We just returned from a Memorial Day weekend visit. We finally decided to visit the Flying Fish Cafe (we've experienced most of the Signature restaurants under the DDP except Narcoossee's and Yachtsman Steakhouse). By way of background, we're somewhat obsessed with food, and our travels are at least 50% about getting good quality food.
For the class of restaurant Flying Fish is attempting to compete in, I would rate it 3.5 stars out of 5. The appetizers we had were excellent - the cheese platter and the tuna tasting menu. Three of the five cheeses I would rate as really interesting, and some of the sauces on the tuna were fantastic - subtle but interesting.
The mains were quite good. I had the Citrus Schezuan Peppercorn crusted yellow-tuna loin, and DW had the Potato wrapped Red snapper. Both were good but not great dishes. The tuna was cooked nice and rare in the center, but the searing was a bit heavy on the outside of the loin. In addition, the crust, while excellent, was a little bit too weak to stand up to the tuna. The snapper was fantastically flavored, and the potato crust was excellent (great texture contrast) but the snapper was just a touch overcooked - it had a tiny chew instead of dissolving under pressure like a just cooked piece of fish.
For dessert we had the Valhrona Chocolate Galette and my wife had a Cherry tart. This (combined with the slight cooking mistakes on the fish) are what makes this a 3.5 instead of 4-4.5 in my opinion. The Chocolate was good, but not as dark as I think a good chocolate dessert is - it had a touch of the sweetness of a Hershey's dessert. In addition, it had a center filling (inside the sauce center of the cake) which I assume was supposed to be similar to a truffle filling, but which was quite hard - too hard to easily get a spoon through. That detracts from the dessert IMO. The cherry tart had a great filling, but a problem. The pastry part of the tart, however, was extremely floury and a complete letdown. Instead of being light with some crunch it tasted like an undercooked roux.
All in all, I think this was a good restaurant, but not as good as I'd hoped. My ranking for the top restaurants would be Jiko, then California Grill, then Artist Point. Flying Fish Cafe would be next. The others (Brown Derby, Citricos) are not so great.
For the class of restaurant Flying Fish is attempting to compete in, I would rate it 3.5 stars out of 5. The appetizers we had were excellent - the cheese platter and the tuna tasting menu. Three of the five cheeses I would rate as really interesting, and some of the sauces on the tuna were fantastic - subtle but interesting.
The mains were quite good. I had the Citrus Schezuan Peppercorn crusted yellow-tuna loin, and DW had the Potato wrapped Red snapper. Both were good but not great dishes. The tuna was cooked nice and rare in the center, but the searing was a bit heavy on the outside of the loin. In addition, the crust, while excellent, was a little bit too weak to stand up to the tuna. The snapper was fantastically flavored, and the potato crust was excellent (great texture contrast) but the snapper was just a touch overcooked - it had a tiny chew instead of dissolving under pressure like a just cooked piece of fish.
For dessert we had the Valhrona Chocolate Galette and my wife had a Cherry tart. This (combined with the slight cooking mistakes on the fish) are what makes this a 3.5 instead of 4-4.5 in my opinion. The Chocolate was good, but not as dark as I think a good chocolate dessert is - it had a touch of the sweetness of a Hershey's dessert. In addition, it had a center filling (inside the sauce center of the cake) which I assume was supposed to be similar to a truffle filling, but which was quite hard - too hard to easily get a spoon through. That detracts from the dessert IMO. The cherry tart had a great filling, but a problem. The pastry part of the tart, however, was extremely floury and a complete letdown. Instead of being light with some crunch it tasted like an undercooked roux.
All in all, I think this was a good restaurant, but not as good as I'd hoped. My ranking for the top restaurants would be Jiko, then California Grill, then Artist Point. Flying Fish Cafe would be next. The others (Brown Derby, Citricos) are not so great.
