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"Maybe you should give it just one more try."

You are kidding right? Do you know how hard it is to get a reservation? And how expensive it is? This isn't the type of restaurant the common mortal can "develop a relationship with." It's supposed to be a grand slam home run the first time, because the first time is likely to be the only time.

Like JerzeeTomato said without saying, places like the French Laundry cater to the happy few - people who can afford to go there regularly. This idea of democracy in fine dining is a lure. I didn't use to think this way, but I now believe that it's a bad idea to save up your money for a splurge at one of these places because you're going in with expectations that can rarely be met by the restaurant. There just restaurants after all and they do have off nights and dishes that just aren't as good as they should be. My girlfriend and I have been discussing trying to get reservations to El Bulli next year when we'll be staying in Barcelona, and I'm starting to think we'd be better off spending our money elsewhere.

Basically, my feeling is that if you can't afford to be disappointed, you shouldn't be paying that kind of money for a meal.

I was pretty much resigned to the price. Jerzee, I do agree with you about making a relationship, but simon, I also agree that I, and most people, wouldn't have a chance to do so.

I hope that I, as a mature person, can always "afford to be disappointed". Still...on this long and wonderful gourmet vacation (I've basically been eating like a truffle hound in San Francisco and Yountville for the past two weeks), my expectations have been met and mostly exceeded at every other fancy dan restaurant.

annien, am I reading that right, it was your birthday dinner?

As much as a dining experience can be built up, it really depends on who's working that day. Even if the French Laundry does its utmost to screen employees and take only the best, everyone has a bad day. The unfortunate thing is that, as pointed out above, the price and near impossible nature of procuring a reservation make it a place that might not get "tried again" to see if the experience improves.

When asked, Annien will relay her experience which may have been one of the few bad ones without having the opportunity, ways or means, for a "retry." The irony is that the French Laundry created that environment of exclusivity and it only takes one person's account of a bad experience to make a friend reconsider where to spend a high-end restaurant dollar.

@annien - don't let people intimidate you out of your opinion. A restaurant's reputation will not change the actual experience you encountered. Why do you think I keep pimping One If By Land? I've never had a bad meal (or waitstaff) experience there and until that changes, it's my favorite restaurant in Manhattan.

Wow, sorry you had a less than stellar party for a birthday milestone. It's tough for restaurants to live up to extremely high expectations, but in this case, they have helped to build the monster.

You most certainly have the right to blog about your experience - positive or negative. I have never had a desire to go there, so a positive or a negative review doesn't truly matter to me and probably for many folks, but for someone who is straddling the fence between several restaurants and realizes they aren't a socialite, it at least puts the experience in a real person's perspective.

I feel that service and atmosphere is half of the experience in a high end restaurant. If the food is great, and the service and atmosphere is disagreeable (vice versa), it's not a positive experience.

On the flipside, there are those who become disillusioned by a place/person's reputation, they don't see the glaring inadequacies.

Sorry that you had this experience. I had wonderful service at French Laundry but did have a couple of server issues at Per Se. Overall, service was quite lovely. But we were indeed rushed and did not receive the time and grand explanations of the our meal that we received at French Laundry. The reason was that half the room comprised of visiting chefs, told to us by the server when we asked them why 1/2 the room were getting additional courses. It was only until I ate at both that I realized how terrible my Per Se service was by comparison only (Per Se wasn't bad at all), which was a bit odd because I've actually read that Per Se's service tends to be polished compared to French Laundry. Well, it certainly wasn't for us.

Next time you're in the Napa Valley, I would highly recommend you take out the trip to Healdsburg and visit Cyrus. I thought the food at Cyrus was better than French Laundry. And if you're one for larger portions, they give you a lot more food compared to FL. And we had great service there as well. Much easier to get a reservation and the price is a LOT more palatable.

I always felt like the voice crying in the wilderness after dining at the FL twice: once years ago, in the mid 1990's before it became "THE FRENCH LAUNDRY!!!" (it used to be one of the choices offered as part of a package deal (!) at a nearby inn, mind you, although we didn't go as part of the package deal, and yes, TK was the chef), and again just a few years ago. Neither time blew us away. Yes the food was delicious, and the service was professional and polished, but so are the food and service at other restaurants in San Francisco/Napa Valley, across the US and in Italy. Frankly, it was not the best dining experience we ever had. Of course, the first time, we were seated upstairs in a small stuffy room near a table full of loud, obnoxious people, and the maitre d' refused to move us when we politely asked for a table in a more quiet area, away from them if he couldn't/wouldn't ask them to tone down their noise and behavior (he wouldn't). So much for that. Both times the reception was coldly polite, not very welcoming, but professional nonetheless. We didn't expect to be fawned over, but it would have been nice to feel that they were pleased to have us as guests. (We were clean, dressed very nicely and fit in with the "FL clientele look", whatever that is, in case anyone is wondering!) Yes, we had certain expectations, but no more than those we have when we dine at any restaurant that has a great reputation. The FL is an excellent restaurant, but having tried it twice over the years and been disappointed both times, we fail to see the "magic". Oh well, perhaps we're just not cultured enough...

