Bar Uriarte

Occasion: Dinner with Elizabeth
Location: Bar Uriarte on Uriarte in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (baruriarte.com.ar)
Edibles: burrata cheese with confit tomato app, followed by the skirt steak; Elizabeth had the white polenta and risotto croquettes (two separate dishes) to start and ordered the zucchini salad for her main but got a spinach one with apples, radish coins and avocado instead

Musings: A modern and trendy place with a Meatpacking sort of vibe.

The meal started off with a great selection of breads. Which we wolfed down, as it was 10:00pm. New Yorkers think they eat late, but they have nothing on Argentineans. As we were leaving, at well past 11:00, several tables were just sitting down to eat.

The first course was a home-run - Elizabeth loved her polenta and I practically swooned over my burrata, fresh, plump and serenely simple. It makes a certain amount of sense that a country so famous for its steak would also have really good dairy. The mains were a bit anticlimactic. There was a mix-up with Elizabeth's salad but she decided to just keep the one that came. My skirt steak was good, but got increasingly rubbery as it cooled.

Still, we continue to be impressed with the calibre of Buenos Aires' restaurants.

La Biela

Occasion: Lunch in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Location: La Biela on Avenida Presidente Manuel Quintana, at the large intersection in front of La Recoleta Cemetary
Edibles: I had the tuna salad; Elizabeth had a turkey and roasted red pepper sandwich

Musing: The "Tourist Central" location should have tipped us off, but we tried it on a friend's recommendation. The service in the outdoor area was a chaotic mess. At the same time, this place can't be making much money since everyone around us seemed to be just drinking coffee. (Another tip-off, now that I think about it.)

Elizabeth's sandwich looked pretty rudimentary. My tuna salad was sort of reminiscent of a Niçoise, with tuna, tomatoes, potatoes, a hard-boiled egg and (way too much) raw onion. It was sizeable and filling but nothing to write home about, and pretty expensive. Oh yeah, and the food costs more when you sit outside - the first time I've ever encountered this in all my travels.

If you desperately need a place to rest your feet, and maybe people-watch a little, take a hint from the majority and stick to coffee.

Las Familias bakery

Location: the corner of Armenia and Honduras in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires

I had a ham and cheese knot and a meat empanada (I think it was beef, with chopped-up hard-boiled eggs, olives and mushrooms). Awesome and dirt cheap at just 5 pesos (a little over a dollar) total. With a cup of overpriced coffee from Starbucks - purchased only to be able to sit at their outdoor tables, mind you - it was the perfect breakfast and prelude to an extended ramble in La Recoleta Cemetary.

[Note: I had empanadas three more times during the trip, including once in a fancy restaurant, and the ones from Las Familias were the best. If your hotel is nearby, I recommend picking some up for the plane ride home.]

Casa Felix

Occasion: A much-anticipated dinner
Location: Casa Felix - literally, Chef Diego Felix's house in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires (diegofelix.com)
Edibles: mango pisco sour apéritif; first course - sautéed oyster mushrooms over lime mashed potatoes with argula flowers, suico sauce and chili-infused oil; second course - papaya and cucumber salad with a mandarin vinaigrette; intermezzo - apple and mint granita; main course - achiote-marinated sandperch with pea and fennel purée, broccolini and salsa criolla; dessert - coconut and lavender panna cotta

(Note: At some point, I will get around to uploading my pictures from the dinner. Until then, you can find pictures of Diego's gorgeous food - though not the exact stuff that we ate - here.)

Musings: Amazing. Amazing. Thanks go out to Sabrina for the rec!

The evening started with drinks in Diego's backyard. He showed us his herb garden, still in progress, and talked a little about his background and food philosophy. He spoke animatedly of his love for obscure local ingredients and his fascination with the indigenous cuisines of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. As it turned out, he'd just returned from an impromptu North American tour, where he cooked for private parties and supper clubs.

All the guests briefly introduced themselves. Everyone there had heard about place by word of mouth and Diego speculated that every guest could be traced back to one of his friends, the original guests of his home, now restaurant.

Eager to start tasting his creations, we all headed inside to our little tables in their living room. (When the weather is warmer, everyone sits together at the big table in their courtyard.) From the first course of his pescetarian tasting menu on, Diego surprised and challenged us with his dishes.

