When You’ve Waited Just a Little Too Long to Return… (Review #2: 1877)

19 April 2024

I had been planning to revisit Bergen, Norway since my previous visit in 2014. Never got around to it working out, but finally my chance came when I was planning this trip. For some reason, the SAS transatlantic fare was CHEAPER to add this extra leg. Fine!

Sadly it nearly went pear-shaped. After that excellent lunch at Mash, my Kastrup experience turned into a mess. Flight to Bergen was delayed, and even the crew seemed confused. Then it was moved across the airport, and when we ran almost across the huge terminal, they cancelled the flight. So another long run to the info desk across the airport. And folks, Terminal 3 in Kastrup is HUGE. Plus it’s a damn shopping mall, so you’re constantly dodging people shopping for cars and other unrealistic shit…

Eventually after a lot of drama and a lack of information, they put me on a later flight. Yet on the other side of the terminal. I got to Bergen exhausted, just for my hotel not to send me the info to check in. You see, it’s one of those “no front desk” places but their app didn’t work. So I had to waste a taxi ride from Bergen airport to another hotel – just so I can get my key.

UGH is right. So I need a fantastic meal, right? I’ve been waiting to return to 1877 for a decade since my amazing dinner there. However, something happened a few months ago that worried me. They wiped their social media, and posted weird stuff that’s more about design and decor, very little about food. I was worried but kept my booking.

My fears were confirmed when I arrived. The restaurant, which used to be bustling, was empty on a Friday night – a warm night when many people were out. Sigh…but let’s make the best of it. My cheerful and friendly server was great, so that kept me going. I decided to do the tasting menu. And it started with…

Bread and olives. Well, a good snack really, but I was saddened they had to warn me that the olives had pits in them… After a little bit, a cheesy snack.

Not bad, a good nibble. Then my heart sank when I saw the first major dish.

Well, it’s a “fish pudding” under this mess. It really was not good. The fishcake was really boring, clashing with this heavy sauce. The vegetables (supposedly castelfranco) added nothing, if another clashing element. Really a dish that makes me scratch my head…

It didn’t improve either with the celery dish next, as the texture was the big clash now with the seeds and roasted celery. Again, did nothing for me. What has happened to this place?

I shook my head internally when the main dish came out, pork neck. Now I love pork neck, don’t get me wrong, but when I am in the west coast of Norway, where the world’s best seafood is, why am I eating pork? Now this was done extremely well, and it was delicious, but it’s like eating a chorizo in Hokkaido or raw oysters in Delhi. It didn’t make sense.

If it wasn’t for the really nice server this night would have been totally crappy. Then a rather lame dessert, and I am done.

I chatted with my server for awhile, as she has a very interesting background. I thanked her and headed out, shaking my head. She did admit they had a concept change, which is sad for me as it turned a fabulous place into this mess. And yes, it’s empty on a Friday night.

Not a great start to this trip…

1877
Vetrlidsallmenningen 2
Bergen, Norge

Best Way to Do a Layover at CPH (Review #2: Mash)

19 April 2024

I was excited to start my very crazy, almost dizzying trip around the Nordics. I planned this trip when the nearly-bankrupt SAS offered an almost too-cheap-to-believe roundtrip to Europe, albeit with some twists. It was cheaper for some reason to have extra connections from/to Copenhagen before the transatlantic flight…so of course I took advantage of it.

I arrived at CPH after a relatively good red-eye flight. I had paid for a better seat, and the aisle bulkhead seat was the best one on the plane by far. Consider it was cheaper than a checked bag, that was money well spent.

I had about 3 hours at CPH before my connection, and we zapped through Schengen very quickly. So I had some time, and I headed to my usual at CPH, Mash. I’ve dropped in on many connections over the years since first doing so in 2014, enjoying their excellent Danish ribeye.

Alas I was a little early for their 12 midday opening, so I went to buy a discounted thin coat from shops trying to unload them as spring is here. I see in my itinerary some weather that may be worse than I had anticipated (I didn’t bring a jacket with me), so I bought one that was conveniently 50% off.

I headed up to Mash and relaxed with a much-appreciated cocktail overlooking the bustling terminal around the B gates entryway. I usually don’t like to drink or eat before a flight, but the next one is a quick one. Then not long after the good stuff arrived.

