Many restaurants can get 4 or 5 stars without it saying much. There are too many reviewers with different taste. Michelin inspectors follow very specific guidelines in order to rate the foods. They take into account presentation as well as creativity, which creates a very special dinning experience.
There are only 1900 restaurants world wide who received a single star, and only 81 who received three stars. USA has 11 three stared, and 7 of them are in New York.
If you ever dined in a Michelin rated restaurant (especially two and three stars) you will notice that there isn't really a menu. These restaurants offer what is called Omakase / Tasting menu that is up for the chef to decide what you will have, and how it is prepared. At times you may be allowed to choose from different combinations with a common theme, but essentially the only thing you need to do is eat, pay, and of course, take pictures.
After trying many of the different restaurants in Buffalo me and my friend decided to try Mike Andrzejewski's new place which opened up at the Lafayette Hotel. What drew us there the most was the tasting menu which allows you to try 10 different pre-selected courses.
It started with a little teaser: Radish and Butter.
You would think its not a good combination, but the teaser shows you what the chefs can do. It wasn't solid butter. The butter was aerated which made it more like whipped cream, and the radish was partially candied which gave it a sweeter flavor then normal.
Our next course was the Smoke & Genever Poached Salmon.
It may not sound very special but right as we got the plate we noticed the presentation of it. It was displayed beautifully with different colors complementing each other.
The smoke and genever were actually in a sauce form. Each dip gave the salmon a new life. By itself it is very similar to sashimi grade salmon, but the sauce gave it character that can be found in a smoked salmon/lox bagel.
This was followed by the Grilled Oysters Rockefeller.
I am a huge raw oyster fan, so I was not too thrilled by them being grilled.
Its hard to tell from the picture how it actually looked because the bowl was deep in a weird way that conflicted with the cameras flash at any other angle.
The oysters were very lightly grilled. They came "tossed" with a little bit of bacon and bread crumbs, but the "jus" it came with in my opinion should've remained more for decoration. It was a mint-parsley jus which to me, was too heavy on the mint.
Next was one of my favorites.
It was the Wagyu Beef Tartare with a raw quail egg.
Beef tartate is more of a hate it or love it thing. It is basically raw beef mixed with spices. The beef they used is Australian Wagye cattle which is the closet thing to the highly regarded Japanese Kobe Beef. I personally loved this dish. The beef melted right in your mouth, and the pine nuts gave it a different texture; a nice crunch which prevented it from being too "mushy" as one may say.
Next was the Veal Loin Oscar.
Unlike other typical dishes that are "Oscar" here it was a solid chunk of a crab leg.
The béarnaise sauce was also aerated with the horseradish already blended. It was still a little too creamy/thick and the horseradish flavor wasn't as strong, but the asparagus was very crisp in flavor as it was also sauté with horseradish.
The Pork Confit was one of my favorite out of the Entrees.
Confit is basically slow cooking of food in animal fat. The source of fat in this case was bacon/belly fat. It was so flavorful and the truffled chestnuts complimented it so well. It was also accompanied by a mustered-truffle sauce, which was not as tangy as regular mustered. It was more muted which helped it blend with the rest.
We were then served another appetizer which was the best one in my opinion.
It wasn't originally on the Omakase menu but they ran out of the agnolotti.
Roasted Bone Marrow on the bone.
Many countries/restaurants that have a more "farm style" approach to food tend to serve steaks with the bone, and either do something to the bone marrow, or serve it as is with the bone chucked like an oyster. The bone marrow came with the bone. It was lightly seasoned even though it may seem to be packed with ingredients. It was served with parsley online and a little bit of banana peppers.
It was served with a toast and some pickles and is meant to be used as a replacement for butter.
One of the "pride" dishes at Mike A's is their take on the French onion soup.
Their version is an Onion Soup Croquette with Aerated Emmental.
They take the broth and jellify it so it can be breaded and fried into a croquette.
Once cut, the soup pours out of the breading. The aerated cheese blends perfectly with the soup and makes it much easier to have a "spoonful of both" without strings of cheese hanging everywhere.
The grande finale was the Kobe beef Tenderloin accompanied with "Smoke", Nori Gaufrette, and Gorgonzola.
Kobe beef comes from a cow that is unique to Kobe in Japan.
It is a lot more marbled and tender then regular beef and the fat melts at lower temperature, which makes it much more flavorful and tender to eat. The "Smoke" was actually a darker sauce as seen in the picture. It literally had a flavor of what "smoke" off woodchips smells like.
The chips that came with it are not potato. They were actually made from Nori which is a seaweed.
Excellent dish. It was my favorite out of the Entrees.
I unfortunately don't have pictures of the desserts, but they were good. Nothing spectacular or mind blowing.
Overall it was a great experience. I went there few more times after and tried few other dishes that were not on the menu. The dishes change very often so doing the Omakase again is something I definitely consider on doing.
I recommend going there for lunch. I had one of the best burgers I had in buffalo.
it is called the Fxxk California Burger, and I had it topped with Foie Gras:
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