It is simply the best, highest quality cut of Wagyu you can get in the US.Īnd it was life changing.
I have never had Wagyu beef before and certainly very few people outside of the very best steakhouses in Japan have had Wagyu of this quality. I initially declined but then flagged the waiter down around the second course and asked if I could change my mind.
#French laundry prices upgrade#
When they offered the Wagyu steak upgrade I hesitated. I went into this dinner knowing this was a "once in a lifetime" experience but also thinking that the $325 tab was going to be "good enough". The servings are not huge but every plate was more delicious than the last so you didn't care. The idea behind The French Laundry is to give you bites of pure deliciousness, to make you want more. The Amuse Bouche arrived, Keller's play on a 31 flavors ice cream cone but this one topped with salmon tartare and the cone filled with Crème Fraîche - one bite to get all the flavors and it was gone but the delicious memory remains. It felt professional, but friendly, and I like that.Īnd then it began. They were friendly! They were young! They were not stuffed shirts wondering what in the world was a guy like me was doing there. They seated us instantly and my nerves settled. Like a couple of country bumpkins we arrived too early (there's no bar - what do you think this is, Chili's?) and shuffled around the outside, asking passerby's to take our photo and then the blue door opened like magic and the hostess asked "would you like to come in?" and we were oh so grateful. We're eaten in a lot of good restaurants but a meal that starts at $325 per person and easily tops $1,000 for two felt a bit like jumping behind the wheel of a Lamborghini - I mean, it's just a car. Just don't feel like you must add additional tip as that's the whole idea. If you feel the service was impeccable then no one will complain with adding additional tip.
That's right, you don't need to tip on top of you meal unless you want to as they already added a 20% tip to everything you ordered. In the end, set aside $1,000 for dinner for two and if it goes over a bit just go with it - it's only money. While the menu is "set" you can upgrade certain courses which can add another $100 or more to each persons bill. Figure a glass of champagne to start, a white, a red, be ready to drop $300 per couple on wine as the starting point. Bottles are hundreds of dollars, perhaps best for when someone else is paying, and corkage fee $150 per bottle. Wines by the glass are around $35 for whites and $45 for reds (more or less) and there is no set "wine pairing" option. It's 9 courses, not including the opening "appetizers", aka Amuse Bouche. The French Laundry costs $350 per person to dine and there are two set menus, the Chef's Tasting (meat and seafood) and the Tasting of Vegetables. FAQ: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DINE AT THE FRENCH LAUNDRY? Bottom line, you need to go into this knowing that there is no backing out or changing your mind once you bought the reservation. Oddly they allow you to transfer it so if you really can't make it you can give it away or sell it to a friend, both only worth exploring if you are in a jam. You can't make it, oh well, thank you very much. Think of The French Laundry reservation the same way as a concert ticket. Otherwise, there are other fine dining restaurants-with food that actually lives up to the price-we’d send you to first.FAQ: WHAT HAPPENS IF I NEED TO CHANGE OR CANCEL RESERVATIONS? And for the prestige- and restaurant-obsessed who’ll stop at nothing to get wrapped up in the glamor of the Keller brand, come for the experience, not the meal. If you’re so wealthy you unironically think a banana costs $10, need a place to commemorate a Big Business Deal, or want to throw on a floor-length mink coat and celebrate a triumphant divorce, have at it. Generally, no-the value just isn’t there. The question of whether this meal is worth the price is the big one. And stay too long and you’ll be not-so-subtly coaxed into “a tour of the kitchen” as a ploy to get you to vacate the premises. Some plates were cleared in a flourish before we finished. It set the tone for a night peppered with womp-womp moments. A server then questioned if we were “OK with the cost,” which was never disclosed in the first place. On a recent visit, the pairing wasn’t offered at all until we requested it.
0 kommentar(er)