Yep, what I always get here, the excellent Danish ribeye. Lovely flavours, good temperature. Considering the plague of overcooked beef I’ve had in the US recently from “top” steakhouses, this was very welcomed!

A side of mushrooms, which is a change from my usual jalapeños, but it worked very well. A lovely lunch to have when you have a little time, and you almost forget you’re in an airport. Probably one of few places in an airport anywhere in the world I would be happy to eat at.

My flight is not far, so I decided to enjoy a last tipple and even a dessert…

Far bigger from what I usually have (especially as a non-dessert person), but this is the start of what should be a very fun trip, so i went with this nice combo. I was very happy and fuelled up for the second flight, and I thanked my excellent servers and walked down the stairs towards my gate for Bergen. What a great start!

Or was it? To be continued…

Mash
Københavns Lufthavn
Terminal 2
Kastrup, Danmark

I’m Too Old and Tired to Deal with Bad Nights (Review: DiAnoia’s Eatery)

7 April 2024

Although I did have a bit of a hangover after that delicious and fun night at Parlor Dim Sum, I had a busy Sunday in and around Pittsburgh. Sunny and warm, a perfect day. I rolled into my hotel mid-afternoon and dealt with some trip logistics for tomorrow early in the morning. I need to stop doing these Monday early AM flights…

But I was looking forward to a good dinner tonight at the very highly-rated DiAnoia’s Eatery. I first had to return my car to the airport, which was all good, but the crazy prices on rideshare into town. $80 on Lyft, really? I luckily found something a bit less on Uber, but this is ridiculous.

We rolled into the city and I walked into DiAnoia’s on a busy Sunday night. It was still hopping, and they squeezed me into a bar seat. I’m hoping it will go as well as last night! A cocktail in hand and I looked over the menu and ordered. I relaxed and some bread came out.

Not bad to fill my stomach with this cocktail. Soon after my starter came, carciofi.

These artichokes were excellent, wonderful texture and flavour, yum! I’m quite excited for this dinner now…but where is it? I shifted to a nice wine and kept waiting. And waiting… At about the half hour point I was starting to get annoyed, then I noticed they tried to deliver some food to the wrong people…

That’s my food. But wait, why two plates?

They brought my primo and secondo out at the same time. You gotta be kidding me. So they took the secondo back. And when I looked at the primo, my pasta dish, my heart sank. I thought this place was supposed to be good with Italian food?

They clearly messed up somewhere because this cacio e pepe is more like a soup. What a mess. They took a half hour to make something that most Italian restaurants would be horrified to bring out?

Look at this, it’s like I’m eating soup noodles or ramen or something.

This is how much liquid was left over afterwards. They should have called this cacio e pepe con acqua.

And when they brought my secondo out, the server just spilled the jus all over the place with no care in the world. Seriously, really?

As you can see the plate is flooded with the jus, a total soggy mess. This is their take on porchetta. Fine, but frankly this probably sat under the heat lamp because they screwed up the pasta and order, so it was really meh. I ended up pairing this with a grappa because I lost my appetite and want to forget about this evening.

Now the staff have made themselves scarce. After last night’s wonderful service by the city’s friendliest FoH crew, now I get a set of people who don’t care, and have really turned what could have been a salvageable night into one that I will remember for all the wrong reasons.

They took the pasta off the bill, as they should, because it was a joke. But with the bad food that took forever to come out, throw in the dismissive attitude of some of the staff, it sucked. I can’t believe people rave about this place. Maybe it was a bad night, but frankly I’m too tired to deal with bad nights anymore.

Avoid.

DiAnoia’s Eatery
2549 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Friendliest Crew in Pittsburgh (Review: Parlor Dim Sum)

6 April 2024

My short weekend trip to Pittsburgh began a little pear-shaped as my American flight was delayed. The amount of delays these days are getting so annoying. Ruined my plans for Friday evening. In any case, I had a very busy Saturday and was hungry for a nice dinner.

