3 replies to this topic

[Wilfrid1]

I see tasting menus at several levels of expense are offered. Can anyone opine as to whether a tasting would be better than ordering from the carte?

[Wilfrid1]

Because I can't understand the economics, unless you get dollops of caviar with the tasting menus. All the dishes are priced at $14* for appetizer size portions ($28 for entree size). Tasting menus are available at $80 to $120.

Two people could order twelve different dishes (small size) and four desserts for less than $100 a head. Seems a much better way to go.

Thanks for the answer, Wilf.

*There are some supplements, but aside from the caviar/abalone dish they are trivial.

[Wilfrid1]

Everywhere you look, Japanese fusion or some Asian food or other being cooked by Western chefs, so we opted for dinner at Sumile fairly randomly. A cool, modern room in the Village with mellow lighting and some attractive but impractical Asian-theme furnitue, Sumile has found its audience: narrow-waisted women in their twenties. Well, I suppose they have to eat something.

Josh DeChellis (his CV includes Bouley and Union Pacific) is preparing a lengthy menu of fourteen dollar "appetizers" - small plates which can be ordered at double the price as entrees. Our server recommended three courses, but I sceptically ordered four (plus dessert). I was right; some of the plates are not so small, but the food is low on carbs and quite light. There is a danger of leaving hungry.

Cocktails, from a list of specials, were hit and miss. The bar's take on Mojito was sickly sweet and undrinkable. A version of Seabreeze, using kumquat-infused vodka and graperfuit juice, was delicious. Wines were modestly priced - we drank a Gewurtztraminer, from an Alsatian producer whose name I didn't recognise, for $35; all dessert wines, including a very satisfactory Sauternes, are $7.

The food? Well, it was pleasant enough, but I am struggling to identify anything about it which would compel me to return. None of the dishes were bad, and most were almost good. I liked the oysters with pineapple vinegar; my Beloved hated them. We thought the Dungness crab, served over a sweet-ish green yuzu gelee, was the best dish. Gulf shrimp in a clear, mild horseradish consomme were good for a couple of bites; but it was a one-note dish. Chunks of raw tuna topped with house-pickled onions were fine. The squab ramen, which some reviewers have praised, was a little disappointing: noodles in a rich shoyu broth with a quail's egg and little enoki mushrooms - fine - but the pieces of very rare squab seemed to have arrived from a different dish, as an afterthought. And we couldn't find any alleged foie gras. Some foie gras did turn up as a foam, blanketing very tender duck breast (the kitchen managed to prepare one breast rare, the other well done, as requested); again, some nice mouthfuls, and then it was gone.

I didn't like the watery Japanese rice pudding at all, but my Beloved was quite happy with it. I liked the flan.

One might return to try a tasting menu; probably not otherwise. But, like I said, Sumile has its customers, and will doubtless stick around.

[yvonne johnson]

I don't fancy the sound of most of that.