by J. Renda

Created on: September 16, 2008   Last Updated: August 29, 2009

To the reader I would like to lend the background that I am a former Chef, of a large scale hotel and a banquet hall in New York. We had a variated menu that catered to both middle class, older more traditional groups, and the higher ends.

As a customer, I have dined at many other restaurants and can say for the most part the price tags are not the favorite subject. In the Food and Beverage industry a vast inner circle actually controlls more than the client may think. The prices are not just subject to the Chef, possibly a General Manager or even for large high end restaurant franchise speculations.

There are few foi gras worth the price and especially few fillet mignons. Most cases, for the high end the name and reputation make the sale and not the quality. For a diner that is not well knowledge in quality, they could easily be amazed by detailed crudite garnishes and small displays of hippen mas carefully piped, baked and towered above an entree.

Chefs in high end restaurants tend to spend more on the garnish and the expensive plates such as truffles, saffron infused items and large rectangular or other trophy type plates designed to add excitement to the dish. I have actually been to high end restaurants where I was given red sauce made by an american chef for an 'authentic italian style' dish and it was more like the consistancy of a can of spaghettios. It was thin and sweet and held no nap to the utensils. The 'nap' is a measure of how the sauce coats the back of the spoon. Chefs generally do not variate what the expected and classical amount of nap per item is. Most brown sauces are accepted to have a lot of nap, where as a scampi style dish is not, and classically is not expected to be so.

On the side of the coin, to say most high end restaurants are not worth the price I am inclined to strongly agree. However, I dined at the Western Door Steak House in 2006 twice and again in 2007 and it was completely divine. The service was wonderful as expected but the quality of the food was more than my standard. As a table of only two, we spent over $350.00.

That included our appetizers, our a la cart entree items, two side items, dessert and the Chianti that we ordered together. We ordered a bone in fillet and a N.Y stip both medium rare and one with a side of bernaise. The steaks were seasoned well and cooked to perfection. The side of red garlic mash and the broccoli and hollandaise was seasoned and executed wonderfully.

My suggestion as a customer, is to forgo

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