Originally Posted by luxury

Of all the Four Seasons hotels I have stayed at in North America the Ritz Carlton thus far has the best F&B -- it even edges out the FS LA which is excellent. It ranks up there with the FS Paris and Bangkok internationally for me. I find that luxury hotels do "fancy" foods quite well but they often blow the simple foods -- a good hot dog, a good french onion soup (can you tell I like these?), a good breakfast, fish and chips, etc. The RC does both well.

As I have been suffering from a stomach bug this trip I have had the Japanese breakfast each morning. For any non-Japanese hotel, it is very difficult to create an authentic Japanese breakfast, understandably. However, the RC has been able to cook one that rivals those in Japan ( and may be better than some!!). The rice is a weak point but rice is a weak point for many restaurants who attempt to make Japanese rice. Still, the rice is not bad. The miso soup is decent. The grilled salmon is grilled and seasoned to perfection. The accompanying dishes are prepared, executed and flavoured very well. I am impressed with the variety of Japanese pickles they offer. The only minor glitches are that the onsen egg (which is a poached egg in a dashi broth) did not come in a dashi broth but the quality of the egg makes up for it and the nori (dried seaweed) has stuck all together. My sister has had the Midwest breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, the sprouted wheat toast, and juice the first morning and blueberry pancakes the next. The quality of ingredients is outstanding and the hotel makes an effort to source organic and local products. It shows in the resulting taste of the food.

At lunch today I had chicken noodle soup, a rack of lamb, and a bosc pear tarte tatin. My sister had the french onion soup and the hamburger. Each course was executed precisely and seasoned perfectly. Nothing was under- or over-seasoned and everything was sublime. The pear tarte tatin was divine -- a lovely caramelized bosc pear on a flaky and crusty pastry with a vanilla sorbet and oatmeal crumble. It was the perfect portion size as well.

Last night we had a room service dinner and I simply had a french onion soup, a hot dog and the chocolate velvet cake while my sister had a special request fish and chips and an ice cream sundae. What impressed me about the hot dog was not necessarily the wiener but the accompaniments (finely minced red onions, home made sauerkraut, diced tomatos, a choice of mustards, home made ketchup) that came with the hot dog. The chocolate velvet cake was one amazing piece of cake and the accompanying scoop of walnut icecream were spoonfulls of heaven. The fish and chips were very crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside with the flesh flaking off, moist and succulent. The homemade tartar sauce was a perfect accompaniment and the coleslaw had the right balance of acidity in the dressing to cut through the fat of the fried fish and the rich creaminess of the tartar sauce.

Originally Posted by Kagehitokiri

wow. what would you use to compare in terms of regular restaurants or other hotel restaurants?

Originally Posted by luxury

For me, the key comparison is when I eat the food, is the first reaction that sigh or intense "hmmmm" of the food being incredibly tasty. It is a reaction of intense joy no matter what the food morsel is, be it a piece of sushi, a mouthful of pillow-light pasta, or a biteful of well age and cooked to perfection beef. I had this same reaction eating almost every bite of food at the RC Café and Room Service as I did at restaurants like Gary Danko in San Francicso, Bouchon in Las Vegas, the old La Cote Basque in New York City, Spice Market in Bangkok, and top sushi bars in Tokyo. This was a very pleasant surprise -- I knew the food at any FS property will be good; I wasn't expecting this good.

Originally Posted by luxury

...memorable room service meals. I thought I would share some of these with you:

Best Fish and Chips:
Ritz Carlton Chicago, a Four Seasons Hotel

Best Burger:
Ritz Carlton Chicago, a Four Seasons Hotel

Originally Posted by luxury

The F&B was, for me, the strongest of the four hotels and probably the tops of all luxury hotels I have stayed at (and I haven't stayed at them all) in North America.

One small highlight was the AgroMontana honey and preserves the hotel uses -- it appears to be an italian company out of Monaco and the quality of their preserves, and especially the honey, was incredible. We had a case of the honey shipped home directly from the hotel and it appears one cannot purchase that exact honey on-line either.

