SO MY MOM'S A VEGETARIAN....

Well, I was back in LA this past weekend for my best friend's wedding. It was a short trip, just 4 days, but I was gonna make the most out of all my meals there. Yes, I did got to Mozza, but I'm gonna reserve that post for tomorrow when I have more time to upload all the pics I took. So I'll write about the dinner I had there my second night in LA, at Sakura House.

So apparently my mother has become a vegetarian in the 3 months since I've been home. And I think it's a good thing. Both she and my father are eating better and they've lost lots of weight. I'm sorry they didn't start doing this 10 years ago. But this meant that we couldn't go to Yakitoriya, which I had been planning on visiting for months, since EVERYTHING on their menu contains some form of meat (usually chicken.) I settled for Sakura House because they have a robato grill. They have a bigger menu, with plenty of veggie options for my mom, but I could still get my skewers of chicken.

The extensive menu is much more organized than Tory's. And even though dining here wasn't as refined as Tory's or as delicious as Yakitoriya, I still enjoyed my meal and could only wish that one of these existed in Boston.

They start you off with a little dish of sauce and raw veggies to snack on. I was with my entire family at dinner, so we were able to order a bunch of stuff and share. While my little sister and her boyfriend shared a set course (which came with certain sides and skewers, much like at Yakitoriya) I ordered some random skewers and shared with everyone else. Here's a view of the grill, which you can see is lined with a bar. If I was there as part of a couple, I'd sit at the bar and watch the action, but that wasn't possible with 6 people.We ordered two bowls of ground chicken rice to share. I found the sauce on this too sweet and preferred the one served at Yakitoriya.

And now here's a listing of dishes that I ordered:

Chicken wings! (Juicy and delicious, I wouldn't order the spicy one again, cause it wasn't very spicy).

Chicken liver:
A grilled rice ball (stuffed with miso and green onions). I wouldn't order this again, either. It wasn't as grilled and crispy as the rice ball I'd had at Tory's.
Chicken Meatballs:
From the top down, gingko nuts, shitake mushrooms and chicken hearts.
Agedashi tofu (Fried tofu in broth):
Overall, I enjoyed my dinner and will certainly come back in the future. I was disappointed that they'd run out of chicken gizzards, but I think this would be an excellent place to try out robato grilling for the first time (hint, hint, Katie.) I didn't love the sauce which they seemed to put on most chicken skewers, I prefer plain salt, but I didn't find it overly offensive and will order it without the sauce next time. Overall, a delicious meal with my family.

How to Get the Ungettable Table

The Wall Street Journal's written an article on how to get highly desired reservations. It even comes with a handy little chart. It's a fairly interesting article, though I admit that I didn't find it really helpful. As some of you may have learned, it's pretty hard getting reservations to certain restaurants these days. (Some websites are even scalping reservations. But I prefer the nice ppl on Chowhound who give reservations up for free if they can't make it.) Well, I guess some of you may not know, since I'll bet the vast majority of you give up and head somewhere else. Perhaps you are the truly wise ones. So I'm one of the crazies who sits around trying to get reservations. (but hey, I do this to get Red Sox tickets, too, which is why I have Green Monster tickets and you don't). And admittedly I have a lot of time to kill. But then the you just ride my coat tails to yummy meals while reading about the trials and tribulations of getting a reservation on my blog.
As you know, my recent conquest was Mozza (dinner there in 3 days!), but after reading the WSJ article, I gotta say that for many of the places listed, I haven't found it that hard to get a reservation. Maybe it's cause they chose to make a reservation at 7pm, but I've certainly learned to eat early (or late). In addition, I've walked into a few places with no reservations at all and gotten seated (Nobu Malibu). So here are my tips for making reservations:

1. Open Table usually sucks. I know in the article that they say that most restaurants don't hold back table from the Open Table system, but I think that's an outright lie. I think most do hold back tables. I've always found it easier just to call the restaurant and make the reservation with a person. Then you're also not sitting there trying to reload Open table when you figure out that 2ppl at 7pm doesn't work. You can let the reservationist figure out a better time/date.

