. Hate them the same way that dogs hate taking pills and can eat around them when you try to stuff a pill in a piece of hot dog or something. I can do that with mushrooms, like if there's a speck of mushroom on a pizza I'll eat all the other toppings and be able to spit out the most minuscule scrap of 'shroom. You can imagine my trepidation when I saw Wild Mushroom Ravioli on the menu. But I (practically) licked the bowl clean! They were delicious! And the rest of the meal followed on the same level of deliciousness.

So, "What's the problem?" you rightly ask. And I'll tell you, the service! It was such a confusing and non-friendly dining experience. We had about 5 different people, maybe more, helping us out (hostess, host, wine steward, server, some random dude - I was drinking and it all became so confusing it was hard to keep track of all the people). No one introduced themselves, no one stopped at our table long enough for us to get a whiff of their personality. No one really even talked to us about the menu! The menu was on a piece of paper and we kind of had to take it from there.

And then, and this is a kicker, a 20% gratuity was automatically added to our bill! I understand this for large groups, but when there are only two people dining? It was just the cap on a dining experience that already was rubbing me the wrong way, which is a shame because it would have been great to walk away remembering an experience that hit a home run on both food and service.

I was going to post a scan of the menu from that evening as my pic for this post. But Dave knew I was unimpressed with my dinner there and threw it away before I had a chance to scan it.