Steph C.'s Profile

This is no fancy opulent hotel, but it's cozy and warm and relatively affordable - a big plus when taken into consideration with the lodge's proximity to the French Laundry.  Our room was very comfortable, clean and spacious with big beds, soft mattresses, and a plethora of pillows.

The service was also very friendly.  During our overnight stay we were treated along with the other guests to a complimentary Robert Mondavi wine tasting in the lobby, to which everyone was alerted with a phone call from the front desk.  It was fun and leisurely and easily worth attending.

Our stay came with a complimentary buffet breakfast loaded with pastries, yogurt, fruit, and some biscuits and gravy that half of our party loved and half hated.  I've seen far worse breakfast buffets that charge plenty, so I'm disinclined to be critical here.  If you're looking for a decent place to stay in Yountville and don't require absolute luxury, Napa Valley Lodge is a great option.

This little winery is a tad too preciously hip for a place owned by a mayor and a millionaire.  The set-up feels a lot like a gift shop in an aquarium or mid-brow museum, with lots of wine, yes, but also T-shirts, hats, and coffee table books.  Tastings at $15 each offered less variety than other vineyards we visited on the same trip, and though the wines were drinkable, none stood out.  My mother, who seems constitutionally incapable of entering a winery without leaving with bottles in hand and plenty more to come, decided the wine at PlumpJack was not worth getting due in part to the heavy shipping fees that were waived at other places.  The whole visit took an uneventful ten minutes and I had almost forgotten about it ten minutes later.

Chateau Montelena is worth visiting even if you don't lick a drop of wine.  The grounds are beautiful, with plenty of lush greenery, and the stone building itself is elegant and lovely.  Montelena also offers more than its fair share of Napa Valley history, and information about the Judgment of Paris as well as DVDs of Bottle Shock are readily available within.

Our party of five made our way to the second tasting room in back and split two tastings.  All of the wines were good, though the only standout, predictably, was the wonderful and very expensive Estate Cabernet.  I do believe that my mother was sold on a membership that included a futures program with nice discounts accompanying a rather deep purchase price.  Don't infer from this bit that the staff was pushy or anything like that - my mother likes buying things.  The staff was in fact very pleasant, helpful, and brimming with pride and enthusiasm for the winery and its history.  Definitely worth a stop.

Our trip to Yountville was triggered by a reservation at The French Laundry and Mustards Grill had the delicate task of providing us with good food without stuffing us out of form before our 6 o'clock dinner with Keller.  We had a pleasant lunch where all were satisfied and none left full of grease and overworked stomachs.

The space lends itself to sunny lunching with very cute casual decor and plenty of windows.  The service on our visit was friendly to match.

We started out with the bread, which was nice and flaky with a warm brown taste.  While the wine list boasting TOO MANY WINES in huge bolded letters was tempting, we decided to skip, with two of our party ordering Bloody Marys.  These were spicy, thin, and very drinkable, served with tall leaf-on celery stalks and Sierra Nevada chasers.

For starters our party of five split the onion rings, the warm Cabecou goat cheese, and the sweet corn tamales.  The onion rings were the weakest of the three, even served with housemade tomato-apple ketchup.  The onion rings were thin and piled up like chiffon, a concept that I liked in theory but found kind of insubstantial on the plate.  The flavor was also too close to the Korean onion rings I've had straight from the bag to be impressive.  The ketchup was a little too thin to be awesome.  The goat cheese was wonderful, served warm with sundried tomato relish, grilled bread, and a whole head of roasted garlic.  The cheese was tangy and crumbly, the relish full of flavor, the grilled bread earthy with a little crunch, and the garlic was roasted to sweetness with even a bit of jamminess to it in mouthfeel and spread.  The garlic was hard to extract one mushy clove at a time, but it was well worth it.  The best of the appetizers, though, were the tamales.  Served with wild mushrooms, tomatillo-avocado salsa, and pumpkin seeds, these were fantastic, extremely corny with soft enhancing touches from the other ingredients leaving the focus on the corn.

For my entree I ordered the grilled quail, which came with yam and a bacon, arugula, and frisee salad.  This was good, though the quail was pretty tiny with plenty of bone-sucking necessary to get any substantial chunks of meat.  The yam and the salad were great accompaniments, with the yam just sweet enough and the salad light and refreshing despite the presence of bacon.

