How Many Bells for Little Fish
Posted by Foobooz on February 6th, 2009
Craig LaBan visits Little Fish on the heels of the tiny restaurant’s national accolades. Does he come to heave more praise or to pop a hole in the national hoopla?
How many bells for Little Fish?
- 3 Bells (60%)
- 2 Bells (32%)
- 4 Bells (7%)
- 0 Bells (0%)
- 1 Bell (0%)
Total Votes: 81
Loading ...Related Tags: Bella-Vista, Craig-LaBan, Little-Fish, Poll
February 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
i’m glad you started this. it’s like Bruni Betting , maybe you could call it laban lotto or bell betting.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
if he doesn’t give them 3 bells or more, i’m never taking his reviews seriously again!
haha – i vote laban lotto. that’s awesome!
February 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
You can’t take his reviews seriously now! 3 bells to Melograno means he equates the Melograno Italian to the same three bells he gave Marc Vetri at Osteria. Melograno is not bad, but it does not compare to Osteria. Then he gives two bells to Meme which clearly deserves 3. The review of Meme spoke highly of the food throughout, he mentioned one simple service misstep and thinks that should knock it down to 2 Bells. Don’t even get me started on how Laban loves anything Stephen Starr does, and the food & service at his places is the last focus in a Starr restaurant with the exception of Morimoto.
Craig Laban is not on the same level as Frank Bruni as far as having culinary knowledge, or with regard to giving his readers a true gauge of a restaurants worth.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
LF gets the deuce. I did vote for 2 bells too. I think that laban has a tough time giving little byos more then 2 bells. You have to remember that he is judging the restaurant as a whole. With philly having so many byo I think that a lot of restaurants don’t even consider wine and beverage service and a lot of Chefs, servers, and owners never really have to incorporate this part of the ‘dining experience’ in to what they do. Food, service, atmosphere, Beverage are the keys to dining.
As for Starr, Laban gets spotted. He talked about it in the Parc review. I also think that Starr doesn’t want to create a 4 bell place. But i will say that morimoto, buddhakhan, and barclay have great food, service, even if the atmosphere is the priority. And Starr and now Garces are doing things on a grander level which i feel can garner higher marks. My point is that a 23 seat byo better have the most amazing and consistent food I ever had. Butcher and Singer will get a deuce possibly 3 if it is really good when he visits. What is the difference between B&S vs. Del Frisco’s? I am curious of Laban’s view of that.
Maybe I am missing something but it is a pain in the neck to search out the restaurants by rating on the philly.com site. Any help?
Laban has influenced the restaurant scene in philly and I am curious of his take on that. And Also i feel that it will be a long time until we get another 4 bell place in the city.
Getting back to the beverage part. I think that plcb advertise so much now with philly.com that the writers can never really write anything critical of the effect of wine and beverage in the dining scene in the city. It is a big influence on the business side of restaurants. i guess this another conversation for another day.
One last thought. What really is the difference between 2 bells and 3 bells?
February 9th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
the difference between 2 and 3 bells: are you asking us our opinion, or was that figuratively? if i’d created the 0 – 4 bell scale, i would rate standard BYOBs (and by standard i mean good – rare do i experience a bad BYOB) 2 bells, and exceptional ones 3 bells. i would probably need to visit little fish a few more times than i have to try a more diverse sampling of the menu, but nothing i’ve had thus far would detract from a 4-bell rating. everything i’ve had has been simply outstanding – though i am guilty of ordering the same things time and time again, and one of the things i ADORE is that sea salt encrusted scallop app. oh, and the key lime pie… it was better than a lot of versions i’ve had in FL. decadent.
it’s really hard to rate big starr-like places on the same scale as the BYOs where the level of detail usually stands out… often i don’t enjoy the big places as much because the dishes are not as thoughtful. that said, distrito and tinto would both get 3 bells if i had my way. (distrito did get 3, didn’t it?)
as for laban, there’s a pic of him in the parc kitchen. he would do well to strategically join his dining companions at the restaurant after the order has been placed.