Nopi

For our London trip, we planned on frequenting mostly casual spots, but we did set aside one night for a "nice" dinner at Nopi, a more formal Ottolenghi spot located in Soho. Visiting an Ottolenghi restaurant was a must for us, and when we looked at the menu for Nopi before our trip, we wanted to eat everything on it, so making a reservation was a no-brainer. Nopi has two floors, a more formal upstairs and a communal dining room downstairs. We made a reservation for downstairs, thinking it would be a little more casual, but when we got there, they offered us a choice and said we could be seated faster if we were okay with sitting upstairs. If they had no problem seating us upstairs, then that was fine with us!

We had a short wait before being seated at our table, and while we waited at the bar, they brought over a board with two small cups, one with marinated olives and one with roasted spiced nuts. We weren't sure if there was a charge for them since both were on the menu and at least £5 each, so we were hesitant to start eating them. When we got to our table, the server let us know they were complimentary because we had to wait. That was fantastic hospitality and very unexpected, especially since the wait wasn't long at all. The meal was off to a great start. A ate most of the olives, since M isn't a huge fan, but she did try a few. Like most olives, they were salty and sour, and in this case, also a little bit spicy. The cup of nuts seemed to have quite a variety in it. We spotted macadamia nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanuts, and cashews with lots of spices and seasonings that we couldn't quite identify. They were really good.

They brought out some bread and olive oil once our orders started to arrive. It was two pieces of something like country bread, and the olive oil was really, really good. We expected nothing less from the olive oil from an Ottolenghi spot considering their focus on quality and Mediterranean flavors.

The menu at Nopi was split up into nibbles, mains, and small plates to share, the last of which comprised the majority of the menu. We decided to order one item from the nibbles, but otherwise concentrated on the small plates so we could try as many things as possible. From the nibbles, we got the mixed seed lavash with burnt spring onion dip (£6.5, all prices as of a year ago). The lavash was very crispy and covered in a variety of seeds, including black and white sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and many some others that we couldn't identify. The burnt spring onion dip was a dark greenish-gray color, similar to a black bean dip, and garnished with some pieces of scallions and microgreens. Both the lavash and dip were really tasty, and we made sure to finish the entire thing, even wiping up the remainder of the dip with the aforementioned bread. We especially liked the dip, full of onion and scallion flavor, nice and smoky.

Outside of the nibbles, we had five other plates and they split them into two rounds of three dishes and two dishes. They tried to match up things that they thought would go well together, and we thought they made very good choices. One of the dishes in the first set was the "roast aubergine, black garlic, broad beans, basil" (£8.9). There was also yogurt and pine nuts but those weren't listed on the menu line. We loved this dish. The aubergines were soft and tender. The flavor of the basil was so incredibly vibrant, unlike a lot of the basil we buy in the grocery store which can sometimes be a little dull. The yogurt was creamy and a little tart. We liked the garlic chips, the pine nuts, and everything worked so well together. The whole dish just tasted really fresh, really light, really clean, and it was the type of thing that we have pretty much always thought would come out of an Ottolenghi kitchen.

The next thing we tried were the scallops with apple yuzu puree, endive and pork (£12.9). Although we saw these on the menu and they sounded good, they didn't immediately jump out at us as a "must order" dish. Then the dish arrived at the table next to us, and the dish smelled so amazing that we had to order it. The dish had three large scallops, perfectly cooked, little bits of pork, soft roasted endives, and both apple and yuzu purees, together on the plate but not blended together. We tried the purees on their own and they tasted strongly like apple, but when we ate them together with all the other parts of the dish, the apple wasn't anything more than an accent. The balance of all the ingredients was just perfect, and this was one of our favorite dishes of the night. The scallop dish was so good that it made M's top 10 list in 2015.

