Mr. Chow BH tonight very short review

[westsidegal]

The dining room was lovely.

They wheel a trolley filled with champagne around the restaurant and use a hard sell to try to get you to buy glasses of champagnes without knowing how much they charge for them.
(veuve clicquot yellow label is about $20, and everything else goes up from there)

wine by the glass selections sparse.

for appetizers we had:
1) the prawns wrapped in rice paper--these were good.
and
2) boiled fish dumplings (these were not anywhere near the quality of the ones served at 15003 dumpling), but they were edible

for mains
1) sea bass with ginger and coriander leaves. this dish was really YUUUCCCKKK! the fish was hard and rock-like (i think you need to freeze sea bass for a while for it to get this horrible hardness when cooked), overcooked, and tasted like it was spoiled. this dish was truly inedible.
2) green shrimp (they said that the color comes from spinach, but i doubt it) which was fair.

the best part of the meal was the cappuccino at the end.

i didn't expect much, but the horrible sea bass really was surprising.

[JMan604]

My family and I had dinner there with a client and his family as their request. They wanted to dine there so who are we to decline when they are one of our biggest accounts. My fam & the client's liked it, My wife and I were the only foodies in the group so obviously we didn't like it one bit. The food was horrible, I've had better chinese at Panda express. My father-in-law (who's paying) ordered the tasting menu for everyone. All of the food were overcooked and bland. The worse part was the bill, there were 12 of us in the table and the bill came to $1500+. Not worth it even at $150.

WSG, your date surely wanted to impress you....that's why he brought you to a celebrity hotspot, unfortunately he didn't know you enough to bring you to any of the ch's favorites.

[Kevitivity]

I've always been under the impression that Mr. Chow was more of an expense account type of place, like Cut, than somewhere to go for good food.

[westsidegal]

i didn't expect good food, but that sea bass was truly "beware-don't-put-it-in-your-mouth" awful.

[Debbie W]

Seems like he was at least trying to impress you by taking you somewhere "nice." It's better than meeting at Starbucks! When my husband asked me on our first date, he asked if I liked sushi. Of course, and I was an experienced sushi eater. He took me to Brothers Sushi in Woodland Hills which didn't exactly thrill me but at least he tried. That was almost 13 years ago and we've never been back to Brothers!

[westsidegal]

my date was a lovely man.
i am in absolute agreement with you.

[a_and_w]

I dunno WSG...you are very passionate about food. He may well be lovely but what happens when he takes you for falafel at Sunin?

PS: I keed because I love!

[Baron]

The guy was obviously trying to impress you but apparently didn't know you or Mr Chow well enough. Help him out. Tell him what you like. Lots of good places to dine on the westside.

[J.L.]

I tend to skip the seafood selections on weekends when dining out in L.A.

[westsidegal]

since i don't eat meat nor poultry, i've come to discover that there are many restaurants that serve very acceptable/good seafood on saturday nights.

[nosh]

Maybe it's just me, but a "successful" night if I paid the tab for Mr. Chow would NOT include my date logging onto Chowhound at 1:28 to post about the food!

[westsidegal]

you have me laughing!!

[Servorg]

If you took your very chowish date to Mr. Chow for dinner I'm afraid that is all you could reasonably expect at the end of the evening.

[Adsvino]

Unless he was over until 1.....

[westsidegal]

we left the restauarant well after midnight.

there was a celebrity there with his entourage, and it seems like the restaurant doesn't close until mr. celebrity wants to leave. . .. .

so, no, the date was not invited in.. . .

[Jwsel]

Best post ever!

[nosh]

Interesting report, wsg. What got you to Mr. Chow? Just seems so much a detour from the comments you post about much more approachable places.

[westsidegal]

a first date, who i pray does not read these messages.

[a_and_w]

Dump. Him. Now. Seriously...Mr. Chow?

[Adsvino]

Seconded x 1000.

[Das Ubergeek]

Well, at least you know he's willing to drop the bucks on you...