Tonight I was trying out Parlor Dim Sum, which looked like a fresh take on Cantonese food. I got there and squeezed into the busy bar on this Saturday night. I relaxed as I quickly ordered a cocktail, which was pretty good. I decided to order a few dimsum and see where the night goes. And it didn’t take long before it started to come out.

The spring rolls were very hot as you can imagine, but quite good, better than the usual stuff you get. The spicy sauce was relatively mild, and almost good enough to sip on…

The shumai were less good, it seems like it may have sat for a few minutes. It was a little more liquidy, like the steam condensed in the food a little. Too bad.

The lo mai gai sticky rice was quite nice, even if they didn’t go traditional with the huck of pork belly inside.

I was pretty happy with this so I went with a larger dish. I relaxed with some wine when it came out.

This claypot rice dish was excellent, full of Chinese sausage and some excellent cured pork belly that was extremely nice. It was a large dish, but I enjoyed every morsel of it. I wish there was some burnt rice there, but when I asked my really awesome bartender about it she said people would complain if there was (?!?!). Too bad!

I was full and happy, but the fun night had really just begun. I had planned to do a bit of a bar crawl down Butler Street but it turned out I didn’t need to leave my stool here. Lots of good drinks, a few shots with the crew, some very friendly fellow patrons to chat with, and next thing you know it was nearly midnight!

I had to run, but it was a night of very good fun that I’ve not had in a long time, maybe the best bar night I’ve enjoyed since the pandemic. So despite the hangover I’m expecting tomorrow, it will be worth it!

Definitely a nice place to eat, and you get to meet the friendliest crew in Pittsburgh if not the entire region!

Parlor Dim Sum
4401 Butler Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Review: Owamni

31 March 2024

Some not so great food stuff on this trip, including the odd and not-quite-there dinner at Harvester Kitchen in Sioux Falls. I headed off before dawn and there was some talk about snow, so I went north and spent part of the morning in eastern South Dakota before heading east back towards Minneapolis.

The weather held, but you can see the snow and ice melt was less and less as you got about half way to Minneapolis…then it cleared up more. I was shocked when I rolled into Minneapolis and the snow and ice was all but gone. Wow, did it rain while I was gone? In any case, I tried to catch up with some of my plans deferred from Friday.

It all went well until my rental car, a shitty Hyundai Kona – known for engine breakdowns – decided to die on a highway on-ramp. Lucky I managed to steer it to the shoulder. The rest of the day was ruined. Waited around for a tow truck to get rid of the car, and I took a Lyft to Owamni, my dinner destination.

I was early by 90 minutes and chose to sit at the counter, but they were fine. It was a busy Easter Sunday night at this popular eatery focused on indigenous ingredients and prep. I had been wanting to eat here for ages, so I was really excited about this dinner.

Odd, like last night, they don’t have a cocktail list. So I just went with wine and ordered a few dishes. I was warned they come out fast…

Almost too fast. This was the big plate I ordered, the smoked quahog clams. Really? The sofkee, which was good, was lukewarm. The clam/crab shred was cold, partly icy, and full of crab cartilage. It’s like they expected the sofkee to heat up the seafood, but it didn’t do that; instead it chilled the sofkee so the whole thing was this unpleasant cold temperature.

The venison tartare was far better, the right flavours and temperature. The chips were great.

I could not get my server’s attention for more wine. Took about a minute of waving like a madman to finally get it. Then the snack dish came out, popcorn and crickets.

This was good, but an odd mixture – especially the popcorn being sweet. Needed a spoon to eat this dish. But it was good.

That wasn’t bad, except for the big dish that seems off. But I’m ready for more!

After 10 minutes I’m no longer ready for more. I could not get my server’s attention as he was just standing around talking to his friends. I’m a big proponent of fair wages for servers, but when you take the tip incentive out of the picture, you start to get those who couldn’t care less about serving their customers. So I just asked for the bill after I had to approach another server. He finally came by and I said I was gonna order more food but couldn’t get his attention, and he had a lame “oh sorry” that he clearly did not mean.

This last exchange was so off-putting I paid and headed out for another extended Lyft wait. This trip is ending so fucking badly, from the rental car meltdown to this sad dining experience. I’m done. And as I was almost back to my weird hotel I realised I forgot my jacket on their coat rack. Damn. Screw it, I’m not going back there, that jacket needs to be replaced anyway.