Fish was our final plate in the first round of dishes, seared hake with roast chicken cream and pickled girolles (£12.9). We weren't sure what girolles were, but looked them up online and found out they were chanterelles. There were also peas which were not listed on the menu. We liked the fish, but just not as much as the scallops which were on the table at the same time. We couldn't place the flavors or small seeds in the sauce that the fish was cooked with, but the chicken cream was like a really thick, rich chicken gravy. The peas and mushrooms helped to balance out the dish, providing some fresh and light vegetables alongside the chicken cream. Even with all the cream, the dish felt pretty light, even though it was filling. It also felt very seasonal for the fall.

The first dish in the second set was the courgette and manouri fritters with cardamom yoghurt (£11.5). This was the first thing M saw on the menu when researching the restaurant, and she was immediately sold on them. Each of the three fritters had grated zucchini that was mixed with chunks of manouri cheese, formed into a conical shape, and then fried. These were rich and creamy because of the cheese, but lightened up a little bit by the zucchini. The cardamom yoghurt was a little bit tart, but also had some warming spice to it. We liked this, but not as much as we thought we would. Maybe we were already getting full, maybe we were spoiled for everything else because of the amazing scallops, or maybe our expectations were too high, don't know. They were really good, but just not the star of the night we thought they would be.

The last savory dish was the twice-cooked baby chicken with lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce (£10.9). This was also listed in the mains section at £21.9 where they gave you a whole chicken, but we went with the smaller portion. The chicken had both dark meat and white meat, and the flavor was smoky and sweet. The chilli sauce provided a little heat (but not too much) and also some sweetness. It was like a sweet chilli sauce you can buy in the store, but not as sweet. M recognized the name lemon myrtle from native Australian week of the cooking challenge, but we didn't really taste anything but salt from that ingredient. That said, on the whole, the chicken was so much better than we anticipated. We really liked the flavors.

Once the savory courses were done, we moved on to sweet. With our desserts, A got a flat white, which he liked.

We got two desserts. The first was strawberry mess, sumac, rose water (£8.5). M was immediately drawn to that one. She didn't know what a strawberry mess was, but didn't really care because the listing of strawberry, sumac, and rose water combined three flavors she really loved. It also seemed in line with the Mediterranean flavors that we had been enjoying all night. What came out of the kitchen looked like a scoop of strawberry sorbet, rose water meringue, whipped cream, sumac, and pomegranate seeds, topped with edible flower pieces. M's favorite part was the strawberry sorbet on top. It tasted like wild strawberries, and had such a pure strawberry flavor without extra sugar. The rose water meringue pieces were a little bit on the hard side. We tasted some sumac in the whipped cream, but not much. After doing some research, we realized that this was their take on the typical Eton mess, which Wikipedia describes as a "traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped heavy cream." Without even knowing it when we ordered it, we were trying out something traditionally English.

The second dessert was roast pineapple with macadamia nuts, lemongrass, coconut cream (£8.5). This was pretty good. The pineapple was roasted and a bit caramelized. The coconut cream was fine, it tasted like whipped cream hinted with coconut milk. M preferred the pineapple without it, but A liked it much better with the pineapple than M. The more interesting of the two desserts though was definitely the strawberry mess.

Overall this was an excellent meal. It didn't come cheap, but we didn't expect that it would. We were very glad that we were able to try all the dishes that we did at the restaurant, and we would highly recommend a visit. Whenever we get back to London, we may choose a different Ottolenghi spot just for some variety and to try new things, but if we had a lot of time, we would go back to Nopi. The food was excellent, the service was wonderful, and the entire experience was great.

The Grande

Note: In doing some reading about dining on Royal Caribbean before putting up this post, we learned that Royal Caribbean has essentially abandoned the Dynamic Dining concept for the fleet. Our recaps probably would have had more relevance had they been posted before this happened, but we're going to keep forging ahead with our trip recaps and hopefully will finish soon!

The next dinner restaurant in our (unofficial) rotation on the Quantum was The Grande, the formal restaurant. This was the only spot on board where you had to dress up (i.e., jackets for guys) and we saw some pretty creative ways of meeting the dress code (like the guy who showed up in a winter coat since we were there in December; it still counted as a jacket). The service there seemed to be elevated as well to match the formal attire which was nice. During our time on board, The Grande was the place where we had the best all-around service, and we were very pleased.

