chanterelle shock

[sanglier]

I think I got ripped off last night!

A very popular New Orleans restaurant featured 2 specials, an app and an entree, with fresh local chanterelle mushrooms. The app was a pasta dish with the mushrooms, green onions and some shredded short rib meat. The entreee was a whole flounder fried with the mushrooms on the side, about 4-5 of them. Bill comes: the small pasta dish was $14, the flounder was $30. When I asked why so high, the watier said, Sir, these are FRESH chanterelles! They are very expensive!

Fresh porcini mushrooms, maybe. But any number of restaurants in New Orleans utilize fresh chanterelles in season and don't then jack up the price. Am I wrong to think I got jobbed?

Sanglier

[nomadchowwoman]

It really is hard to judge without knowing at least what kind of restaurant it was. How did these pricescompare to other apps and entrees on the menu? Often the specials are a little more expensive anyway.
But, yes, fresh chanterelles are expensive. When Whole Foods has them, they can be anywhere from $25 to $40/lb., and they're not usually in very good shape. (I wish I could find a local source. Haven't seen them at the FM since pre-Katrina--the very Saturday before Katrina, in fact. But the folks who uses to have them--at a very reasonably $10/lb--never came back to the market.)

[Davebr]

Sounds like normal prices of an app and an entree at any fine dining place to me.
1/4 pound for $6 at the farmers market means the restaurant would have to charge $20. $14 is actually a good deal.

[Shaw Oliver]

1/4 pound does not equal 4 or 5 mushrooms though and remember that's what the diner got.

Not a good deal.

[Shaw Oliver]

Don't be so cryptic - spit out the name of the place. I think that $14 is too much. I can buy a 1/4 pound at a local farmer's market for $6.

[pikawicca]

In Indiana, not NoLa, but the chanterelles have been incredible this year: meaty and flavorful. Someone has to go out in the woods and hunt these things down, then clean the buggers. They are worth every penny you spend for them.

[sanglier]

Oh, on a high chanterelle note: went to RioMar Saturday night, and to no surprise, they featured a beautiful chanterelle dish: an app featuring crostini, topped with chanterelles, melted manchego cheese, generous amounts of jumbo lump crabmeat, and, if I recall, a sherry cream sauce. Pure flavor explosion! If it's still around when you go there, snag it!

[uptownlibrarian]

If you have a chance, check out the mushroom lardo crostini at Cochon Butcher. Incredibly flavorful. The dish at Rio Mar sounds great - thanks for the rec.

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Rio Mar Restaurant
800 South Peters, New Orleans, LA 70130

Cochon Butcher
930 Tchoupitoulas, New Orleans, LA 70130

[sanglier]

Agree with that! Oughta be on the pass-arounds at all New Orleans wedding receptions...

[latasche]

I don't buy the excuse, but I'm curious where you went. The prices are a little high, especially for fish and pasta, but not outrageous. What were the avg. prices of the other apps and entrees? If they were substantially lower, then I'd say you got ripped off.

[Mytah]

No offence sir, but why did you post if your not naming the place? Did you just feel the need to vent?

[louisiana]

I think $2.50 is fair for pasta and $6.95 for fish

[sanglier]

Because if my feelings are unjustified, I don't want to impugn the place. I'm allowing for the possibility that I'm wrong, that's why I solicited other views...