Some friends got food from Atelier Crenn (SF) last week. She enjoyed it. He said he'd have preferred instant ramen. So, that's what it 3-star Michelin takeout tastes like :D

I got room service from Lung King Heen at FS HK once - it doesn't take a quarantine. :p

A lot of these 3* places are going downmarket and offering dishes that will survive the transport home; seems to be offered more to just support the restaurant. Some buddies did Manresa's takeout menu last week (think it was around $50pp for some chops) and said it was pretty good.

The Chef's Table menu doesn't look that impressive. Nothing really stands out as terribly interesting (aside from the chicken soup with foie gras). They are also only doing takeout and not delivery - not going to trek 20 minutes one way by foot for it.

ETA: That said, I decided to order it tonight (requires 2 days' advance notice)...will let y'all know how it turns out. :)

So...gave it a spin. I was impressed that Chef's Table sent additional prep notes for the dishes (e.g. microwave the soup for a specific amount of time; roast the baby lamb for 10 minutes at a particular temperature). The chicken soup with truffles and foie gras was fantastic, and the baby lamb was absolutely delicious (although the price, at $60, felt a bit steep). The substituted Alaskan king crab salad was pretty good, if a bit heavy on the mayo-based sauce; I do wish the langoustine we had originally ordered was available (it was apparently not up to thir standards and thus removed). The sobacha cake was excellent - giant piece of cake, but light, fluffy, and perfect flavor.

It was a bit pricey, but depending on how long this goes, I would not be opposed to trying it again, particularly if the menu changes at all.

Zaranda Mallorca, 2 star
 

At the beginning of March I had dinner at Zaranda, the only 2 star Restaurant on the island. While I wasn´t impressed by the chefs casual restaurant Baiben I had high expectations About this dinner.
The resaurant is located at Castell Son Claret. I considered this hotel for my last trip but it didn´t work out. At least I wanted to try the restaurant.
The hotel is located in a remote location and on the way to it I had once a Little problems with my A8. Not sure if I wonna drive it everyday. After we rang the bell at the gate we drove through a nice alley to the castle. The welcome was very friendly and we were shown our table in the half-full restaurant.
We were offered an adapted tastng menu. It were 8 Courses. They didn´t tell us a Price, it were 175 €. Not cheap but OK for 2 stars. What wasn´t OK was something else. They told us one course were snails and if we like it. We denined, I never liked snails. They told us they would skip it. I thought they meant Exchange it, but I was wrong. They simply skiped it and we had one Course less. It´s not a big deal but not correct.
Our dinner started with mocktails which were fine, as another I ordered later.
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Our dinner started with some small bites. Especially the "golden treasures" were great and for me on 3 star level. A great start.
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The Majorica oysters were nicely presented but not totally my taste.
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This one was some beetroot with horseradish. I wasn´t really impressed.
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The red prawns dumplings were nice
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Next came an octopus dish. I found it very good (nice 2 star level), GF too salty and not eatable so I got also hers.
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Onion Calamari was solid
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Now came a very special dish, "Tribute to the fishermen". I was especially told I could eat the fish completely. As I had it bevor I did and it was a big mistake. A very hard and relative big fishbone got stuck in my throat. You can imagine how great this was, especially as I wasn´t able to get it out. In the end I had to go to the bathroom and it was very unpleasant to get out of this mess. Terrible experience. When I removed the next fishbones (I doubt many were eatable) the rest was eatable but nothing special.
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Sopas Mallorquinas were OK
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The desert (Four Seasons of an Almond) were Pretty nice
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Now came the petit fours together with a game. GF thought some of the pastries looked so disgusting that she wasn´t ready to try.
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Fatimas finger - OK, also not my favourite design.
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Bill came in a chocolate pic, nice idea.
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Well, our dinner wasn´t too impressive. While I found the small bites at the beginning and the Amfora on or above 2 star level the rest wasn´t in my eyes. For me it wasn´t on 2 star level and I´m not too keen to eat here again.Too bad….

The pic of Fatima's finger made me lol, looks spectacularly unappetising for a 2* meal.

Funny you mention Les Amis, I am a regular there! :D

Indeed, as I said GF had enough at this moment.....

Blue Hill (1 star, NYC) is offering boxes to go from their various food sourcing partners. We picked up the seafood box yesterday afternoon and have been really enjoying the contents. The shucked oysters weren't great (the water was drained out of all the oysters, but it was still nice to have fresh oysters for the first time in months. The skate wing was excellent, as were the cartilage pieces provided to fry and eat with a BBQ spice rub. The tilefish brandade was a little plain, although paired with the phytoplankton bread, it ended up quite nice. Their take on monkfish liver pate (ankimo) was excellent; the seaweed salad also quite delicious (and a little creamy when blending in the remoulade). Dinner was the Korean-inspired kimchi fish stew, and we will finish off the box tomorrow with the monkfish itself. For $140, it's a good amount of food that basically was 4 meals in total for us. It was a little bit of a haul to walk it back almost a mile, but I would probably be interested in trying it again.

Interesting Blue Hill initiative, the box sounds great. In the UK there are a number of suppliers who supply restaurants in normal times who have set up home delivery services to offload some of their excess stock, I was lucky enough to be a guinea pig for a family who own Dexter Beef cattle and usually supply the Flatiron steakhouses in London on their first delivery test run. So not being able to go out to eat obviously sucks but there are bigger issues in play and until we sort that out, you might as well get the ingredients in yourself and do your worst.

I really wonder what the state of the restaurant industry will be around year end, such a precipitous business at the best of times. I think we've still got a pretty big slug of unpleasant adjustments to the commercial realities of a postish-Pandemic World to come unfortunately.

I think the one benefit is that restaurants are going to have no choice but to continue takeout/delivery initiatives they have started. I have eaten Carbone more times over the past couple of months than I have ever seen an open reservation spot at a time that wasn't after 10PM. For spots that can find the right balance of price given the ambiance is at home (instead of in a restaurant), I think they should manage to thrive. The only downside is likely a large decrease in their largest-margin products (alcohol).

Yes, I suspect that many restaurants will continue to offer takeaway as aprt of their business model. I was chatting with a chef about that very thing and it's effectively a way to retain some bums in seats, even if the seats are not in the restaurant.

Totally unrelated, but Chef Massimo at Osteria Francescana not only mentioned reopening on June 2 but also the opening of some other cafe-like place in Modena. Did I hear that wrong or is he opening up another related entity?

It depends entirely on how quickly things get back to normal. My state's "phase one" started two weeks ago and has allowed restaurants at 50% capacity, so many restaurants where I live are pretty much back to normal with adjusted seating layouts to promote social distancing. Many other restaurants had already gone out of business, and among restaurants that can't survive at 50%, I expect many more to continue to go out of business unless there is further lifting of restrictions.


My city (which normally prohibits takeout alcohol) temporarily allowed restaurants to sell alcohol for curbside pickup not long after the quarantine started and it continues to be allowed during our state's "phase one" reopening. I think I read that some municipalities have even allowed alcohol delivery. It'll be interesting to see if pickup (or even delivery) alcohol continues to be allowed, especially given political pressure to continue social distancing measures.

Ordered in Atera (2* in NYC) for dinner last week...excellently done. Probably better than what Chef's Table delivery was like.

I am excited to try Gramercy Tavern's offering next; they are reopening for pickup/takeout at long last. I would wish the Tavern Burger could be a delivery option!

Atera opened up a wine bar, Farra, for outdoor dining this week. Food/drinks menu looks interesting. Going to walk down the block to check it out this weekend. This will be my first time dining out in months! A little excited.