DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Most expensive meal you’ve ever eaten?

I feel dumb asking this, but when you have a 9-course meal, what is a "course"?

That’s awesome you had the opportunity to dine at The French Laundry. There and Eleven Madison Park are must-do tasting menus for me.

Keller’s restaurant Per Se in NYC is supposed to be incredible as well.

My wife and I have had some meals for 2 that were $200+.. but honestly some of the best FOOD I've had was in Charleston, SC and it was $20 at a rickety old diner.

I like good food but my opinion is that there is a point at which there is nothing else you can do to the food to make it worth that much more money.... at some point, you are paying for the name, the location, or you are paying for the waiter to refold your napkin into a little hat and place it on your chair if you go to the bathroom... (yes, that happened)

Orignapi.

Yeah, my in-laws were able to go to Per Se as my sister in law lives in Manhattan. They loved it. The two restaurants typically have a course or two in common.

To the poster who asked about what the courses were, I'll just link the current menu:

https://d2zd0z9rcn78un.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/menus/12.30_dinner.pdf

Veal?


How the hell can anyone eat veal? You know what it is, right?

Veal?

Right up there with the ever delicious foie gras.

Lanning's in Bath, OH still does this when you get up. Eat a roll and they are there to scoop away any crumbs that fall to the table.

Are you sure you're the right guy for that job? I mean your posts on here are very warm and inviting, but what if you overheard someone say something bad about Hue?

They'd get no soup.

I would LOVE to buddy. Let me know when we can get together and do it

In my opinion no, but I'm not the expert.

The best beef I've ever had I did myself. I picked up about 4 oz of Kobe from Phil's Meat Market on 23rd place. Incredibly marbled. I seasoned it and threw it on the grill for a few minutes each side to medium - it melted in my mouth. I'm not a huge beef fan (outside of burgers), but if it all tasted like this, I'd eat it all the time.

Always been a dream of mine to have a place in the Valley. It's just out of my price range.

LOL...............they would get soup, but no spoons.

Portland...let me know what you think of Lang Baan. Must admit, I would never spend that on food, but I am curious if it is worth the hype.

Did you fly the chefs in from Asia? Everytime we go back to London we always get a tremendous curry usually at a local place. We were just there over Christmas and friends recommended a local Pakistani restaurant in East London and it was absolutely phenomenal. Arguably the best curry I have ever had. They didn't have a license to serve alcohol so it was BYOB. Our entire bill for 4 was 50 British pounds (approx $70).

I love veal, and yes I know what it is. Lamb is excellent as well.

I love veal, too. But, I'm smart enough to never admit it in a public forum.

I used to love Lanning's. It was the first place I took my wife when I was courting her. That meant I was serious. LOL

Is it still as good as it used to be in 70's and 80s?

I can't comment on how is was in the 70s or 80s.

My buddies and I took our Valentine's Dance dates there back in High School in the late 90's.

My parents grew up in Bath and we still meet there on occasion for dinner. Food is still wonderful and the service is excellent. Comfortable high-back chairs.

The other nice thing about Lanning's is that your entree still includes a side and salad instead of a la carte.

Certainly a local institution and LeBron lives about 3 minutes down the road for good measure.

Lannings

LOL.....I thought about my question after I posted it and realized you might not have been alive way back then. I yi yi yi.

We used to love Lannings. Very nice setting. Very relaxing. They used to do several courses. It was either 8 or 9. The first one was brought out on a Lazy Susan. Everything was first class and the food was so good and the atmosphere was supreme.

does it count if you weren't the one paying? I was a part of a group of people (around a dozen) who ate at a Swiss restaurant. It was a dinner theater type offering ... obviously very upscale.

I know the final bill totaled more than $60,000

Yikes. I’d imagine to get a bill that high there was a ton of booze involved. Expensive booze.
Now it doesn’t count if it’s one of those places that has ‘the world most expensive martini’ because their $20 martini has a $10,000 diamond in it.

Was this Swiss restaurant in the US or in Switzerland? If in Switzerland you can’t add the cost of the flights into the bill.

This got me thinking. When I was in London for the Vikings game, our group went to Mr. Chow's on Knightsbridge. Best Peking Duck I've ever had. Everything else was awesome, too. Being London, it wasn't cheap either.

We ate on the second floor there. They have a very narrow spiral staircase up front. It's a good sobriety test.

Also, on the topic of high-end places in Cleveland, my wife and I drove out to Vermillion for our anniversary last month. We went to Chez Francois and had an awesome experience there. It was pricey ($200 range), but we ordered a bottle of champagne and a glass or two of red wine. The beef wellington was top notch. They also had a truffle tasting menu which my wife loved. They close down every year between January and March, but we really enjoyed it.

