You may find this hard to believe (I know I do), but I was once served a bear milkshake, complete with straw for drinking, at a Slovenian restaurant. Still traumatized.
We always beat a hasty retreat from places like this as they go against our three criteria for picking a restaurant which we always do on the fly when we travel:
1 Foam has no place on a plate of food
2 Always eat local and with locals. Google and other recommended restaurants are therefore best avoided
3 English language and tasting menus are a guarantee of exhorbitant prices
What an odd restaurant experience, and an entertaining recap (not a review!). I definitely appreciate the migas were delicious and the rest of the meal tasty, but it was still a bad meal. Too much imagination, indeed!
So much appreciation and lolz for this and for questioning our collective obsession with researching our restaurants(guilty). I used to date a chef whose rule was “if they have to tell you in the menu how good the food is… it isn’t”. Seems like a handy one to keep in mind.
Thankfully, the photo and description should be enough to make sure that should I be unfortunate enough to enter this establishment, I immediately turn and flee to the closest food source, even if that turned out to be McDonalds.
God, I wish I could remember where I read about Ignacio and this restaurant. NY Times? The New Yorker? Anyway, it was a rather long piece and the writer wasn’t much more enamored of the chef or restaurant than you were. Although I have to say that your lede made me think that it was a place where you got food poisoning or something. Just, what, too pretentious? I remember going to a similar sort of restaurant in Barcelona some years back with my daughter and an editor from Bon Appetit. Lots of foam and gases and weird combinations. The three of us just shook our heads as we left. Like, What the hell was that about?
Thanks for suffering through this so that the rest of us don't have to. This type of restaurant is precisely why my two favorite words for dining choices are "pub lunch."
While I certainly don't go looking for bad meals (who does?) my usual response is "ok, that means the next meal will be great!".
And if everything we ate was 5 star quality, how would know it was good? A bad meal now and then just reminds us of what good food realty is
A very good point!
I'm going to have nightmares about that milkshake and tuna sponge.. and the pomp of the butter service. Great stuff, Lisa!
Thank you, Alice! But oh, that poor kid with the butter….
This is really writing of the highest quality, Substack needs more actual writers and less snake oil sales persons
I need to go order a lamb milkshake. Yum
You may find this hard to believe (I know I do), but I was once served a bear milkshake, complete with straw for drinking, at a Slovenian restaurant. Still traumatized.
Please, tell us the name of the restaurant!
Hahaha, what an experience; with all that unnecessary fluff around the food! It was almost like you were dining inside a surreal Dali painting.
Ha! It did feel at times like the clocks were about to start melting ;)
😂🫠
Funny!
We always beat a hasty retreat from places like this as they go against our three criteria for picking a restaurant which we always do on the fly when we travel:
1 Foam has no place on a plate of food
2 Always eat local and with locals. Google and other recommended restaurants are therefore best avoided
3 English language and tasting menus are a guarantee of exhorbitant prices
What an odd restaurant experience, and an entertaining recap (not a review!). I definitely appreciate the migas were delicious and the rest of the meal tasty, but it was still a bad meal. Too much imagination, indeed!
Odd is exactly the right word! Thanks for reading.
So much appreciation and lolz for this and for questioning our collective obsession with researching our restaurants(guilty). I used to date a chef whose rule was “if they have to tell you in the menu how good the food is… it isn’t”. Seems like a handy one to keep in mind.
More good words to live by!
Thankfully, the photo and description should be enough to make sure that should I be unfortunate enough to enter this establishment, I immediately turn and flee to the closest food source, even if that turned out to be McDonalds.
PSA: Turns out, there's a really good tapas bar around the corner.
But if there isn't tuna eyeball butter....
I keep wondering if they're dotted throughout, like blueberries, or just kind of schmeared in there.
Okay, it’s bad enough you introduced me to this concept, but now you’re just being cruel!
;)
God, I wish I could remember where I read about Ignacio and this restaurant. NY Times? The New Yorker? Anyway, it was a rather long piece and the writer wasn’t much more enamored of the chef or restaurant than you were. Although I have to say that your lede made me think that it was a place where you got food poisoning or something. Just, what, too pretentious? I remember going to a similar sort of restaurant in Barcelona some years back with my daughter and an editor from Bon Appetit. Lots of foam and gases and weird combinations. The three of us just shook our heads as we left. Like, What the hell was that about?
So you're saying I could have prevented all this with a little internet research beforehand, David?
Thanks for suffering through this so that the rest of us don't have to. This type of restaurant is precisely why my two favorite words for dining choices are "pub lunch."
An adage I swear by is “beware the artiste” - in every field! Let this be a lesson learned, Lisa.
Words to live by, clearly.
Brave of you to eat there. The menu turns my stomach