Most expensive restaurant meal you've had

[bedstuy]

What's the most expensive restaurant meal you've had, your share and total check?

[bedstuy]

For me, it was $5000 for a party of 6, with my share being something like $700.  Thank God I didn't pick up the check, no dinner is worth $700.

[bedstuy]

For me, it was $5000 for a party of 6, with my share being something like $700.  Thank God I didn't pick up the check, no dinner is worth $700.

At that price, I hope that included an ownership interest in the restaurant or at least a solid gold commemorative keepsake.  I'm a cheapskate who thinks no dinner is worth over $25 and prefers to keep it cheaper than that.

It was a $310 tasting menu, but I had the wagyu beef as a supplement which was an extra $100.  Then, the wine pairings were about $300 per person for the meal.  I also had a cocktail that was $30 or so.

[bedstuy]

Most I ever paid? $82 not too long ago at P.J. Clarke's. Raw oysters and clams, a lobster roll, cheesecake, and an Irish coffee. Well worth the cost, although it usually comes out to less there- like $60. I blame the fact I'd finally made it to the opera that night and the waitress was also very attractive.

Most expensive? Probably at the Capital Grille in Boston on the occasion of my cousin's graduation from MIT, last year, the steak I had was $40 or so on top of appetizers and dessert, with some 12-15 of us, and their wine considered, I'd expect it to be upwards of $2500. I might have spent more at Delmonico's on my birthday a few weeks back- I had an entree of $45 Lobster Newburg (and a rather tough one at that!) plus some oysters, bread pudding, and Madeira. Probably like $90, but I was forcibly prevented from seeing the check, much less paying.

Bedstuy, Eleven Madison Park or Per Se?

Per Se.  Although, I've been to both.  I wasn't a huge fan of Eleven Madison Park. 

I actually think Momofuku Ko is my favorite restaurant in NYC. 

[bedstuy]

Yeah, I did the tasting menu at EMP.  In my experience, the tasting menu at any Michelin star restaurant is going to make you drunk and sick.  But, it's a cool experience to try good caviar, wagyu beef, 1968 madeira. and such.   

But, only a chump or a super rich person pays for these fancy NYC restaurants.  It's all about getting making super rich friends and mooching off of them.

[bedstuy]

Yeah, I did the tasting menu at EMP.  In my experience, the tasting menu at any Michelin star restaurant is going to make you drunk and sick.  But, it's a cool experience to try good caviar, wagyu beef, 1968 madeira. and such.   

But, only a chump or a super rich person pays for these fancy NYC restaurants.  It's all about getting making super rich friends and mooching off of them.

I once ate at... Aureole? I think that's starred, it was a la carte however. Not terrible, not the best I've ever had, however. As for mooching off of friends, I tell my friend (who's an analyst at Merrill Lynch this summer) that we'll all go out to EMP once I get out of grad school and he's a MD at Goldman. Or something of that sort.

I remember gossiping at some Republican event, apparently the chairman of the NYU Republicans once declared his favourite restaurant to be Per Se, as per a girl at Fordham. Now this chairman is the son of a fairly well-known billionaire... but I mean, Per Se? Surely your "favourite" is something more... conventional. I mean, sure, my favourite restaurant might not be the one I go to most often (otherwise it'd be Tom's Restaurant, of Seinfeld fame, which happens to be at the end of my block), but it's not going to be the super fancy one I go to every now and then. Which would be P.J. Clarke's. But to each his own I suppose.

If you're the chairman of College of Republicans at NYU and your Pops is a billionaire, I think you're expected to be an obnoxious prick. 

I will say, the other patrons at Per Se were so hilariously wealthy.  As a middle class kid, I just marvel at the deliberate, manicured, pretentious dignity of that kind of rich person.  They seem almost sad and lifeless, like people hired to be extras in a movie about rich people.  That said, Per Se is an amazing restaurant.

On the point of favorite restaurants, I think you hint at a real distinction.  Your favorite restaurant ought to be about the whole experience, which is more about the company you have shared there.  It should be somewhere you had an amazing date or a late night meal with drunk college friends.  If you're 21 and that place is Per Se, your life is sad.