2. Be flexible. With time and date.

3. Go with just 2 ppl. You run into problems with bigger parties. Like at Enoteca in Del Posto. They'll only give reservations for large parties at certain times. (like 8:45pm).

4. Do some research. Go online. Use Google. Use Chowhound. And figure out when the reservation lines open up. This can be a pain in the butt, but it's often worth it. Like No. 9 Park is exactly 30 days in advance. Del Posto is day of at 10am. Per Se is 2 months in advance. The French Laundry is 6 months in advance.....Why most places don't just give this information to you on the website is beyond me.

5. Just show up. Maybe not at peak times on a Friday/Saturday night. But what about 6pm on a Sunday night? Or 9pm? That often works.

6. Eat at the bar. A lot of times you get the same menu. And bar seats are usually up for grabs. Like at Mozza and Lupa. Though I guess if you're in for the full dining experience, you'd skip this step.

7. Call me and make me do it. Yes, it happens. No charge, but gifts are appreciated.

SIMPLE RECIPES, DELICIOUS RESULTS

Over the last week, I've continued to try out various recipes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook. On Monday night I made a dish of chicken and chickpeas. Here it is below.

I'd give you the recipe, but it's at home and I'm at work. But it turned out really well and it was super easy to make (not suprising since it's Mark Bittman and he really doesn't do complicated stuff.) Actually, I served it leftovers last night with couscous. Allowing the flavors to meld over a few days was a great idea. I was out of chicken, the vegetarian version was just as good.

Here you'll see another simple recipe I tried out. It's a pancake recipe from the NYTimes from 1966! (recently republished in the NY Times magazine section). It's a bit different because it's made in a skillet and sits in the oven where it browns and puffs up.

The recipe is so simple, but the results are fabulous and I think everyone enjoyed it. If I had two cast iron skillets, I would've made two of these and look foward to making it again.

SUNDAY EATS

Finally, a day off after a long week. The weather could've been nicer, but considering it's Spring in New England, I should just be glad it's not snowing. Tom and I woke up fairly early and debated our breakfast options. I proposed going to the perenially packed Coolidge Corner favorite, Zaftigs. Since we'd get there at almost 9AM I figured there wouldn't be a line. But Tom shot down that idea. (which ended up being a good thing. As we drove by, we noticed a group of people standing outside, waiting to get in.) Instead, we went to Rubin's Deli, a little farther up Harvard Ave., closer to Allston. We drive by this place all the time, but since it's set in a rather nondescript building, we'd never been in. After a quick google search, we figured out that they were open for breakfast. (Actually, they open at 8 on Sundays). When we stepped inside, we found the place nearly empty. The only other diners were a couple sitting in a booth. A long deli counter lined one side of the restaurant, so we were confused as to whether we ordered at the counter or sat ourselves. Luckily, a waitress appeared and told us we could pick anywhere we wanted to sit. So I chose a comfy red booth. The decor in here seems to have come from the 60s, with the stereotypical Jewish Deli feel. But it was well maintained and quite comfortable.
After checking out the menu, I began to wonder why cream cheese was referred to as non-dairy and there wasn't any butter, just margarine. Tom then reminded me that we were at a Kosher establishment. I figured the bagels here would be great, so I ended up ordering a toasted bagel and a side of hash browns. Tom got the Challah french toast (which I also considered ordering, but he beat me to it) and a side of smoked salmon hash. As we waited for our food to arrive (and despite being only the second table there, it wasn't too speedy), I took note of the surroundings. This is definitely a casual, family run place, and they do most of their business on a take out basis. Plenty of orders were being picked up at the deli while we ate. I also checked out their sandwich menu, and I don't doubt that they would make some kick ass sandwiches.

