Review: Lot 12 Public House

18 August 2016

I had left Roanoke and headed into West Virginia and had a long day in every sense of the word. The day began with an unfortunate speeding ticket — my first time pulled over since George HERBERT WALKER Bush was President. Then at the end of the day I got stuck in one of West Virginia’s legendary traffic jams, where I managed 5 miles in 2 hours… Hot dogs from Huntington was dinner…

And the next day turned out to be far more hellish, making the ticket and traffic jam seem like paradise. I drove out from Charleston and headed into rural mountains and got to Elkins, my first stop. But it was hilly and after turning into a dead-end, I backed up over the blind hill and into a v-curb — which for some reason had spikes on top. The damn spikes were supposedly there for people to see from the blind hill, but stupidly it was not high enough to be visible, just high enough to rip my exhaust line. DAMN IT.

So I limped the car to a service station and then a multi-hour saga ensued getting the car towed to a repair shop, which didn’t know how long it would take to do anything, and that parts needed to go through a “middleman” in this odd state…great… Thank goodness my excellent insurance company GEICO dealt with most of the logistics and got me a rental car, which I drove off. With what I heard, I doubt my car would be done today, so I headed on with my pre-planned itinerary though skipping some of it. What a fucked up day and it’s not even midday…

I eventually drove all the way to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, having crossed the western panhandle of Maryland, and arrived at my destination of Berkeley Springs. Seems they have to tow my car to another place since the Elkins place couldn’t deal with it with any speed, so it was being towed to an Audi shop in Clarksburg an hour away. Shit…

I needed to escape all this hell for awhile and I was looking forward to my dinner at Lot 12 Public House — a place that is consistently rated as the best restaurant in West Virginia and is frequently nominated for food awards like James Beard and others. It’s a converted house in the middle of the small resort town and I decided to sit at the bar.

I spent much of the night chatting with the proprietress of the restaurant, Betsy Heath, who was a wonderful host. The chat went from my travails to politics to the restaurant business, all with some wonderful food and drink. I enjoyed some wine as I ordered and awaited the feast to remove me from all this drama.

The corn and smoked chicken chowder was very nice, strong but not overwhelming flavours. Nice start. A delicious sorbet then came acting as a palate cleanser before we proceeded into the main course — the duck.

Mmm, this was fantastic! One of the best duck dishes of the year certainly, and I’ve had a lot of good duck this year. This was easily as good as at the Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis a few weeks back. Lovely breast, and the leg was also fantastic. Excellent flavours, cooked perfectly. What a nice meal so far! And oh, how did I forget this side?

I already love sprouts, and when they’re joined by some pancetta? Oh dear…I’m happy! In fact I’m so happy I went with a dessert along with a nitecap and coffee…

Mmm, a gorgeously rich bread pudding with peach. Lovely stuff, another excellent dessert! What a great end to a meal that was sorely needed after today’s hell!

I chatted a bit more with the proprietress before heading out, so thankful I had this good meal to round out a horrible day. Drove back to my hotel and just crashed out, wanting to forget most of this stupid, stupid day…

Lot 12 Public House
117 Warren Street
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

PS: Well, took another week to rescue my car. Drove all the way back to West Virginia and got my car last Friday and drove home — just to fly straight out the next morning. It was close…

Review: Local Roots

16 August 2016

I decided for some reason to head out on the road for a few days for a wee roadtrip, with the goal to drive around West Virginia. It was summer, I didn’t feel like flying anywhere, and it’s been awhile since I’ve been on a road trip in my own car (too often in rentals far away from the home base). So off I went.

The first day took me to the south-western part of Virginia, where I visited a few historic sites and cemeteries. I wanted to do some hiking when I was visiting the historic Red Hill Plantation estate of Patrick Henry (“give me liberty or give me death”) but it being horribly hot, sunny — and worse — humid, I just had a nice stroll through the grounds and visited his grave. After a few more stops, I made my way to the odd city of Roanoke.

