Posh Restaurant

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

The concept at Posh restaurant is “improvisational cuisine”. I think of something improvised as being made up on the spot, done without preparation. What an exciting dining experience that would be, albeit fraught with danger for both the chef and the patrons. But don’t go to Posh expecting that. The days menu is set long before you arrive and all you get to do is check off on a printed list what proteins you dislike so they won’t be served to you. It’s disconcerting to be asked to think about food you don’t like at the beginning of a meal. Your other decision is how many courses you desire and if you want wine pairings: from $45 per person for 4 courses ($77 with wine) to $110/$165 for a full tasting, which is more than 7 courses. Our meal started off promisingly. We shared a nice cocktail called a Cosmonade ($9) made with Hangar 1 Citron, Chambord, and lemon. An amuse bouche of papaya sorbet with mint “caviar” was delicious (this tiny spoonful doesn’t count as a course). My first course was an heirloom tomato salad with haricot vert and a few shavings of cheese. With something this simple the ingredients need to shine, and these did not - the tomato, while ripe, had little flavor, and there was so little cheese it’s impact on the dish was negligible. Ken’s vichyssoise with chive oil was pleasant enough. For me, the fish course was sea bream with bok choy. The fish skin had been blasted with a propane torch which rendered it beautifully crispy. The Asian-y sauce on the vegetable was pretty salty, a harbinger of things to come. Ken received shrimp (they were called some fancy name) served with gnocchi, baby garlic, and a blastingly peppery aioli. The shrimp had been way overcooked, rendering them rubbery and tasteless. On to the meat course. Mine was venison served on farro (which is an Italian whole grain), with a rhubarb gastrique. First I took a bite of meat - it was flavorful but tough. Then the farro. I gasped and almost choked. It was that salty. The insipid gastrique was totally overpowered by the other elements of the dish. Ken was kind enough to swap plates with me, and his braised short rib (hardly a seasonal dish) was at least edible, though also oversalted. Interestingly enough it was served with fingerling potatoes, making this the third dish in a row served to Ken that contained potatoes (assuming that the gnocchi had been made with them). When our waitress, cooly professional throughout, asked if we enjoyed this course, we mentioned the salt issue and she said she would inform the kitchen. Finally, dessert. We were both given chocolate cake, cut into unattractive chunks. Mine topped with cubes of apricot, and Ken’s with plum. Neither of these fruits complemented the cake, which contained a distractingly large amount of pepper. The drizzle of chocolate ganache was tasty. At this point we were seriously considering going to Crudo to have dessert since we needed a satisfying conclusion to the evening. Just then our server brought us a complimentary cheese plate, an apology for the salty food. That turned out to be the high point of our experience (along with the amuse bouche). The cheese selection was excellent, and the buttery grilled bread outstanding. But for $130 you’d expect more, wouldn’t you? I strongly suggest that if you want a an exceptional “tasting” experience you should visit Crudo Cafe. You even get to choose the foods you like to eat, not those you don’t.

A

A Private User

What a great dining experience. My wife and I went for her birthday after a friend gave it glowing recommendations and were wowed and surprised by the excellent preparations. We are the adventurous types, so nothing came off our list, and I am so glad. We got to try things we would never have ordered, and although I wasnt thrilled with a sea urchin mousse I received, it was very well prepared and balanced with some cucumber strips to take away some of the fishy taste of the urchin. While I appreciated the preparation, it still tasted like sea urchin. The portion was small, I finished it. But I wont be ordering that anywhere. My wife had some monk fish liver, again not something she would order. And was blown away by how good it was. You takes your chances here, and always learn something in the process. I found the dishes all were very well chosen and blended with the ingredients. I was started off with a water cress salad with some very strong goat cheese. Goat cheese isnt my favorite, but it was paired very well with the dressing and water cress. The seared tuna with curry for the fish course was extremely well cooked and seasoned. I also had a clam dish that made me just want to sit and sniff, eating it would have made that wonderful aroma go away. The braised rib was a..may..zing. My first taste made me think it was too salty. But I realized that salt was bringing out the other flavors, reducing the salt would have been a mistake. The salt was nothing more than just another spice, I dont use salt much and am very sensitive to its appearance in any meal. The salt didnt overpower the amazing flavor in the sauce, and the rib was done to perfection. No knife needed. I wont go over all six courses, but will mention the desert. I do not like avocado. So when a plate with avocado and phyllo dough showed up, my heart sank. It wasnt fork food, so I picked it up with my fingers and bit into it. A .. may .. zing. The phyllo dough didnt crumble and make a mess, was wonderfully prepared with a glaze, and the avocado was light and sweetened with vanilla and chocolate. I am soooo glad I didnt put avocado or goat cheese on my lists of dislikes. I would be doing a disservice if I didnt mention the service. The server was every present, but not in our face. I could also see the chef peeking over at our table from time to time. The place wasnt crowded, it was a Tuesday evening, and the courses came fast enough we didnt sit and stare, but enough time between them that our food and wine had a chance to be savored. My wife did the wine pairing and we found some new additions to our wine closet that we simply must have. The server did a great job pairing with her food, taking into consideration what prior wines she had. Do yourself a favor when you go there ... open your mind and enjoy the food that is delivered. Dont close it to what you want, if you put on blinders and say food has to be prepared this way, then you will miss a great experience.

JU

Justin Hazelle

I found Posh to be mostly disappointing. Its described as "improvisational cuisine" yet its not improvised at all which I found to be very misleading. Yes, you get a menu on which you describe what you wont (or cant ) eat and yes the food you receive is somewhat dictated by this. But, the misleading part of this is that all of the dishes are designed in advance by the chef. The night we went there was a red snapper dish, a lamb dish, a boar dish, a veal dish, and a few others. So long as you didnt put down a dislike of fish on your menu then chances are you got the snapper. As did everyone else in the restaurant. And its not as if I had some improvised snapper dish made for me, I had the same snapper dish as the other dozen or so snapper dishes that went past me. How is this improvised? Its more accurately described as "let the chef give you whatever he feels like from his preset menu." Most of my disappoint stems from how I felt misled by this restaurants own description. But the food itself did not help. The food was, I felt, consistently "interesting". They used unique flavor and texture combinations that I havent experienced before. All of the flavor and texture combos that I tried worked well together. But not once did I feel as though a particular dish was really good or tasty. They were all just unique and interesting, but not necessarily good, or bad. The chairs are flat out uncomfortable. I wound up standing for the last couple of plates because I simply could not sit in the chair any longer. We sat at the counter for our meal because I was given the impression (perhaps falsely) that the cooks would interact with you as they "improvise" your meal. That is not the experience I had. The waitstaff was friendly and knowledgeable, but the cooks tried their darnedest to avoid eye contact. Perhaps they knew their food wasnt so great and didnt want to see the disappointment in my eyes. Speaking of sitting at the counter, I wouldnt recommend it. The kitchen was very dirty-looking. I dont plan on ever coming back.