Foreign Cinema 10 ($$$)

Foreign Cinema

Foreign Cinema is located in the heart of the Castro district of San Francisco. You would not know if from the street but this restaurant is the trendiest and ritziest restaurant in San Francisco. The restaraunt consist of four district features. In the front there is a small oyster bar that seats only about six but they will serve to any table. The main dinning hall has an open view of the kitchen, a bar in the back and a wall of high windows which look out into the covered patio. The patio tent is clean so that on a good night sitting outside you might see the stars shining. On one wall of the open courtyard the restaurant will project a old foreign film, thus the name. On this particular night we watched the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This restaurant also houses balcony seating, is attached to a bar, club and an art gallery.

All their menus are updated and printed daily to reflect the very best of the market and what is in season. So on any given day you may have a different menu then any other day. On this occasion I had fried chicken on rice and stewed vegetables, my husband had lavender beef, and our friends each had duck in cherry port reduction. But of course we started out with oysters and a 2003 California chardonnay. We finished with Opera cake and North Beach coffee. Everything was wonderful! It was a perfect night!

My fried chicken was very good. Nearly half a bird the chicken looked really imposing on my plate and turned out to be more breast meant than I had expected. It was spiced and breaded but it didn’t feel heavy or oily to eat. It was really very good and I ended up sharing it will everyone because there was so much.

10 taste

10 service

10 atmosphere, romantic location

Price $$$$ for two people eating moderately, wine or champagne will add more to the price.

10 overall. I could eat here over and over I love Foreign Cinema

Pasific'O 4 ($$$$)

Pacific'O the worst food I had in Maui.

Its actually quite terrible, because Pacifi'O has won numberous awards, is a beautiful restaurant, uses fresh local grown vegitables when it can get it, and local fresh caught fish everyday, its right there on the beach and is popular enough that the owners opened a similar place just next door; but I thought the food was horrible. I was more than disappointed. And after a presentation like Hula Grill, which was entirely unexpected. I was more than disappointed.

We acctually ate here for Valentines day (yeah it took me this long to cool off about it).

This is the lobster won tons, the best part was the fresh pineapple salsa. Its a nice plate to look at but not really all that spectacular in taste.

I ordered tuna and salmon sashimi battered and flash fried, but the sashimi was not that good, it was warm and tough. Completely unbalanced in taste and texture.

My husband ordered curry deep sea swordfish. I usually love sward fish. We had intended to split both dishes because we were not individually able to make a decision between the special and the sashimi. Well I don't think you can see it in this picture, but all that light green cream sauce is wasabi. It was horrible! I didn't want another bite after the first one. Kris ended up scraping the sauce off the meat just to eat it and it still wasn't any good.

For romance and atmosphere I give Pacific'O a 10. Its on the Beach facing west towards the sunset. Most of the tables are open air patio seating to best see the ocean but even with indoor seating there isn't a bad seat int he house.

Over all I will give Pacific'O a 4. A little too heavy on the wasabi sauce, on everything. Tone it down a little, and taste it before you send it out to be consumed. I like hot, and spicy, but I like it to accentuate the natural flavors of my food not mask everything.
808-667-4341
505 Front street
Lahaina, Maui 96761

Hula Grill 10 ($$$)

Hula Grill
Kaanapali, Maui (808)667-6636

Hula Grill more than exceeded my expectations. I have very little faith in resort food these days. It seems to me the resort restaurant business is more interested in PR than in good food. Hula Grill, may be a ciche, open air plantation style restaurant over looking the beach, with a veiw of the sun setting over Lania Island. But it is also the best bargeque and fresh local sea food restaurant I have ever been too.
And it came as a complete surprise!

The portions of food are just right. Large enough to satisfy the greedy American but portioned well so as to leave room for dessert.
I tried the Tandori Ono. It was perfect! Just the right balance of spice and that little barbecue crunch set against the cool sweet taste of yogurt and cucumber relish. Ono is a fish local to Maui, it has a soft white color and a even softer buttery texture. This was not my fist time eating Ono but it was the best. Ono also known as the moon fish, is easily over cooked, and often over flavored thus ruining the delicate taste of orchids and butter.