Dinner was at a place I’ve read about called Local Roots. I headed there in the more charming parts of town and took a seat at the bar, as it wasn’t overly busy. I chilled with a cocktail made by a very friendly and knowlegeable bartender, and enjoyed my evening trying out different things he prepared. To start the night, I ordered some mussels.

The mussels were excellent, helped on by a nice sprinkling of Benton’s bacon. Solid stuff, really enjoyed this. A bit big, but I was told my main isn’t so big so I went with it — the steak.

This beef features Ancient White Park, a heritage breed of cattle. Not bad, but I wish the portion was a bit heartier. Nice flavours, though it’s not my favourite cut it was solid. Excellent prep. Enjoyed it. After a bit more banter with the friendly bartender I decided to go with a coffee and dessert…

Nice bread pudding with a healthy amount of chocolate and caramel in various forms, now this is very nice. Rich and full of flavours here, I rarely praise desserts but this was excellent.

I headed out very happy with this dinner, not just the quality of the food but the excellent and friendly staff as well. What a great neighbourhood restaurant to have — if you lived nearby! But worth a trek out of town as you can’t find cooking this solid and staff this friendly in the DC area for sure…

Local Roots
1314 Grandin Road SW
Roanoke, Virginia

Review: 40 Steak + Seafood

1 August 2016

After overnight in Minot I headed east on a long day of driving that brought me to Grand Forks — famous for all the crazy weather reports — then down to Fargo — the town made by the film of the same name which I’ve never seen. In fact, I may be the only person in Fargo who has never seen it, so I don’t get the references people made to me on Twitter…

But it was a lacklustre stay, with just beer and sausages for dinner. Next day I headed on back to Bismarck and really enjoyed the windy day driving and seeing the state, curling off the interstate to look at little towns and endless hilly farmland. I kept thinking they could build a few amazing links courses out here with the natural hills…

I got back to Bismarck and went around the town. I had plenty of time tomorrow before I fly out to check out things like the Capitol so I didn’t do much after the long drive. Just thought about dinner.

State capitals are split when it comes to having excellent food to having bad food. Not sure if it’s also related to state government corruption or anything, but having visited (and dined) at about 40 of them, they are split. Some are just major metropoli like Boston and Atlanta and the fabulous Indianapolis. Some are smaller but excellent like Madison and Tallahassee — which are helped on by big student communities. Some are rife with corruption like Albany that creates the market for good restaurants, some are too close to bigger cities to boast a real food scene like Montpelier.

And I couldn’t find much for Bismarck really, so I ended up at a steakhouse called 40 Steak + Seafood. Supposedly it was good, as they specialise in aged steaks. I got there and already it was a shitshow service-wise. Seems calling it understaffed is an understatement, as my server was handling about 10 tables in 2 areas…and that was a huge problem.

Took ages to get my drink order taken, and they had run out of a lot of booze so stuff on the cocktail list could not be made. What a bad start. Then took another 15+ minutes to get the server to take my food order, and I just went with an aged steak. I waited for about half an hour before it came out…and never had my wine re-poured…

Yeah… I went with the very aged beef (260 days) and I like the funk sometimes on steak — especially boring corn-fed stuff. Well, this was not a great cut first of all, though the aging helped. Second, it was cooked badly, as the outside was close to well-done and the very inside was medium rare as I ordered. Aging a poor piece of beef is a great way to make it better, but this poor piece could not be helped…

I strugged and got about two-thirds of it eaten before I abandoned it. Took ages to get my check as well and I left pretty pissed off as this dinner was more expensive than pretty much every meal I had in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. Ridiculous. I think we see what type of a restaurant scene we have in this state capital…

Home tomorrow, finally… A bad end to it all…

40 Steak + Seafood
1401 East Interchange Avenue
Bismarck, North Dakota

Review: 10 North Main

30 July 2016

I got myself to Bismarck, North Dakota after a nice night last night at the Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis. I landed in North Dakota’s capital, just to drive on north a bit to head to the city of Minot. It was a bit of a hike, and I had not realised how hilly North Dakota is. And the wind is just nuts…which is lovely on a hot day but it’s blowing my car all over the place!

