L'AUBERGE CARMEL

L'AUBERGE CARMEL
MONTE VERDE STREET AT 7TH AVENUE
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, CA  93923
831-624-8578
www.laubergecarmel.com

Oh...what a mistake this was.  I was warned by my Wife not to book reservations at L'Auberge in Carmel but after reading rave reviews I just had to try this place just once.  One review stated that a woman's last dinner request would be at L'Auberge if she could only eat one more meal in her life.  Another said it was the best meal of their lives.  Our experience and feeling about this meal was quite different.  Simply stated it was one of the most expensive and worst dinners of my life.  And before you get on your fine dining high horse and tell me that I don't know good food let me tell you that I have dined at places like this throughout America and in Europe.  There is no ambiance at $150 per plate minimum as you are seated in a very small room very close to other diners.  In fact everyone pretty much stares at one another and you can her conversations two tables over.  Kind of hard to have a romantic or quiet dinner in this small room.  The service is robotic with the wait staff going through the motions of delivering and describing each course.  From the time you sit down the staff tries to up sell your $150 dinner.  The Cheese Plate for additional $28 and Japanese Beef for an additional $40 per ounce or something stupid like that.  When I am paying $150 for dinner the last thing I want is the waiter trying to up sell Japanese Beef instead of what I am already paying big money for.  As for the $28 per person cheese, they should have thrown it in to add some substance to the minuscule portions.  I know this is a tasting menu and the portions are supposed to be small, but c'mon you do need some food.  My Wife ordered bread three times just to get some food in her stomach during the meal.  The first few small bites were ok but not great and then we wanted some food.  When the beef course arrived and it was two mini pieces of meat that was unseasoned and pretty tasteless I got a little pissed.  Throw in the fact that I ordered the Reserve Wine Pairing for an ADDITIONAL $175 and they served me a local wine from up the road and I was livid.  Then came the dessert of some kind of chocolate with disgusting berries and cucumber ice cream.  Yes Cucumber fucking ice cream with chocolate and bitter berries.  This dish was a mess of textures and flavors.  We left quite disappointed and wished we would have just gone to In n' Out Burger.  

L'AUBERGE CARMEL