Went to Fortes yesterday, so far my best DO (Thanks to the reviews on RS :D)
Chowder was good, very hearty and full of seafood!
Fresh Oysters, the ones that came with the DO were mediocre. I had to get another order on the side to curb my oyster craving! Kusshi and Malpeque, those were delicious! (but damn expensive, $20 for 6pcs?! :()

Steak & Shrimp - Pretty in par with what I expected, but I've ate at Hy's & Players Chophouse last week so it's difficult to say I was impressed by this steak!
Albacore Tuna - Not bad, good flavouring with 3 cheese jumbo macaroni which was just saucy enough for every piece but not overflowing nor dry

Creme Brulee - Standard fare, but noticeably more creamy and rich than other places, not to sweet, good stuff.
Lava Cake - Was kinda hard, not moist and soft enough, ice cream was good!

Our server was great as well! Friendly and timed everything perfectly!

8/10 (dock a mark for super expensive oysters haha I also buy/sell oysters so I know they make a killing on oyster profits! Ebisu has'em at a $14 per DOZEN. It doesn't take any more skill than the next person to shuck'em yet they charge 3x more per oyster! gosh!)

i too had a bad experience at Lux. we went there and they obviously screwed up our reservations and said something like "oh didn't you call in and said you changed it to 4 people?" - said the bitchy hostess (my reservation was for 6) but good thing only 5 of us showed up because we were given this small little round table to eat at. The sitting at this place is not meant to serve a meal, it's more of a loungy place. anyways no apologies whatsoever for messing up my reservation... also my reservation was for 7:15, my party showed up at 7:20 (honestly 5 minutes late) and the bitch was all like "oh i didn't think you guys were still coming" -again said the bitchy hostess... i looked at my watch with a confused look.
anyways started with the avocado ahi tuna tower which was OK but i waited an hour for my appy because they ran out of avocadoes... if you have no a la carte menu and there are only 3 appy choices you'd think they'd stock up on avocadoes considering it is one of the main ingredients of the dish..
for the main i had the steak which was really dry and had a weird taste to it, tasted like fire. i can't comment on this dish because it was probably the worst steak i've ever had. yes i know it was a striploin but it was really bad that i didn't even finish.
the best dish was probably the dessert but it was small, the sorbet was a tiny soup spoon size and the fondue for 2 did not come with enough fruits for 2 people.

overall i would NOT recommend lux dineout to anyone. it's more of a lounge place for a drink it's definitely not somewhere you should have dinner... i admit i chose this place because i thought the menu was quite appealing for $28 but it was a definite FAIL.

food + service = POOR

K, I'm canceling my reservation.
Suggestions?
I'm looking at Joe Fortes...but getting a reso short notice is hard like this.
Burgoo?
Trafalgars Bistro?
Observatory?

Trafalgar's was good.
Scallops were nice, 3 of them on top of small bed of green beans and mash potatoes. Mussels were nice as well. For entree's stick to the Lamb or add $3 for the Duck Breast it was probably my favorite. Desert I only tried the Flan it was ok but I'm not a big desert guy. Not bad for $28.

Fortes...I'm not sure if everyone here hyped it up it was only ok. The chowder needed more flavour it was bland, but it had a lot of stuff in there. My friend mentioned to me they cooked the Salmon too dry for her taste so I decided on the steak/prawns. Typical steak/prawn entré, I wish they used a better cut of beef instead though. Sirloin is cheap! I liked the Tuna dish better, wish I had that instead. Overall I thought portions were very good, if it was $28 it be perfect lol.

Couldn't you taste the bad oysters? If they taste fishy.. it's kinda common sense to not eat them. Especially in a palce like Joe Fortes - send them back.

Went to Le Gavroche with a bunch of friends last night.

Reservation at 8pm but didn't get seated until 9 as the restaurant was packed.

