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Aperiti:, because we don't drink, they poured us a Navarro Vineyards Gewurztraminer grape juice, a pleasant surprise, if dubious for a recovering alcoholic, which one of us was. \r
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The service was not slow as some have complained, though at times it obtrusive.\r
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The caviar and smoked fish (steelhead in both cases, we guessed) with the watercress salad all tasted quite fresh. The buckwheat blinis--why does Chez Panisse always have buckwheat something on every menu and has had that for decades--were soggy; but still went with the caviar. And there was creme fraiche ( not mentioned.) \r
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This was a decent crab cake, but it broke up too easily. The braised Belgian endives with Meyer lemon--they called it Meyer lemon ?salsa,? an odd use of words-- had an acrid taste; an unusual but not happy choice. \r
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The duck breast slices came with a tiny, loose patch of risotto--again with Meyer lemon, and too lemony. . The duck breast slices with a light ""reduction sauce,"" a sort of nouvelle cuisine effect, were not miraculous, but freshness without interference. \r
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The desert was conventional, but delicious, delicate yet rich. The vanilla-walnut ice cream came with the ""chocolate fondant,"" which one of my companions said was the wrong word. The young girl who made up the deserts said ""fondant"" was used on this menu just to mean warm cake. \r
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There was some spice with the cake and ice cream, like cardamom, that was lovely, just a dash, a surprise. And then, afterward, candies: a chewy caramel, and??Meyer lemon thumb prints.? But this time, the Meyer lemon read only as lemon, and was not acrid or invasive.\r
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I found the waiter?s insistence on our touring the kitchen made me feel treated like a tourist.\r
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Alice Waters has been a great spokesperson for slow food and fresh food, but she steals all the credit for things she did not invent, and that includes Chez Paniesse itself, of whichw she has never been the principal chef.\r
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