Woodfire Grill

For my birthday dinner, J and I went to Woodfire Grill. The last time we went to Woodfire Grill was about a year ago. It was perfect. I remember how much we enjoyed the meal and we both agreed that Woodfire had finally hit its stride where all the dishes were excellent. The dessert alone was worthy of angel song. We have always had excellent service and our dinners typically run around three hours.

J and I have always been Sunday night diners at Woodfire. Once upon a time, they had a half off bottles of wine on Sundays nights. They've discontinued this practice, but if you know and ask for it, they will honor it still. For my birthday however, we decided to go on a Saturday night. Based on the remembrance of this last great dinner and a favorable looking menu, I was pretty excited for dinner.

When we got to the restaurant, we were seating in the raised back area. Our waiter was nice, but a little confused. As we asked him questions about the menu, he stumbled through answers about the braising liquid for a pork stew (what's the pork braised in? "aromatic vegetables" and the liquid? "water" i see "oh, with some stock"). I guess I could have been expecting too much. When I later asked when the restaurant would have venison again, our waiter stated that he had been there the longest of all the current waitstaff, and he hadn't seen venison once.

I like to order a lot of appetizers. In my opinion, they have always been the strongest part of the meals. Typically we order three appetizers, one shared and then one for each of us. We love the share the salmon tartare actually, but I guess it was not in season. We chose to start with the peekytoe and lobster salad, the foie gras torchon, and, with the recommendation of the waiter, the medjool-stuffed dates. Typically we get the shared app first and then the other two, but I told the waiter that I would let him choose the order. He told me that he thought having all three appetizers out at once would be good. While I did not agree, I decided to acquiesce, deciding that I should stop being so anal about the order of my meal.

Almost as soon as the waiter left our table to put in the order, the medjool dates arrived. They were stuffed with gorgonzola and wrapped in proscuitto and then probably lightly fried or baked. They were topped with a balsamic reduction and they were room temperature. I found them to be far too rich, but not bad.

The fois gras torchon was excellent. The foie gras was also room temperature, but it was creamy and delicious. I am a huge fan of foie gras and I find it very hard to resist ordering it any time I see it on a menu. The only other time I've had the torchon was at Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas. That one was cold, overly salty, and gross.

The peekytoe and lobster salad was pretty good and a good size, too. The crab was great quality with huge chunks of meat. There were some citrus slices in the salad, but I found them to be unneeded and somewhat conflicting with the rest of the salad.

However, with all the appetizer plates on the table at the same time, I felt incredibly rushed and unsatisfied. We seemed to hurry through each of the apps, even while trying to savor the lusciousness of the foie gras.

For my main course, I ordered the duck breast. It came with sweet potatoes and a duck jus. It was good, but I make the same duck breast at home. The only difference is that mine is properly salted.

J ordered the porchetta. It was pretty bold of them to even put this on the menu yet since it was not ready for the menu. It was pork belly wrapped around a pork loin with an over abundance of herbs and not enough salt. A good 1 1/2 to 2 inches was completely fat. But instead of adding a real luxurious taste, the dish fell flat. Very disappointing.

For dessert, I ordered a pear dish that was an excellent balance. A small scoop of pear sorbet, creme fraiche, and a poached pear. I really enjoyed this dish. Sadly, the dish was poorly plated. The creme fraiche was mostly in the targeted little dollop, but it dripped messily across part of the poached pear. Clearly this was not intentional.

J unfortunately was not so lucky. His apple crepes were super sugary sweet. He didn't even finish it. My cappuccino arrived lukewarm. I decided to chug it instead of sending it back.

All said and done, our dinner was only an hour and a half. Despite the fact that we had the same amount of food we always do (three apps, main courses, dessert, coffee, and a bottle of wine), we were out in half the time. That alone is telling of our experience in my opinion.

Our high hopes dashed, we've decided not to head back to Woodfire for at least a year. Messy plating, poor seasoning, and bad service have certainly turned us away from our favorite celebration spot.