But back to breakfast. Here are my hash browns.
They were ok, but I really do prefer hash browns with crunchy bits, which these lacked completely. I didn't photograph my bagel, but it ended up being an egg bagel and it was strangely sweet. It wasn't that great, so I was a little disappointed in that.

However, the star dish of the day was the smoked salmon hash. I'm not a huge fan of salmon anymore, having filled my lifetime quoting after working in a restaurant, but this was tasty. Cooked with eggs and potato, it was my favorite dish of the morning. Tom also enjoyed it quite a bit.

And here is his challah french toast. Again, I expected it to be amazing, but it was actually quite soggy, with a pudding like texture. (I really do prefer it when things are crisp and crunchy). As we finished our meal, more people would start to enter the restaurant, but even as we left, there were only 3 couples eating. The food here was well priced, just $20 for the two of us, but I don't think I'll be back for breakfast. I certainly would like to have a sandwich from them, tho.

After breakfast, we made our weekly pilgrimage to the Whole Foods. We hoped to miss the crowds, but even at 10am, there were still plenty of people there. I had several recipes in mind that I wanted to make. For Tom's birthday, he had received a number of Amazon gift certificates. And I had encourage him to spend them on new cookbooks. I was very happy with the new books, especially Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's quite comprehensive, and even encouraged me to use new ingredients. So for lunch, I made this simple salad garnished with shrimp. (The shrimp were made with Bittman's recipe). They ended up being quite tasty and if only we had some crusty bread, the shrimp could have been eaten alone with just that. If you've ever had tapas and enjoyed gambas al ajillo, it tasted a lot like that. The parmesean cheese that I added helped add some sweetness to the salad and I think it was great.

For dinner, I wanted to try out another Bittman recipe. This one was for extra crispy white fish fillets. Tom and I had purchased tilapia fillets earlier in the day, and they were perfect for this recipe. Also, earlier in the week, we had purchased bread from Clear Flour. I used the uneaten Italian loaf to make some spectacular bread crumbs. So here's my mis en place.You can see the plate of breadcrumbs, seasoned with some fresh herbs, salt and pepper, a plate of beaten eggs and a plate of flour. This was super easy. You coat the fillets in flour, then egg, then the bread crumbs and put them in a hot pan with olive oil. I also roasted some red potatoes with herbs to go on the side. Here's everything finished. The hardest part of the recipe is gauging when the fillets are ready. I had to keep poking and prodding and eventually took a knife and cut one open. Not great for presentation, but the fish was cooked perfectly and turned out delicious. I'll be trying out more recipes from these cookbooks (am flipping through Molto Italiano by Mario Batali today) and will report back on the results.

TORY'S

And now for the review you've all been waiting for, Tory's. I will spare you the suspense and let you know that I prefer Yakitoriya to Tory's. Tory's has good yakitori and a much larger selection of dishes than Yakitoriya (especially some unique ones), but Yakitoriya is still my all time favorite yakitori place. I guess I've been spoiled by Yakitoriya because it's the first yakitori restaurant I've ever been to, and it tuns out, it's also been the best. (well, for now. I still haven't had yakitori in Japan).