What a shitty way to end a trip. Owamni could be really fantastic with some quality control – both front and back of house. Sadly there wasn’t enough of it this evening, and turned someone who had been in happy anticipation to someone drowning in disappointment.

Now for that 3.30am alarm…

Owamni
420 South 1st Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review: Harvester Kitchen by Bryan

30 March 2024

Although I had a good day getting to Sioux Falls, it went a little pear-shaped after that bad late lunch at Urban Chislic. And my hotel was…well, very weird. It was almost like how a horror movie starts, from the check-in to the weird room and weird people staying there…

I’m hoping my dinner tonight at Harvester Kitchen by Bryan will keep the positive vibes flowing. I was surprised to see a tasting menu only place in Sioux Falls, and that excited me. I always liked Sioux Falls (despite the bad chislic today). I had an excellent evening at Parker’s Bistro a few years back, and I was hoping for a similarly good night tonight.

My “horror movie” experience continued with an odd Uber driver, but luckily the restaurant wasn’t far away. It was Saturday night and it was nearly empty. I wonder if it’s because of the price point or the concept? In any case, I was seated at a nice banquette and I relaxed and looked over the menus.

The friendly staff got things going but I also noticed no real cocktails, just barely spiked mocktails. So I got one, and it was a little meh. I could have just gone with a plain mocktail or juice, but perhaps they don’t have a full license? Whatever the case, I chose the tasting with the meat/fish dishes, but skipped the pairing and did my own.

The first dish came out pretty quickly, but where is my wine? Took another 5 minutes for them to bring it out. Lucky it was a very generous pour of the Gruet, which I love. But these oysters, well, they didn’t work. First of all they didn’t bring out utensils, and I absolutely HATE eating oysters without them. They were not shucked well, shell fragments everywhere. Part of the oysters were frozen, whether that’s from the lemon ice or not I don’t know, but it was not good. A very weak start.

It didn’t take long before the turbot showed up. Now this was a 180-degree turn, as the fish was excellent, flavourful and cooked very well. Supposedly an urchin sauce, but that was a little weak. Plus the fish was good enough it didn’t need a clashing flavour.

I switched to a non-bubbly just in time for the next dish. If anything, the wine pours were very generous.

This is the pappardelle bolognese dish. Beautiful presentation, but unfortunately doesn’t maximise the utility of the sauce, which wasn’t anything special. I ended up trying to roll the pasta out, soak it in the sauce, and eat it like normal pasta, but that didn’t help. I also tried to keep it rolled, and stuffed the sauce into it like some dumpling, which was a little better as you got more of the sauce with the pasta. But alas, I can’t say I enjoyed this dish.

The shortrib was the last savoury dish and it was extremely tender, but the consistency was odd. Was this really shortrib? I’m not going to go into it, but it was tasty enough. Still, it just added more questions about this dinner.

By this time I was a little tired and got a coffee with my dessert.

Not bad. As I was eating it and sipping on my coffee, I heard Chef Bryan Moscatello (or someone else from the kitchen) come out to greet some of the tables. And shockingly that person didn’t acknowledge me. Wow. That says plenty.

I left this dinner disappointed in many ways, from dishes that just didn’t quite work to just a very weird vibe about the place. Oh well, at least it was better than the chislic earlier…

Harvester Kitchen by Bryan
196 East 6th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

PS: Just when my night couldn’t get worse, my Lyft driver drives past me – twice – and cancels me even though he knew he went to the wrong place. Took another 15 minutes to get a ride…

Trendy Does Not Equal Good…

29-30 March 2024

One of the things you notice if you travel a lot is that when you rely on stuff you find online when you do your food research, you get some gems – and you get some duds. I’ve had plenty of duds recently, and sadly, I have to add two more now. And these are all “trendy” places.

If you read my previous review on that excellent dinner at Kado no Mise in Minneapolis, you’ll note early on I mentioned I had lunch at a trendy place that went rather subpar? Sadly the place in question was the highly-raved Union Hmong Kitchen.

I got there not long after it opened on this Friday and ordered. It was quiet as it was early, so I just chilled out trying to plan what I was going to do due to the ice changing my plans. Then my lunch arrived.

