Last month was my chance to try Rich Table. Playing the invalid card, I rolled my mother over in a folding wheelchair, on a drizzly Wednesday night. We thought we were early for a good shot at a walk-in, and seeing others already seated inside before the opening time of 5:30p was a surprise. Staff came to the door to help us up the couple of steps and inside. While I conferred with the hostess to negotiate for a couple seats at the communal table, Mom plunked herself at the closest unoccupied two-top. The staff didn't have the heart to move her from the reserved seats and said they'd make it work. They do indeed go the extra mile even under trying circumstances.
Service turned out to be the highlight of the evening for the most part. We weren't as taken with the food. In ordering the popular dishes, our meal turned out to be stultifying and overly rich from deep-frying, cheese, and other sources of fat. Squeezing in something lighter could have made a difference . . . or not. I had ordered with guidance from our waiter and he should have had a clue about this.
Sardine chips were interesting, but one per person is enough. These were unsalted, and suffered from that, so quite different from the salt conveyance vehicle you describe. The creamy horseradish dip almost saved them flavor-wise, but serving them already poked in the dip sacrifices the bottom end of the chip to flaccid-dom.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/8535166273/
Not impressed by the porcini doughnuts. They're greasy, soggy and tough albeit with a good hit of dried mushroom flavor. Like the raclette cheese dip, but again, very fatty and heavy.
The brandade was overly rich from inclusion of Comte' cheese. The chiffonade of sorrel gave this a bit of uplift but not enough for something so heavy. This was accompanied by oil-soaked flatbread triangles.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/8535162047/
The Douglas fir levain had a wonderful scent when brought to the table and the cultured butter was a nice touch. The crumb was very uniform, spongy in texture with a mild tang. But the crust was tough, rather than crispy. Taking the rest home to make toast, this bread did not hold up overnight nearly as well as other local levains.
Then we had a 20-minute wait for the next course. The tables on either side of us who had been seated and ordered after we did finished their meals and departed.
I'd asked our waiter to choose between two pasta for me to best match my glass of Parusso Barolo. He recommended the tagliatelle with 21-day aged beef and sun dried tomatoes over the truffled pasta. No problems with the texture of the tagliatelle, but the ground meat was so tough and rubbery that my mother couldn't chew it. And hidden in the noodles were tiny diced potatoes fried in duck fat . . . yet more FAT.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/8535170247/
I thought some of the things were interesting and I enjoyed my glass of wine mightily. My mother disliked everything and did not consider it food.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/8536279216/
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