For a shift of gears, I had an elaborate meal at Waku Ghin -- a 10-course tasting menu heavy on seafood, with local and japanese themes, served at a small bar with just 4 other diners and 2 chefs. The head chef is Tetsuya Wakuda, best known for Tetsuya’s in Sydney, which I ate at years ago and loved. Not that I’m a celebrity chef horse– all that really matters is the food.
Meeting the seafood before the meal:
Uni, prawns, egg yolk, caviar (a completely different uni from what I’ve had before– more buttery and less briny):
The best clam I’ve ever had (bamboo clam, twice-cooked though I’m not sure in what two ways):
Teppenyaki-style wagyu steak cooked on a hot grill in front of me, with garlic crisps and wasabe. The beef was very, very good.
Tea service with gyokuro, an unusual, kelplike green tea I’d never had:
After a few other courses (some not as memorable or photogenic), petits fours served in a comfy chair in the separate “living room”, looking out over the skyline and water.
A really great meal.
Was it worth it? At this moment in time, for me, in a comfortable financial situation and after weeks away from home (almost exclusively eating delicious but simple $3 street food), yes, it was. I wouldn’t say it’s worth the price in the abstract, but it’s hard for me to ever overcome the cognitive dissonance of spending 10 (or in this case, 100) times as much on dinner as on a nice simple lunch I had earlier. A ratio only surpassed in my life by eating a basic hot dog at Hot Doug’s the same day I ate at Alinea.