My heart sank. The pork belly looks sad, really sad. They were some of the worst roast pork belly I’ve had. Stringy, at times all fat, and almost no flavour. It’s like someone forgot to season this. This does not even compare to the amazing Hmong pork belly I’ve had at places like Union Market in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which had some of the best Hmong meats I’ve ever had, or more recently, Hmong Express in Appleton, Wisconsin.

I will say the sausage, which I took away, was far, far better. But this belly dish was just a cry for help, I’m sorry. I love Hmong meats, especially the pork belly, but this looks ridiculously lame compared to the stuff you can get at any small Hmong store in Wisconsin.

The next day I headed out of icy Minneapolis before dawn, as I planned to spend part of today in northern and north-west Iowa. I was amazed that merely 15 miles south of the Twin Cities there was very little snow or ice left. So I had a very productive day as I moved south, then south-west, then west through Iowa and eventually into South Dakota.

I drifted into my destination, Sioux Falls, at an earlier than expected hour, so I had time for a late lunch. I have this love for chislic and would grab it at every opportunity I get, so I decided to try this place called Urban Chislic.

I hesitated because it was featured on that crappy “DDD” show hosted by that gasbag who I will never forgive for what he said to me the night my restaurant closed. But I nevertheless took out an order each of the beef and lamb chislic and opened them up. Honestly, it don’t matter which one this was cuz they looked the same.

My heart sank again. This was really poor. Once I bit into it, I was even more sad. They forgot to season it. I called for no sauce because that’s the tradition, but these were dead plain. Worse, it was cold, 90 seconds after they brought it out from the kitchen? This also tells me they are not making these fresh. The lamb suffers more with that bad temerature than the beef, but both were awful.

Well, I got burned on both of these. Sad, as these places have amazing potential with great concepts, but the products I received are half-assed at best, shows no care. It won’t put me off pork belly, Hmong food, or chislic, but it will put me off these two establishments next time I visit Minneapolis or Sioux Falls.

Sigh…

Union Hmong Kitchen (Lake Street)
901 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Urban Chislic
431 West 85th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Review: Kado no Mise

29 March 2024

I got into Minneapolis early this Saturday morning. I knew the Twin Cities took a major snow hit last week after a nearly dry and almost-too-warm winter, but I was surprised it hasn’t melted off with the rain like it has in Chicago. Oh well, that may put a major damper in my plans today…

Yeah it did. I had to improvise a little, ended up hiking through at-times calf-deep snow and ice, so I got in a good workout. Sadly a poor lunch at a very hyped place didn’t help (I’ll write about this in a few days). So I was looking forward to my dinner at Kado no Mise, a much heralded Japanese restaurant located very close to the much-missed Bachelor Farmer.

Kado no Mise apparently do a kaiseki night on Tuesdays, which is too bad as it’s something I definitely would have loved to try. But I have high hopes for this place as I rolled in on my Lyft and headed up the stairs. And I sense a good evening, as I was seated at the counter where Chef Shigeyuki Furukawa was stationed.

Honestly it didn’t start too well. Just before I was about to use the hot towel to wipe my hands, the server took it away…geez, really? And the first sake pour was a little light. However, once I saw the first dish, I was far happier.

Now this was a welcome sight, hotaru-ika (firefly squid). Not had this in awhile, as you can still taste the essence of ink as you bite into this. Tasty dish, good start. A different sake was poured and the very hot chawanmushi was next.

Subtle, took awhile to bring this out, from the shiitake to the dashi. I thought maybe this particular sake ate into this dish a little due to its subtlety. Whatever the case, I enjoyed it more without the sake, drinking it all afterwards.

A plate of other snacks showed up, with the botan-ebi as a delicious bite. The celery was interesting, once again, subtle and nuanced. I fear this may be lost on some diners. At this point a larger sake pour happened as we enter the sushi segment. Chef Furukawa got to work and we have a series of breams to start.

The tai (sea bream) was quite nice, but the kasugodai (baby sea bream) was really fantastic.

Lovely stuff. Then the sakuradai (cherry bream).

Tasty morsel that’s for sure. BTW the rice is excellent, a good balance with the fish and consistency about perfect. And the bream series ends with kinmedai (golden eye snapper).

