How did Per Se get 2 stars from the NYT?

Read this review and tell me how 2 stars were warranted. It sounds like everything that I hate in dining.

Ouch.

Sounds like something everyone would hate in dining! My visit to Per Se about a year and a half ago was near perfect. But the article sounds like they’ve really gone off the rails. Oh, well, there are a ton of choices in NYC.

JD

Wow…

Neal, it’s kind of like when I read a wine tasting note that says something like “the nose was nonexistent except for a faint smell of band-aid, the wine tasted like it was over the hill, with only a hint of blue fruits left”…90 points! I read many TN’s that make me think I would never buy the wine being reviewed, yet it gets a very respectable score!

“as murky and appealing as bong water” - nice

They still get people like my cousin who can afford to take 5 people there for his 35th birthday because he’s all that, so it deserves at least 2 stars for the chicanery.

Are some stars given for ambience or decor, perhaps?

Classic. Would love to be a fly on the wall in that kitchen today!

Ha! Pete Wells had more fun at Señor Frog’s: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/dining/senor-frogs-review.html

What happened next was captured in a fast-moving video that, like the Zapruder film, I have watched dozens of times. There is a piece of paper on a stick planted in a birthday cake. Then it is on fire. The birthday boy tries to blow it out. He fails. A powerful wind comes out of nowhere. It raises sparks from the fire. The birthday boy’s balloon hat starts to tremble, then shoots straight up in the air like an Apollo rocket. It hits the ceiling. Chaos reigns.

Many thoughts went through my head at that moment. I wondered, briefly, why anyone trusted me with an expense account. But the dominant idea was: Señor Frog’s, where have you been all my life?

I can see where if perhaps he gave a moment’s thought to one star, he correctly reasoned that it would strain credulity.

Shocked by the service. First thought is that this could be indicative of what to expect with “service included”.

yeah but they’ve been service included for a long time now

It sounds like Pete bent over, got shafted, and liked it enough for two stars. Whole review sounds like a rotten experience that would repel me. Run for the doors!!

All of this makes me so sad. Glad I have the cookbook!! I’ve had oysters and pearls several times but never made it to the restaurant.

Interesting read. What an abysmal experience. I was at Per Se ~4 years ago and enjoyed the experience. A little stuffy and similar to what the NY times article suggested there was some presumptive up-selling of dishes, but nothing that was as horrible as what was described here

Perhaps this is what invariable happens when celeb chefs stretch themselves too thin.

In a similar vein, I was at Ad Hoc (another Thomas Keller) in Napa with my wife a couple years ago. We were offered the most awful lamb shank meal that I could ever imagine. . . Grisly, dry, lacked any type of discernible flavor except some gaminess. Ad Hoc offers no choice in their meals, so we politely turned this main dish away and left

Yikes.

I can only imagine what the internal backlash has been.

Wait a sec Ian - to certain people “bong water” might be up their alley!

Wow. That’s a pretty wild review. I’ve only eaten at Per Se once and it was years ago. It was a fabulous meal (with the exception of the cost). I’ve eaten at The French Laundry several times (also years ago) and loved those meals. TFL meals are some of my favorite meals that I’ve had in the United States. I agree with Frank Deis…this makes me sad. Memories of the meals at TFL are so vivid and awe inspiring that it’s disappointing to read this review.

That said, I don’t really like to dine that way anymore. I like the casual service and setting much more…think Blue Hill or Gramercy Tavern style. The expectations are so high at this price point that it’s almost impossible to meet them. Thus I have very little interest in shelling out $1k+ for something I know can’t live up to the price tag.

This is equivalent to the firing on Fort Sumter. It’s been building to this for quite some time, and I hope it is a wake up call for the fine dining industry. Stupid prices, arrogant service, impossibly expensive wine list, and a dinner for 4 more expensive than a mortgage payment. For years, the restaurant industry and its educational arm have developed a strategy to get the most money out of (read: screw) the customer. Item placement on menus, supplemental charges for “luxury ingredients”, by-the-glass programs of egregiously priced unknown cheap wines, somms that care only about their next invitation to wine weekends at Pebble Beach where they drink Krug for free, etc. It’s an ugly picture, but parts have shown up in just about every fine dining experience I’ve had in the last 4-5 years.

I feel sorry for Keller and his hard working staff…the French Laundry took us to some great heights…other restaurants too, like Eleven Madison Park and Alinea…but for many that time has passed and they just turned into money grubbing jerks. I look forward to more honest reviews and, hopefully, some modicum of change for the better.

PS: If you all know of high end restaurants in the Bay Area where you feel the food and wine and service are up to par and I can spend $500-$800 on dinner for two without feeling screwed, I’d appreciate a recommendation…going out for my birthday later this month. My first thought was Acquerello but they are booked… :frowning:

Alas, Ian, no internal backlash at the Times. Restaurant reviews, Travel section articles (many of which appear to have been mailed in by total strangers and published), anything that Asimov or FloFab or writes and everything that Bittman used to write are published without benefit of editing or editoral judgment, whether or not there is nominally an editor in place. Their work is entertainment, not news, and with the constant economic struggle to stay alive and relevant, not to mention the too-frequent embarrassments that the news side has experienced in recent years, nobody will bat an eyelash at “bong juice”. I like it, though!