Excelsior
Linda took me to Excelsior last night. It's in the space where Biba used to be, and Biba was one of my favorites. Excelsior was better.
The real star of the meal was a little dish of seared, carmelized sea scallops -- very fresh scallops, mind you -- with crisped water chestnuts and oak tree shitake mushrooms. These seared scallops were dry and crisp outside, barely cooked inside, and wonderfully tasty. I really need to work on my searing.
The roast duck was beautifully done. I could get used to boned duck, incidentally.
We had a nice Gigondas (Domaine des Bosquetes 2000) , and finished up with chocolate-filled beignets with banana ice cream and a sliver of crisped banana.