i really want to like so.
i have dined at so four or five times in the last two years. i might have dined there more, but the price rather limits it to a "once in a while"/special occasion restaurant. all of my visits to so have been with the same friend, and all have been on sunday evenings, as it is one of the few upscale places open in lr on sunday night.
i will say that i generally love the ambience at so, and the laid-back but knowledgeable vibe that the staff has always given. at our previous visits, the food has always been good, and at times great. on our most recent visit though, there were definitely more lows than highs. and the things that were disappointing were such that if they were not understood by the staff even before serving them that something was amiss, then my saying something about it probably would have just been seen as griping rather than a constructive or legitimate complaint.
the first point was that we both started with a manhattan, made with makers mark, and served up. the drinks were presented beautifully and well chilled, but upon tasting them, they were seriously dry, whereas any standard manhattan is a fairly sweet although strong drink. it did not taste like just a lack of the normal amount of sweet vermouth, but almost as though these drinks were actually a perfect manhattan, with half sweet and half dry vermouth, which is another cocktail altogether.
for our appetizer, we ordered the seafood fondue, which we have ordered every time we have dined at so, and tonight was possibly actually the best dish of this fondue we have had there. i would offer one note about the fondue though; there is never enough bread to finish it when it is served, and when you request more bread from the waitstaff, it takes so long to carefully warm the delicious little loaf of bread that the rest of the fondue is cold by the time the bread to finish it arrives at the table. this has been the chain of events every time we have eaten the fondue.
then we ordered a bottle of wine. so is known for having an extensive and impressivewinelist, but the same thing happened on this visit that has happened at least once or twice before, that the bottle ofwinewe ordered was not in stock. the waitstaff is always happy to make another suggestion for wine, even at the same price point, and of the same style of wine. thewinewe ended up with was by no means a disappointment, but it seems like it might make more sense to have a smallerwinelist of things to actually keep in stock.
then we both ordered the chicken pontalba, which i believe might have been a new addition to the menu since the last time we had been there. i was looking forward to enjoying their take on this traditional new orleans classic, and i always love a good béarnaise, which is getting more and more rare to find in a restaurant. we certainly did not find it on this dish. when it arrived, the chicken was actually very nicely prepared and crispy, with the garnish of mushrooms and ham and tomatoes, but the béarnaise sauce was not the rich delicate emulsion that one would expect, but rather an oil slick poured over everything on the plate. the béarnaise had obviously broken at some point along the way, and any employee in that restaurant who knew what a béarnaise is supposed to be should never have brought our plates to the table.
lastly, we ordered the strawberries and cream crème brûlée. the most exciting part of any crème brûlée is the glassy sugar on top, that you should be able to hear break when you crunch through it with your spoon. this desert had obviously just been barely torched or put under the broiler at all, as the sugar on top was still granular, rather than glassy or caramelized in any way. also, my dining companion was surprised when he got to the last bite to find barely a teaspoon worth of strawberry jam in the bottom of the dish, because he had forgotten about the strawberry part of the description, and thought he was just eating a regular vanilla crème brûlée. both of us actually liked it better before we tasted the strawberry jam.
i do not mind paying a high price tag for a fine dining experience, but when i do choose to pay that price, i expect and hope that things will be as they should be. the manhattan, béarnaise, and crème brûlée that we were served on this last visit to so certainly, and sadly, did not reach that mark.