Starters

The meal started off with a bread basket. The bread was like a mini-baguette and it had cheese baked on top and olives baked into it. The olives added a bit of saltiness to the bread, but the cheese didn't pack that much flavor. Overall the bread wasn't bad, but it didn't knock our socks off.

For one of our appetizers, we both got the prawn cocktail, described as "chilled jumbo prawns with chili-horseradish cocktail sauce." The prawns were big and cooked properly. The "chili-horseradish cocktail sauce" was really just cocktail sauce with a fancy name, but cocktail sauce and shrimp go together well so who cares. It was a solid dish.

A also decided to try the escargots à la bourguignonne in garlic-herb butter which he found a little weird. We had seen photos of the escargots on Instagram and Cruise Critic before our trip and were a little disappointed that these were escargots that were just smothered/doused with garlic-herb butter instead of the regular ones baked in the butter that you usually find on cruises. They still tasted okay, but they were just odd. M didn't get the escargots since the new style here wasn't that appealing to her.

Instead, M decided to go with the French bacon and egg salad which had "poached egg, bacon lardon, wild arugula, dijon dressing." This was really, really good. The egg was poached perfectly, the dressing had nice flavor, and it's hard to go wrong with a crisp arugula salad with bacon and egg. That combination just works. The slight bitterness of the arugula was a good match for the other ingredients, and she really enjoyed the salad.

Entrees

There was a nice range of entrees offered at The Grande: seafood, fish, chicken, beef, lamb, lobster, pasta, and vegetables. They tried to cover all the bases which was appreciated (except vegan, but we honestly have no idea what you would do on a cruise ship if you were vegan).

For M, none of the options really clicked with her until she got to the eggplant napoleon at the bottom, which also included ratatouille, spinach, goat cheese fondue, and tomato coulis. This was basically an eggplant tower with layers of goat cheese and ratatouille and spinach in-between and on top. Not really sure what was meant by goat cheese fondue, as it just seemed like creamy goat cheese and not like fondue that you would get at a cheese spot. The whole dish tasted so healthy and clean, and the flavors of the vegetables themselves really stood out. M really liked this dish. It was probably one of the best things she ate during dinner on the ship.

Just like they messed with the escargots, they also fussed up the lobster tail, which we were prepared for thanks to Instagram and Cruise Critic. One of the things we've always looked forward to on cruise ships is getting lobster tails, either alone or as part of a surf and turf. Instead, at The Grande, there was lobster tail thermidor, which came with truffled leeks, new potatoes, and a shellfish armagnac sauce. From what we heard about later cruises, it seemed like they abandoned this in favor of the traditional lobster tails, but we were guinea pigs.

In the end we shared one order since we weren't sure what to expect from this preparation. Unfortunately we don't remember much about this dish other than the sauce tasted weird, and we didn't like it all that much. We ended up scraping it off the lobster which tasted sweet as lobster normally does. The potatoes were cooked nicely and had a good bite to the outside while still being soft on the inside. The leeks were braised down to near mush, but that's okay since we like them that way.

Apologies for the stripes - something about the lighting on the ship really messed with the iPhone camera
A also ordered the braised lamb shank, which arrived with root vegetables, rosemary potatoes, and garlic-lamb jus. According to the waiter the lamb was braised for 7 hours every day. Based on how soft and tender it was, A didn't doubt that. It fell off the bone, and the jus was rich and lovely. The root vegetables picked up the flavor of the jus and added their own sweetness which paired with the meat very well. He really liked this dish, but there wasn't much of the gaminess that A likes to expect from lamb.

Desserts

We got two desserts to share. The first one was the German chocolate cake which the menu said came with coconut ice cream. It didn't say anything else, so what arrived wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We thought it would be like a traditional slice of German chocolate cake with the coconut and chocolate inside and a scoop of ice cream on top. Instead it was a piece of chocolate cake with brittle, and a little shredded coconut holding the coconut ice cream in place, with a dusting of pistachio on the side of the plate. When you ate a little bit of everything all together, it did indeed taste like German chocolate cake. The flavor was really good, and we were intrigued by the fact that it was deconstructed like this.

