Tchoup Chop
Emeril "Kick-it-Up-a-Notch" Lagasse is one of those American celebrity chefs that has become a household name due to his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril. Named as the the "Best Southeast Regional Chef" by the James Beard Foundation, it seems that the man can cook as well. His unique style of cooking is called "New New Orleans"; a unique style of using local, Louisiana ingredients in his own interpretation of Creole cuisine, strongly influenced by Asian, Portuguese, Southwestern, and other cultures which themselves influence New Orleans cuisine. I've been keen to eat at Emeril's restaurants for a while now and have the one in New Orleans on my wish list.
It might take me a while to get to New Orleans; but I can claim to have gotten to one of his restaurants now. I will admit that one of the reasons I stayed at the Royal Pacific was because Emeril's Tchoup Chop restaurant is located within the resort.
DH knew that I had been keen to dine here and we had decided that tonight would be our best opportunity to hit the place.
The décor was definitely in keeping with the South Pacific theme of the resort it was located in.
The standout features for me were that internal lilypond and the blue touches of the bar.
We didn't have long to wait before we were shown to our table.
The styles of cuisine at Lagasse's restaurants are not all the same. This one boasted a cuisine style of Asian Polynesian fusion. The prawn crackers were the appropriate table snacker for this restaurant. They were delightful.
DS wasn't terribly hungry and decided on the sushi.
Actually, he had two serves of sushi.
DH ordered the vegetarian laksa with vegetables, a coconut curry soup and noodles.
My dish was a snapper; it was off the daily special and I think it had a spicy mango sauce. It was easily the pick of the dishes. DS definitely enjoyed my meal as well.
How was the experience?
Perhaps it was the fact that this was day 26 of our 28 day vacation.
Perhaps it was the fact that the other celebrity chef restaurants we had eaten at in Arizona had been so good.
In actual fact, it was our waiter. He was terrible. It took him forever to take our order. And we waited and waited and waited for him to come and take our drinks order. We ended up having to grab another waiter to place drinks. And when our original waiter figured out that we had placed drinks with someone else, he got all snippy with us and just plonked our food down without another word. He was downright rude after that.
It was so bad service that we all decided not to have dessert. Needless to say, he didn't get much of a tip from us.
So....how as the food?
I have to admit that I didn't think much of the laksa. The soup did not have enough body and depth to it.
The sushi was decent enough but there wasn't anything outstanding or remarkable about the plate.
The snapper was the only dish that was semi-decent. But then I found the sauce on the sweet side.
I suspect that if our experience with the waiter had been more pleasant, we might have felt differently about the food. If I ever return to Orlando, I dont think I'll be back to give Tchoup Chop a second chance. But I still have the one in New Orleans in my sights.
A shame really. This had been one dining experience that I had so looked forward to.
(Continued in Next Post)