As I mentioned in a previous post, Tory's is the sister restaurant of Yakitori Totto. It's newer and a much larger space, so they were able to accomadate our party of 8 without a problem. When we arrived at the second floor space, we found a sleek, chic space, that was already packed with Japanese diners enjoying their yakitori. (I'm serious, everyone in there was Japanese). Here's their logo, which is stamped everywhere. (plates, menus, tshirts on waiters, etc.)
We got seated at a section of seats at the very front of the restaurant, and got to enjoy this lovely view of the drunkards celebrating St. Patty's Day below. I'm not joking, no one was walking straight. It was fairly entertaining.And then we were given a load of menus. Like 4 different menus. I liked this one the most, cause it had the pictures. I always find it humorous when given menus with pictures of the food (the point and order method). We were also given a menu with chef's specialties, a menu with the regular menu and a fairly extensive sake menu. And we began the ordering process, which ended up being one of the most frustrating parts of the dinner. So here's tip number one. If you go to Tory's go by yourself. Maybe with one companion. Sit at the bar or a small table. DO NOT go with a large group. This isn't the place to do it. At Yaktioriya you're allowed to order a set of yakitori sticks and then switch out whatever you don't want. At Tory's, you just order by the stick. We all wanted to order our own stuff, but the waitress forced as to order as a group. Who wants chicken breast? Raise your hand. Who wants chicken thigh? Raise your hand. This was super confusing and frustrating for both the diner and server. When the food finally arrives, you're wondering who ordered this? Did I get this? How many did I order? (and it'll get worse later, when you wonder who's paying for what. Another reason to only go with one other person). They'd be much better off giving you a list and allowing you to check off what you wanted. (like at many sushi restaurants).

We were a bit disappointed because I was excited to try things like the soft knee bones and more unique yakitori. But these items were limited and they were already sold out by the time we arrived. (at 7pm!).

After the ordeal of ordering, we settled in. Tom and Jeany ordered some interesting dishes that took a little while to cook on the table, so those arrived first in these clay pots sitting atop burners. Tom ordered a chicken rice (called gohan) while Jeany's ordered a tofu. I was able to see the tofu before it started cooking and it was literally a liquid form. We were given strict instructs not to open the pots (the rice would take 3o minutes to cook, the tofu 25 minutes). Our waitress repeatedly told us not to touch the pots, to the point where I began to wonder, if they wanted to be so strict about it, why put it on the table in front of us? Why not cook it in the kitchen and then give it to us. Obviously there's a lot to be said for presentation, but being didactic about it isn't much fun.

And fairly soon after that, food began arriving. The first thing I got was my chicken liver. It was infused with a lovely smoke flavor, but a little dried than I expected. It was still tasty, though. And that would be the theme for the night. The chicken was well seasoned and had an incredible flavor from the charcoal used, but it wasn't as juicy as I was accustomed to.A listing of my other dishes include chicken gizzard:chicken heartsshisito peppers (which were really hot, but enjoyable)and chicken meatball (incredibly juicy and delicious.)I also ordered a nice grilled riceball with miso. I loved the crunch that the grilling gave to the rice, along with the ume flavored pickles on the side.Since we had so many people at dinner, we got a huge variety of dishes, but I really only photographed the things I ate. Back to those clay pots, which were certainly winners for the night, here's the cooked tofu. It was silky and smooth with an intense soybean flavor that you don't get from normal supermarket tofu. And it was infused with that same charcoal flavor.

And I really enjoyed the chicken rice, which had cooked up perfectly and again, had that same flavor of charcoal.However, confusion reigned during dinner. At one point, we were given a whole plate of chicken breast that was destined for our neighboring table. But not remembering what we'd ordered, we ended up eating it. Until our own orders showed up. Does that mean we paid for it? Who knows. It was also confusing because half our party showed up over a half hour late. Yet we finished at the same time. Even though we had ordered a half hour earlier, a few of our dishes arrived at the end of the nearly 2.5 hour meal. By this time, I was tired, hot and ready to go home.

In conclusion, would I go back to Tory's? Maybe, if I lived in NY. It was a good dinner, but it was expensive(for yakitori, not for a dinner in NY) and it took a long time. I'd prefer waiting for my trips home to get Yakitori that I know I'll love. Also, service could be very slow and not very accomadating. Still, if you do live in NY, I would drop by, have a seat at the bar and certainly order the tofu, gohan and chicken hearts.

