Your most expensive restaurant bill?

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by Rambo

Seriously? Who in their right mind would willing pay $8 - 10000 for a bottle of wine?

Well, the real question is, can a California wine really be that good?

ot, but I lived in the same town as Stanley Kroenke for awhile; that whole family has a weird white man hoop dreams thing going on. Always saw his son at school wearing his sweatpants with one leg bunched up, some white AF1's; the kid was the richest heir in America and he looked not unlike the white kids I went to high school with in ghetto. You'd expect some level of eccentricity but I guess white trash is hard to get out of the blood in just a couple generations.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by styleme_now

what is screaming eagle?

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Screaming Eagle is a winery in Napa Valley. It's a cult cab. Produced in small quantities (under 600 cases a year) and very highly sought after because of its quality. Prices can be astronomical.

Originally Posted by dragon8

About $1100 a bottle if you can get it.



Do you remember the name of the place?

I excluded expense account meals in my post earlier. If we're going expense account meals, I've had someone pop for Sreagle a couple of times. Last time was about two summers ago, think it was 1.8k for the bottle.

 

[Manton]

I have had this (I think) twice, at someone's home both times, and while I must admit it was very good, I simply could not see what makes it so much more expensive than other wines that are every bit as good and arguably more balanced and complex.

If I were to make an insane, unjustifiable wine purchase, I would be way more likely to spring for Petrus or a DRC than this.

 

[Joe E Taleo]

$600 for two at Daniel. We both got the wine pairings, which was so worth it. We also spent a similar amount at a kaiseki place in Kyoto this past spring.

I'm finding though that my taste is simplifying. I think a good dry-aged steak and a ballin' bottle of wine would suit me better than anything else nowadays. Actually, the steak doesn't even have to be dry-aged. We ate at l'entrecote in Paris a few years back, and that steak was totally satisfying. So yeah, a couple of $50 steaks and a $400 bottle of wine would be a well spent $600 for two (including tip).

 

[impolyt_one]

$600 doesn't buy me **** in South Korea. truth.

$1200 wouldn't buy me ****. I bought hamburgers and wine one night this summer, for 3, and the bill was close to $750. If I got on a plane to Tokyo, smuggled back a $300 grocery basket + some wine and dropped it off with people with enough skills, then maybe, but that'd still cost me a grand or two.

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

$600 doesn't buy me **** in South Korea. truth.

$1200 wouldn't buy me ****. I bought hamburgers and wine one night this summer, for 3, and the bill was close to $750.
If I got on a plane to Tokyo, smuggled back a $300 grocery basket + some wine and dropped it off with people with enough skills, then maybe, but that'd still cost me a grand or two.

The first time I went to East Asia I was terrified about the food prices. But people showed me where to go and I ate very well for the mid-two figures per person. (Not just ramen either.) The only time really got socked was having Kobe beef, but I knew what I was in for and just wanted the experience.

Is SK really that crazy now?

 

[Joe E Taleo]

Originally Posted by Manton

The first time I went to East Asia I was terrified about the food prices. But people showed me where to go and I ate very well for the mid-two figures per person. (Not just ramen either.) The only time really got socked was having Kobe beef, but I knew what I was in for and just wanted the experience.

Is SK really that crazy now?

I think Impolyt brings up a good point. The Seoul I know is a place where you can eat for extremely low prices, and get bombed out of your head with soju for less than ten bucks. The Seoul he knows is the one of robber barons and celebrities. There seems to be very little in-between.

 

[shoreman1782]

Originally Posted by RSS

At Gramercy Tavern in New York ... after I ordered a $125 bottle of wine ... the waiter returned to say they were out of the bottle. He recommended "a similar" wine that he felt we would like. I agreed. Later I discovered his "similar" bottle was $600. I refused to pay more than 1.5x the price of the original bottle ... and the management sided with me.

Speaking of wine ... it's about time to dress and get to cocktails.

He must have taken you for a real baller.


I think our bill for two at Volt in Frederick Md was about $425 or so. I don't see myself spending more than that on a meal, ever.

