Dinner

Last week I went to two higher end restaurants. In neither case did I pay. Which is a little out of the norm for me, but I lived with it.

There's a compulsion I have to talk about both of them because my experiences were so different when it comes to their food.

First there was Blowfish. Blowfish has been around for a few years and I've always wanted to go but felt I couldn't justify the cost. The group I was with got the chef's tasting menu. Always more expensive but infinitely more interesting as each dish is a surprise. There wasn't one course I didn't enjoy. From the Black Cod to the self-cooked Kobi beef on a hot rock, it was a festival of subtle flavour. Additionally, because each course was picked by our chefs, all the courses felt like they went together. There wasn't a moment where I reacted with, "Oh, ugh." Rather there was a lot of "Oh my God. This is amazing." Even our resident raw fish skeptic enjoyed the dishes and pushed his own reluctance aside. I give Blowfish five out of five.

On to Lee. This is another restaurant I'd wanted to go to for a long time. Again I held back due to cost. Although I think it's likely Lee is slightly less expensive than Blowfish, my experience was such that I won't go back. Every dish was over-saturated with flavour. The beet and tomato salad was so strong (and NOT because of the beets) that I didn't want to finish it. Out of the nine dishes we three ordered (it was recommended by the server that each person order three dishes), I enjoyed three; the asparagus and green bean salad, the salmon ceviche and the black cod. If I'd had them alone, plus a small bowl of brown rice, I would have a totally different outlook on Lee. However, I also tasted the duck confit, the afore-mentioned beet and tomato salad and some incredibly lack lustre jerk chicken. That's right, the one dish I expected to be full of flavour, Jamaica's own Jerk Chicken, was so subtle it actually approached 'bland' territory. Oh, we also had the scallops, which themselves were quite nice, but noone really wants a crunchy top on a soft, delicious scallop. Plus over-crisped bacon included with the scallops was impossible to eat without picking it up with your fingers. I'm not sure what Lee was trying to cover up with over-flavouring their food, but I was incredibly disappointed. I had felt a world class chef like Susur Lee would have a good handle on subtlety. I give Lee a "don't bother" two out of five.