I got to Minot and checked into my hotel. I had also not realised how expensive hotels are here, partly as Minot is the biggest city in the oil areas of the state, so… Anyway, I’m here. Cute little town with a prominent Scandinavian heritage, as I drove around to explore it before dinner. Dinner was in the tiny downtown area at a place named 10 North Main.

When I was doing research I found the menu interesting, especially considering central North Dakota — not finding much in Bismarck outside of meat-centric places. One drawback was that it was co-owned by a Hollywood actor (who comes from Minot, who I won’t mention because I have never seen one of his films nor do I like his superstar wife’s music)…

In any case, I got there while it was bright as hell outside, only to enter a very dark restaurant…this sucked when I left as it was blinding. Anyway, was seated (I had a reservation, which was probably not needed) and chilled with a cocktail looking over the menu. Many items looked good, so I ordered and chilled out.

In the meantime a nearby table with 2 very knackered looking parents were seated, and they obviously looked too tired to deal with their screeching young children…ugh, not what I needed tonight… In any case, the first item arrived, the soup.

Mmm, an excellent creamy wild rice soup, full of flavour here. The smoked duck was a great addition to this thick soup, which I would have happily had more! A meal in itself! Excellent start!

At this point the screaming children were getting on my nerves, but that soup kept me going until the main course, which was one of the specialties — the smoked duck.

Well, wasn’t as good as I thought. The smoking was so light it really should have been advertised as plainly roasted. It was good, but not excellent. The “hoisin” like sauce they had was sickly sweet and sticky and best avoided. Sadly the duck itself was underseasoned. I ended up boxing this up for later…

With the screaming children I needed a harder drink, so I ordered one — alongside coffee and a dessert…

This is what they called “sour mash cheesecake” — just a cheesecake with a bourbon sauce. Not bad, huge portion. Went with my rye very well to end the evening.

I had enough of the children so I headed out and blinded myself in the North Dakota sun. Not a bad dinner, that soup was fabulous, but the duck was underwhelming. For this sparsely-populated area of the country, I’m satisfied. I headed back to my hotel after another tour of the town on wheels. Long, long day of driving tomorrow, so…

10 North Main
10 Main Street North
Minot, North Dakota

Review: Bachelor Farmer

29 July 2016

I am honestly not enjoying my trip to the Twin Cities at this point. Massive hotel problems, alongside traffic hell, has made things less than pleasant. Food has been okay but some issues. Now for my final meal I’ve gone to the place that is nearly always on the top of the recommendations list for people in the area — the Bachelor Farmer.

I got there after a long walk from the other end of downtown, where I had to drop my rental car. Originally I was gonna go to the Twins game, but just didn’t feel like it. Since my beer consumption issues began, it’s really put me off going to baseball games…sadly, as both were such big parts of my life… Anyway, I was rather sweaty when I got to the Bachelor Farmer and needed a cocktail to cool off.

Ahhh…delivered well. I looked over the menu as I relaxed and made my decision. Looks interesting, some nice vegetables being used here. I chilled out and enjoyed the cocktail as my starter arrived.

Mmm. I love turnips, and this was a nice turnip dish. The vegetables really shine here, with excellent turnips and truly wonderful sprouts. Some duck confit round out the dish, but the veggies were the stars here. Excellent start! I switched to some wine and awaited my main course, the duck.

Wow, this was fabulous. Cooked perfectly, the skin was crispy and the meat tasty. The Japanese eggplants were a wonderful added touch too. I now see why people like this place! Plus a side of rather tasty carrots, nice and clean flavours.

I really enjoyed this meal! I made the final decision to blow off the game now, and ordered a dessert.

This was an excellent coconut cake, lovely again. And I finished off with some brandy, which came with a chocolate surprise…

An excellent end to this meal, but not to the evening! Now deciding to blow off the game, I moved over to the bar and had a few more cocktails before cabbing it out to my hotel to end this problematic trip on a high note.

I can see why people rave about the Bachelor Farmer, and this dinner really saved for me the reputation of the food in the Twin Cities. Fabulous food, excellent staff, what’s not to love? Now I know why it’s always so booked!

Next stop, North Dakota!

Bachelor Farmer
50 North 2nd Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review: Piccolo

28 July 2016

I had a ridiculously tiring and long day that dragged me through both of the Twin Cities, not helped by the haphazard road closures that everyone is bitching about. Traffic hell. I had some nice BBQ for lunch, but dinner was to be something far more interesting.

I headed to Piccolo, another of the restaurants in south-west of downtown that is highly praised. Last night’s dinner at Heyday was pretty good (only marred by that bad pork), but I’m hoping for a bit more here. After fighting some bad traffic I got to Piccolo and was seated in the small dining room. It seems to be a beer/wine place only, so a day to take a break from cocktails.

I decided to go with the tasting menu and pairing, and chilled out anticipating the meal. It’s, like yesterday, a build-it-yourself tasting. After the bread comes, soon the first course — a burnt corn soup.

Nice, the flavour was strong. The wee bit of burrata added an extra touch, but the corn spoke for itself. A very nice start, happy with my choice. I chilled out as the second dish arrived, their specialty — scrambled eggs.

Now this is not your ordinary scrambled eggs, it has a strong addition of pig trotter — which really brought out an excellent richness in the dish. A fabulous dish, I really wish it was a little more. I was starting to think, wait, am I getting “tasting menu portions” here?

In any case, that was good. It didn’t take long for the third dish to arrive. I had chosen 2 seafood dishes in lieu of one fish and one meat, and this was the first — the black cod.

It was strangely bitter…odd… I always call this fish the item that’s “impossible to screw up” but it had this very strong bitter aftertaste… It really dominated, and that’s not good. That lasted into the next dish actually, which was swordfish belly.

Hmmm, this looks like a “tasting menu portion” certainly, and wasn’t even a good cut of the “belly” to be honest. Only a small part was tasty, and it was overcooked. And I still had that bitterness in my mouth…sigh…

I asked them about the portions and yes, they said they are cut down. But I did some quick math and if I ordered all 5 dishes as full a la carte items, it would cost $60. And my “tasting menu” was $59. So by paying a dollar less, they served noticeably smaller portions.

I’m sorry, that’s a bit of a rip off business practice.

They had a not-so-satisfactory answer saying the menu was value for money (huh?), and I lost interest in this place. This is actually a great way to serve people smaller portions for the same money. The portions worked for a 5-course tasting menu, I’m not disputing that, but the fact that full, larger portions for FIVE DISHES would cost on average 20 cents more each. Now come on… Even if I ordered the most expensive dishes, the savings would be 5-6 dollars max. Whatever…

Anyway, the dessert was a wee cheesecake made with things including skyr, which I love. But I had lost interest and just wanted to get out of there. Honestly, I’ve lost interest in all these hyped places in town. I’m tired of mediocre experiences…

I understand why this place structured things like this and priced it as such, but it doesn’t take a PhD to figure out how this is annoying. The problem with tasting menus taken fully from the a la carte menu is that you can do this type of quick math, and it’s annoying when the numbers don’t make financial sense. Again, with the portions cut down with me wanting more of dishes like the trotter eggs, it leaves me a little sour — and literally bitter (from those 2 seafood dishes).

Again, whatever. One of those I’ll just forget about. Too bad, some good stuff here…

Piccolo
4300 Bryant Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review: Heyday

27 July 2016

I got to Minneapolis on a stormy early afternoon, and things started screwy with major hotel problems. Summers are so often filled with these unpleasantries… In any case, I really needed a good dinner to get this headache out of my mind, and tonight’s target is the well-regarded Heyday.