Food: 6.5/10
I had the Beef Carpaccio, Albacore Tuna, Creme Caremel (was advertised as the creme brulee). The beef and tuna are decent with the creme caramel taking a hit as mine was broken, runny and our whole table commented on the awkward star anise flavouring to it.
GF had the Oyster Crab Chowder, Chicken and Creme Caremel. The chowder was served luke warm and we asked the waiter why and he mentioned that it was serve that way to prevent the seafood from being overcooked. The chicken and the sides that came with it were pretty good - rightly seasoned and very moist.

Ambiance: 6/10
The restaurant and cutlery was rather dated - definitely has served its time. Noticed that they really tried to pack in more tables and the space on the 2nd floor is really tight

Service: 8/10
We had a pretty friendly waiter that was very accomdating to us. He even comped us drinks a few drinks because we had to wait for an extra hour for our table. Even received some amuse bouche for the whole table (which I'm not sure if its standard fare or not). Only mishap was because the restaraunt was kinda small and our waiter was kinda big he kept on bumping into a few things throughout the service.

Overall: 20.5/30 but I would really give it a 6/10
The food was a bit above average at best with again average ambiance. It was good to have tried the DOV at Le Gavroche but its probably not my cup of tea and I wouldn't return for another time for DOV or just another visit.

Cross posted from the other thread.

u know, i never understood people that took pictures of their food.

isnt it very rude to take pictures in a restaurant, especially with flash?

it's like you guys have never seen nice food before or something, like taking pictures of a toilet or a shower. like food is some kind of thing only the high class and privileged can get.

lol depends on your comfort level I guess. It is probably not an uncommon occurrence. I have seen food pictures from French Laundry haha thats pretty ballsy.

I don't take pictures often... but I don't think it's rude. I mean, is it rude to take pictures of each other while at a restaurant? Unless someone really cares to pay attention to what you're doing, it's not really any different taking pictures of your food than of each other...

And taking pictures of food doesn't necessarily have to mean that it's a rare or special thing... some people just want pictures of what they eat! :p

I don't use flash. :)
I like taking pictures, it's my hobby, and so I'll take pictures of anything basically. My food included.
Think of the countless food blogs out there that take pictures of their food...

nice photos k-dub

i dont find it rude when people take pictures of their food, but is very annoyed when these people stop me from eating my food. a friend of mine, she takes pictures of all the food..doesnt matter if its dim sum, fine dining, casuall dining, chinese restaurant dinner... everytime, she would have to take pictues of all the dishes on the table, hers and everyone elses.

We went to Amarcord for Dine Out, but we caved and went for the lobster pasta on the regular menu instead. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...I/DSC02354.jpg

lol i specifically meant taking pictures of food in a dark restaurant with a flash.

it's much like talking on your cell in a nice place. i guess it depends on the level of the restaurants. like how some places have no cell phone policy.

Went to Mistral last night.

Had the warm goat cheese salad, new york pepper corn steak, and a warm waffle with ice cream.

salad was nothing great, but not bad, typical salad
peppercorn sauce was good, steak was nice and tender but didn't have enough seasoning imo, could have been better
desert was one of the best i've EVER had in a very long time, especially surprising since it was so simple.

How much was that?

It's about ~$50

$50.

Looks very tasty.. how was it?

has the size of that plate being downsized??

i remember someone used to post the lobster pasta from amarcord all the time b4 and plate use to be huge

now that portion looks rather small

:confused:

^ Yeah, I remember someone(Maybe Senna?) posted a picture of his Lobster Pasta from before and it was HUGE!

It's the best pasta ever.

went to glowbal on sunday

went with the sunday prime rib dinner special for 26 bucks instead of the dine out menu

i was quite disappointed. they told us they serve their prime rib @ room temp...said something about getting more flavor that way.....ok fine maybe i don't know about this technique but i was quite disappointed honestly...i touch the prime rib with my finger and it was actually pretty COLD if you ask me....not a sign of warmth at all

Maybe I am ignorant but seriously I've never had a prime rib served to me at room temp...not to mention the meat was not medium rare like how i ordered and the meat was really tough.

bad experience for and according to my friends dine out entrees, they were mediocre at best

I used to post it all the time. The physical size of the plate is smaller, but the portion is the same, or maybe even slightly more than it used to be.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...er/lobster.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/lobsters.jpg