The other dessert we got was the key lime tarte about which the menu just said "graham cracker crust, merengue." (Yes, it said merengue like the dance, and not meringue, but we don't think we pointed that out to them there.) This was pretty good, one of the better desserts on the ship. It had a nice balance of tartness and sweetness, and the meringue offered a good stiff texture. Although it was good, it didn't meet A's high standards for key lime pie. He's something of a key lime pie snob and has definitely had better offerings.

We had initially only scheduled one night at The Grande since we weren't sure we wanted to bother with more than one formal night. But after the really nice experience we had, better than the other "free" restaurants we had tried so far, we made a second reservation for later in the cruise. This was definitely one of the better places for dinner in our opinion.

Japonais by Morimoto

During the Chicago portion of our summer road trip, we spent a good portion of our time hanging out with A's family. On one of those nights, we went out for a nice family dinner as a replacement for holiday meals since it's so hard for all of us to get together during that time. The place was Japonais by Morimoto, a place we knew about but had never tried before. We aren't anywhere near up to this in recapping our road trip, but we saw the other day some news that Japonais was closing. Their last day was this weekend, so we figured we would jump ahead a little bit and talk about Japonais as a way of bidding it farewell.

Japonais by Morimoto was in a giant space on Chicago Avenue right by the river. It felt very luxurious, with its plush banquettes, large tables, and wide aisles. The menu was similarly pretty large, with an entire listing of sushi and sashimi, as well as hot entrees, and appetizers of every type. Since A's brother and sister-in-law had been to Japonais before, they picked all the appetizers to share family style and then everyone chose their own entrees. Here's a run-down of what we got.

XO Green Beans, pan fried with house made XO sauce ($8):

We liked these green beans. They were cooked nicely, and the flavor of the XO sauce was good. The thing we liked best about them was the fact that they were a plate of vegetables. After our starch and meat heavy diet the past couple of days of our vacation, it was so nice and it felt really good to eat a good serving of vegetables.

Pork Belly and Black Pepper Ramen Pasta, miso marinated roasted pork belly, homemade ramen pasta, tonkatsu broth ($15):

This dish was interesting. Once we tried it, we thought that it was obviously intended to be one of those fusion-type dishes, mixing pasta with Japanese flavors. The "ramen pasta" was like pieces of rigatoni in shape and texture, which was unexpected. The broth was probably the best part of the dish, with its tonkatsu flavoring and also pancetta in it. The server had warned us that this was a hard dish to share among 6 people, and he was right. It was simple to cut up and/or split the pork belly, but divvying up broth and other fillings, and making sure it was all mixed together well, wasn't that easy.

Brussels Sprouts and Black Sesame Hummus with apple puree, kimchee paste, bacon ($10):

The brussels sprouts came roasted with kimchi paste, and if we remember correctly, some tomatoes and bacon, along with two sides - black sesame hummus (which had an earthy flavor, but not much specifically that tasted like black sesame) and an apple puree (that tasted a lot like ginger). Both sauces matched up well with the roasted brussels sprouts. This dish was solid, and it inspired me to perhaps roast up some brussels sprouts with kimchi and/or gochujang soon.

Rock Shrimp Tempura with spicy gochujang sauce and wasabi aioli ($16):

We've had rock shrimp tempura before at Japanese restaurants, and similar shrimp dishes at other places like the bang bang shrimp from Bonefish Grill. It's really just fried shrimp with sauce, quite simple, but something about it is always just really good. This version of rock shrimp tempura came in a dish separated into 3 sections - shrimp tempura in a wasabi aioli, shrimp tempura in a gochujang sauce (which was closer to the style/sauce we've had before), and celery sticks with a house made ranch dressing. This was a well-executed version of it, and it was nice having 2 sauce flavors to choose from, although we weren't quite sure why the celery and dressing were part of it.

