"We visited Kabinett for the second time recently for a couple glasses of wine and small plates to celebrate a late Valentine's day. Our first experience here last summer was wonderful where I had one of the most delicious dishes I can remember, the chicken pate. It came in a ramekin with toasted brioche and it was fantastic. We also had a lovely sardine appetizer that we were hoping was still on the menu when we returned. We sat at the bar and when asking for the pate was told that it had been replaced by the chicken toast, which, lucky us, was debuting this very night. We ordered that, the sardine toast and the hollumi. The chicken pate toast was perhaps the most visually unappealing food I have ever seen served at a restaurant. It was a piece of brioche topped with pate that was squeezed out in such a way that it literally looked like dogs droppings. While it tasted OK, the under toasted bread topped with the loose pate made for a soggy dish. The sardine toast was somewhat less appetizing with 4 little, mealy, sour fish each atop a piece of stale focaccia overloaded with oil. The hollumi was the best thing we ordered, but the tahini smeared on the plate tasted like fat on top of fat where some contrast would have helped. The restaurant is quite pretty and the wine list is extensive with lots of wine by the glass. But service to get drinks was very slow and by no means informative about the wines. We sat at the bar and unless you happened to be able to catch the server's eye as they casually stood nearby, you were not getting any drinks. That being said, everyone working there seemed very pleasant. We don't mind spending money on great food, any we usually do tip at least 20%, but the food wasn't great and the server while pleasant was not attentive and offered nothing extra for the wine experience. So the consumer now pays 20% on wine that is already marked up 300% over retail--it is mark-up, upon mark-up and there isn't any value added."
