Gratzi

Gratzi loyalists, I'm sorry.

Overrated. I'm watching Survivor online as I write this review, and this show is more exciting than my last experience at Gratzi. I hate to come off catty and rude, but I was just so disappointed and feel safe letting it out here.

I went last year for a friend's birthday and was actually quite satisifed with that experience. I had something reminiscent of the Filetto de Manzo off the current menu - herb crusted beef tenderloin served on a portobello cap with tomato, goat cheese, roasted potatoes, and shallots. It was very enjoyable and perfect with a side of asparagus. I remember leaving with a smile on my face that night.

I went again last week for another friend's birthday. I don't often get an occasion to go out to the Main St restaurants, so I was pretty excited. The place is lovely; classic and upscale. The host/ess (a guy took care of the people in front of us, then I turned around and some tiny girl came to help us) were great. I'm sure service is usually great, but our server didn't really seem to know what was going on when she first came to help us. She wasn't sure if we had been seen to, had to ask us, then wasn't sure if she was supposed to be serving us, came back saying that apparently she was our server, etc. In her defense, she was very nice and attentive after that first bit of confusion. After perusing the menu, birthday girl CL got the Gnocchi con Pancetta Affumicato e Gamberi, AU got the Orecchiette Rustica, and I had the Spezzaino di Cinghiale. A bunch of fancy Italian words for mediocre. CL's gnocchi was served with shrimp and applewood bacon in a tomato sauce with red pepper flakes for a kick. It was definitely the best of the three dishes, but still nothing that I'm going to be thinking about tomorrow. AU's orecchiette was served with sweet Italian sausage, broccolini, and radicchio. It was decent. I think it could have used more garlic or anything else to give it a little more flavor and more of a kick. And now we get to my dish, on which I have the most criticism. I have no idea what spezzaino means, and Google is no help. Cinghiale means "wild boar"... so you can guess what the protein in that dish was. I knew this going in and was really excited, having never had boar before. I was debating between the boar and a risotto dish that was a special that week. Then I asked myself, "when else am I going to have wild boar?" The menu says "a savory stew of Texas farm raised boar simmered in wine, tomatoes, juniper and rosemary, served over hand cut pappardelle pasta." The description reads as delicious on paper, but honestly... I can do better than this in my kitchen at home. I thought I was going to be getting a hunk of meat. Not necessarily in steak form, but definitely not the ground meat mish mash that did end up on the plate in front of me. The meat itself is lean, tastes a little porky (which makes sense), I want to even say a little beefy, not too gamey. The preparation was nothing fabulous. The meat and the sauce was just spooned on top of the pappardelle, so the pasta had soaked up absolutely zero flavor. Eh, I mean... I really don't have much more to say other than passable. I'm thinking now that I should have gone with the risotto.

Gratzi's one saving grace for this review is the birthday deal. 1/n (where n=number of diners) off the check and a birthday cannoli served with fresh fruit. Thank goodness for the birthday cannoli, the best part of the meal. Wow, I'm being such a negative Nancy. It's just that if I'm paying $20+, I want to really enjoy myself and have my palate satisfied. The only reason I'd be able to enjoy another experience like this is if I'm with company as great as I had that night.

Jung-Ah and I originally set out to write only good reviews here, but I think it's only fair to everyone that I give my honest review. But hey, maybe it was just a bad night. Nothing was horrible, it was just not up to the caliber of what I had expected. I'll be open minded and give it another shot... when it's not $25 out of my own pocket. There are definitely other items on the menu that I'd like to try and have a feeling will warrant a better review than this one. Yummers?

$$

www.gratzirestaurant.com/pages/gratzi.html

Chinatown Express

Have you ever seen the Jackie Chan cartoons? They're always yelling, "Uncle, uncle!!" Except it's more like, "Awn-cooh, awn-cooh." Well, that's what I want to say when I see the noodle guy in the window at Chinatown Express. Never been there? It's pretty nifty. There's a very nice looking middle aged gentleman who stands in this window, surrounded by barbecued meats, and he makes noodles by hand. He slaps and twirls and swings dough around (I think all day and all year, as I have never seen a different noodle guy in the window) and produces these chewy and delicious fresh noodles. He will wave and smile at the gawkers, and people like me who takes pictures of anything and everything. So, I dub him my awn-cooh.

Nari and I were pretty excited and hungry when we got there. There were sounds of people slurping away everywhere, which just raised our excitement level. We got the mixed barbecue plate to start with, which was delicious, but also pretty greasy. I think I ate about 4 pieces and couldn't really handle anymore, even piled with the ginger paste and the red pepper flakes. The mixed plate comes with duck, chicken, pork, beef, and squid, garnished with steamed broccoli. It's pretty to look at as well as yummy in the mouth, if you don't care about your stomach screaming in protest.

We didn't have to wait long for the noodle soups to arrive, steaming and enticing. Nari had the beef noodle soup and I had the seafood noodle soup. It seemed that they put different toppings on the noodles and then poured the same stock/broth over them. The soup is kinda bland, so I added in copious amounts of soy sauce, ginger paste, and red pepper flakes into it, which made it super delish. The fabulous noodles - the texture is perfection.

I'm sure that the other items on the menu are good too, but it seems that the majority of people were there for the noodles. I guess that's pretty obvious that's what they're letting us know is their specialty, by showing off my awn-cooh. I'll go back anytime for their noodle soups - I forgot to tell you, they're super cheap around $6, you can't beat that. Tasty tasty!!!

Café Felix

Ann Arbor Restaurant Week was last month, and I had really wanted to go to Café Felix as their restaurant week menu sounded quite appealing. Needless to say, that didn't happen, but I did get the opportunity to go the week after.