Sweetbread Karaage and Unagi, with balsamic unagi jus, braised daikon, micro arugula ($18):

The best parts of this dish were the daikon and the broth. I'm not sure how to describe the broth flavor, but it was excellent. The daikon was soft, like it had been boiled in the broth, as it had soaked up all the flavor. The eel and sweetbreads, whatever we actually tried of them (since this was another dish the server said would be difficult to share, and he was correct about that), were fine, but nothing really that special. The broth and daikon were great.

Morimoto Style Chirashi, 10-12 different fish and vegetables ($32):

This was the entree A got but I got to try a few bites. If you've never had chirashi before, it's basically a big bowl filled with sushi rice, raw fish, roe, omelet, chopped vegetables (in this case, cucumber), ginger, and wasabi. The fish/seafood was predominantly tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and shrimp. The quality of the fish was excellent, the rice was tasty, and all together, it just tasted really fresh and clean. 

Braised Black Cod with ginger soy reduction ($28):

After a very filling lunch (more on that another time), what I really wanted for my entree was something light and clean. (Seems like both A and I were on the same page about this one.) The braised black cod, which sounded like the miso black cod I've had at Nobu and other restaurants, seemed like the perfect choice, and it was. The fish came with some white scallions on top, along with some sides of sweet soy beans and purple pickled radishes. Some of the bites eaten with the soy beans were a little heavier, but for the most part, it was nice and light. It was a pretty safe choice, as this type of cod is a standard at a lot of Japanese places, but it was a simple, good dish.

Wagyu Fat Garlic Rice ($8):

Since my entree didn't come with any sides and was basically just a piece of fish, I ordered a side of wagyu fat garlic rice to share with A. Japonais had 2 types of fried rice - a duck confit fried rice and this one. This one was apparently newer and it sounded so good, so we picked it. When it came out, it looked pretty basic, but it was so rich and decadent because of the wagyu fat. In addition to the cooked fat (which seemed like meat, but was not), there were garlic chips and some scallions mixed in. Not as healthy as our cod or chirashi, but it was so good. So rich, but so good.

Hello Kitty - coconut doughnuts, vanilla gelato, morello cherry, passion fruit, crispy black rice ($10):

Our sister-in-law loves Hello Kitty, so it was no surprise that she was going to order the dessert named after Hello Kitty, no matter what was in it. When it came out, it didn't really look very much like Hello Kitty. I guess maybe the eyes and nose, but not the rest of it. We got to try a few bites of it after she was done with it, and it was really good. We really liked the coconut doughnuts, and the raspberry and passion fruit sauces were tasty.

Mango Pudding "Palate" - coconut matcha sorbet, sumi meringue, fresh passion fruit ($11):

We ordered the mango pudding "palate" although we're not really sure why it was called a "palate." Anyway, this had a whole bunch of different components to it spread all over the plate, and the passion fruit flavors were really good. Overall, it was a pretty light dessert with good flavors.

Our dinner at Japonais by Morimoto was good, and there were a lot of dishes we liked. Our favorites were probably our entrees with the side of fried rice. The appetizers were good, but the entrees were better. We're glad we were able to try Japonais before they closed.

Goodbye wd-50

One of the landmarks in the New York dining scene for years has been Chef Wylie Dufresne's wd-50, especially if you're looking to try molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine. Thanks to the cruel forces of Manhattan real estate (which have taken out so many icons), wd-50 closed up shop tonight after dinner. We only made it there once, but dishes from that meal made both of our favorites lists that year. It was a surprise dinner for my birthday and I had absolutely no idea where we were going until A walked me all the way to the door. It was just the start of a night of surprises, since one of the joys of eating modernist cuisine for us is how nothing is ever really what you expect until you taste it.

The meal started out with some sesame flatbread crisps. We also got some cocktails but I haven't added pictures of those, because I don't have any recollection of what they are. I should probably mention that, 4 years later, we don't remember every detail about the dishes or even what all of our favorites were, so this isn't a great "review." It's more of a chance for us to look back and remember what we ate on our only visit to such a wonderful place. Also, sorry in advance for some of the unfortunate picture quality. We didn't have a macro lens on our SLR and the light wasn't the greatest, but oh well.