NEW YORK DAY 2: FOOD TOUR!
I had planned out a full day of eating in New York. But we got a late start in the morning, and instead of heading to Caffe Fallai for breakfast, like I had planned, we made a quick stop at Almondine Bakery, an adorable French bakery around the corner from my cousin's condo, where we grabbed delicious sandwiches and pastries. Then it was off to SOHO to start our food tour. I needed to do a modicum of work during this trip and had heard that a new chocolate shop had opened east of SOHO on Broome street. Unfortunately it was closed. But as we trekked back, we ran across Despana. (Which literally means from Spain). We had noticed the the leg of Jamon Serrano in the window while walking to the chocolate store, but I didn't recognize the name until we were heading back.

I'm familiar with Despana because I always attend the Fancy Food Show and Despana imports a lot of foods from Spain. I've wanted to go, but for some reason, I thought it was uptown, so it was quite fortunate that we stumbled across it. When we entered, it was clear that they had just opened. On the left they had shelves of Spanish products, like olive oils, olives, etc. and lots of samples out to try. On the right, they had two large display cases, one filled with sausages and others with cheeses (and samples galore!) and at the very back, they had another small case filled the tapaps and pinchos, like the ones I'd seen last summer in Barcelona. There was a tiny table and I wish we had more time to stop and samples some tapas. (We'll do it next time) But I did encourage Tom to try the sausage samples.
He ended up getting two types of sausage and we brought them back to Boston so he could share them with a friend.

Our next stop was Kee's, my favorite chocolate shop in all New York. I hadn't been in quite some time. The last time we went to NY we didn't have time to stop and Kee's is always closed in July when I'm there for the Fancy Food Show. (Not surprising, July is our slowest month, too.) Tom (my cousin, Jeany's, husband, who's also a fan) had warned me that Kee's had changed a bit, and he hadn't seen her in a while, so he wasn't sure what was up with the place. But I'm here to tell you that all is well at Kee's. Let me backtrack a bit. Kee's opened in 2002, when I still lived in NY. I would go there to buy chocolate whenever I had time and I loved the tiny space (probaby 50 sq. feet) which included the minute production area and shop. There wasn't a time that I've gone that Kee wasn't there, selling chocolates or doing production, and I continued to visit even after I moved to Boston.

Skip foward five years and Kee's is still going strong. She's expanded into the neighboring space, which is equally tiny, but now the production area is separate from the retail area. Plus she has lots of employees now. In the retail area, we bought two large boxes of chocolate, with a bunch of new flavors that I'm excited to try. (like the smoked salt) I also peeked next door, and there was Kee, working away with two assistants. It makes me feel really good to see a small business succeed, and yet, Kee hasn't blown up and expanded like crazy. She's still a small neighborhood shop, working away and making what I consider the best chocolate in Manhattan.

The one request that Tom made during this visit was a trip to the Excellent Pork Chop house. So we walked over and joined Jeany and Juliet for a simple lunch there. I got my usual bowl of noodles and fried chicken. It was delicious as usual, especially while there was so much snow on the ground. And after lunch, we continued on our food journey. Our next stop was Il Laboratio del Gelato, in the Delancey area. And while walking up there through Chinatown, we stopped for some freshly made cakes. (Translated into English, it literally means small chicken egg cakes). My little sister loves these things, and they sell them on the street in Taiwan. $1 got your 15 little cakes, which come out steaming and delicious.It actually wasn't such a terrible thing that there was so much snow on the ground. Though it was certainly cold, slushy and messy, it also required more effort and more calorie burning. So we were able to continue eating throughout the day. Pretty soon, we had arrived at our next destination, Il Laboratio del Gelato. This is another place that I visited when I lived in New York, but it was a rare trip, since it's not the easiest place to get to. It was started by the founder of Ciao Bella who after selling Ciao Bella, started a much smaller operation that creates incredible gelato. (small batches, fresh flavors). The prices are pretty high ($20 a gallon), but it's worth it for the quality of the gelato. Here's a pic of the case.I got a small cup with espresso and chocolate. Both were wonderful, especially the espresso, with it's little particles of coffee bean ground in. Tom tried a more unusual flavor, rice, but I enjoyed his toasted sesame more. And Juliet's hazelnut was also great. It might've been close to freezing outside, but this gelato could be enjoyed in any weather.