Annie, you're entitled to your opinion and you're entitled to blog about it. BUUUUT I must note:

In your blog, you rave about the food, how it is perfectly cooked and the menu itself was "admirably constructed" and "thoughtful" and that one course prepped you for the next. But then you get upset about how the Captain was flustered when you asked to substitute veggie dishes into the Chef's Menu.

And asking for a Virgin Mary (essentially spicy tomato juice) is not exactly a common request. You think a busy kitchen like FL's is going to stop everything and juice some tomatoes for a rookie diner? Is not having tomato juice really going to ruin your meal?

If you felt rushed through your dessert courses, the remedy is easy as speaking up: "I'm still working on this, thank you."

The only legitimate excuse you have for being indignant is the Captain's hesitation with the beef allergy. The appropriate response is always, "Yes ma'am, of course we'll make a substitute."

All in all, I'm not convinced that you really disliked French Laundry so much as you liked disliking French Laundry. But that's just my opinion, and I'm entitled to post it.

While there's certainly nothing wrong with asking for the cocktail of your choice, once he said they didn't have a bar and thus no tomato juice, I wonder what you expected them to do for you. I mean, yeah, it would have been spectacular if they lovingly hand-juiced some tomatoes for you, but I don't think you were looking for the flavor or raw tomato juice. They could have sent someone to the nearest grocer for a can of tomato juice, but is that really reasonable? You said you would have hoped they would have worked with you on this, but seriously, what could they have done that would have made you happy given that they didn't have tomato juice on hand?

Enough already!

If you have to ask ....

SB (not asking)

I've just read both of your blogs pertaining to the French Laundry. First of all, I think you write very well. Both blogs were a good read. I do think that a litttle bit of anger shows through, and I have to say I think it's justifiable, especially since you mention that you spent over a grand at the restaurant. I also think it's fair to criticize an institution that so rarely is criticized, as success can make a business feel that they don't need to try as hard to impress. No matter who you are, if you are willing to spend that kind of money on what would be a once in a lifetime experience (for about 95% of people) there is no reason to be dissatisfied. I also agree with writing a letter to Thomas Keller in as kind of a way as you can, to let him know that, though the food was wonderful, your experience was not. I think you should do this because I think he cares. I don't think he'd be pleased with the situation, and may be able to make the necessary changes to insure that his establishment doesn't earn more negative reviews.
At any rate, I am so sorry you had a bad night out. Visiting the FL has been a little dream of mine for a few years, but now I'm thinking I will look into some other restaurants as well.

tinynancer said -- "You think a busy kitchen like FL's is going to stop everything and juice some tomatoes for a rookie diner?"
------------------------

Maybe it's just me, but that "rookie diner" comment seemed like it was intentionally rude and condescending. Also interesting to note it's the only post you've made here at SE, and you seem to have come specifically for this thread.

Hmmm... I can't help but wonder... do you work for The French Laundry?

I know everyone talks about how expensive it is, but I'm curious to know exactly what price range we're talking about. What's an average dinner bill for 2 people?

Looking at the menu online, I'd bet that most couples would go over seven hundred bucks, easy, once you add in a beverage, tax, and tip.

Ermmm, tomato juice and virgin marys have nothing in common with what you can press from a raw tomato, and tomato water is not a very tempting drink. Tomato juice as we generally know it is cooked and milled.

That said, and even noting that tomato juice sounds sort of blue plate special appetizer course, I'd expect them to have it around.

When a person sits down to a meal at a place like TFL the expectation is that things will be perfect.

Perfect can be different things to different people, even when the perfection sought has already been designed, drawn, painted, and set in stone more or less.

The "TFL Experience" is a choreographed bit of theatre-in-real-life. And within this experience there are people performing; food being food which is a living thing; and a good amount of structure put in place underneath it all without which the whole thing could not hold together for more than a few moments without something going wrong.

The final answer to Annie's discomfort can be found in one piece of proof: The server's manual. What does it direct them to do when a guest makes this sort of request?

In most places of TFL's sort the answer to whether the guest gets what they are asking for "off-menu" or not will not finally be up to the server. The stakes are too high, the expectations of perfection too firmly set in place, and yes, in reality when one is buying a Bugatti rather than a Honda the game is different whether one wishes it were or not.

Unless the server had a too-human moment where they did not hit the level their job demands of them (hmmm . . . I don't know anyone who has not had this happen to them personally!) then the decision to say "no tomato juice sorry" was made by a manager FOH or BOH, after calculating the damage this would cost balanced between the disruption it would cost the kitchen to somehow get or make the juice or whatever . . . and the damage it would cost to say "no, sorry" to the customer.

Whoever made that decision in this particular instance simply guessed wrong within that moment of theatre with that particular person at that moment in time: Annie, on her birthday.

These decisions unfortunately do have to be made even at places like TFL or the choreography would be a wreck, and it can not be. It has to be there and be strong enough to maintain the dance to provide the experience of food that the diners demand.