For example, I never thought cold mashed potatoes with lime would be good, but they were an amazing base for the oyster mushrooms in the first course. The edible flowers from his garden were a charming touch. I wasn't crazy about the slightly slimy manioc pancake in the second course but the salad was lovely, the citrus in the dressing picking up the lime note from the previous course. I think there was an accident with the intermezzo in the hall (all we heard was a loud crash with shattering glass), but they were still able to serve each of us a tiny scoop of the refreshing granita.

The sandperch main course was lovely, substantial and satisfying but still delicate enough to stay in line with the rest of the light menu. We finished the meal with vegan coconut panna cotta with lavender. Coconut makes me gag so I couldn't really evaluate this one objectively, but it was silky-smooth and I loved the crust. The lavender was perhaps a touch overpowering.

The bill was a ridiculously low 110 pesos (about $30). In my opinion, he could easily charge twice, if not three times, as much. Wine is extra, but as Argentina is a robust wine-producing country, the local selections were great and very reasonably priced.

I simply cannot recommend this place strongly enough. Diego's passion for fresh and modern food was evident in everything that came out of his kitchen. A truly spectacular dining experience.

Minga

(Munchings and Crunchings abroad! The first of our many wonderful meals in Argentina...)

Occasion: A first taste of Buenos Aires!
Location: Minga on Costa Rica in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (mingaparrilla.com.ar)
Edibles: I had the ojo de bife (ribeye) with a side of spinach gratin; Elizabeth had a penne dish that I barely paid attention to, so focused was I on the luscious grilled meats being served all around me

Musings: Only a few hours in Buenos Aires and I was already champing at the bit for some steak. Elizabeth, who doesn't eat red meat at all, amiably let me pick our lunch spot.

When ordering, we tried to communicate the medium-rare doneness I wanted by using the Spanish words for "red" and "rose" but I guess it didn't translate. When my steak came, I gave it a quick prod with my fork and my heart sank when it barely gave at all. I sliced into it to confirm. The meat proved to be well-done, brown all the way through. Sacrilege, really.

I showed it to the waiter. My Lonely Planet guidebook helpfully supplied us with the word "jugoso" (juicy) to better describe what I was looking for. With a minimum of fuss, he whisked it away to be redone. A part of me winced to see an entire prime steak go to waste, but they really had cooked the bejeezus out of it.

Without being asked, our superlative waiter brought me a second skillet of spinach gratin with the new steak, as the original one was now cold. Full marks for service. Steak #2 was everything I had hoped for. Argentinean beef, famous for being free-range, grass-fed and really delicious, absolutely lived up to the hype. It was rich, tender, and had a robust gaminess that American steak generally does not. If you are a steak-lover, you need to get yourself to Argentina pronto. Oh, and did I mention that this steak cost about $10 USD?

All in all, a great start to our South American adventure!

Top Chef Reunion Dinner

Original Air Date: November 4, 2009

1) The people who were annoying in their original seasons are still annoying. I'm looking at you, Tiffani, Marcel, Ilan and Lisa.

2) Speaking of Marcel... The head-shaving incident was way over the line, even in retrospect. But I can see why living with him would have driven people to it. He's got this jittery-obnoxious-immature bravado thing going and it hasn't gotten better with time. Grow up and chill out, dude.

3) Fabio and Stefan really need to have their own show. The way they interact is somehow just naturally hilarious and watchable. And it would be the most quotable show ever. My favorites from Season 5 went something like: "Skinning an eel is like riding a bicycle" (Stefan); "We could serve monkey ass in empty clam shells" (Fabio); and "I'm sweating like a goat at the beach" (Fabio).

Aoki

Occasion: Lunch with Nellie
Location: Aoki on 48th between B'way and 8th (aokinyc.com)
Edibles: 3-roll sushi lunch for both of us; my rolls were the spicy tuna, eel and cucumber and California

Musings: Can't beat the price: miso soup or salad plus three rolls clocks in at a mere $11. The rice in the sushi was a bit mushy but the seasonings on the eel and the spicy tuna were nicely done.

The space is pretty posh, too, with nice wood floors and furniture. Big Boss (my boss' boss, the CIO) LOVES this place.

Bettola

Occasion: Pre-opera (Aida) dinner with Mamie
Location: Bettola on Amsterdam between 79th and 80th
Edibles: shrimp app special and cremini mushroom farrotto to share; I followed it with the salmon; Mamie had a pizza

Musings: When Mamie and I walked past it (our Good Enough to Eat plans foiled by a gas leak), I was really excited to eat here again. I had come here ages ago with PA and Bettola made a really deep impression. I can still remember the awesome scallops I ate with a startling amount of detail.

I was a little nervous upon discovering that the restaurant was completely empty - though I guess it was only 6:30. (There were five other tables by the time we left.) They really deserve to be doing better. One quibble: the waitress blew through the specials like an auctioneer and we had to ask her to repeat herself on several items.

I had eaten a late lunch, but it didn't take much convincing to go in on two shared apps. The shrimp dish was okay, but they need to prep and trim their asparagus more carefully. I ran into several pieces of inedible, woody stalk. The farrotto was HUGE and they didn't skimp on the mushrooms. Delicious. My salmon was a touch overcooked for the medium rare I ordered but it was a good-sized portion, well-plated and with nice veggies on the side. Next time, I'll probably have a glass of wine, the farrotto and the tiramisu (I was dying to try it but there just wasn't room, alas).

With the equivalent of an app and main per person (but with no wine), our total bill came out to $67. Although it's a bit of a stroll to Lincoln Center, I think Bettola is a great pre- or post-theatre option.

Gina La Fornarina

Occasion: Post-marathon cheering (Go Amy!) brunch with Abby, Jill and Chrissy

Location: Gina La Fornarina on 2nd between 81st and 82nd - just look for the fuchsia awning (gina-lafornarina.com)
Edibles: the Gina frittata with sweet Italian sausage, potato and onion for me; focaccia with robiola cheese and prosciutto for Abby; focaccia with scrambled eggs and truffle oil for Jill and Chrissy

Musings: Gina is just a few months old - and evidently still working out a few kinks in their service and supply. (What brunch place doesn't have orange juice?!) Still, it's a great addition to the UES. Tasty food, reasonable prices, a fun vibe and hardly any wait even on Marathon Sunday! Chrissy, our sole UES-dweller, mentioned it's good for a late-night drink and cheese plate too.

My frittata was lovely and fluffy, but I think I liked the two focaccia dishes a little bit better. They consisted of an entire wheel of toasted focaccia, split open and filled like a sandwich. Definitely big enough to share between two people - I ended up eating about half of one myself, between Jill and Abby's leftovers. Yum. An auspicious start to November.

Pommes Frites

Occasion: Post-dinner snack with Abby

Location: Pommes Frites on 2nd Ave between 7th and St Marks (pommesfrites.ws)
Edibles: frites with sundried tomato mayo

Musings: Blink and you'll miss it. This little shop is probably not even five feet wide (note: seating inside is scarce - be prepared to pounce when something opens up). It is, however, conveniently close to all the bars and karaoke places on St Marks.

Sometimes the simple things are best. Pommes Frites takes the humble potato and a pot of hot oil and turns them into pure unadulterated snackfood bliss. As with most unitaskers, you know they must be good because, heck, they only do one thing. If it wasn't good, they'd be out of business.

The potatoes are thick-cut and par-cooked. They're fried a second time in high temperature oil to order. (You can find the official specs here.) What you get is a paper cone filled with piping hot, deeply golden frites, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Just as a fry should be.

Picking a sauce (listed in pink) can be a bit of a negotiation. I admit I'm not very adventurous when it comes to the sauces. I like the sundried tomato, the peppercorn parmesan and just plain ketchup, but I hear the mango chutney and peanut satay are winners.

Soba Koh

Occasion: Dinner with Abby
Location: Soba Koh on 5th St between 1st and 2nd Ave
Edibles: cold soba with slices of duck in a warm dipping sauce for me; hot soba with deep-fried tofu for Abby

Musings: I passed by this place a couple of times while on my way to Minca, and the chef making noodles in the window caught my attention. Abby and I decided to give Soba Koh a try after facing a crazy wait time at Ippudo.

As you may know, soba is made with buckwheat flour. Buckwheat flour has no gluten, unlike regular wheat flour, so making noodles with a high buckwheat content is very difficult because the dough is so brittle. Soba is commonly made using 80% buckwheat and 20% wheat flour. The highest quality soba contains 100% buckwheat. It takes Japanese chefs years, and sometimes decades, to fully master the technique. While I have no doubt that the soba noodles at Soba Koh are made with consummate skill - in fact, this place would probably be a real find for a soba connoisseur - I just happen to prefer a chewier noodle. (Texture-wise, it's sort of like the difference between a cracker and a chewy bread.)

The dish I got came as a pile of cold noodles and a bowl of hot, soy sauce-based dipping broth. (The duck was in the broth.) I'm not sure how this dish is supposed to work, but when I dipped the noodles in the broth, it made both sort of lukewarm. I also used the soup spoon provided to drink some of the broth, but it seemed too salty for that. (At Soba Totto, they come by at the end with a little carafe of the noodle cooking water for you to dilute the dipping sauce before drinking it.) Do drop me a line and tell me if you know whether I was eating it wrong.

My dish was $18; Abby's, slightly less. We walked out of the restaurant not exactly hungry, but definitely not full. We decided to get some fries at Pommes Frites (see following entry). It's never a good sign for a restaurant when you need more food immediately after.

Next time I'm down in the East Village for noodles, I will likely bypass Soba Koh in favor of my old faithful miso ramen at Minca.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 10

Original Air Date: October 28, 2009

1) What is UP with Jen?! Youch - it must really sting to be in the bottom group with Robin and Mike I. I can't really figure out what her problem is. Last week, she was too ambitious; this week, not ambitious enough.

2) Why did Mike V. get so huffy about not winning? According to his own interview, the banana polenta was originally someone else's idea.
3) I have no doubt that Kevin's dish was delicious

However, it looked like a pile of turds.

4) Even though it was repeatedly referred to as a "vegetarian" challenge, I think the cheftestants were actually restricted to vegan cooking. Nobody made pasta (which usually requires eggs) or used any dairy. That can't have been voluntary. Recall an early Quickfire in Season 4 when the cheftestants had to make a dish with only five ingredients and several of them chose butter as one of their ingredients, even though olive oil was a "freebie."

Martha Stewart Living Cookbook Vols I and II

Martha Stewart Living Cookbook Vol I: The Original Classics
Martha Stewart Living Cookbook Vol II: The New Classics

My review: 4.5/5 stars

These are my other stalwart cookbooks. I picked them up used at The Strand a few years ago. I paid something like $12 apiece, and they've since proven themselves invaluable. Say what you will about her morals or her personality, Martha Stewart know how to cook and she runs a tight ship at MSL. I'm sure their test kitchens rival DuPont's labs for method and precision. And while my own cooking style might generously be labeled "freestyle," I appreciate that level of attention to detail.

The very thorough and descriptive indexes are a large part of the reason these two books make such excellent reference sources. Use the index in the second (blue) volume; it cross-references all of the recipes in the first.

How to Cook Everything

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food

by Mark Bittman

My review:  4/5 stars

First recommended to me by Elan. Since learning about it, I've spied its bright yellow spine on lots of my friends' bookshelves. When I was in Chicago and Karen was wondering what ratio of water-to-lentils to use, this was the book she reached for. When I was contemplating lobster stock, this was one of the two books I consulted (don't let my failure with that one deter you).

It's a great cookbook for everyone. If you've just mastered toast and canned soup, the recipes and instructions are straightforward and easy to follow. Even if you know what's what in the kitchen, you'll still find it a handy reference. I docked it the one star for not having any photographs.

Thanks for the hardcover upgrade, Ben!

Resto

Occasion: Dinner with Ben
Location: Resto on 29th between Park and Lex (restonyc.com)
Edibles: frites with lime pickle sauce and smoked paprika sauce; tête de cochon sandwich with sriracha and pickled onions and carrots; lamb belly ribs for me; veal belly for Ben; waffle ice-cream sandwich for dessert

Musings: In my neighborhood, finding a nice bar is no mean feat. The blocks near me are cluttered with insufferable places like Merc Bar, Tonic and Joshua Tree, usually packed to the rafters with fratboy douchebags.

Resto is a much appreciated oasis. Like Back Forty, it's dim and casual, bustling but not too crowded or noisy, and patronized by adults. Ben and I lingered long after we were done with our food and drink, and the staff couldn't have been nicer about it.

I've always wanted to try the tête de cochon or pig's head. Ben, never one to turn down a culinary curiosity, was all for it. The sandwich that arrived was a bit of a surprise, but a yummy one. It was meaty and spicy, with a nice bite from the pickled vegetables. Sort of reminded me of abánh mi.

