What a treat and what a sweet husband! Definitely go for the tasting menu, and definitely let us all know how it was!
The picture of their Eggs Benedict leaves me dumbfounded. In what way could that be called eggs benedict?
It’s deconstructed.
Standard restaurant wine markups have been 2-3 times what I’d pay for it retail, at least in my experience. So the price works for me.
And I think you’re discrediting Vin de Pays. Only the French consider it inferior 
That’s northern Rhone (Collines Rhodaniennes), and 2005 was a stellar year for that area. If I’ve found the right wine, it’s made by 3 pretty well respected winemakers in Rhone. That ain’t no ordinary wine, and is probably a pretty good value at what they’re selling it for.
Appetizer prices? Those are a lot more variable. Suffice to say WD-50 ain’t cheap!
Which is another way of saying “We’re going to take (ridiculously small amounts of) the ingredients for this dish and present them on the plate separately so we can look edgy and stylish.”
I’m happy you’re happy about going to this place, LavenderBlue, but it’s definitely not my kind of eatery. I’d have to go to a diner afterward for real food.
Wow. I’ve always wanted to try some of Wylie’s food. For those who don’t know, Wylie Dufresne is considered by many to be the world’s master of Molecular Gastronomy.*
Comparing prices for one of his meals to an unrated local eatery is like comparing a personal performance by Itzhak Perlman to a “pretty good” musician. This is a chance to experience what “world’s best” is like.
Happy birthday LB! I would definitely go for the tasting menu to get the broadest possible experience - why limit yourself?
*I’m not trying to start a hijack here, can we please just stipulate that many do consider him as such, without getting into a whole “what about Ferran Adria” thing?
It looks like it’s about three grams’ worth of food! Are those croutons?
jayjay, I’m with you! Let’s go find a good greasy spoon diner or a steakhouse or something!
You’d be surprised. After 16 courses at Alinea, all of which looked tiny when served, both me and Mr. Athena were stuffed. I don’t know how people can do the 21-course. We’re hardly tiny people or tiny eaters. 15 small courses is actually quite a lot of food.
I really don’t want to hijack LavenderBlue’s thread to bitch about Nouvelle Cuisine or New American or molecular gastronomy, though. And I’m not passionate enough about the subject to start a new thread. So I’ma shut up now. 
I’ll admit that I hadn’t factored that many courses into my reactions.
I think I would love a 15 course dinner with 15 tiny courses; I love new food and trying new things. I would love to just have the chef make something he thinks I would like every time I go out for dinner (I do all the cooking in our house).
I am the sort that likes just about all food. Almost anything from a fresh, crisp apple eaten moments after being picked from a tree to the perfect dim sum to nouvelle cuisine is fine by me.
I alas have the backside to show for it 
but that’s another thread.
You got yourself a keeper, LavenderBlue! The foie gras, passionfruit and chinese celery dish looks intriguing. Please let us know how the dinner went. It looks like it’ll be an experience to remember.
I’ve done the 21 course, and it actually wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t stuffed, but I was comfortably satisfied. It helped that it took us four hours to do. And the wine pairings definitely took all four of those hours to get over.
When we went to the French Laundry, it was highly amusing to see my wife (all 120 lbs of her) power through the seven wines in the pairing selection. Since we are from altitude, we can handle more alcohol at sea level, but she got drunk, then sober, then drunk again, all within the space of the meal.
What’s WD-50 minus 10?
Think I’ll skip dinner there.
Have a great time. I’m a bit envious actually - do the wines too - they’ll be so picked to go with the food.
As a one time experience it sounds pretty exciting. The food does seem a bit bizarre, with tiny portions and high prices. Especially that eggs benedict. I don’t know if I could fill up on one of the entrees. The tasting menu does seem the way to go for multiple reasons. I don’t understand what “We ask that the entire table participate in the tasting menu” means though. Is the tasting menu supposed to be shared by multiple people? I don’t think more than one person could try any of those dishes. I’m also a little confused about how you go about actually consuming some of those. Do you just kind of try to scoop everything onto a large spoon? Or do you really eat a tiny speck of something and then a tiny speck of something else?
It means either the whole table does the tasting menu or no one does. You can’t have one person do the tasting menu and someone else just order an entree.
Often with molecular gastronomy, how to eat each plate is not obvious. In those cases, your server guides you.
Plus the tasting menu usually takes quite a while.
If others at your table just order an app, saled, entree and desert they would most likely be done with thier meal and sitting watching you for a good while. This is no fun for them and more importantly to the restaurant it distracts you from your experience, and it IS intended to be an experience.
Four hours? Wow. So do they bring you a new course every ten minutes or so?
Usually the idea is to get s “perfect bite” a little of everything in each. But as someone else said, the server should be advising you on each.