Urbane…with the B-List
I made a mid WNSC run, with the B group, to Urbane. It was a Wednesday, but no Tin Tin or Dictator.
Im going to start with the service. Urbane has he best service in town. The staff remembers what you had to drink and eat the last time you were there and they are very knowledgeable about their wines. I wasn’t that comfortable with the wine list in that there were many vintages I didn’t know. None of the standards that I know are good and most of the list was from Boutique Wineries. I was looking at a certain price range, which is usually a part of the formula when I don’t know what I am picking and Brent advised a wine that was 30% less and he thought was one of the best wines on the menu. The Domaine A 2004 Shiraz. It was a very nice wine and reasonably priced. Although often the Urbane wine list will have a few of the standard popular brands of wine, they also have a great selection of boutique wines selected through the tight distribution network of such goods and an expert taste and feel from the ownership and staff. They rarely steer me wrong.
Enough ass kissing for now, lets get down to the food. We didn’t have dessert, but did have a full 3 course meal with Amuse Bouche, Entree and Main. For the Amuse Bouche I had the 6 oysters. Each flavored differently so let me see if i can remember them all, but before we get to that it is worth noting that the hand picked Urbane Rock Oysters are among the best in terms of taste and freshness in the city. The flavors were: Natural; Thai Chile; Goat Cheese Foam; some sort of Vinagrette; something else and something else. Ok, my memory could be better, but the Domaine A clouded it a bit. What I do remember though is that I thoroughly enjoyed the oysters. They were top quality rock oysters.
My entree was the Ricotta and Garlic Gnocchi. This may be one of the best entree’s in town at the moment. Each bite was magical. Yes, I said it…Magical! There are certain restaurants in town that would’ve given me 2 pieces of the gnocchi and I would’ve been satisfied. Urbane is different than most restaurants in town in that it may not only be the best in quality, but for such a fine dining restaurant it may be one of the best in terms of quantity in town. They don’t stuff you like a pig, but they do take into fact that you came to eat dinner and what kind of people like to have a guest go away hungry? Not Urbane. They had 5 lovely pieces of Gnocchi. Enough time and bites to be able to enjoy this this wonderful dish. The next time I go back, if its still on the menu, I will be ordering it again.
For my main I had the rack of ribs. I also tried some of the pork belly from the B-Sider scrubs. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have the whole geographical layer of the pork belly at one time. I had the bottom part first and the top part second. When all eaten together its perfect. Each side got a big thumbs up from me though. But of course that was just the quick taster I had. What was really in front of me was the rack of lamb…as well as the side of chat potatoes and the other side of greens. The lamb was perfect. No other way to describe. Done perfectly medium rare I was given two full chops and two of the fillets that come with the chops separate. A hearty portion and done so perfectly. Each bite of the lamb meat was a melt in my mouth experience. The chat potatoes were seasoned and buttered perfectly as well and were the perfect companion for my lamb. To bring up a quote that probably has been used to generously in the past, but for this meal it is certainly deserved, this meal was better than fucking!
We didn’t do any dessert, but had a lovely Port along with Espresso’s with Frangelico.
Even hanging with the B-List you can still find an A+ Meal. That is my grade here. A+…the highest grade on my scale.