Sunday, October 25, 2009

"T" is for 10 Arts

On the night that the wife and I went to 10 Arts, I had just turned 35 years, 7 months, and 8 days old. And while I understand that, for some, time spent in my company is always a reason to celebrate (oh be quiet), I was caught a bit off guard when our waitress brought over my dessert with a candle stuck in the middle and a "Happy Birthday" chocolate on the plate.

Did they confuse our table with another? Was this some awkward mistake? Or did the mischevious wife simply try to play what she deems a humorous joke? Unfortunately for her, it was the latter, which means that sweet revenge will be forthcoming some day soon in some unexpected, vicious manner. It didn't help that our waitress must have said, "Happy birthday, Mr. Kober" at least 10 times before we left.

More likely than not, this encounter is going to be the only thing I remember about 10 Arts, which is dubbed as one of Philadelphia's "celebrity chef" restaurants. Its owner, Eric Ripert, is apparently a big name in the culinary world, with several well-known restaurants in other cities. One of its sous chefs, Jennifer Carroll, is on one of the many chef competitions on TV these days (Top Chef, I believe, though I wouldn't swear to it). With that sort of build-up, I am sure there are some pretty hefty expectations, but this just isn't a destination restaurant.

For starters, the setup of the place is so bizarre. I generally don't like hotel restaurants -- 10 Arts is inside the Ritz Carlton -- because they often feel so stilted. Often, the restaurants are inserted as an after-thought, a "let's see what we can jam into this dead space" kind of concept. That's exactly how 10 Arts feels. It's hard to tell when you walk into the Ritz lobby exactly where 10 Arts starts and where the lobby bar ends. The line separating the two is almost nonexistent. Plus, who wants the noise (and cheesy 80s music blaring overhead) when you are paying pretty hefty prices for a meal?

When we first arrived to the mostly empty restaurant (I'd say maybe 50% of tables were full at prime time on Thursday evening), they first tried sitting up near the invisible line separating the restaurant from the hotel bar. We nixed that and were given a table "behind the curtain" into what was a more defined restaurant space. It was better, but not great.

In addition to their regular menu, 10 Arts has a 3-course, $35 prix fix option. I am always a little bit leery about ordering off of these, as often I suspect the restaurant is simply trying to dump some of its less popular (or more profitable) dishes onto diners. However, since the appetizer I wanted (heirloom corn chowder) was on the menu, as well as one of the entrees I was considering (Pennsylvania trout with baby bok choy), I figured it was the best deal I was going to get.

The first few spoonfuls of the corn chowder were very good -- they didn't skimp on the portions and there were good chunks of corn and potato in there (though no creme fraiche as the menu promised from what I could tell). However, as I ate more and more, the saltiness became overpowering. The wife noticed it immediately and told me so, which may have contributed to my observation. Still, it wasn't bad, just not great.

The entree was another story. Trout, in and of itself, is not incredibly flavorful. It is very much a blue collar fish that needs to be spiced up with accompanying spices, a sauce, a side dish, something. Unfortunately, the trout here, which both the wife and I ordered, was simply that, trout presented on its own. As with the soup, they presented two hearty filets, so they didn't skimp on the portions, but it just wasn't very interesting to eat. The bok choy was drowned in butter -- yuck.

Dessert was the best part of the meal, aside from the surprise happy birthday acknowledgement (thank God they didn't sing). The carrot cake was awesome and they gave us several small bites of other desserts on the side, which was very nice. Alas, they gave us so much lesser food earlier that I couldn't enjoy them as much as I could. Oh well.

On to the detailed review...

THE FOOD: The menu itself at 10 Arts was a pretty big disappointment. With this kind of chef superpower, I was hoping to see entrees prepared in unusual ways, but it was a lot of same old, same old hotel restaurant blah. Steak, chicken, fish, pasta... snooze snooze snooze. Plus, with the prices, it was hard to justify going "off the board" to splurge for a $35 striped bass or bouillabaisse.

THE DRINK: High markups on the wine. I paid $11 for an awful glass of chardonnay.

THE STAFF: Now, if it really had been my birthday, I guess I would have appreciated the efforts of the waitress constantly remarking on that fact. Otherwise, the service itself was OK. One of the busboys looked oddly out of place -- he was dressed differently than most and seemed much older than everyone else -- but nothing else here of note.

MAD PROPS FOR: Not much. I can't say there was too much remarkable about the meal.

OVERALL: 10 Arts reminds me why I generally avoid hotel restaurants. There have been exceptions -- a fantastic place in San Francisco called Ame is inside a boutique hotel -- but generally, I don't expect much from hotel restaurants, especially when they are just jammed in after the fact. Look, the Ritz didn't design itself to house a restaurant on the ground floor from the looks of things (I have no idea what was there before 10 Arts) and putting what is supposed to be a high-end joint there just seems very out of place.

THE CHECK: Not cheap. $125 for the two of us, and we only had one glass of wine and both of us stuck to the prix fix. Definitely not someplace I will be going back to.


Ineligible restaurants for round 20...
  • Umai Umai -- I was pretty jazzed when a new sushi place came to our neighborhood, and I didn't dislike it when I tried it. The wife, however, got a little skeeved out by the live eel they were cutting up as we sat there and we haven't been back since. I would go again, though.
  • Urban Saloon -- Another local joint, though this is not much of a food place. I have heard that things have gotten better, but it's still a bar first and restaurant second. They do very good business though.

Candidates for round 20