Originally Posted by luxury

I ordered the Japanese breakfast again while at the FS it was evident the feedback I gave at the RC had already been implemented at the FS. The onsen egg now came in a dashi broth (though on the first morning the broth was a little thin)

Originally Posted by vuittonsofstyle

Michele Grosso, GM of R-C Chicago (a Four Seasons Hotel) would be thrilled to hear you say this, Luxury. It is his first post as GM, although he has been with Four Seasons for many years.

His background is F&B, so this could explain the excellence of the food there now. I believe he was at FS Milan when it opened, as restaurant manager of La Veranda.

The other management change in town that will have certainly affected the quality of this hotel is when Patrick Ghielmetti took over as Regional VP. This could explain your excellent Japanese breakfast, as Mr Ghielmetti has spent many years in Asia and is another great foodie.

Originally Posted by francophile

I met the GM. [presumably Ghielmetti] He was extraordinarily kind. I mentioned to him that a certain Flyertalker thought very highly of the hotel's Japanese breakfast. He was very glad to hear that especially since the hotel does not have a Japanese chef, he mentioned.

Originally Posted by luxury

Sheer and Utter Disappointments

Pierrot Gourmet, Peninsula Hotel: I had high expectations for this place as it is operated by the highly lauded Peninsula hotel. I left so underwhelmed and very disappointed. The food was mediocre at best -- the French onion soup was salty broth with a sprinkling of onions and a piece of bread with a little cheese on top floating in the centre. It took 20 minutes for the soup to come out (understandable if it was being gratined) and took even longer for our main courses to come out. There was an OktoberFest special on so I ordered the leberkase and my sister the pesto chicken tarte flambée. The tarte was bland and flavourless and the leberkase (bavarian meatloaf) salty and slightly overcooked. The mashed potatos were decent but the sauerkraut was limp, soggy, and not very sour. The service was as clueless as it could get.

Charlie Trotters: I think I will create a separate thread to discuss this one.

Originally Posted by luxury

Pierrot Gourmet
Sadly, the Pierrot Gourmet was a low point of our stay. The food and service were very disappointing and did not represent the standards one expects of Peninsula.

We shared a large French Onion soup and while my sister had the chicken pesto tarte flambée, I had the Octoberfest special of leberkäse (bavarian meatloaf) with mashed potato and sauerkraut. The leberkäse was decent if not a tad salty overall. The mashed potato was tasty but the sauerkraut was pretty limp and boring and not very sour!! My sister's tarte flambée, which is a thin crust pizza, was very bland and fairly tasteless. The French onion soup was a disaster -- it was a thin and salty broth with a sprinkling of onions and a piece of french baguette toasted with a little cheese floating on top. The service was aloof and spotty at best. After a 20 minute wait after ordering the soup arrived. From that time nearly an hour passed before our main courses came out. Other people beside us who had arrived after us were nearly done. As a result we decided to skip dessert and just move on with our day. My assessment of the staff made me hold my comments until check-out as I did not feel my comments would have gone very far while at the restaurant. To be fair to the hotel, the Pierrot Gourmet Manager called me and removed the food bill from our folio, which was a much appreciated gesture.

Breakfast in the Lobby Lounge
...wished that they had smoked salmon.

The viennoiserie was mixed -- the pain au chocolat was quite good but the croissants were awful. The danishes and other pastries were good but not to the quality I expect of hotel like Peninsula.

The service was professional and attentive but lacked warmth and friendliness. There was a lot of robotic and perfunctory "my pleasure", "of course", and "certainly."

Originally Posted by luxury

The Concierge team led by Head Concierge Jon W is fantastic -- they were able to get us a table on Saturday night at Charlie Trotters only a few weeks prior; I understand that for weekend tables typically one needs about 12 weeks advance notice. Either way we were very lucky to be able to get us a table.

Originally Posted by francophile

The 9 layer chocolate cake is excellent, moist yet not overly rich.

We met Jon the chief concierge and he along with the associate concierges handled matters with aplomb.