I’m not the biggest fan of kinmedai, but this was rather good. I enjoyed that series, you don’t often get a bream set like that. Then with another sake, we have the tuna series. Of course it starts with akami.

One of the better lean tuna I’ve had in a long time, really delicious.

The chutoro was excellent, really lovely flavours that just melted in your mouth. Again, the excellent rice made it even better.

The otoro was good, but I think the chutoro was the winner of this series. Good stuff. Another sake pour and we have the more distinct flavoured pieces.

Shimesaba (cured mackerel) didn’t work as well for me, as I thought the ginger was distracting. As a mackerel fan I really don’t like this adulterated. Oh well, a rare miss tonight. Then a nice surprise, sagoshi (young Spanish mackerel).

You don’t see sagoshi too often, and this was quite delicious. And of course, kohada (gizzard shad).

Again not one of my favourites, something that often comes on the early side of an omakase, so I kind of like this order.

That was a good set. But it’s not over yet because I ordered the more extensive menu. So next up was some uni.

In a wee handroll, delicious. You can so taste the sea here, just wonderful.

Then we have some delicious tuna, just a great way to ease into the last item…

Yep, wagyu, something that’s pretty common in omakases these days. I don’t remember nikuzushi ever ending up in these things except in trendy non-edomae places, but it seems to have spread. Delicious.

That was quite good! And it was clearly the end as the tamago was presented.

Quite good, with some quality of care in making it. Chef Furukawa asked if there’s anything I wanted, and I thought let’s do one more saba as a palate cleanser…

Well, I forgot about the ginger. Oh well, I guess it did work as a palate cleanser!

I probably didn’t need one as this miso soup was absolutely delicious! Chef said they use a combination of three different red misos, and the depth and complexity of this soup was astounding. A wonderful way to end the night!

A nice dessert closed the dining experience, as well as a wonderful conversation with Chef Furukawa about various topics, from interesting kaiseki around the US to the state of the restaurant business. A really good chat.

I thanked Chef Furukawa and headed out…well, not quite yet. I dropped into the whisky bar connected to the restaurant and wanted to see how it is. A cocktail and a less-well-known Japanese whisky later, I was happy and ready for my Lyft back to my hotel.

Kado no Mise definitely passes the test and it’s quite excellent. I really now want to try to come back on a Tuesday to do their kaiseki, so that’s on my list for my next trip to the Twin Cities. But gotta figure out how to do this on a Tuesday without missing that much work…

But this is highly recommended! Is my luck on this trip turning around?

Kado no Mise
33 North First Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review: Maman Zari

26 March 2024

I’ve been dying to try Maman Zari here in Chicago since they opened. Billed as the only Persian tasting menu in town, and as a big fan of Persian cuisine, I was really looking forward to getting there after a very long day at the office.

It all went well, with a shockingly clean and relatively empty Red Line ride to change for the last slog on the Brown to Kedzie, where Maman Zari was located adjacent to the station. I got there early but was seated. I relaxed with a cocktail and looked at the special Nowruz tasting menu they have. Interesting, lots of traditional dishes, I’m curious about their take on them.

A nice beet-centric amuse came out, which helped get my palate ready for the evening. When I finished my cocktail, a nice bubbly from Burgundy is poured and we have the kuku sabzi to start the tasting.

An interesting and delicious traditional herb frittata, with the fruit condiment adding a nice touch. The bubbles worked well with this dish. Then a pour of a nice albariño for the next dish, which is actually a dual dish, of which the first was revealed under a smoke lid.

Mirza ghasemi is a traditional smoked eggplant dish and this was done very well. Lovely cherrywood aromas too. Plus those crisps are borderline addictive. The accompanying sabzi khordan is a traditional herb service.

Quite nice, the marinated olives were delicious. All interesting takes on traditional Persian dishes. Then a pour of a pinot blanc and we have the salad dish.

A nicely-plated version of the traditional Shirazi salad, with the elements in strips instead of the usual chopped. But the three key elements of cucumber, tomato, and onions shine nicely here. This sets us up for the larger dishes, as well as the nice pour of the rarely seen xynisteri from Cyprus.