Many of the raved about places in the Twin Cities are in this part of town outside of downtown, and I wonder if it’s a bit overhyped. But I got there and took a bar seat as it was spacey. I ordered a nice cocktail and looked over the menu, and went with the tasting option. But it was a choose-your-own type, so I made my choices and chilled out.

A nice quick amuse came and soon the first dish arrived, charred carrots.

Nice and simple, though it would have been nicer with some variety in the carrot types. But a clean and nice start. I nursed the cocktail a bit as for some reason I felt a bit odd at this point…was I allergic to something? In any case, we go on and the next item was a very nice cured duck.

Beautiful flavours and texture, this is really nice. Rich and strong with tea flavouring, all aspects here worked very well in tandem. I’m enjoying the food so far though for some reason I still feel ropey… I started on a second cocktail but called that the last one for the night. The next, and main item, was the pork.

Hmmm…this was a brisket-y piece, but it was way dry. It was actually very hard to eat, getting stuck in my throat because it was so dry. Too bad, a good dinner fallen down at the end. Turned what could have been good into a mediocre night. Oh well…

I had some coffee with my dessert, a very nice pea shell sorbet. Actually lovely flavours, with the pea just wonderful. So that ended rather nicely.

Not a bad dinner at all, too bad the pork was so bad I abandoned the last bits of it. But this place has a lot of promise and I can see why people like this place. It would have been excellent if it wasn’t for the rather poor pork dish…

Heyday
2700 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnestory

Review: L’Etoile

26 July 2016

I had a quiet and relaxing finaly day in Madison, nursing a bit of a hangover from last night’s late bar session. I had a very nice lunch meeting up with the excellent fellow food blogger Sujhey of Five Senses Palate, so that was a fun surprise. I had a relaxing afternoon wandering around town, though I had paperwork to deal with back at the hotel before dinner.

Dinner tonight was highly anticipated. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this for years. Last time I was in Madison my schedule didn’t fit for a return to the wonderful L’Etoile, but this time it worked perfectly. I had a wonderful meal several years ago when I took a wonderful lady out for her birthday dinner. I’m hoping for a nice tasting menu tonight.

L’Etoile has always been known as one of the very best not just in Madison or Wisconsin, but the entire region. However, this is Madison’s “slow” season — the kids are gone, the politicians are gone. So it wasn’t too busy, and the service was a little odd and chaotic for a place that has always had wonderful service.

I enjoyed a cocktail after ordering the tasting menu with pairing, and chilled out. This should be good. After two lacklustre amuses the meal began. First up, a tomato tasting.

Nice for summer certainly, the heirloom cherry tomatoes. The jelly was a bit confusing for me, as I would rather have had more chilled tomato water or some other base instead of a odd-temperature gelatin. However, a refreshing start on a hot summer day, very nice. We move onto course two, foie.

Hmmm…more gelatin…now elderflower… In any case, the foie was pretty boring to be honest, that one odd tiny piece. The mousse was not good, and it looked so much like that oft-used emoji… I’m tiring of foie gras being done badly, when most of the work on the side is incongruent with it. The blueberries were the best part of this dish. Sigh… In any case, let’s move on…

Dish three was swordfish, but frankly it was not a great cut. Problem with swordfish is that it is hugely impacted by the cut if you don’t use a more traditional slice, and this went through the whole gamut. Very uneven; part of it tasted mushy, part of it was way overcooked and rock hard. One example of a very beautifully plated dish but tasting mediocre…

I was starting to worry a little at this stage, as this was not going as well as anticipated, and I think the staff sensed it. The ended up comping me a free additional dish here, the cod — which was one of the day’s special.

A bit of a large serving, I saw it as a special entree earlier. Not bad, a bit over-seasoned, but pretty ordinary. Again, looks great, but taste boring… The peas were the most tasteful item on this plate, unfortunately… At this point I realised the summer curse has struck hard here, so I would just fight through this meal with far lowered expectations…

Things improved with this next dish, the squab. Cooked well, and flavourful, this is what I remember this place managing! Finally, after a few very weak dishes. Nice reminder for me how good this place has been for me. I relaxed a bit and hoped the rest of the dinner closed out well. The last savoury dish was lamb.