 

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by Manton

The first time I went to East Asia I was terrified about the food prices. But people showed me where to go and I ate very well for the mid-two figures per person. (Not just ramen either.) The only time really got socked was having Kobe beef, but I knew what I was in for and just wanted the experience.

Is SK really that crazy now?

Originally Posted by Joe E Taleo

I think Impolyt brings up a good point. The Seoul I know is a place where you can eat for extremely low prices, and get bombed out of your head with soju for less than ten bucks. The Seoul he knows is the one of robber barons and celebrities. There seems to be very little in-between.

lil bit of both (old $10 is now $15 btw) but you get sick of that **** the minute you can afford to, because good old cravings kick in, and rice and cabbage can not tide over a man for a lifetime.
Anything nice costs real money, about double what you're used to, and that's not guaranteeing the content will be any good.
Pierre Gagnaire has a place here, his prix fixe is about $250/head plus $250/head more for wine; I've done it for two and I've done Tokyo restaurants that promise similar things, and there is no comparison. There is no value in Korea for anything resembling fine dining. There is value in grilled pork belly and kimchi, and distilled rice wine, and nothing else. That is good and well if you visit for 3 days or a week, but not befitting a place you want to live in for an extended period of time (and I've lived here 8 years now)

Our plastic bags at the supermarket (5c deposit here, btw) are the same size as anywhere else, but to fill one with your average supermarket buys will surpass $50 easily, and $100 if you try hard by adding cheese and charcuterie. It's a strange feeling to walk home from the supermarket with just two plastic bags worth $200, but it's been done week after week. $6 for a head of celery here, $10 for 8 slices of prosciutto, $15 for 150g of cheese, $5 head of iceberg lettuce, **** be expensive here.

Patriotism is obviously huge here, so the populace is brainwashed into thinking that domestically grown everything is better; we export almost nothing beyond green bell peppers to Japan to cheap chain restaurants there, though. It's a real shame, because home-grown sucks ass here. They're beginning to tout Korean beef as something equal to Japanese beef and a mere glance will tell you it's not, not even, but it costs nearly the same, or more. That can be $20/3oz or more for the steaks, a good steak can be $50 at the supermarket.
Anyway, blah, blah, blah, rant, I have the most painstakingly assembled kitchen, pantry, and fridge in this country, and I know that for almost fact, because half of it was sent and smuggled in from overseas in personal packages or bought at black market places (just spent $7 on McCormick cream of tartar in the small canister), but it's still nothing at all for preparing food properly. THAT is fucked up, and it cost thousands of dollars.

 

[Manton]

I feel for you dude.

 

[impolyt_one]

Drinking some Miller Lite ($3/can) to you dudes right now in a very very weak attempt at solidarity. It might cost a milli to get there, but I don't want to die in the imminent nuclear holocaust knowing I didn't eat and drink as well as I could have.

 

[impolyt_one]

I ate the turkey buffet last night at the Hilton for $70/head for 7 btw, tax in about $500 that I signed for; I know food well enough to know that the homeless shelters across America were getting the basics of turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy down better than I had last night, and that **** was free. Pretty sure they spilled some clam broth in the McCormick brown gravy powder mix they were serving, because that **** was not meant for Thanksgiving consumption.

Hope you guys in the free world had better gravy.

 

[Manton]

If it makes you feel any better, I made a sauce which sucked and then made a makeshift gravy to compensate, which was just OK.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Not sure. I don't feel comfortable spending more than $200 or so on wine, which limits my overall costs. Not that I won't do it, but I won't do it comfortably, and I won't spend more than double that ever (this is total, not per bottle. I like to spend less than $100/bottle unless there is some special reason.) Also, I don't have much of a love for wine pairings, so given my own choice, I won't do it unless it is the only reasonable option (did at Alinea recently, did not like the pairings.) So, still not sure how much is the most, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't compare to some of the bigger hitters on here.

 

[Manton]

I ordered a $165 bottle this summer and it made me feel guilty. But I had to have it.