The mahi sefid ba sabzi polo is their take on the traditional fish fry with herbal rice, using branzino, and this was done very well. The fish was delicious and rich, although the rice was a touch rich with the already rich fish. So far this has been a very nice tasting menu, not blown away, but very solid.

Sadly that changed with the next dish, the jujeh kabob negindar. The chicken with saffron was not tasty and had that way overcooked consistency that reminded me of chicken you get on an airplane back in the 1990s. The mince on top was a little better, but it was also lacking. Sadly this was a letdown, only the Greek rosé carried this dish.

For the final savoury dish a pinot noir from Oregon was poured and we have the reshteh polo ba ghormeh sabzi.

This is an interesting take on another traditional dish, but I think it was way too oily. Maybe a touch ambitious, as it was hard to eat all the rice under the fried noodles, all soaked in oil. The lamb and beans were also a little lacking to be honest. It’s too bad that things started to weaken after that excellent fish dish.

That was also the end of the pairings, so I asked for a coffee and some arak as the dessert was presented.

This was quite nice, with the traditional sholezard on top of the ferni. Mixing them made them especially delicious, a nice way to close the night.

A plate of cookies came as I finished my beverages. However, a billing mistake (in my favour) came up so I pointed it out to them and they thanked me, and comped me another drink as they processed the bill. The service was excellent, so I added a tip on top of the pre-added service charge.

I thanked the very nice folks and headed for my bus on a windy evening. Sadly the food started to weaken just as it got into the main dishes, and that kabob was just not good. Again, this was a special menu, so perhaps I should have come when it was their normal tasting. Let’s see, maybe I’ll check them out again in the future. But it’s worth a try, at least once.

Maman Zari
4639 North Kedzie Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

Review: Iris

18 March 2024

I was riding rather happy from the rib tibs from A&R Bar-B-Que earlier, but was also looking forward to dinner. Got a lot of steps in this afternoon in a rather cool Memphis, which is unusual during my visits but made it far easier to hike without sweat dripping into my eyes non-stop.

Tonight’s dining destination is Iris, a well-liked creole restaurant that had moved to the east part of town during the pandemic. It took awhile for my Lyft to show up and off we went…so I thought. After a few minutes I was wondering why we were headed north instead of north-east. Then to my horror, Lyft had the wrong address for the restaurant…

It’s the OLD LOCATION from over 2 years ago! FFS, really?! A terrible flashback to when this happened going to Baroo in Los Angeles, where both Uber and Lyft had different – yet BOTH WRONG – addresses for Baroo. So we got near where the restaurant used to be and I jumped off, and had to wait another 20 minutes for (now) an Uber to get me to the right place (using the street address, not the restaurant name, because Uber had BOTH for some reason…).

[To their credit, after I complained, Lyft did refund me the price of the ride, similar to the Baroo misdirect.]

I finally arrived, flustered, but soon relaxed with the excellent staff looking after me, from the hostess to my servers at the bar where I sat. I relaxed with a drink, and all was good. Looked over the menu and I ordered. Let’s hope this night can be salvaged, and so far so good.

The bartender was really good and friendly, and that made a world of difference. However, when the food came, I had to temper my enthusiasm.

This au gratin dish was very meh, sadly, and the escargots seemed dessicated, and had absolutely no flavour, much like the crawfish. The entire dish was underseasoned, and very bland. Sigh… I figured I was the last diner left in the restaurant on a slow Monday night, so perhaps this was to be expected…

Yeah… The duck was okay here, but the belly was so overcooked it was a piece of meat formerly known as pork belly. At least this dish was seasoned, but what can you do. Sigh… The bar was good still, so I carried on and tried to salvage with a dessert, which my friendly bartender recommended.

And yes, she was right, this cheesecake was by far the best thing all night. It’s a take on the Basque version, and done pretty well, with the perfect touch of banana in the sauce. A delicious end to a meh night of food.

I ended up having an extra drink because – once again – it took about 20 minutes for the Uber to show up. I thanked the excellent crew and headed out, disappointed that this trip ended so poorly food-wise compared to how it started with Brave New Restaurant in Little Rock. Oh well, now for my 3.30am alarm…

Iris
4550 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee