David Drake last night - meh?
Is it just me, or has David Drake lost its sizzle?
I took my parents and my kids for the 3 course dinner last night.
Between my picky kids and my parents' dietary restrictions, I sampled/ate:
The chef's salad (very good - nice fresh blue cheese)
Pork Belly (belly was good but apple/fruit sauce didn't even get finished)
Potato Soup (what could have been sublime was just bland)
Steak (best thing on the plate was the potato-leek tart)
Hake (chef's fish special - fish cooked perfectly, blood orange sauce didn't work)
Skate (best main as everything worked together)
Short Ribs (everyone makes them tender - needed a more interesting sauce)
Chocolate coulant (ginger?! ice cream ruined this with a too-sharp bite)
Tiramisu (good balance of flavors)
Hot chocolate (nice, bitter chocolate - well paired with ice cream)
Papaya consume (meh)
and the thing that stands out as "best" in my mind is the salad??
I didn't mind paying $600 for food and drinks, but for that money we could have dined at Nicholas or many top choices in Manhattan. I remember in my last visit to DD, about 8 months ago, their food was on par with these other options. But last night told me otherwise and I arrived home regrettably stuffed. As I contemplate the amount of exercise I will need to do to burn off all those calories I can't help but wonder if it was worth it.
Any thoughts from other recent diners?
seal
Jan 12, 2008 04:17AM
I am with you Seal!!! When we were there in Decemeber, I thought it was just me and my husband being too picky, but all in all, we were very unhappy when we left. And for the money, I wished I kept driving into Manhattan instead of staying in Rahway. I never posted about that experience because as I said, we thought we were just too picky. I won't be back anytime in the near future.
Sorry you had a bad experience :(
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Seal - I agree that DD may be losing its luster a bit. My last meal there a month or so back, while good (I recall the short ribs and the hot chocolate), didn't "blow me away" as in prior visits. Could it be that DD is spending too much time at Daryl? Surprisingly, I understand that he is not at his namesake on weekends.
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I had the same thought, i.e. that he is spending a lot of time at Daryl Wine Bar. It seems odd however that he would choose to be absent from his Rahway restaurant on weekends. And if he is indeed planning another operation in Asbury Park, what will happen then?
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Well Ambrose - To be quite honest I wouldn't mind him focusing on AP as it's really close to home. :)
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Okay, I've fought posting this because I was trying to convince myself it wasn't so but since others have commented I'll jump in. GF and I have been to DD a lot and we have always come away very happy and satisfied that we got a meal worth the price. That kind of changed in November. I saw they were having a duck tasting menu and I had to go. GF is a vegetarian but they have always risen to the occasion and prepared her a veggie tasting menu. So we went, I had the duck tasting and the whole evening was just okay. The food (with the exception of the steamed duck egg) was uninspired, and the service was way off of it's usually perfect game. All in all it was far removed from the best we have had there. It got me thinking about all the visits and I have to say in comparison the earlier visits were far superior. We are going to give it one more chance to see if possibly the start up of DWB diverted DD's attention but if the next visit is equivilant to the last we won't be dining there again.
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Spiritchaser - Never fight a post! :)
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Spiritchaser,
The last time we were at DD, we had the duck tasting dinner. It was in October, and David wasn't in the kitchen, but his chef de cuisine, Alex, was (in fact, he stopped our table at the end of the evening to say hello), and he did a spendid job. Overall, the meal was superb though when it came to the egg my reaction was the reverse of your, i.e., since I'm not a huge egg fancier, it was the least enjoyable dish for me. My husband did the wine pairings and was exceedingly pleased. For the first time since we've been going there, we were seated upstairs. My fears that we might be forgotten in "Siberia" were not realized because service was perfect.
It is certainly not unusual for an executive chef to leave the running of his kitchen to his chef de cuisine, and it appears that David is doing so because he has a great deal of confidence in Alex. However, despite our very positive experience, since you are not alone in describing disappointment with the cuisine (and, in your case, service), something does seem to be amiss. It would be truly a shame if David's decision to branch out caused his flagship restaurant to go seriously downhill to the point where he will begin losing patronage.
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That's why we are willing to give it one more try. We really like the place and would hate to see it go the way of other great restaurants that go downhill due to complacency.
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David has never struck me as a self-satisfied, complacent person. Whenever we've chatted with him, he's been genuinely interested in our opinions. That's why I'm having a difficult time understanding this seeming downturn. I've been meaning to go there again, so maybe we'll do it sooner than later.
Note: I received an e-mail several weeks ago stating that they are now serving dinner on Sunday.
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I got that same e-mail and it had me concerned. It just so happens your comments are a perfect lead in to a question.
Do you, and others on this board, see expanded hours and such as a good sign or a bad sign of a restaurant's health? In the TV world thing like this are often seen as "jumping the shark" and never bode well.
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This could also be seen as a positive if customers were always calling for a Sunday reservation?
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And therein lies the conundrum, the whole "chicken or the egg" question.
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Spiritchaser,
I always considered it a giant plus that David chose to close on Sunday and be open on Monday when all the other fine dining establishments we like in NJ are closed. It was nice to be able to dine at that level on that day of the week, especially when a special occasion fell on a Monday, which was the case with my birthday a few years ago.
As shorebilly suggested, David might have decided to start opening on Sunday based on patron requests. Our favorite restaurant, Lorena's, used to be closed Monday and Tuesday; however, in October, they began opening on Tuesday. Humberto and Lorena told us that they made the decision because they had received many requests from their clientele. And to be sure, Lorena's is as far away from "jumping the shark" as a restaurant can possibly be!
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Cmon hounds, restaurants are opening sundays, mondays, anyday they used to be closed because of business. they're paying rent 7 days a week, they need the income 7 days a week too. Just part of the economy issue.
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I've been a going to DD fairly regularly (about once a month) since they opened and as recently as this past Saturday evening. While some meals have been better than others we have never been disappointed. I can report that David was present and in the kitchen Saturday night. Our meal was one of the best we have had there.
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