Whoever was manning the grill did a great job with the lamb ribs. They had a gorgeous, fragrant crust on them, and had more meat than I expected. My one quibble was that they were pretty fatty. Ben's veal belly was also really fatty, but I guess that what you get for ordering the cuts we did.

The waffle had a bit of a funny aftertaste, like undissolved baking powder or something. Once I slathered it with vanilla ice-cream, it was hardly noticeable. The few kitchen missteps aside, it was a fun evening. Ben, it was great catching up and I look forward to seeing your new place!

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 9

Original Air Date: October 21, 2009

1) Really fun Quickfire! I think everyone could have done a better job leaving clues for the next chef, though. For example, if Jen wanted the fish poached in the oil, she should have left the plate of fish next to the stove.

2) Blue Team's logistics were all wrong. Why have one person responsible for both dishes in a course? Red Team's laddering of responsibilities (i.e. Mike doing an app and a main, Bryan doing a main and a dessert) was definitely the better way to go.

3) Jen sure had an off day. Unfortunately for Laurine, there was no way the judges were going to give Jen the boot ahead of her and Robin. It does kind of suck to be sent home on a day when you didn't even cook. (Did Laurine really come up with the concept for that lamb dish? The carrot jam had to have been Kevin's idea.)

4) Revolt is a terrible name for a restaurant. Why not go with Revolution? Similar wordplay, none of the "disgusting" connotations. Even Revol (sounds like "revel") would have been a better choice. Also, Eli should have tucked in his shirt.

5) Great accessories on Padma! Loved her necklace, loved her shoes.

Rice to Riches

Location: Rice to Riches on Spring between Mott and Mulberry (ricetoriches.com) - it was too close to the subway entrance to resist

Pricey!! Our two small servings of rice pudding (old-fashioned with roasted peaches for me; the almond flavor for the Boy) cost almost $15! Inflation / recession strikes again.

I like this place, though. I like the cheeky messages on the wall "Limit 500 per customer"; "All calories are yours to keep"; "Eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding." I like the mod, rice-shaped little dishes they use. Most of all, I like their dense, luxuriously creamy rice pudding. Carb-tastic!

Ivo & Lulu

Occasion: Date #2 with Boy
Location: Ivo & Lulu on Broome between Varick and 6th Ave
Edibles: cilantro baked shrimp, followed by the chicken for me; the roasted pear with blue cheese app, followed by the duck confit for Boy

Musings: I wanted to like Ivo & Lulu, I really did. It's the kind of quirky, hole-in-the-wall restaurant I want to open myself one day. The menu is short and sweet, giving the miniscule kitchen a fighting chance. The prices are right - mains are $14 to $16. BYOB helps keep the bill down, too. They have the fundamentals right - it just needs a few tweaks.

First of all, they need to remove a couple of the tables along the wall. They have about ten tables right up against each other, and the only way to get in and out is to pull the entire thing out, disturbing both neighboring tables in the process. If they had just a little space between them - I'm talking five or six inches - you could slide your table over against the next one to make room to get out.

The baked shrimp smelled DIVINE when it arrived at the table next to us (and by "next to us," I mean "this woman was sitting closer to me than my date"). I'm a fiend for cilantro and it's hard to make a dish with copious amounts of it that I won't like. This one? They over-baked it and the cilantro became a bitter, brownish mush. A great idea for a dish; it just needed to be properly executed.

Boy's app was a bit heavy-handed. Pears and blue cheese are a classic pairing but I thought the pears came out too sweet and the blue they chose was too pungent for an app. It almost would have made a better dessert.

The sauce on my chicken was creamy and delicious; the chicken itself was dry. And so on.

A lot of potential. If they fully realized it, Ivo & Lulu would be great.

Hyo Dong Gak

Occasion: Workday lunch
Location: Hyo Dong Gak on 35th between 5th and 6th
Edibles: noodles with brown sauce

Musings: Another lunchtime tip from the folks at Midtown Lunch. I love this dish, but haven't had it since my handmade noodle place on 32nd closed down. I'm happy to have found a replacement! At $6.95, it's a very nice lunch indeed. If only it was a little closer to my office....