Our last stop for the afternoon was the Essex Street Market, just a few blocks for Il Laboratio. There's been a lot written about Essex Street Market lately, and being a great fan of markets (especially the outdoor kind) I wanted to have a look. Essex Street used to appeal much more to an ethnic, working class clientele, and that's still apparent today. It reminded me of a smaller sized Reading Terminal Market. It was filled with vendors selling impeccably fresh produce, meats, fish and cheese. And it wasn't too expensive, either. Here's a shot of some produce.
And a huge trash can full of cherimoyas. It didn't look like the cherimoyas that I was used to in Taiwan. The skin was smooth and these guys were unusually large, but it was great to see a different fruit being sold.

Lastly, here's a shot of the famed Saxelby Cheesemonger's aging room. I just thought it was cool that they had an aging room right on site. Had we not been stuffed full at this point, we may have tried a few things, but we needed a break from all the eating. We went back to DUMBO to rest up, help build furniture and read trashy magazines and to get hungry enough for dinner at Tory's.

NEW YORK: DAY 1

It had started snowing and Boston was expecting 4-8 inches of snow, awaiting the arrival of the largest winter storm of the season thus far. In anticipation of the storm, Jetblue cancelled over 200 flights. And so, on that cold wintry day, we boarded a very crowded train and headed down to New York. Luckily, we had decided to take the train this time. If we had planned on driving, we would never have even made it. I've been planning this trip for weeks, and wouldn't it just figure that I chose to go the one weekend this winter where there would be significant amounts of snow and make walking treacherous and difficult? But we pushed on.

By the time we arrived in New York, the city was covered in a thick blanket of snow. In addition, the streets weren't being plowed fast enough and the wind was blowing painful ice crystals directly into my face. As we struggled to get to my cousin's condo in DUMBO, Tom asked if we were really going to venture out into the snow again. Of course! I replied. We had reservations at Enoteca.

So yes, I was able to score my reservation at Enoteca on Friday morning. And when the reservationist plugged my info into their computer system, she realized that we'd been there before. That was a nice touch. I made the reservation for 6 people, but in the end, we only had 5. When we finally arrived at Enoteca, not surprisingly, the restaurant wasn't bustling like the first time. The bar empty was nearly empty (though Joe Bastiniach was sitting there making phone calls), but the Enoteca was still pretty full. We were seated at the largest table they had, which comfortably holds six, but in the future, I won't go here with a party greater than 4. I won't go into the details of the meal, because the menu was exactly the same as the first time I went. I will say that the Spaghetti Aglio e Olio was probably the best thing I had. It was soooo simple. Perfectly cooked fresh pasta, some olive oil, salt, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes, but delicious. I don't think I could reproduce it in my own kitchen. Tom got to enjoy his lardo and I also had a wonderful chocolate hazelnut tart for dessert. Service was impeccable as usual.

Though I wasn't as stuffed as the first time I'd been to Enoteca, I think we all walked away from dinner quite happy. It was certainly worth a cold, wet trek in the snow and was a great start to a weekend filled with food.

MEATBALLS FOR YOU AND ME

As I mentioned earlier, we were at Whole Foods on Sunday and I bought some ground turkey meat to make meatballs. I was inspired by the Amateur Gourmet's recent post about meatballs using Lidia Bastianich's recipe and based upon that, I made my own meatballs. I'm not going to detail the entire process (you can check the Amateur Gourmet's blog to see it in detail, plus my hands were dirty, so I didn't want to touch the camera), but here's a pick of them, rolled in flour and ready to be fried.Next I panfried them in a generous amount of olive oil.
And eventually finished them by plopping them in homemade tomato sauce and serving with spaghetti.This was perfect, filling comfort food. I was so full after eating it, that I could barely move. But what I liked about the recipe was the addition of orange zest. It added something to the meatballs, an additional complexity. The only thing I was really missing was the fennel seeds, but I'll remember to get those for next time.

