KGB - Kitchen Galerie Bis

No English menus here but the waiter happily offered to translate the menu (even though I told him I could myself) for my dining companion whose French skills are lacking (lets call him "DC") and asked me to correct him if he messed up, which, he actually did a pretty good job of although in the typical French accent. Of course my eyes are always bigger than my stomach and at first I wanted to just get entree-sized pasta until DC claimed he wasnt "that hungry" and was going to go just for a set of 6 hors d'oeuvres, until the waiter said that probably wouldn't be enough since they are tiny and so I made DC get some pasta too, at least in appetizer-size form, and then decided that if he was having 2 courses, I should as well so I went for the 4 hors d'oeuvres set but forgot to downgrade my pasta to appetizer-size. After that I had to endure the suffering of wanting to eat all my pasta but not being able to (I left 3 pieces...)

The hors d'oeuvres are more the size of amuse-bouches, and they change regularly (or so I hear). The day we went, the set of 6 consisted of (clockwise starting with the white foamy thing):

:

- Duck gyoza with tonka bean, vanilla and lemongrass sauce - this was delicious and I could have eaten 5 of these. And did you know tonka beans are banned in the US because they contain coumarin, which is moderately toxic to the liver and kidneys? Yea, I eat dangerously!  
- Sea bass ceviche with fried ginger - this was good but I'm not a huge fan of ceviche so I only ate two pieces  
- Beef croquette - I didn't like this at all; I think they used all parts of the cow in here, which was later confirmed SC who said they use tongue in it, although I like tongue
- Poached lobster
- Some other kind of ceviche  
- White bean soup with carrots and parsley foam - while the flavor of the parsley definitely shone, the flavor was alright

Then we both got the pasta with beef confit, eggplant and teriyaki jus. It didn't come as advertised (I had this problem at Ze Kitchen Galerie, its sister restaurant, as well). 

There was no eggplant to be seen, and in its place were some halved cherry tomatoes, chopped peanuts, scallions, basil and dill fronds. Regardless, this was some of the best pasta I'd eaten at a restaurant! The pasta itself was perfectly al dente and had a pleasant chew to it, the meat was super tender and flavorful and the veggies added a good contrast. Would go back if just for that pasta dish...

And, like I said, eyes bigger than stomach so dessert was not in order here, unfortunately. However, a short walk away (walking off that pasta...) was Pierre Herme which I couldn't say no to (one never says no to Pierre Herme). 

Olive oil and vanilla, apricot and saffron, creme brulee and chocolate and cassis this time around.