Xaviar's at Piermont

We hate going out to dinner on Valentine's Day because all of the people who don't usually go to restaurants invade and degrade my experience. I may be a curmudgeon, but I feel, on Valentine's Day, how an old regular must feel at his favorite pub on St. Patrick's Day with all of the drunk one timers crowded around his seat.

With that in mind, instead of going out on Valentine's Day, we had friends over. I roasted a chicken, sauteed a chiffonade of Brussel sprouts in bacon, prepared some wild rice, and ended the evening with a chocolate fondue. It could have been my favorite Valentine's Day in recent memory. We avoided the nitwits and enjoyed a nice meal with the people we love.

Which leads us to last night. Chrissie and I still wanted to celebrate our own personal Valentine's Day. We ate, not too long ago, at X2O, Peter Kelly's Yonkers restaurant, and had a great time. The food, the staff, and location were all spot on and the prices weren't nearly as high as I presumed they would have to be. To top off the evening, as we were leaving we walked through the bar to get a look at the view and I recognized Mr. Kelly, who was dining with a small group of people. I didn't want to be rude, so I merely gave him a nod of recognition. He immediately sprang from his chair, greeted me, and asked about dinner. I felt like he was a man who genuinely cared about his food and my enjoyment of it.

Our positive experience at X2O led us to seek reservations at Xaviar's for our belated Valentine's Day celebration. We wanted to go on Saturday night, but the seating times, six and nine, were either too early or too late for us, so we made a seven o'clock reservation for Sunday.

Upon arrival, we were seated and offered cocktails immediately. Before ordering I asked the waiter about wine pairings with dinner. He fliply told me that it could be done, but offered no information as he walked away. When he returned I ordered a cocktail and we asked about the chef's tasting menu. My questions were again met with gruff responses and minimal information. I was beginning to get upset. It's not like I was asking about substitutions, detailed ingredient lists, or specific cooking techniques employed. In fact, I was upselling myself and the waitstaff didn't seem to care one bit about my very simple needs.

That said, I can forgive a mediocre front of the house when good food begins coming my way from the back of the house. An amuse consisting of broiled salmon and avocado was presented. I found it very good. The fat of the avocado played wonderfully against the salmon.

After the initial presentation of food I persisted in finding out more about the chef's tasting menu. The waiter reluctantly agreed to tell me that it was ten courses and solely up to the discretion of the chef. He added that adjustments could be made for food allergies. We let him know that no modification would be necessary and I asked him to pair mine with wine.

Our meal began and I knew we were in for trouble when the first dish came out. For some reason I cannot fathom, the chef sent out a creamy spaghetti with crab meat. There was nothing delicate or introductory about this dish. Chrissie mentioned that it would not have been out of place at the Italian place down the street from our condo. To make matters worse, my wine pairing came halfway through the plate, which was large and took some time to eat. Adding insult to the timing of the wine, the waiter left my empty cocktail on the table and didn't bother to ask my wife if she needed another glass of wine as we began the meal. I got so annoyed that I eventually summoned the waiter, as he finished at a nearby table, and asked him to bring my wife another drink and to remove the cocktail glass that now stood next to an empty wine glass (our table had begun to look like we were using stemware as chess pieces).

The table was cleared, Chrissie's drink was refreshed, and I was ready, once again, to embrace optimism. Our next course came out, although the waiter presented it ambiguously as something special from the chef that was not a course. Confused, we ate what was a delicious scallop morsel served in a ceramic soup spoon. It turns out that the scallop was a course, but we only figured that out after counting at the end of the evening.

Our next plate was a yellow tail sashimi served with pear and a delicate foam. Had I not shown restraint, I could have easily finished the dish before my wine came. I was served a small glass of cold Sake. The dish should have been good, but we could not figure out if the chocolate flavor was a combination we were not sophisticated enough to appreciate or if someone had made a mistake in the kitchen.

Our first three dishes came out in rapid succession. We sat and waited a while for the next course. This would be a recurrent theme through the evening. The pace was incredibly random and seemed to have nothing to do with what was coming next or what the previous dish had been.

Our wait was rewarded by a piece of fish, I believe it was snapper, that was cruncy on top and buttery and moist on the bottom. Our reward was short lived when the starch the fish was served on tasted incredibly similar to the cream sauce from the spaghetti course that randomly began our meal.

By this point I was starting to give up on the evening. Our next presentation was a foie gras foam. It was tasty, but if I am eating foie gras, I want to experience the texture and this was taken away from me. This was followed by a chicken dish that was literally some slices of chicken. It was well cooked and the sauce was fantastic, but we are talking about the kitchen of a man who won on Iron Chef and has the only 29 in the Westchester Zagat. I can't imagine why the chef decided to send out sliced chicken to represent himself on his tasting menu. Much of our meal felt as if the chef sent out whatever he had left over after preparing someone else's dish.

By the time the lamb dish came I was excited to have something tastefully presented that made sense in the order of plates. The conclusion of the meal began with a very nice apple sorbet and was followed by a sampling of four desserts.

Through dinner we were served by no fewer than three waiters, only one of whom was in any way polite, informative, or appropriate. The others ranged from distant to rude, simply putting down plates without the fanfare associated with an unknown tasting menu. Only the one competent waiter spent any time at our table side explaining the dishes and wines in any detail and with any enthusiasm. I can imagine asking my staff to be incredibly formal, but if that is the case they should not break character to insult my wife by commenting on how much food she ate.

High points- Everything was cooked well and the sauces were very flavorful (though it seemed we saw a few of them, with minor adjustments, more than once). The wines were paired very well and were on par for the price of the pairing (although I can't imagine why they were continually served well after the food).

Low points- The tasting menu made very little sense and was not of a quality I would expect from a restaurant this highly decorated. The front of the house was crass and I was actually insulted at some points by the presentations from the bar and kitchen. To put how negative my feelings are into perspective, we've eaten tasting menus at Gary Danko in San Francisco, Etoile at Chandon in Napa, Le Bernardin and Jean-Georges in Manhattan, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Equus in Westchester. Not every dish we've ever eaten has been perfect. Not every waiter has been helpful and kind. I'll even say that some meals have been more disappointing than sublime, but this is the first time we ever left a great restaurant and didn't at least understand the philosophy and respect the attempt.

Will we go back?

Judging the restaurant through the lens of one evening makes me question all of the accolades Xaviar's has received. Was last night a random convergence of events that singularly could be overlooked, but collectively left me very angry, or is Xaviar's simply overrated by Zagat readers who have a higher tolerance for mediocrity than they should and a press who is afraid of looking out of touch? I'll have to say that, until I hear differently from a source I trust, Xaviar's is officially on the list. Although Xaviar's is currently banned, I would not hesitate to return to X2O.

Xaviar's is located at:
506 Piermont Avenue
Piermont, NY 10968