Our table was loosely family style, so I also tried bites of everyone else's dishes and everything was solid.  The grilled mushroom and spinach "burger" on a black sesame seed bun served with green papaya and mango salad was substantial enough that the meat was hardly missed.  I say hardly because the juicy lamb burger on a nice dry ciabatta was a notch better.  It also came with addictive potato chips, simple, thin, with plenty of salt.  These also accompanied the slow smoked BBQ pork sandwich, a mouthwatering panini loaded with tasty, tooth-tender, well-sauced pork.  Lastly, the half-slab barbecued baby back ribs with cole slaw and cheddar-jalapeno corn stix was a complete delight.  The ribs were tender, conservatively sauced, and easy to eat, and the accompanying corn stix were hard to leave alone, with whole corn kernels, plenty of butter, and a great back heat from the jalapeno.

We didn't want to overdo lunch when we had a day of wine tasting and French Laundry ahead, so we split one dessert, opting for the self-described famous lemon-lime tart with a ridiculously tall brown sugar meringue and candied lemon peel.  The meringue was definitely the most forward part of this dessert, and while it was truly delightful with an understated sweetness and marshmallow texture, I wanted more of the lemon curd, which was marvelous with a bright keen flavor complemented by the candied peel.

I liked that everything was simple and accessible with clean, well-tuned execution.  We left pretty satisfied without feeling overloaded, and in that sense this meal was a big success.  On the other hand, while everything was good, nothing on the table had me silent on the first bite, and for that reason, I don't think Mustards would be a must-go if I happen to make my way back to Napa.

We wandered into Cosentino for the simple reason that we were early for our lunch reservation at Mustard's Grill.  We ended up spending much more time and money than intended tasting and buying some lovely wines.  (By we, I mean a group consisting of my parents, their two friends, and me, the just-old-enough-to-like-wine but not-old-enough-to-buy-it-up-and-down-Napa tagalong.)

The place is pretty small but it doesn't feel dinky, and the atmosphere is casually nice.  The staff wasn't very enthusiastic as we walked in but they were perfectly friendly and warm as soon as we started tasting.  We were able to split two tastings five ways and the tastings came with quite a few different wines, definitely more than at other wineries visited on this trip.  The sangiovese and a couple of the zinfandels were pretty great, with full flavors that were easy to tilt back.

My mother ended up signing onto the membership program, which meant our tastings ended up free and she was taking home a whole lot of wine at a pretty fair discount.  Sucker?  Maybe.  But at least the wines were good, with good value to boot.

I love simple Korean food, but sometimes it seems a bit silly to pay for when my mother does it best.  That said, when it's done well, simple Korean is wonderful, delicious, and deeply comforting.  Kobawoo does it pretty well.

The decor is very plain with lots of that lacquered wood you see in every other joint in K-town, but the setting is relaxing if you beat the lunch rush.  I would recommend showing up before noon as apparently it does get crowded.

Lunch with my anti-pork mother meant that bossam will have to wait for another visit, but our food was satisfying enough to ensure that this visit will happen.  The banchan was great, less numerous than at other places, but with five or six varieties that were all very good.  The fishcake was delicious, as were gosalee (wilted salty fern stems), jangjorim (cold shredded marinated beef) and refreshing green beans.  I also liked both the regular cabbage and the bok choy kimchi.  For our meal we ordered a dotori jengban guksoo (acorn jelly with noodles and lots of veggies), a chunggookjang (pungent soybean soup), and an ojingeo bokkeum (stir-fried squid).  The jengban guksoo was really refreshing with plenty of green and a nice light dressing.  The chunggookjang - man, I love this stuff.  "Chunggook" sounds a lot like the Korean word for heaven.  Coincidence?  I think not.  It is, however, an acquired taste.  Think daenjang jjigae squared - pungent, strong, and full of fermented soybeans and fork-soft tofu.  The ojingeo bokkeum was decent, not my favorite.  The squid was plump and the accompanying vegetables and soft dduk were texturally nice, but the whole dish wasn't spicy enough.

I'd like to come back here again and try the bossam and well, most of the other things on the menu.  It's nice when a Korean restaurant churns out homey dishes that just taste plain good.  Kobawoo seems to be pretty consistent, and I can see why it has so many regulars.

The upsell is extremely annoying.  Listen - me and my mustache are just fine.  Ask me one more time and I will thread your fucking lips together.

