Restaurant Latour at Crystal Springs Resort

This past weekend Alan, myself, Susan, Rich, Mary & Steve went up to Crystal Springs Golf & Spa Resort in lovely Hamburg, NJ to eat, drink and be merry. During our stay we made reservations to have dinner at the highly rated, Wine Spectator Grand Award winning Restaurant Latour.

A word or two about the resort...first, it's in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, boondocks. But once you're there, what a lovely, fun place. And it's huge with two massive hotels, spas, seven golf courses, umpteen restaurants & pools all over you can definitely stay occupied for a few days. The rooms were large and clean with full kitchens and plenty of space for lounging around. Our one bedroom suite with outdoor fireplace had room around the dining table for six and an outdoor table that fit the same. This is very conducive for bringing your own wine and munchies and having an in-room party which we did the first night.

For the second night we got all dressed up and walked (inside) the hundred yards and one elevator ride up to Restaurant Latour. This was nice - it was raining cats and dogs outside Saturday evening. Upon entering the restaurant, my first impression was that it was quite small. Intimate might be the better word since it felt comfortable, not cramped. We were greeted right away by our host who showed us to a table smack tab in the middle of the nicely, if understated, dining room.

Being a Grand Award winner we were interested in ordering off the wine list. Being Alan's belated birthday weekend, we also had a few special bottles of our own that we brought with us. This worked out well since they were very gracious and accommodated us doing both throughout the evening.

The menus came around with two choices - the chef's tasting menu and the ala cart, three course menu. Again showing themselves to be flexible and pleasant our head server assured us that we could get the three course menu and add a few extra dishes into the mix. As a group of people all willing to share, it meant that we could basically try 80% of the menu.

Along with a bottle of Beaujoie Rose champagne that Susan & Rich brought, we also went with a sommelier recommendation an opened a Grand Cru from Burgandy Mazis-Chambertin, Girardin, 2000. The amuse busche they started us with was a canape of salmon on brioche. Very nice, well balanced.

For the food, first courses ran and spectrum...
Steve & I ordered the duck appetizer with asparagus spring rolls, mixed greens and pork lardons. I really enjoyed this dish - there was a lot going on and I tried the pieces together as well as by themselves...each one holding up as a flavorful bite individually while coming together nicely with complimentary textures. It was also a very pretty dish - visually appealing with a great aroma. If only I had known that my very good dish would pale in comparison to what else was going on around the table.

Alan ordered the Hood Canal Oyster Strudel with large pearl tapioca, Ossetra caviar and creme fraiche sabayon. This was my original choice but I waned...once I got a bite of it I realized my mistake. WINNER! An incredible combination of warm, creamy tapioca and sauce layered over the succulent oysters and salty caviar. Seriously good.

Mary & Rich both ordered the gorgeous Tuna Nicoise Nest of seared tuna lardons, Idaho potato nest, hericot vert, organic greens, Long Island duck egg and Parmesan vinaigrette. Let me see if I have any words left to describe this masterpiece...FAB-U-LOUS!! The runny yolk over seared tuna and the crunch of the beans was perhaps perfection in a dish. The Parmesan dressing gave the salt and the organic greens a bit of herb and pepper to round out a seriously good dish.

Not to be outdone, Susan ordered the special of the evening, the Maryland soft shelled crab with peanut potatoes, papaya pecan beurre noisette and micro arugula. Now maybe I'm biased but I truly believe soft shell crab is basically manna from heaven in disguise. With the crunch from the battered crab and the bitterness of the arugula matched with the sweet of the papaya this was just a great partnership of flavor. I should have just kept her dish when it came my way during the plate swapping portion of the course.

Next up for the group was course one and a half where we requested two dishes to be put on the table for sharing. These two were the dishes we all collectively agreed must be had by all. They were the risotto and the pasta.

Sorry that the pictures start getting a bit on the darker / redder side...we made the decision to not use a flash so as to not disturb anyone elses dining experience. And thank you Mary, for taking them all with your iPhone and then figuring out how to send them to me!!