We got the tasting menu that night. Our first course was fluke with sunflower seed, cole slaw and lemon (most of these are menu descriptions, so not really much help on what the dishes were, and neither are my limited notes). There was also a cilantro flavored sauce and the cole slaw was kind of like a powder. This was a good light start to the night.

The second course, the everything bagel, we definitely remember for how unique it was. Instead of an actual mini bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, there was something that looked exactly like the top of a mini everything bagel, but instead it had the consistency of ice cream. There were also smoked salmon threads, crisps of cream cheese, and pickled onions. It's fun and unexpected when you "bite" into something expecting it to have some substance and then to realize it's basically ice cream instead.

The foie gras course I remember most for how rich it was. I'm not a huge foie gras fan, but I'm glad we had the opportunity to try this. It was one big round of foie gras topped with slivers of celery, sitting on a financier of Chinese celery.

When you broke open the round of foie gras, liquid came spilling out, and that tasted like passion fruit. It was a combination of flavors that we had never had before (or since).

Next up was scrambled egg ravioli, charred avocado, kindai kampachi, and toasted potatoes. The final dinner menu at wd-50 has the same egg dish that we got (but with a different fish). We don't remember a ton about this one, sadly.

Have you ever had fried chicken leftovers the next day and just eaten them cold? I can't explain it, but there's something really good about cold fried chicken. That's what came up in our next course, which made A's favorites list and was high up on my list of possibilities. It was cold fried chicken, buttermilk ricotta (which was whipped up like mashed potatoes), tabasco (like a honey tabasco sauce), and caviar (not sure what type, but maybe sturgeon). It was like eating a cold version of chicken and mashed potatoes, and it was delicious.

After the cold fried chicken, it was time for black bass with chorizo crumble, grilled pineapple, and a popcorn puree. This sounds like it was really good, but unfortunately, sandwiched between 2 glorious dishes, we've kind of forgotten about it.

The next dish - beef and bernaise - was the one that unexpectedly ended up on my favorites list from 2010. At the time, I still didn't eat much red meat, but this dish was spectacular (looks like this one is also on the final dinner menu). I was so surprised by it, especially given my initial hesitation when I saw that the menu had this dish listed. I was expecting beef with a bernaise sauce, but instead it was like eating bernaise gnocchi, caramelized shallot paste, and beef broth, with some slivers of snow peas on top. I would definitely eat this again, but sadly, this will have been the only time for this dish.

We had mentioned to them before the meal that I didn't eat much red meat, so for the next course, they brought out different dishes for A and me. I had arctic char with fried yucca, cherry black bean sauce, and other stuff that I can't remember anymore and was not on the menu to be identified.

A got the squab breast which came with Chinese broccoli, corn bread with pickled cranberries in it, and what tasted like a spiced pumpkin puree. We don't remember much about these two, sadly. I bet we were still thinking and talking about the bernaise dish at the time.

That was the end of our savory entrees and now it was time for sweet. The first dessert was white beer ice cream, with quince, caramel, caraway, and a really pretty cookie. 

The second dessert looked like a spring roll. It was rainbow sherbet (in a shell that made it like an egg roll) with apple, tarragon, and orange flavors. That came on top of an olive oil sponge cake, with olive oil ice cream and a piece of grapefruit. It was so interesting.

The final dessert was by far the most beautiful. It had soft chocolate, beets, long pepper, ricotta ice cream, but more than the flavor, I just remembered how pretty the design was.

Since it was my birthday dinner, they brought me a candle, which was edible and tasted and smelled like coconut. It was really just another example in the long list of how Wylie and his staff are geniuses at what they do.

To end our meal, we first got chocolate shortbread with milk ice cream, which was like eating an Oreo ball.

And the last to arrive were cocoa packets, which were exactly what they sounded like. The cocoa inside was like little pellets housed inside the chocolate exterior.

We really enjoyed our meal at wd-50 and now, looking back, are glad that we had the opportunity to at least visit wd-50 once. It's sad that they have to close, but we're thankful for the experience.