For this Thursday’s dinner we’re back to our regularly scheduled program – this is one of the restaurants with a newly minted Michelin star in the latest guide. Chef used to work at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas; I’ve had a great dining experience there, so I was very hopeful. They occupy the entire building with a patisserie on the first floor, the chocolatier and the bistro on the second and third floors haven’t yet reopened, fourth floor is a bar, and fifth and sixth floors are the restaurant with the main dining room on the fifth and private dining and chef’s table on the sixth. We had a 5:30pm reservation since I prefer to dine early since I go to bed/rise early. We arrived in our Lyft 6 minutes early. They told us that they were still having their meeting and we could wait downstairs or at the bar. We opted for the bar and were told that they would have someone come get us there. By 5:35, no one came so we decided to go up to the fifth floor. Hostess thought we were someone else, we explained, they apologized for the confusion and seated us.

Nice dining room restrained decor, good sized (since they had the whole floor) and tables reasonably spaced out. The table covering was still a bit damp as were the napkins (never had that happen before). We, of course, went for the 9 course option. There was an option to upgrade to wagyu for the meat entree which I did and Andrea stayed with the venison so we could try both. We also inquired about the white truffle. When I had spoken to someone in the phone 2 days ago and asked that person when the truffles arrived, that person told me they came in daily (good). We told them we were very particular about truffles (having been to Alba for the white truffle festival) and when we asked this time, the server went back to ask and he told us they came in on Monday. Hmmm. So we decided to only try one dish for one of us to add the white truffle…the matsutake dish which they recommended.

We wanted to speak to the sommelier to hear more about the differences in the Standard and the grand pairing. He told us that generally the grand pairing would have more exclusive production wines and older vintage. I won’t go into every dish, but a few comments – the breads were excellent – flaky, buttery when appropriate (and the butter from Brittany and the fleur de sel were great). The savory canele was fun and interesting. Dishes were a mix of French and Asian. Technique was very good but flavor varied, some very good and some okay.

Of the caviar (Bulgarian Osetra) trio, we both preferred the one with the corn velouté. The white truffle on the matsutake dish was disappointing…truffle was clearly dried out…still had some flavor, but disappointing, esp. at $65 for 4 grams. I’m increasingly becoming jaded at adding truffle at restaurants since it’s very hit and miss, but we are exactly the suckers who keep trying all of the upgrades. We appreciated the enthusiasm and knowledge of the sommelier but I found the wines to be hit and miss as well. Both the meat entrees were quite flavorful – malabar pepper on the venison and of course the wagyu which was prepared and presented very well (unlike the wagyu at Marlena…. Then again the wagyu upgrade cost here was more than the entire prix fixe there…). The sommelier paired a surprisingly/interestingly delicate (from a burgundy producer) chateau neuf du pape for the wagyu…I did enjoy the wine but would have preferred something more robust to go with the unctuous wagyu.

Service was mixed…the main server we had was ok, sommelier was engaging (even if I only thought his selections were ok overall), but Mary was great. Pacing was good and relaxed (we hate to be rushed , but also don’t want to just be sitting around waiting all the time) and clocked in at about 3.5 hours from first sitting down to getting up to leave. An enjoyable meal overall, but unfortunately priced more like a 2 or 3 star restaurant (I preferred Avery over this). So it’s a solid one star (and with some tweaks could be more), but a pricey one.