Well, you ever get a nicely-plated dish that was cooked to the right temperature and you just say “meh” to it? Yeah, this seems like it… Very bland, the lamb was utterly tasteless. I’m so tired of lamb that has been bred and fed to the point it has no lamb flavour anymore. So utterly boring… I suspect there was some seasoning issues, as the meat was very bland — though as you can see there were huge ol’ flake of salt on the slices…

Oh well, the savouries are over. The next to last item was the cheese course. It’s Wisconsin, they have to do it well. Right?

Well, it was bland again. Frankly the sausage slices was far more flavourful than the cheese. I really wish they worked with more intense flavours. Perhaps it’s a deliberate thing, to soften the flavours for the summer? I was last here a few summers ago and it was fantastic. Who knows…

We close with the torrija — soaked, under the gelato. You are right if you think the gelato has melted a bit too much for a half-empty restaurant. The service had gone downhill the second half of the meal, and my server would disappear for lengthy periods. And this coming out partly melted is, well, not good. Sigh…

I left rather unhappy, mostly because I’ve had such wonderful experiences here before. What happened I’m not sure, perhaps the summer curse. But I didn’t want to ponder that, I was just disappointed walking back to the hotel. I had about 20 minutes to think about it, and by the time I got back I needed a drink. Sigh…

L’Etoile
1 South Pinckney Street
Madison, Wisconsin

Review #2: Forequarter

25 July 2016

Almost a year to the day I return to Forequarter in Madison for dinner. I had 3 nights in Madison, a town that I have a quirly like for, and I decided to do 1 new (the poor dinner at Sujeo last night), 1 safe (revisiting the excellent L’Etoile tomorrow), and 1 from my previous trip. I had to choose between Pig and Forequarter, which wasn’t easy, but I went with Forequarter for their menu dynamics.

Last time I was at Forequarter I was horribly hungover but had a wonderful meal. So I was looking forward to a nice dinner with a clearer head this time. I had a nice cheap lunch of pelmeni at Paul’s Pel’meni near my hotel, so it kept me going until dinner. It was less humid today, so I was happy to stroll the long way back after dinner.

I got to Forequarter at an early hour as it wasn’t a busy night — it was a summer Monday early evening. It filled up a bit more as the night went along. I chilled out and enjoyed a cocktail and pondered the specials before placing my order. Pretty excited!

Last time I went with a charcuterie plate, but this time I ordered 2 different starters, which both quickly arrived. First was a tribute to the Central European heritage of the region with some fine kabanosy.

As someone who spends a lot of time in Poland, this was a nice touch. Mustard was heavily advertised on the menu, but I was happy with the sausage with or without. Nice. And then a plate of house-made Braunschweiger…

I have a confession. When I was a kid and everyone would yell at their parents to buy hot dogs in that deli aisle, I asked my father to buy Braunschweiger. It wasn’t until I grew up when I realised Braunschweiger in the US is basically liverwurst, not the traditional smoked sausage from Braunschweig (Brunswick for you insistent folks). These were lovely, though a bit cold. Should have let it warm up a bit to get the full rich flavours…

Anyway, a good start. Looking forward to the main course. Last time I had an amazingly good pork chop, and as much as I wanted a repeat I chose to go with something I usually don’t order — the poussin.

It was one of the day’s special, and it even surprised me to order it. Turned out to be a wise decision, as it was fabulous. Full of flavour and ridiculously tender inside, the outside had that roasted goodness about it. With a handful of baby heritage carrots, this was an excellent dish. The bird, not quite as fantastic as at Kokkeriet in Copenhagen (that was beyond awesome), but it was really, really good — would have been the best poussin dish of the year if it wasn’t for Denmark!

