This was definitely the most entertaining meal I’ve ever had. The chef focuses his meals not just on the taste of the food but the stimulation of all your different senses including perception. The food was delicious but the experience is what made it one of my most unforgettable meals. It is definitely in my Top 5 restaurants but not solely because of the food as other restaurants on my top 5 list but because of the overall experience.  While not every item was amazing to me in taste, I was still completely amazed by the entirety of each course that was served.  All the courses were themed and were made from some of the most unexpected ingredients and as a result, actually tasted as it look. Very weird.

The first course- the palate cleanser was one of the most delightful experiences. The Nitro-poached green tea & lime mouse is a foam that’s squeezed out from a whipped cream canister and thrown into a bucket of liquid nitrogen. It looks like a smoking meringue and has the outer texture of one. As you pop it in your mouth, the server sprays a green tea/lime flavored room spray to enhance the flavors. Smoke starts coming out of your nose and mouth, which is amusing to everyone around you and once you bite into it, it evaporates into nothing but crunchy flavored air. It’s the weirdest sensation. For a moment, you feel as though you’ve eaten a big mouthful of something that is very substantial, only to have it disappear to only a lingering taste that leaves you feeling very refreshed. It was such a lovely experience that throughout the night, I would look around at the faces of other diners when they were served the same course.

My favorite course was the “Sound of the Sea”. This was a beach-themed course and was made to look like a oceanside scene. There was “sand” all across one side and little neck clams, razor clams, geoduck, and seaweed laid out beautifully next to it but in such a haphazard way you could almost imagine coming across it on the beach. The sand was so realistic I had to ask before I ate it. I was told it was made of tapioca, miso oil, panko & mini eel. They also brought out conch shells with ipods inside that played ocean sounds while you ate. This dish was outstanding in every way, down to the amount of thought that went into the planning of it.

The last two course were breakfast themed. The first part of our breakfast was cereal and milk. They brought out little cereal boxes with their logo on it. Inside, wrapped in little plastic bags with logo-ed stickers were parsnip flakes, which was served with parsnip milk on the side. Taste-wise, I didn’t think this course was especially good but I thought the presentation was just so adorable. Luckily, it was very small.

The bacon and eggs breakfast was the last course. This was by far the most entertaining course. They set up a copper saucepan and stand and brought out a carton of eggs with their logos stamped on them, which they claimed were special eggs that had bacon already inside. They go through the process of actually cracking the eggs with the ice cream base inside and “frying” the bacon & eggs ice cream in the copper pan. The bacon and eggs get topped on a plate with a “hash brown” made from pain perdu and a piece of sugar candy that looked and tasted just like real bacon. It even had the same crispy crunchy texture. I absolutely LOVED this dish. It was the most inventive classic dish I’ve ever eaten.

Another very interesting sensational experience was the hot and iced tea. There was a sweetened ice tea that was made into a thin jelly. A hot liquid tea was poured over it and you were supposed to drink it together as quickly as possible. The hot tea was actually piping hot but when put together with the iced tea jelly, it was one of the oddest sensations. That course was definitely more experience than taste as the taste was of nothing extradordinary. My boyfriend didn’t like it but I enjoyed it as it produced such a unique sensation.

The food was very creative. Many of the flavors and ingredients that were put together would not have been ones that you would think would taste good together but the way it was done was original and delicious, such as oyster, passion fruit jelly, and lavendar; or pommery grain mustard ice cream, red cabbage gazpacho. The flavors were so incomparable that I couldn’t comprehend how they could possibly taste good together even though I was tasting it.

Other items such as oak flavored breath strips, lime scented perfume, and moss scented mist were used for additional sensory accessories. It was some of the most imaginative courses I’ve ever had and the whole night was very entertaining. The entire evening, I kept thinking not of what was going to be served next but what was going to happen next. A lot of thought went into touching all the senses, even down to the copies of the menu, which were printed on velvety paper and matching velvety envelopes and sealed and stamped in wax with their logo. There is no other restaurant that I’ve been to that has put so much consideration into everything that is experienced by its diners. This is a purely hedonistic experience and should definitely be every hedonist’s list!

*Click on the picture at the top for an enlarged version of my menu.