Andy L.
Yelp
Let me tell you about the worst $600 I've ever spent.
For my birthday, I responded to an email from Knife advertising "the whiskey event of the summer"--a five course meal featuring wagyu beef and Japanese whiskey pairings. Booking in advance cost over $500 for two people. My expectations were somewhat high. When we showed up, we were ushered into a very loud, very crowded room with communal seating and forced to sit across from each other. We were each much closer to the person next to us on either side than we were to each other and it was impossible to talk to one another without leaning over the table and shouting. This festive element was not mentioned anywhere in the promotional email.
It was immediately apparent that additional drinks would be needed, since everyone already there was ordering bottles of wine, Moscow mules, and martinis. Odd for a tasting menu with curated pairings but okay, it's north Texas, let's party. I followed the wisdom of the crowd and threw down an additional $100+ just to make the night bearable. Incidentally, the server(??), who had to be flagged down and seemed understandably annoyed to be there, claimed they had no cocktail onions for a martini. Later, at the bar, that would turn out to be false.
We were treated to what I can only describe as the most bizarre and absurdly bad PowerPoint presentation of all time, presented by a woman who had clearly never seen any of the words before and admittedly could not (and often just would not) pronounce anything in Japanese. The "pairings" were actually very very small tasting-sized sips of mediocre whiskey and there was no apparent rhyme or reason to their selection for a particular dish. The entire scene had the feel of an extremely badly run industry event or a timeshare sales pitch. The food was just okay and the portions were, of course, also very small--fine, it's a tasting menu. I guess. It seemed more like just micro portions of ordinary food from a corporate hotel bar. I've been to a number of tasting menus with pairings in the DFW area and never had anything like this experience. I abhor communal seating and avoid every place that I know has it. I have never been offered a meal with bland "pairings" that were one or two sips. I've never been forced to watch a PowerPoint(!), let alone a long presentation that would get a failing grade in middle school. If I'd had any clue what this event would be like, I would've immediately unsubscribed from the email list rather than dropping hundreds on it.
If this event had been free, I would still not recommend it to anyone. For the price of a very nice Michelin starred omakase dinner in New York, it's unbelievable just how bad this was. I wanted to walk out before we were even seated, but my companion encouraged me to stay for the story. Ultimately, it was a night I will never forget.
Save your money. Do not go here. Ever.