For whatever reason, Felix is one of the Main St restaurants that always slips my mind. Big mistake. This was my first time at Café Felix (definitely not my last!). The interior is classy (I mean, "Café" is spelled with an accent. It's gotta be classy, right?), cozy, warm and romantic if that's the context, cute and hip if that's the context. I'm sure it's a totally different vibe in the evening versus the afternoon.

JH and I got there around 9.45pm, just in time to beat kitchen close. We were seated at a small round table at the front window, which was nice when it started snowing by the end of our evening. Our server brought over multiple menus (dinner, tapas, and martini), reminding us of 1/2 off specialty martinis as it was Monday night (my inside info for the readers, Wednesdays are 1/2 off bottles of wine). JH started by requesting a custom martini for me and rattled off select ingredients, to which our lovely server very happily obliged. Something girly, but still boozy. We got something off the menu for him, with the assistance of the server's recommendations. I think it was the Lazy Limbo? I seem to recall there being coconut involved, and a second look at the martini list tells me that that is the only drink with anything coconut. In any case, it was not spectacular, and we both much preferred my custom concoction, which was actually pretty delish. As it was so late, neither of us were particularly starving, so we ordered off the tapas menu. Surprise, Nari isn't starving for once. I probably could have had an entrée off the dinner menu, but I suppose I should be a lady and restrain from gorging alone when my dinner companion wants to take it light. I think I made the correct decision because our selection was absolutely divine. We got the Giant Portobello Mushroom Caps, two large portabella caps with gorgonzola and a sage cream sauce. I don't think you understand. It was to die for. I love portabello mushrooms, I love gorgonzola, I love sage, I love cream sauce, put them together and it's a delectably polygamous marriage.

If length is a sign of endorsement, I wish I could make this review longer! But I didn't sample a whole lot that night. I was definitely more than pleased with my experience, and there are many other items I'd like to try off the tapas, dinner, and martini menus. I also think it would be fun to get outdoor seating in the summer and do brunch. Crêpes, yum. Hm, now I'm craving Café Zola. I sense another review coming up...! Café Felix, yummers!!!

$$

www.cafefelix.com

Grand Lux Cafe

It's 3:00 in the morning. Just came back from seeing friends, reuniting with old friends, and making new friends. Can't seem to get to sleep. Am watching Millionaire Matchmaker online, figure I should do something productive, but clearly schoolwork is not the productive activity of choice.

So let's get a start on recapping Vegas with Grand Lux Cafe, owned by California Pizza Kitchen. We went twice, once for dinner and once for lunch. Not so much sharing going on here, so most of my review will be on my entree of choice.

Two weekends ago, we went to Las Vegas for JC's birthday. For the record, best birthday celebration ever!! We stayed at the Palazzo, so, partly out of convenience, partly out of curiosity, we did dinner at Grand Lux one night. Jung-Ah got the Jamaican Pork Tenderloin, my memory tells me JC got the reuben but I can't find it on the menu, not quite remembering what JL got, KL had the Asian Nachos, BT went for the Chicken Pot Pie, and I had the Madeira Chicken. I only got around to trying Jung-Ah's and BT's dishes in addition to mine. The Jamaican pork was really good. It comes with rice, mashed sweet potatoes, and mango salsa. Hearty. If there's one criticism, maybe it was a bit salty. The chicken pot pie was the biggest. pot. pie. EVER. The area of the crust was as big as both my hands together. Ok, so I have midget hands. But still! Creamy. Delish. My Madeira Chicken served with mashed potatoes and asparagus was perfect. I'm always a fan of any creamy wine sauce. Mashed potatoes equals comfort. Asparagus equals love. It's nothing super fancy, just exactly what my taste buds were asking for.

Fast forward to one day later. We had been up till 9am playing blackjack and were running on no sleep. Slightly dejected after losing a fair amount of money, but mostly needing showers, we went back up to our room to shower and get ready for checkout, then Jung-Ah, JC, JC2, BT, TC, and I had our last lunch at Grand Lux. Not remembering what everyone had this time. I'll venture to say the DeLux Drive-In Burger, Grand Club, and the Santa Barbara Chicken Sandwich were among the choices. Definitely not remembering what Jung-Ah got. She was too preoccupied with getting back to the blackjack tables. So Jung-Ah is huddled in the corner struggling to stay awake, conflicted between her desire to take a nap and her significantly more urgent need to get back to the tables. I ordered the Spicy Flat Bread Chicken Sandwich, which was excellent. A chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato, kicked up with pepper jack and avocado-corn salsa. I want to say it was one giant sandwich cut into quarters, but it was really four still-giant sandwiches. Before I got to my second sandwich, Jung-Ah had already finished whatever she ordered, threw her credit card down on the table for us to pay with, and ran back to the casino. By herself. Addict.

In the past, I've also had the Crispy Thai Shrimp & Chicken Spring Rolls, Lemon Chicken Piccata, and Banana Cream Pie, all of which I would recommend. I've always had great service, the atmosphere is great, and it's just the kind of place you want to be. Comfortable and consistent. Unfortunately there aren't as many pictures as usual, as I was too preoccupied with my meal companion or we were too concerned with getting back to the blackjack tables, but there are a few that will hopefully suffice. In summary, it's simple, nothing absolutely crazy gourmet, but definitely hits the spot and more than satisfactory. Huge portions and so good! Yummers!!!!

$$

www.grandluxcafe.com

Ann Arbor

Any Ann Arbor readers? Any readers, period?

We've clearly done a bad job of writing up restaurants from our Thanksgiving extravaganza, but it will be done! Also to be reviewed are a couple of places from our trip to Las Vegas a couple of weekends ago. And to the joy of all (ha!) of our Ann Arbor patrons, I'll be making some stops around campus and downtown, so get excited for that.

Requests for A2 and/or DC? Please leave comments :)