BONDST is pricy for what it is, but the food is solid and the venue chic.  I took a friend out for her birthday and it was a great spot for the two of us to catch up and relax while eating good food.  The place is in a discreet spot on - hey! - Bond Street and the inside is maybe a bit too dark and trendy but fun nonetheless.  The main level especially is plagued by too-cool lounge music, but the upstairs where we ate felt cozier and probably would've been romantic given dating company.

The food was quite good - though not particularly exciting as far as upscale fusion goes, everything was beautifully executed.  We ordered the broiled Chilean sea bass, the sake braised short ribs, the spicy tuna crispy rice, and the sesame crusted shrimp roll.  The sea bass was nicely caramelized with just the right firmness, and it came with a tasty sheaf of bok choy and dots of miso sauce.  The fish had a mild sake flavor to it that I appreciated.  The short rib came with miso daikon, roasted apple, spinach, and red shiso sauce.  It was the best dish of the night, with soft, fall-apart meat and good, hearty flavors.  The spicy tuna on crispy rice with Korean kochujang sauce was something I'd seen before, but BONDST's version is noteworthy, with very crispy rice that feels neither dry nor unpleasant.  The shrimp roll with orange curry dressing and red balsamic vinegar had a pronounced nuttiness in the nori that was lovely, and I loved the orange curry emulsion.  This was a nice small roll to round out our meal before the arrival of the dessert menus.

For dessert we went with the kabocha cheesecake and the lychee panna cotta.  Neither was gratuitously sweet.  The kabocha cheesecake was the stronger dessert, a combination of mashed kabocha pumpkin and cheesecake rather than a kabocha-flavored cheesecake making for a subtle texture contrast.  There was an unnecessary crisp of sorts in the middle, but otherwise this was a great dessert with great flavor.  The lychee panna cotta had clean flavors and a wonderful strawberry rhubarb compote with vanilla syrup.  The dessert was creamy and light, if not entirely memorable.

Service was on the very slow side, but at one point our waiter let us know there was a hitch in the kitchen and apologized for it while checking in on us with fair regularity.  I liked the sauvignon blanc he recommended and when I asked him what it was, he wrote down the name of the wine on a sheet of paper for me to take home.  If not perfect, then, service was thoughtful.

The bill was higher than I expected, and the priciness of BONDST makes it a special occasion sort of restaurant.  While the food is consistently good, I don't know that I'd come back with so many other stellar places in New York offering so many creative menus.  Still, not a single misstep came out of that kitchen, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a sure-to-satisfy high fusion meal.

I should stop reviewing casinos because anything with a poker room is at least 4 stars for me.  Still, of the two big Connecticut casinos, I prefer Mohegan Sun to Foxwoods.  It's closer to the freeway which makes the drive seem shorter, and the facilities feel cleaner and newer.  Foxwoods may have the bigger poker room, but the one at Mohegan is big enough and well-organized.

I didn't appreciate that one dealer assumed that the crazy Korean man talking to himself at my table was communicating illicitly with me.  I'm not sure if I felt worse about being profiled or about being associated with him.  Either way, ugh.

This place has its charms, with its cozy space and air abuzz with kitchen sounds.  I'd passed by it countless times as I live around the corner and always thought it was smaller than it is.  Turns out in addition to counter seating, Copper Kitchen offers a decent number of booths in which to spend a leisurely breakfast or lunch.

Service is bare-bones but I had no problems with it, and the food was average but perfectly adequate when I finally decided to make my way in.  I came with three friends and we were seated relatively quickly in a tucked-away booth.  The built-in coat hooks were a plus for a party of four with big winter coats.  I ordered a spinach mushroom omelet with egg white (an extra charge for the egg white) and it came with potatoes and toast.  I also stole some of my friends' blueberry pancake and corned beef hash.  The food is about what you'd expect - reasonably cheap and reasonably good.  The omelet was standard but tasty, and the potatoes and toast were nothing special but between healthy applications of the deep-fry and the butter, they were easy to overeat.  Blueberry pancake was decent, not quite fluffy, but with lots of blueberry.  The corned beef hash was familiar and delicious because I used to eat it just so - straight from the can - when I was a kid.

So is Copper Kitchen somewhere I'd go out of my way to visit again?  No, it certainly is not.  But it's fast and cheap and just around the corner, so I may end up coming back anyway.