KIWIBERRIES AND I'M EXCITED!

Ok, I was just reading Michael Ruhlman's blog and after having meals at Daniel, Jean Georges, etc etc....He raves about Yakitori Totto. So this just makes me even more excited about dinner on Saturday, because we'll be going to Tory's, the sister restaurant of Yakitori Totto. (I didn't make reservations at Yakitori Totto because I've heard it's a smaller restaurant). Even better, Thomas Keller called it his favorite restaurant in NY.

And onto other discoveries, look at this This is a kiwiberry. I'd read about them in an issue of Time and happened to see them at the Whole Foods on Sunday. Basically, it's like a cross between a kiwi and a grape. As you can see above, it looks like a kiwi on the inside, but it's smooth on the outside, so you can eat the whole thing. I didn't actually want to buy them, cause they are EXPENSIVE. We paid $5 for about 12 of them. But it's not often that you get to try a totally new fruit. Verdict, I thought they were Ok. Tom said he needed to get used to them. I still have a few left if you wanna come over and give them a try.

RESTAURANT WEEK DINNER NO. 2: CHEZ HENRI

It takes a lot to truly piss me off. I takes even more to make me complain on a public forum (like Chowhound). Actually, I've only done it once and that was during my disastrous 26th Birthday dinner at the Red House. (You can go back and find that blog entry on your own time). But dinner last night qualifies as one of those meals that truly pisses me off. And when I do get pissed off, it's NEVER about the food. It's ALWAYS about the service. As I've written earlier this week, we had reservations for Chez Henri last night to celebrate Tom's 35th birthday. It was a nice coincidence that it also happened to be restaurant week. I've wanted to go to Chez Henri for some time, I've heard that they have an amazing bar menu with French and Cuban influences, so I was looking foward to this meal.

When we entered the restaurant, I noticed that it was packed (not shocking for a Friday night). The bar area was completely separate from the dining room and had it's own seating area. We were seated pretty quickly and I noticed that the dining room had some fun, quirky decorations like ceramic chickens and unique glass lamps that hung from the ceilings. It was a smaller dining room than I expected, but that gave it an intimate, cozy quality. We were handed menus as we sat and perused them for a bit. I noticed that almost every entree on the menu contained some form of pork, though. In the salads, the soups, even the seafood dishes. So it's not a great place to take a Kosher diner. Much like Union, Chez Henri only gave you two options for Restaurant Week, so it didn't take us long to decide. However, it did take a while for our waiter to show up, and nearly 10 minutes had elapsed before he decided to grace us with his presence.

He asked us if we wanted to order drinks (Jayna got a mojito) and was sharp enough to notice that we'd been sitting there so long that we were also ready to order. After we ordered, he went off and we scarcely saw him again for the rest of the night. The runners took care of us from there on out. We were given a basket of bread which had these awesome little round rolls enhanced with cheese and roasted peppers and our appetizers arrived soon after that. Everyone else at the table ordered a soup made from Maduros (ripe plantains).
I think Leah and Tom's favorite part of this entire soup was that large chunk of bacon you see peeking out of the bowl. The also commented on the mellow flavors of the soup, claiming that it didn't really taste like plantains at all, but more like some type of squash. Meanwhile, I broke from the pack and ordered a salad of arugula and serrano ham. (You can see the ham under all the greens).After removing the serrano and handing it off to Leah and Tom (and noticing how fatty it was), I enjoyed my simple salad that was well dressed and quite tasty.