Annie will rise above it. She has, and the balance of the situation has been pushed at a bit by her relating of the story in her wonderfully humorous way.

All's fair in love, war, and fine dining.
The only thing that is not fair is birthdays where the number seems so high that one can not figure out how it happened to oneself!

Happy Birthday, Annie. You're better than ever. And I bet if you walked back in to TFL next time it might be that the tomato juice would appear!
(P.S. Keep your blog photo updated. All hairstyle changes shown. And let them know when you will be planning to arrive for your next meal . . . .)

:)

Ha, ha! Great post, Jerzee. :)

The thing is that when chefs are thought of as minor gods (which is not all that uncommon in the Land of Foodies) the world shifts to a place where the minor gods act and those who worship them accommodate. Rather than the other way around.

In general TFL is one of the places that is known to be free of that sort of thing though. Sort of like the story where Alice Waters refused to have bottled water in-house but then one guy asked for it and the server was sent out to the store to get it. TFL is known as a place of Diner Chef Server Equality We All Get What We Want*. So Annie's experience was surprising to hear.

*Except of course someone is serving and someone is paying for the pleasure of being served.

Wasn't it Keller who initiated the idea of his staff all calling each other by the title of "chef" to make things more democratic?

No, db, I don't think a Captain at TFL would ever just be snarky for the hell of it. He might and could have an "off" day or moment. (You should have caught some of mine when I worked at Nordstrom). No, I didn't feel personally dissed. But I did feel that Ruhlman might have gotten a tomato juice, or the reason why.

Judith, I don't know what kind of tomatoes you have in Umbria, but the squeezin's from a juicy, thin-skinned heirloom tomato and a few utlity boys makes a nice drink, with the right seasonings. Chop 'em fine, pour into a cheesecloth-lined bowl, let it sit overnight in the fridge, then twist the bag next day. Add a few shavings of yellow onion to the pulp before squeezing, if you like).

Tomato water is a brilliant drink and mixer, especially on a hot day. (Basically the same recipe, but chop tomatoes even finer and no squeezing, just drip.)

Depending on the tomato, sometimes it just needs a sprinkle of sea salt.

Vox, I like your style. Jerz, funny funny comment.

Were you willing to come back 24 hours later for this raw tomato juice drink?

I think it is so unfortunate that you had such an experience. I dined there just this week and found the entire experience enchanting. The staff was completely friendly, the service was impeccable, and the entire experience was one-of-a-kind. It is a shame you left with a bad taste in your mouth.........I certainly did not.

Annie, you're a shill for your own blog.

- You posted an intentionally-negative review of TFL to garner attention. You were clearly a Jersey Boob dining at a place you could never possibly understand or appreciate.

- At the top of your SE-linked post about TFL, you're now baiting users to all of your other posts about your Bay Area visit? Hmm. Very odd. I cruise a few hundred food blogs a day and have never seen that. Tags at the bottom of a post? Yes. Braying alerts at the top? Never.

- You perpetually shilled your review in your original post about, and in your subsequent comments. "I have a full report on my blog". . ."I'm getting some really hissy-fit comments on my web site!". . ."The virgin mary -- I'm going to have to blog about that". . . ."See the blog."

- This is not different than you other behavior here. In the latest "What's your fave food blog?," it's just yours? REALLY?

- Your main post about TNFS -- you shill your blog right up front! My God. And then you claim that "Lisa wrote you a letter" which you "can't find now." Hey. Did you ever find it?

I appreciate your aspirations to become an established food blogger. For now, though, please focus on better-quality content and less on spamming this SE board with your passive-aggressive sales pitches.

If you were THAT good, you wouldn't have to.

SE, we seriously need an "ignore" feature here.

tmj529: You seriously don't me that do you? Seriously?!
You made your comment, you stated your opinion, (well you annie ya did ask but still...), then you make a wish stating that you could ignore a response?

You must be kidding!!!!!!

Look tmj, you obvious have strong opionions and you like to have them heard so....
What gives?

Annien: Big fan, by the way. I've gone to several resturants in New York and Florida from the cheapest out of the way places to my one big splurge at Rockfella Center. (It was a Thanksgiving treat for my Dad and Me. I was living with him while I was in College and I thought it would be nice if we didn't have to cook that year. 1996)
We had a nice time and the serve was o.k but what really stood out in my mind was that I (to put a fine point and to spare some people finer feelings) got sick from the chestnut stuffing.
What does that all mean people?
Well it means that's what stood out people! Not the view of the Ice Skaters, not the nice decor, or the pretty good stuffing, (I guess I was allegic to chestnuts. Who knew?), but the fact I got sick.
So ya a couple of things happen to annien and they stuck out in her mind as to what was HER experience.

So tmj529, I hope now you will have a finer apperciation of the rights we all share (yes, as well as the resposiblities due to the fact that the webmaster might have a problem with cursing and such. Lucky you tmj529!) when voicing our opinion!

So in conclusion....
Get over yourself you jerk! @!##$$