I guess I needed purple?

Not for me, you didn't.

We love Chez Francois. One of the best restaurants in the country. My wife goes to two browns games with me each year, and Saturday is spent in Vermilion so we can eat there.

Matt, the owner is a nice guy. He knows us from previous conversations and always stops by the table to take a seat and chat for a few minutes.

I love that place. If I lived near there, I would go a few times a month.

Sign up for their e-mails, the theme dinners look great. A few years ago we missed a Tuscan dinner by a couple of days. I told Matt we would have loved that. He had the chef make it for us, they still had all needed but 1 of the wine flights and one of the two truffles in one of the dishes. It took a little longer since the chef had to make a u-turn to put it out, but that was OK, they make a great Martini. I don't mind two before dinner instead of one.


It's a great place.

Agree on the martini front...I'm glad you mentioned that!

My wife ordered a lemon drop martini that was made with homemade limoncello. She's a bit of a snob on that front since her mom is from Rome.

She said it was the best lemon drop she's ever had.

Well, Knightsbridge is swanky. Like...mega wealthy area. I mean, Harrod's is where either your uber rich shop or tourists who read about it in their tour guides due to Princess Diana connections. So, yea...it's going to be pricey in that part of town. If you go into the neighborhoods where the real people and the real food is at...not as pricey as you think. Especially with the current rate of the Pound Sterling.

Never heard of the place til someone looked at me like I was crazy for never eating there a couple weeks ago... obviously I need to check it out, I'm only about 1/2 hour away in Champion.

So that's where the line, "She gets her kicks in Stepney, not in Knightsbridge anymore" from the Stones song "Play With Fire" comes from. Always wondered about that....not enough to look it up, though.

Right, but I wasn't really focusing on the price as much as the food...

Probably around 50 per plate, not including drinks.

I don't think I want to pay anything more for a meal.

We go to this Brazilian Steakhouse once or twice a year that is 48$ per person, which includes all the steak and other meat that you can handle, and a ridiculous salad bar.

It'd be easy to drive downtown (chicago) and drop a hundred bucks on a plate, I just don't really want to.

My wife and I enjoy more finding little hole in the wall type places for good food. College towns are the absolute best places to find these.

We drove to Minneapolis over the summer, and stopped in Madison to check out Camp Randall, and stopped at this place across the street from the stadium called Mickey's. The food was outstanding, and it was super cheap.

I went to a molecular gastronomy place with a friend on his company tab.
Free meal . It was close to $500. The food was really good and fun but no meal is worth that price.

Typically in NYC for a very good restaurant you can pay $300 for 2 people it is NYC.

Will do.
As I said I don’t typically drop that kind of coin for a night out but I’ve heard amazing things. We’re treating it as a late birthday celebration for my GF and a coworker, and an early birthday celebration for me.
Since returning from Thailand I’ve been seeking out those flavors all over town. Typically coming away disappointed. Not that the local Thai food is bad, it’s just not what I came to find while in country. This place is supposed to be the end all be all.
A friend that recently attended said she teared up a couple of times during her meal because of how beautiful the food was in taste and presentation. Girls.

You got it!

Stepney is a neighborhood in East London. Traditional working class/poor neighborhood. Very diverse. To put that lyric in NYC/American terms....Stepney would be Queens and Knightsbridge would be Upper East Side/5th Ave.

Agreed. I feel the same way with the lack of good Indian/Pakistani curry restaurants. Everytime we go back to the UK that is #1 on our list....go to an authentic, reputable, neighborhood curry house.

Must admit, I am not a fan of 'Pok Pok'. When we moved to PDX nearly 11 years ago everybody raved about it. We went and were underwhelmed. Possibly as we have had some amazing Thai in London (but, I am sure not as amazing as what you had in Thailand).
Anyway, didn't go again for several years. Went back maybe 2 years ago and were again...totally underwhelmed and don't understand its hype.

I’ve eaten at Pok Pok a couple times. It’s been a decade though since my last meal there. They have a few dishes that are pretty good. They sell it as Thai street food...meh, not so much. It really has no correlation to the street food I experienced in Thailand. I do like the Thai fish sauce wings at the Whiskey Soda Lounge across the street. Good stuff.

Also somewhat odd to be in a Thai restaurant where the head chef is white and the majority of people working there are also white. Same with 'Bollywood Theatre'. It self praises itself as "Authentic Indian street food" yet, everybody cooking in the kitchen, or at least the time I was there, were white.