The runners removed our plates and this was when we proceeded to wait for our entrees to arrive. Now, since this was a fairly small restaurant, I could actually see most of the tables around us. I noticed that the table of 4 behind us had ordered about 5 minutes before us and gotten their entrees nearly 15 minutes before we got ours. This could certainly be blamed on the kitchen, but not once did our waiter come and check on us. During this time, I was also able to notice how well staffed the restaurant was. There were 3 waiters (for a not huge dining room) in addition to at least 3 runners and a manager. Our water glasses were kept filled by the runners, but that was about how much notice we got.

Eventually our entrees arrived, and you could tell that Tom's order of pork had spent a bit of time under a heat lamp. Both his and Leah's pork loins were a bit dry, though they did get a very generous serving. Meanwhile, Jayna and I had both ordered a tilapia on a bed of rice with a red curry coconut sauce. Once again, I was surprised at how well prepared my fish was. It actually tasted much more Thai than Cuban, but I really liked the moist fish along with the topping of crisp, lightly pickled veggies.
Our waiter failed to check in on us and even give the cursory "How is your meal?" during this time. After finishing our entrees, our plates were finally taken away by a runner, and we proceeded to wait for our desserts (which we had ordered at the beginning of the meal.) During this time, I also noticed that the waiter had forgotten Leah's order of Cuban fries, but it was too late for those. Finally our waiter made an appearance, asking Jayna what she had decided on for dessert (she couldn't decide at the beginning and asked for a suggestion). She ended up ordering the Tres Leches cake, like Tom and Leah.

When our desserts arrived, the rest of the table enjoyed a sweet, dense cake finished with a marshmallow topping and surrounded by a pool of chocolate-coffee cream.
In the meantime, I ordered a simple mango sorbet. It was cool and refreshing, but didn't seem to have been made in house.
Then the real waiting began. We had been at dinner for nearly two hours at this point. The table of 4 behind us had left long ago, as had another table that was seated shortly before we arrived. Our plates remained visibly finished and untouched before us. I even had my napkin on my plate. Meanwhile, I started counting the number of times our waiter walked passed us and utterly ignored our presence. He made about 12 trips past us (as I said, this is a small restaurant) and during this time, we began to debate what exactly we had done to deserve such awful awful service; such flagrant neglect and rudeness. We weren't overly pick or demanding. None of us had made a special request. Even the runners were ignoring us. As I looked around at the other tables, I noticed that no one else was receiving this type of treatment. The dining room was still well staffed and there were a few empty tables by this point. Finally, Tom asked us for the check, and even that didn't arrive promptly. (It was also missing Leah's order of Cuban fries, which the waiter had never bothered to enter).

The only conclusion we could arrive at was that our entire table hadn't ordered drinks. (except for Jayna's mojito) and with the waiter, knowing that the bill wouldn't be bumped up anymore, he felt that it was OK to simply ignore us. This is the second time that this has happened to me in a month. (the other time was with dinner Taberna de Haro when our waiter went MIA). This was truly frustrating and I was mad. All of us had worked in foodservice at some point, and Leah and I own businesses where we interact with the public on a daily basis. We would never have treated our customers like this. When we finally paid the bill, I refused to allow Tom to tip any more than 15% (he's a very generous tipper and normally gives 20%. I often think he overtips) and dinner ended up taking 2.5 hours. We were all exhausted after the meal and stumbled out of the restaurant, full, but certainly unsatisfied.

And I'll conclude with this mini rant. By and large, the Restaurant Week meals that I've had in Boston have been quite good; better than the ones I'd had in NY when I lived there. But for restaurants, this is your time to put your best foot foward and introduce yourselves to a new audience. I don't think we should blithely excuse shoddy service, poor food and long waits on Restaurant Week. It can be done well and if so, I'll return to that restaurant in the future (Union and Mistral). And restaurants are not required to participate in Restaurant Week. If you don't want to do it well, then why bother? Plenty of restaurants can't justify the cost and don't participate. For me, I will never visit Chez Henri again. As I've said a million times before, great service can make up for mediocre food, but poor service will never make up for the most delectable, luxurious, awesome meal in the world.