Tho I have to say the fried mushrooms side was a bit of a mess and miss…just badly done with bad texture and weak flavours, wish they were cooked differently…

This was a thoroughly enjoyable dinner, and this place is proving to be the to-go place in Madison for me. Great cocktails, excellent food, awesome people. I enjoyed it so much I ordered their special dessert…

This is kind of a combination of various things, from chocolate to caramel crunch. Sadly that big cookie was utterly inedible, almost drooping when you pick it up. The crazy humidity of Madison claimed another victim…

I had a few late drinks from their ample selection of booze, trying a few pear and apple brandies before I wandered out into the heat and meandered the half hour back to my hotel. Was so parched from the walk I went straight to the bar and got sloshed…oops…

Anyway, Forequarter has once again proven itself, and I know know that next time I am back in town this place will be the automatic, and I won’t need to ponder that decision. Awesome as usual.

Forequarter
708 1/4 East Johnson Street
Madison, Wisconsin

Review: Sujeo

24 July 2016

That was a very nice dinner at Cobble Hill in Cedar Rapids, but the drinking session in the biker-full bar afterwards was a bad idea. Fun night, but woke up with an unwanted hangover — plus my stomach was in a knot thanks to my newfound problem with consuming beer…ugh…

I headed south at first and made a few stops, one of them was to pay my respects to the most misunderstood Presidents of our country, someone I consider one of my heroes, Herbert Hoover. Then I made my way north through some country roads back towards Wisconsin and eventually back to Madison.

It was extremely steamy in town so I was happy I don’t have to return my rental car until tomorrow; I will be car-less in Madison for about 2 days, so will have to learn the bus system quickly. But since I skipped lunch I was hungry this Sunday evening, and needed a good meal. Tonight’s choice was a new one here, Sujeo.

I had read many mixed review about this Korean/pan-Asian/fusion eatery that is part of Chef Tory Miller’s empire here in Wisconsin’s capital city — the foundation of that empire being the excellent L’Etoile (which I will re-visit in 2 days). I was not sure what to expect, but it was half empty on a Sunday night…albeit this is middle of the summer, so Madison lacked both students and politicians…

In any case, I ordered a cocktail and some nuts to get me going, and that came quickly…and was the first worrying sign…

Now these spicy peanuts may have been good at one point, but they have been sitting out for way, WAY too long. They were beyond stale, and were just inedible. Come on, you know how BAD bar nuts have to be before you stop eating them, and this is THAT BAD. Ugh…

With that worrying sign, I only ordered 2 small plates instead of a full meal. Let’s see how it goes. The space reminds me of a non-descript chain restaurant, but I’m not here for the decal. Madison outdoor tables are usually all taken up in the summer, but NO ONE was outside today with the insane humidity…

After a little time I ordered another drink and my two items arrived. The first were a pair of chicken skin bao…

Hmmm… The chicken skin may have been nice at one point, and the bao made okay, but the sauce was beyond overwhelming. I did not taste the skin, I barely tasted the bao, it was just SAUCE. It just didn’t ruin the dish, it was a sticky mess… Absolutely no subtlety here… And the second, potstickers.

Not sure how to ruin these, but they are done well. Filled with good stuff, this was at least something delicious. But I was not just underwhelmed, I didn’t expect anything else good here to be honest. I was still hungry, so I ended up ordering 1 last small dish. Now this was a fusion disaster…

Yeah…what was I (or they) thinking… fried Wisconsin cheese curds with a gochujang mayo for a dip? And a side of kimchee? Okay, each of these went down like an anvil first of all, and the did made little sense. Okay, I’ve had enough…

I headed out disappointed. This was first of all some poor items, conceived of rather odd ideas that did not gel. Secondly, the execution was a mess. Thirdly, sending out stale stuff. I suspect part of this is the “slow” season in Madison, when you have too much fill-in staff or normal staff on vacation. Plus it was Sunday. Oh well…

Sujeo
10 North Livinston Street
Madison, Wisconsin