The dish features a glossy, mahogany brown sauce with lots of onions. I also encountered little chunks of pork, potato and zucchini throughout. Once you mix it in, the sauce tends to collect at the edges of the bowl. I recommend eating from the outside in to maintain a good sauce-to-noodle ratio; if you just scoop up noodles from the middle, you will end up with tons of leftover (wasted) sauce.

The noodles were nice and chewy. And long. I yanked and slurped my way through my plate, only to learn later - by spying on a nearby table - that you can ask the waitress with snip through it a bunch of times with a pair of kitchen shears. The more you know....

[A random vignette: The little old Asian man sitting alone at the table next to me was singing to himself as he waited for his check. I was reading a book, but also enjoying his little recital. He must have noticed my attention on some level because he leaned over and asked me if I was Korean. While being asked about my ethnicity is my least favorite question from strangers, he followed it up with my absolute favorite since turning 30: "Are you a student?" I told him no to both, I just like Korean food. He bid me good day and went on his way.]

Back Forty

Occasion: Dinner with my girls, Abby and Elizabeth
Location: Back Forty on Avenue B at 12th (backfortynyc.com)
Edibles: for me, the chicken and pumpkin dumpling soup, followed by the pork jowl nuggets and a side of roasted brussels sprouts; Elizabeth started with the house cheese, then she and Abby shared the fregola "risotto" with pumpkin; we all shared the pecan pie for dessert

Musings: I was really excited to try dinner here. I'd been to Back Forty twice for drinks and I LOVE the atmosphere. [Note: On Monday, happy hour lasts all night. Beers are $3 and wines, $4.]

Back Forty doesn't take reservations, so we were directed to wait at the bar for a table. Thing is, when all the bar stools are taken, you're standing in a narrow corridor that leads to the kitchen. Where servers are coming and going non-stop with plates. After getting knocked around for 15 minutes (one of the waitresses, approaching from the back, mistook me for a hanging coat and actually shoved me out of the way), we retreated to the row of chairs in the first room. A much better place to wait if the bar is full.

The food had its ups and downs. The soup was awesome. The broth was very flavorful and loaded with tender vegetables and shreds of chicken; the pumpkin dumplings were light and silky. Also wonderful: the brussels sprouts, roasted with apples, maple syrup and cider vinegar.

The only weakness in my meal was the pork dish. The plate looked stingy, containing only three sugar-cube-sized breaded "nuggets," each topped with a parsley leaf. I bit into one and got a mouthful of liquid grease and a tiny sliver of meat I barely tasted. I dissected a second one to verify; I didn't eat it.

I had a nibble of Elizabeth's cheese which was a bit on the runny side, but I liked the fresh milkiness. A taste of the "risotto" revealed it to be tasty and well-seasoned, but not at all rich and creamy like you'd expect a real risotto to be. Bad naming aside, I think it was a good dish. The pecan pie really delivered - sweet and gooey, great flaky crust, rich vanilla ice-cream on the side.

A little exposition about my restaurant-reviewing criteria. First, last and most of all, it's about The Food. The food has to be great - fresh, tasty, made with care and consistently so. Nothing should come ready-made out of a bag, a can or the freezer; if there's some extenuating circumstance why something does, it sure as hell shouldn't taste like it. And a restaurant has to provide good value. The more expensive it is, the higher my expectations. To make the Hall of Fame, almost everything on the menu has to be good; it's not enough to have just one or two great meals that can be assembled if a guest knows to find the hidden gems.

On the food, I think Back Forty falls a little short. All of their mains hover around the $20 mark and there are an awful lot of restaurants out there that really shine at that price point. Ones that take reservations and are on subway lines.

Ambiance and service usually rate pretty low on my list of priorities. If the food is outstanding and easy on the wallet, I will put up with rude waiters who barely speak English, sit on a wobbly stool at a card table and bus my own dishes. On the flip side, no amount of trendy furniture or hot waiters can make up for mediocre food. Food and price being equal, I will go to the place with nicer décor (e.g., this is why I prefer BLT Steak to Sparks).

I give the ambiance at Back Forty full marks. It's dim and rustic, and the way the space is divided keeps the noise level conversation-friendly. Our server was very cheerful and chatty, and was nice enough to take the pork nuggets off the bill without being asked. I will certainly be back.... for drinks. On balance, I don't think the dinner experience is worth going out of your way, standing around for a table, and paying a good chunk of change.