Restaurant: Lincoln Seafood Restaurant
Location: Lincoln Plaza Hotel, 123 S Lincoln Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. Phone number (626) 571-0018
Date: November 19, 2017
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Very good
I’m always up for a new SGV Chinese restaurant and even more so when it’s a dinner organized by Tony Lau — a friend of mine who really knows how to get the best out of Cantonese restaurants.
From my cellar: 2015 Jacques Perritaz Cidrerie du Vulcain Apple Transparente. Very nice fresh 4.5% alcohol French cider.
The habitual peanuts.
2011 Michel Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil sur Oger Blanc de blancs. 90 points. huge mousse with lots of persistent fine bubbles. sweet nose of sweet rolls and perfume flowers. youthful, fresh, acidic palate. flavors of pistachio, lime, and mineral. long finish. needs to rest a couple of years but should be good as it puts on weight.
Steamed crab. Pretty much straight up but delicious fresh crab.
Vinegar/garlic sauce for the crab.
2009 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Cote de Bouguerots. BH 95. This is a big step up in refinement, particularly aromatically with an abundance of oyster shell and tidal pool nuances that add breadth to the white flower, citrus and Chablis-style green fruit. The rich, powerful and mouth coating flavors possess real drive but also beautiful detail on the intensely mineral-driven finish that possesses outstanding length. This is really quite dry, at least within the context of the 2009 vintage. In a word, terrific.
Whole crispy salt and pepper prawns. With roe, and cooked perfectly so that you could eat the shell too.
2014 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Maischegarung Hochrain.
The heads of the prawns return with chilis. Not as good as the bodies, but great still.
From my cellar: 1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. AG 92. Deep red-ruby. Extravagantly rich aromas of blackcurrant, pepper, smoke and tar. Large-scaled, deep and very sweet; explosively fruity and impressively tactile. Chewy tannins are buried under a wave of finishing fruit. A knockout Clos Vougeot truly worthy of its grand cru status.
Whole suckling pig. A great version of the cantonese classic. Super crispy skin, awesome meat.
Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili. Great wine, can’t remember the year.
French style beef. Also a classic, but very nice. Lots of flavor and very tender.
2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. BH 76. An advanced and overtly funky nose of strong reduction is nuanced by that same bothersome note of melted vinyl that I seem to consistently find with the Marcassin wines. On the plus side, the round, supple and impressively-scaled flavors possess very solid mid-palate concentration yet the finish is edgy, short, bitter and noticeably warm. Bottom line: Given the description, suffice it to say that this wine is singularly unpersuasive. Caveat emptor.
agavin: our bottle was better than that.
Roast goose. Like peking duck — only goose! Dark and rich.
And served with the hoisin and green onions.
And the squishy buns.
1997 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl. VM 89+. Very unforthcoming nose hints at lime blossom, spearmint and citrus oil. Structured and quite dry in the mouth; distinctly austere for a riesling from this vintage. Combines just 4 g/l r.s. with 8.5 g/l acidity, the highest of these ’97 rieslings. Will go petrolly with bottle age. This plot, which ripens slowly and stubbornly retains acidity, was the last of Humbrecht riesling vineyards to be harvested in ’97.
100 flower chicken. Now this was a new dish and absolutely spectacular — as Yarom puts it, an 11. Prawn meat and the chicken were spread into a patty and pan fried with crispy skin on top. Totally boneless with a dimsum like taste. Amazing!
2006 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection. 92 points.
2012 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino. VM 91. Bright red with a pale rim. Sweet spices, red cherry and camphor are immediately obvious on the nose, while an herbal note clears wth aeration. The red cherry note repeats on the palate, where it’s complicated by hints of tobacco and sweet chocolate. Long and vibrant but very suave, this really improved in the glqss so decant about four hours ahead at least (in fact, Giacomo Neri told me he believes this would have tasted better eight hours after opening, and even more so if tasted the next day). Lovely brunello.
Greens. Not my favorite greens. Very stalky with a slightly bitter taste.
1999 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie. 92 points. Very nicely put together Cote-Rotie. Nose showed meat and some leather along with sweet morello cherry, blueberry and violets.
Secret soup.
Turtle stew! This one was thicker and richer than the last 2 we had. You can see the thick turtle meat and there was a lot of garlic and some crunchy vegetable (lotus?).
Mixed up.
They also brought it with these crispy pan fried noodles.
You poured over the noodles. Amazing!
Soup in the bowl (in case you missed it).
Weird Chinese Tapioca dessert.
And I brought strawberry gelato and white chocolate gelato with milk chocolate stripes.
Overall, I was actually surprised given the dated look of the place (in an ancient Monterey Park hotel) how great the food was. Tony Lau really knows how to get the best dishes out of places and they also really treated us great. I’d certainly go back as this was a great Cantonese meal from a kitchen that is on point.
