Wednesday, August 29, 2001
Patrick and I met for lunch—the first of our Lunch on Wednesdays series. We went to Pluto's. We had chicken and flank steak grilled sandwiches, onion rings, and potato rings. It was our first time eating there, and we almost left because we couldn't figure out the wacky system of ordering food. Turns out we liked the food, but hated the unnecessary punch card system and poor lighting. And if we're not given table service, we expect to save a little money, but not so. Twenty bucks for lunch, we had to stand in line and get our own tableware, and we didn't even booze it up. Consequently, we're unlikely to eat there again. After work, I met Patrick for dinner. We had planned to go to a reading by Paul Borja, Krandal Kraus, and K.M. Soehnlein, but I left work late so we missed it entirely. We went to dinner at La Monné which had opened in October 2000. We had tiger shrimp salad, mini-tacos, pork adobo, wasabi mashed potatoes, sake, and jasmine tea. The tiger shrimp salad was four grilled shrimp served over mixed greens with a vinaigrette and some sliced avocado on the side. I felt compelled to ask our waitron if this $12 dish was normally served with only four pieces of shrimp, but I didn't want to create an embarrassing situation (for them). The mini-tacos were deep-fried wonton skins shaped like tacos and filled with beef and a salsa-like dressing. This is a creative concept, but it creates inelegant dining, for the first bite invariably causes the entire taco to fall apart in one's hand. Although the fillings were tasty, I'll never order it again. The pork adobo was essentially roast pork in its own broth with some cabbage and other vegetables chopped small. This dish had either too much salt or too much wine (or both)—the salt and wine flavors overpowered the pork. Also, it should automatically come with rice because the broth spilling onto a plate with nothing to soak it up felt, again, inelegant. Our waitress was both very friendly and very familiar with the menu. However, as she was the only waitron for the room's ten four-tops, service got slow as the restaurant filled to capacity. We enjoyed the artwork: reproductions of early twentieth century Asian advertisements for bath salts, cigarettes, and alcohol. Also impressive were the glass-topped, solid wood, copper-finished, square tables inset with fluorescent domes which are covered with blue decorative rocks. The music selection was hip, but the room should have had more speakers to spread the pleasure evenly. The worst part of the interior design is something that is very easy to fix: it was too dark. Our table was so dark that I couldn't tell what color my teacup was. I surmised it was a dark blue to match the teapot, chair cushions, and decorative rocks, but I wouldn't have known for certain if I didn't pull out my flashlight. It turns out the teacups have an intricate sticks texture, and they are indeed blue with some green and some brown mixed in. In short, La Monné is a lot of great ideas executed carelessly. Why would you make it so dark that your guests couldn't enjoy the beauty of your tableware? Why would you serve a shrimp salad with only four pieces of shrimp? Why would you burden everyone with only one server for 40 people? And just because I like to whine: Since when does it cost $2 for a soda?