Yeah, I thought in the end he was quite fair. And saying things for a reason.

I don't disagree with his criticisms, I just think that he's taking the "caustic" thing too far.

Also, Jeff should open a place just for sorbet, his have been such standouts.

Yeah, I'm sure that he serves them a lot in Miami, they must be really refreshing.

So, housemate and I were having a debate last night:

Family style = any time you are sharing dishes (i.e, Chinese food)

or

Family style = where you are all eating from one big dish where the dish is esentially meant to feed everyone (i.e., a big dish of lasagna, Eugene's fish)

Thoughts?

Family style = a big platter of food for multiple people to put on their own plates. Otherwise, you're just sharing your food with someone else.

I think either could be called family style. Sometimes, in a family, you have one big dish (say, lasagne). Sometimes you have multiple dishes (say, roast beef with sides).

Both, I think.

I think any time the restaurant puts the food in the middle of the table it qualifies as "family style."

We used to go to a nice Chinese place up on Second Avenue, Maple Garden I think it was called, and even though everyone would order something, it was all served on a big lazy Susan in the middle of the table, so everyone could share. I like it that way -- it's much nicer than asking for bites off someone else's plate.

What Jessica said - which is why when Jeff said something about Tapas with lots of small dishes I was concerned.

In restaurant-speak, I think Family style is what Jessica said, and the alternatives are French Service or Russian Service - one is pre-plated food delivered to each individual (lay left raise right!), and the other is you have an empty plate and a waiter comes around with a tray of roast beef slices and serves each person in turn, then another waiter comes with the beans, etc. I can't remember which is which.

We used to go to a nice Chinese place up on Second Avenue, Maple Garden I think it was called, and even though everyone would order something, it was all served on a big lazy Susan in the middle of the table, so everyone could share.

This to me is the distinction. Family-style means people do not order individual things. Of course, Chinese restaurants are almost by default served family-style, but I have only seen a restaurant specify "family style" when it was something like an Italian place, or some restaurant that would normally serve individual plates.

It was actually Jeff's tapas comment that set off our discussion.