My husband had this dish, and for the live of me I cant remember what it is now.For desert we had the Home Made Ice Cream Sandwich and the Hawaii Bake, a pineapple upside-down cake, covered in meringue and toasted, I also had a candied brandy sauce with fresh pineapple on the side. Both of these were so good I forgot to take a picture until it was already gone.

For price I give Hula Grill a $$$ but for the four of us on vacation it was probably more like $$$$$$ after two appetizers, drinks and two desserts.

Hula Grill receives a 10 out of 10 for taste. Everything was fresh caught that morning by local fishermen. The sea food portion of the menu describes four different cooking styles and then your waiter will tell you what fish is cooked in what way for the evening. And specials of course depend exclusively upon the mornings catch.
For atmosphere I give Hula Grill a 10 out of 10. Who can argue with ocean views, open air, and sunsets, from a romantic plantation lani. I also recomment this site for a romantic night out, but it is a little noicey from the restort from walkways and the other Whaler's village restaurants.

Over all I still have to give Hual Grill a 10. It was fresh, delisious, fun, relaxed, romantic. Everything you could want in a resort restaurant in Maui.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in the MGM at Vegas (10) 2X$$$$$$

Archived review 12/22/07

We chose this restaurant because it was rated #1 of all restaurants in Vegas for this year and boasts the “chef of the century”. I am always interested in tasting the best, and in Vegas there sure is a lot of it. This restaurant in particular stands out from all the others, The Mix, Fleur de Lys and all the others by its more casual atmospheres. Reminisant of sitting in mother’s kitchen, small parties of fewer than four sit at the counter while the cooks pass you dish after dish over the black marble top. The kitchen it open and all its mysteries laid bare. Its amazing how clean, organized and mesmerizing sitting at that counter can be.

On this occasion we elected the discovery menu, ten courses featuring the chiefs personal favorites. We started out with a pallet opener, L'AMUSE-BOUCHE. It was amazing you could actually taste the parmesan in the froth top!
Next we hadLA TOMATE: en gaspacho aux croûtons dorés Chilled gazpacho with croutons. It all sounded like it would be very exotic but really it tasted like breakfast. It tasted like a soft boiled egg with a little soy sauce; you basically have what has been the breakfast staple of china for hundreds of years. It did have a new twist on it though with little chopped mushrooms and croutons. It was some how it was green too.

Some thing new! I have never had LA LANGOUSTINE before. The French name didn’t really mean anything to me, so I asked what it was. The chief described it as a shell fish between a crawdad and a shrimp. And it in fact tastes very like raw chilled crab meat, very fresh, very sweet, cool and a little on the slimy side but delicious. I especially liked the sea salt and poppy seed dressing.

One dish we didn’t really like was the Halibut. It was a covered in a caper and vegetable salsa with a lemon thyme sauce, I normally love capers but this combination did not really agree with me. What’s more, I’m not really a fan of this particular fish, because of its gamey texture, indifferent flavor and white color. I didn’t eat more than three bites. My husband had even less. So we tried to skip this course. The chief found this particularly offensive and prepared us another fish dish. This one was much better, and more to my liking because it was a grouper and had a different kind of relish on top.

The Atmosphere gets a 10. I give it a super A++ for romantic atmosphere. Couples who are even a little low on conversation will find the night quietly relaxing and the counter seating becomes very conversationally stimulating.

For taste alone I will give L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon a 10. I can’t really be upset about the Halibut. And I think the chef thought me either very critical or ignorant. I’m not really sure which of the two I would prefer but I appreciate that he took the time to re-impress me.

According to their website, on average people spend about $$$$$$ per person, I believe the two of us managed 3x$$$$$ after the ten courses, and a glass of the champagne at the beginning.

Over all I really loved this place, its simplicity, beauty, sophisticated but not extravagant style. L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon reflects taste and class in everything from the décor, the champagne menu, the espresso and dessert at the end. It rates a 10 out of 10. But in the future I will just request something other than Halibut.

Some advice! Always make a reservation, no matter what it says about it being casual seating and not needing to make one, call anyway.

MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vega, NV 89109
702-891-7925