How was it??
Expensive - $350 per person with wine pairing, tip and tax. We knew that coming in but everybody in our group of 4 would go to Providence for that price point.
Immaculate presentation. See pictures.
Wine pairings were great for the most part. Did not enjoy the sherry which overpowered the dish it was paired with. The other wines and sake were excellent.
Our favorite dishes were the orichette, Korean style waygu beef with radish kimchee and spot prawns with radish and 4 types of herbs.
We were not full after the meal but it was enough food for 9 courses. We were glad we went but not sure we’d go back. The service was warm, attentive and some of the best we’ve experienced at any restaurant. I have a copy of the menu at home I’ll upload later .
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Thanks for the report.
I’m going next month to garlic, but I don’t think I’ll do the wine pairing, which will help bring the cost down a bit. Even before I can say that I’d probably rather go to Providence (I’ve actually never been), but the reservation is a gift for the garlic lover in my life. That said, I went for the carrot menu earlier this year and thought it was great.
How do you feel the menu did highlighting the radish?
If my pistachio experience was anything to go by your garlic-lover may be somewhat disappointed. But garlic is more potent than pistachios as well I suppose.
I think 2 of the dishes really highlighted the flavors of radish. Funny enough these were 2 of my least favorite. But I think radish is a tough ingredient to highlight because of its sharpness. If you had to guess what the ingredient was in the 3 best dishes (orchiette, spot prawn and bulgogi) you would have never guessed radish.
Completely forgot that I had made a Maude reservation, so it came as a nice surprise to have the garlic menu last night.
What can be said about Maude that hasn’t already been said by other posters? The presentation is a grand spectacle, the service is great and the food is fine-to-good-to-great, but there seems to be something stopping it from being completely satisfying meal. Perhaps it’s in the concept itself. By laying out a 12 month calendar of hero ingredients and devoting an entire month’s menu to dishes inspired by a single key ingredient, it sets expectations very high that you will be treated to the best that the ingredient has to offer. But in execution, it seems that the menu is more focused on being clever.
For instance, arguably the most visually interesting dish of the night was the Spring Garlic (third & fourth picture below), which also happened to be the dud of the night. It was confused. I was confused. This whole courtroom is confused!
There just seems to be something off at Maude. It’s a place where the bathroom has wonderful Aesop soap/lotion and two vintage copies of Playboy and an ornately folded corsage of hand towels that wilt into a pile of rags when you attempt to pull one out to dry your hands. It’s all a bit forced.
But what do I know? Not much. I mean, in fairness, I still would say that I had a good meal. They obviously know how to cook with great technique. It’s just maybe not as good as I hoped a garlic menu could be. And considering the price point, it’s tough to say that I’ll be heading back any time soon.
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Re: Maude - I think the very fact that there is a theme ingredient (which more or less has to be adhered to for each dish) forces the chefs to “tie one hand behind their back” in terms of the cooking. The very concept which was originally intended as a catalyst for innovation has now become a hinderance which prevents the true potential of that kitchen from shining through at its brightest.
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Peanut butter or bacon would be the bee’s knees for this concept - I don’t see that happening.
This is exactly how we felt with the radish month meal at Maude. For the price point I can think of several other places we’d go to instead like Providence, Cut, several sushi places and still have some money left over.
At what point are Maude’s relative failures related to ingredient choice? I went for corn in their first year, back when they had reservations on OpenTable, and it was fantastic. Probably my favorite LA tasting menu place to date. But with corn they were able to take so many different approaches. I just wonder if radish or pistachio is too constraining…
I was at their fig meal last summer and it was wonderful.
I’m going next week. This article is written in such an odd fashion. I was hoping to get some real insight into the menu, but it doesn’t really deliver. Let’s see what happens. My first and only meal at Maude was lackluster at best. Hope springs eternal!
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Saw the menu on IG for October, kinda underwhelmed tbh
I agree about this article. I wasn’t sure if it was talking about dishes on the October menu, past dishes they liked and wanted to include, or just dishes they’ve made in general.
Maude switching over to a quarterly wine region inspired tasting menu instead of ingredient specific. Could be pretty cool I guess since the menu won’t be limited to incorporating a single ingredient on every dish. Having said that, I find it a bit ironic given that in my 3 meals there, I found their wine program to be the weakest part of the restaurant.
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Had their greatest hit’s menu last night, should be renamed their greatest disappointment menu. Will post pics if I have time, although they arent too clear because of the lighting. Will continue updating if I have time.
Chicory: Caviar, endive, scallop
Fig: Lamb, tomato, tarragon, feta
Lamb tasted like a piece of rubber and was stuck in my teeth
Chili: Egg, fresno, russet potato, sour cream
Needed salt and salsa tasted store bought 
Beet: Brook trout, cucumber, nettles
Almond: loaf chanterelles beets, romesco
S/o and I agreed this was the worst dish from almond month, not sure how they came to choose this. Think licking the floor of a Chinese herbal store.
Beet: Borscht, bone marrow, bristket, dill
Citrus: Duck egg, swiss chard, smoke
Radish: Bulgogi, cucumber, kimchi
Toughest piece of “wagyu” I have had, the bulgogi flavor was worst than AYCE kbbq places.
Apple: Harbison, whiskey bread butter
Pomegranate: Coconut and malt
Passionfruit: Yerba mate pavlova, cocoa nib, curd
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