First up here is the black truffle risotto with spring leeks, sweet English peas and carnaroli rice. Our server shaved the truffles over the dish at table and was quite generous allowing a wonderful waft of aromatic bliss to engulf the table. Risotto at it's best conjures something that I can only describe as a feeling of home. Warm and happy. This did exactly that - cooked to perfect al dente with the little firmness in each bite of rice and a creaminess that you look forward to with each forkful. Very, very nice course. The pasta was an Yukon Gold potato agnolotti of marscapone-enriched pasta, Perigord black truffle, zucchini pearls and white truffle oil. A lighter pasta with still that luxuriousness of the truffle, it was well received around the table but paled a bit next to the risotto. I think it was Rich that commented that if tried by itself it was really good.

Not sure when it all happened, but there was another bottle of wine added to the fun. This one a Grand Cru Charmes-Chambertin, Louis Jadot , 1999. As well as a bottle of our own that we brought to dinner, a 2006 Scarecrow. Not to be biased - while I really liked both the Burgandies and thought they went well with the dishes, the Scarecrow is in a league of it's own.

Next up were the entrees.
I ordered the sweet butter braised Maine lobster with whipped yukon gold potatoes, haricot verts and a black truffle Burgandy pan sauce.

Shelled and arranged beautifully, this course was all that lobster should be. Warm, sweet, cooked just a moment past opaque and swimming in some kind of butter sauce. This one with truffle. So it was a happy, happy dish. I would go back and just order the lobster again and again and again.

Mary & Steve both went with red meat and ordered the 28 day dry-aged New York sirloin with creamsicle sweet potato puree, wild mushroom medley, white straw asparagus and crisp fried ramps.

Both their plates were cleaned and sounds of happiness could be heard from both sides of the table. The comment back was that it was a good dish...perhaps not fantastic, but solid.

Alan ordered the day-boat roasted monkfish with lobster knuckle, Nantucket Bay scallops, Humic Island razor clams, saffron scented panisse, organic pea shoots and cioppino broth.

This was a nice course but what I think we're learning is unless you're at Daniel, Per Se or Le Bernadin, the fish probably isn't going to be the dish that blows your mind. Nice flavors, lots of things going on but lacking that depth that so many of the other meat dishes offer.

To that point, Susan ordered what I believe was the winner of this round...the grass-fed, Canadian veal porterhouse with potato pave, foie gras stuffed first harvest morels, Sherry citrus glazed carrots and a natural pan jus.

Were you wondering how you could possibly one-up a porterhouse on the grill from Hind & Fore? We might have found the answer...veal. A level of tenderness that you  just can't get from any other meat, this one had all that plus that flavor that as soon as it hits your mouth you basically smile and sigh at the same time. Excellent.

And to round out dinner was Rich's choice of the quartet of Moscovy Duck. Confit leg, black forbidden rice, butternut squash and red currant gastrigue.

Rich was excited to see forbidden rice on the menu - it's rare. And I have to admit, I think this is the first time I've ever tried it. The duck was cooked to the right grade of medium rare while the confit leg was pull off the bone tender. All around a nice dish.

And from there, we moved onto dessert. The order included a quartet of sorbets with a bing cherry that was fantastic; a few orders of the coffee and donuts that won rave reviews; the odd and not at all good creme fraiche parfait; a chocolate-chocolate dessert with a molton lava cake and chocolate ice cream that I think was the best one on the table and really, really good Meyer lemon tart.

The experience was a wonderful one. Between having a great group of friends that are as equally "foodie" as they are winos and comedians, it made for a fun evening. Add to that an excellent wine list with a top notch sommelier who made some great choices for our table. Plus the food lived up to the hype as one of New Jersey's best rated restaurants year after year. Was it the gastronomical perfection that can be found at a few New York and California (and Chicago) establishments? Not quite - but it got as close as anything I've been to outside of those areas. We all highly recommend the trip - it's worth it.

Jenn's Rating: 94
Zagat: 27-26-27
Wine Spectator: Grand Award