Degustation is the type of restaurant I would never seek out had I not received a generous birthday gift certificate from my aunt. The meal is more about the dining experience, both visual and gustatory, than eating a familiar, comforting dinner. Chairs are placed uncomfortably close together (elbows aren’t the only thing my neighbor and I bumped) in a large U that surrounds the open kitchen. It’s kind of like hibachi for grown-ups. While you won’t have to catch a severed shrimp tail in your gaping mouth or dodge onion volcano flames, you will get to observe chefs searing a fatty wedge of pork belly or carefully plating oxtail cannelloni. The dishes are all needlessly clever, minuscule, and expensive, costing an average of $12 for a fleeting taste. That said, I did enjoy the experience as well as every dish I ordered. Each was unusual and creative; I just wish I had written this post immediately after the meal because it’s difficult to accurately recall the intense combination of flavors.
Here’s what we ordered:
oxtail and potato cannelloni,
poached hamachi (with some sort of potatoes, haricot verts, and salty foam),
pork belly with a fried quail egg, greens, potato chip, and spicy parmesan broth (which Austin would not eat out of deference for a friend whose pet quail’s death has left an indelible scar),
crudo, sea bass marinated in gin and vermouth,
croquetas filled with ham and potato,
tortilla filled with oxtail and potato
I’d say my favorite dishes were the poached hamachi (the fish was cooked perfectly, salty and crisp on the outside and slightly pink on the inside), the tortilla filled with oxtail and potato (something surprising and spicy complimented the meaty interior), and the crudo. I’d recommend trying Degustation once if you have money to burn, but just once. Its frivolity makes it nearly impossible to classify as a weekly neighborhood joint.
