The finished product: dwenjang (bean paste) jiggae (stew) from Queens Superette
Back in San Francisco for the first time since June, we tried a couple more high-end takeout options. This is defined as a meal with the quality and presentation you’d expect at a fine dining restaurant but packaged for service at home. Some seem to have figured out how to win at takeout, while others have not. A few best practices are emerging which we’ll save for the end.
Routier takeout
We tried takeout from Routier, a restaurant which has opened next door to the renowned B Patisserie with the same owners. (There’s also B to Go, catty-corner from Routier.) The restaurant will be open for indoor dining on October 15 and looks fabulous. We ordered the 3-course meal for 1 at $39, which ended up about $48 after various charges and tip.
Routier Squash with Fennel
We got: honey nut squash with fenugreek and fennel; beef cheeks with turnips, crushed potato and mushrooms; peach and jasmine tea “tart”. Our meal was waiting on the counter when we arrived in a big flat bottom paper shopping bag which solves the problem of takeout containers coming apart.
The first course was a disappointment because the previous takeout menu, which had inspired us to try this, started with a beet gazpacho. The squash was good (and served cold, like a salad) but we went scurrying for greens in our kitchen.
Routier Beef Cheeks
The beef cheeks were a very generous portion but lacked any carbs to soak up the delicious juices…. Why couldn’t they throw in a chunk of B’s delicious baguette? The dessert was beyond good, as you’d expect from this kitchen: perfectly poached and presented peaches atop an impossibly buttery crumble.
Routier dessert
Dwenjang jjigae kit from Queens Superette
Queens, also known as Queens Superette, is a charming shop selling curated Korean items in the Sunset. There are many shelves of Korean snacks, sojus and ingredients but the interest is in the cold case in the front of the shop where the prepared to-go items are to be found. (And a good thing because parking is very difficult and you may find yourself risking it in a loading zone while you dash in).
We purchased an dwenjang jjigae (bean paste stew) meal kit, fish cake kimpap, a tomato “kimchi” and chapjae for a total bill of about $45. Quite happy with the kimpap and chapjae which were carefully prepared with a nice spice balance. The tomato item was really a salad. The dwenjang jjigae kit which came in a total of five containers including the condiments and no directions for preparation; luckily we had the presence of mind to take a picture of a sign describing preparation. We brought our own bag and a couple of the dishes split open in their takeout containers but there were no big disasters.
Fish Cake Kimpap from Queens Superette
After these meals, and several others we reported on previously, we suggest a few guidelines for indoor dining restaurants which want to win at takeout:
*Compose the menu for a complete dining experience. Don’t make the diner do the work of adding ingredients you didn’t provide.
*Presentation is critical. Invest in carry out bags and quality containers. (Routier uses compostable trays, which I appreciate, but they were soaking up the juices by the time we got home.)
*Make it easy for the diner to plate and serve the meal so they end up with something equivalent to what they’d get if dining in the restaurant.
*Provide a cheat sheet/instructions so the diner knows what’s in the containers and what prep (if any) is needed. At Routier, we had to go back to their website to remember what was in the bag.
*Give the customer a task. This one is key. It was fun and not hard to assemble the dwenjang jjigae from Queens but instructions should have been printed out and placed in the package. The best experience so far is Benu, whose handout told us how to pair the many dishes and included an interesting story about the origin of the kimchi.
Winter is coming in our home town of Saratoga Springs, and we’re not eager to dine indoors any time soon. Here’s hoping more and more of our favorite places will learn how to win at takeout during the pandemic.
Reads as though you enjoyed the experience even though everything was not perfect. One of the great advantages of “live theater” is that you expect a great show and sometimes you just don’t get as good as you expected. We love having these experiences because the next time when every i is dotted and every t is crossed. It is good to have something to compare the very best experience. When you watch a motion picture it is always the same story with the same actors, not so with “live theater.” I consider eating out a variation of “live theater.” The greeter, the waiter, the chef, everyone is performing for the patrons to make the experience of eating out so different than doing the same at home. Good for you Otis. Will Dak return this season?
First things first, no I don’t think Dak will be back this season and he may not be back at all. He’s a scrambling quarterback and that is a horrific ankle injury.
Re stage management of the dining experience, I like the comparison to attending a play but it doesn’t work for me in takeout which should be a thoroughly scripted experience. There’s really no reason Queens couldn’t include an instruction sheet in the packet, or why my local Blue Hen served a rich ragout this past March in a container that looked like the dog’s dinner. A lot of my readers work in restaurants and these thoughts are really aimed at them.