Quite common in sushi restaurants as well

Had dinner at Atomix last night. Love the setup of the place - the bar/lounge is upstairs, with the dining table downstairs. It's not really a true chef's counter, as you can't see what is going on the kitchen directly. Definitely the best cocktails of a Michelin-starred restaurant I have been to. The food is also very good - a bit more adventurous than Jungsik, but just as well-refined - hints of Korean influence in every dish. Most dishes were oriented towards seafood; only one meat course. I did the white truffle supplement (served with one savory course and one dessert)...solid, but realizing that I prefer white truffles in small doses and mainly on the sweet stuff. The menu was provided as a set of cards, which was very informative - listed every ingredient for every dish, along with having a blurb from the chef. Excellent meal and a place I would definitely come back to - the increase to two stars is well-deserved.

As the restaurant "The Bybrook" is located at the hotel "The Manor House" in Castle Combe. la carte menu is 75 GBP, tasting 95 GBP.
Our tasting menu itself was really good and absolutely worth a Michelin star. I can recommend the restaurant without restrictions.

Castle Combe? It's been eons since I've been there. Looks like decent grub though.

Thanks!

Taco Maria in the OC - I enjoyed the food, but similar to Rustic Canyon - I'm not quite sure it's Michelin-starred quality. So far, I haven't been blown away by the restaurants that have been newly-rated in the Southern California area...good but not great. Not sure what the next one I will be trying out is out there, but I think the bar is set quite a bit higher for Bay Area spots than it is in LA/Orange County.

What's 'the OC'?

Orange County, CA

Agree with you. Rustic Canyon is a decent restaurant, but not even close to my personal top forty in Southern California.

So...I finally made it to Masa. No pictures here because there are explicitly no pictures allowed during the meal. My takeaway - the food is excellent on balance, but it's not worth the price to go back again. I enjoyed my cocktails a lot (imported over from Bar Masa, I'm sure), and the pre-sushi dishes in the omakase are arguably better. Toro topped with an ungodly amount of caviar? Love it. A roasted papaya served with a miso custard and uni baked into a slice? Very unique and also quite good. But objectively, I have had better sushi at many other places in the city. The rice here is the best that I have had, but the fish doesn't even come close, IMO. The best piece was a golden eye snapper that was seared with a hot iron rod - much more concentrated flavor than the usual blowtorching that happens at other places. Another ding - Masa served only one party - the folks who came in at 6 PM and were seated directly in front of him. He did not prepare or serve anyone else, and in fact left the sushi bar about halfway through our meal, not to be seen again. While the guy who prepared our fish was very good, almost every other omakase I have been to - whether in NYC or in Japan - means that you are having the main chef serve all of your sushi; the other chefs are plating and serving for the folks sitting at the tables. That might be extremely nitpicky, but I don't really get it.

In short - I'm glad I visited once, but the totality of the meal simply doesn't match the extraordinarily high price ($595/person before tax and drinks).

I�m glad to see someone went! I�ve never been but thought Bar Masa was quite good, but very expensive

While this arrangement seems to be more common IME in the USA (e.g., Sushi Yasuda which employs several sushi chefs or Ginza Onodera NYC which usually has a chef at all 3 counters), it does happen in Japan. Typically in Japan (e.g., Hakkoku, and AFAIK Saito and Sugita), you will make a reservation with a specific chef (e.g., the reservation will be for taisho table or second chef table or third chef table, etc.), but there are still edomae spots in Tokyo with multiple chefs where they just seat you wherever (e.g., Ginza Onodera, Kanesaka - although you should certainly avoid the latter as it's hideously overrated).

There are, of course, many edomae spots in Japan that feature multiple assistants who prepare tsumami or even do some of the slicing/prep of certain sushi (esp. common with shellfish), as you noted.

FWIW, my experience at Masa was far worse (noting that it was about 10 years ago) and I've always strongly recommended people avoid Masa as a result (I've also refused to go to any establishment he's been involved with since). The service was terrible and as you also noted, the fish quality wasn't even that great. We were also hoodwinked by the reservations team into taking an early reservation slot, as they told us that being served by Masa was on a first-come first-serve basis - but when we got to the restaurant, we were the first party there and were told that Masa would be serving another party. The hostess didn't even apologize. And are they still charging the 20% "service" fee that isn't even for service?

With a couple of trips to New York last year, I took the opportunity to dine at three Michelin starred restaurants.

Highlight from each restaurant below with a link to a more detailed review.

Blue Hill At Stone Barns
Great experience from start to finish, and the menu integrated the farm to table ethos well with the more traditional fine dining elements.

Stand out dish was the Chicken Mushroom Nuggets And Habanero Hot Sauce. The mushrooms used for this dish are hand foraged in the Hudson Valley and have a remarkably similar texture to chicken, right down to the stringiness.

Deep fried in a salt and pepper batter, they were really tasty and I could easily have enjoyed another dish of these.

They are served with three dipping sauces, the habanero ‘hot’ sauce is notable as having been bred to remove all the heat from the pepper.





Le Bernardin
The seafood on both visits here has been flawless.

My main of Seared Hiramasa; Baby Shrimp, Calamari, Lemongrass-infused bouillon was seared on the top and barely touched below. The dish has an Asian flavour to it with the lemongrass bouillon and the mushrooms, greens and prawns adding contrast to the dish.

I loved the textural contrast between the crispy seared top and almost raw remainder of each slice.




Jean Georges
I was very impressed with the four course lunch menu. Upthread posters indicated the Vongerichten flagship had slipped from its past glory but all four dishes were delightful.

Don’t let the simple presentation of the crusted snapper fool you, this dish is a forty seven ingredient tour de force.

The Japanese snapper is steamed and a series of spices are sprinkled on the skin including black pepper, white pepper and salt. The sweet and sour jus included pieces of pear and honey, though the ingredients change seasonally.

Despite the forty seven ingredients, which my server mentioned as we were talking about the dish, the fish remains centre stage and the dish has a balance like those at Le Bernardin.

The food at JG was decent but not nearly as good as when I first ate there. Dining room on the other hand in desperate need of a renovation. Worn out furniture, carpets, chairs, etc.

Great Sapporo experience for very reasonable price! See post 41:

Japan Michelin Starred Restaurant Advice

Araki actually moved to HK and opened this past Dec. Have been there twice and really enjoyed it last week. Loved the acidity, temperature and texture of his Shari

I've eaten there a few time, but you will not get the same experience as in Tokyo.