dp An American Brasserie — Restaurant in City of Albany

Maybe I had too high of an expectation. I found the food disappointing for the price. (Though, I got one dish a la carte from Yono’s next door, which you can do from dp’s as they share the same kitchen.) The dish I’d recommend is the Indonesian fried noodles that I tried from a dining companion.

I was really looking forward to a fine dining take on rendang, but it tasted inauthentic and worse than from the average Padang restaurant. It tasted like sauce was simply poured onto the meat, that the short rib was not braised in rendang spices to let it absorb the flavor. Rendang is often described as a “dry curry” because the coconut cream is split, yet here it was heavy and creamy like a Thai curry that’s not aromatic enough to counteract the fat.

The traditional combo of white rice, rendang, astringent cassava leaf, and spicy sambal work so well because they provide AND cut the intensity in different ways. Here, everything felt rich and heavy without any hint of acid or astringency. Rather than synergizing, the pairing clashed. I understand that the American diner might not appreciate sambal, but at the very least the eggplants needed a lot of lime juice to make it taste more “authentic” and to cut the richness.

The onion soup would’ve been delicious if it weren’t so extremely oversalted. A lot of care went into making the onions and the concentrated broth. The components were a step above most places’. Please watch the salt level.

Service was good. The atmosphere felt like I stepped back in time...

What happened to this place? DP’s used to be the one restaurant we knew we would get a top quality meal. Things have changed. Let’s start out with ordering dinner. Why do I have to order my appetizer and entree at the same time, never have I ever heard of this.

The appetizer, Calamari, we have had it from here many times. Now it’s a no taste small portion dish where they toss a few non taste peppers into it and call it good.

Entree my wife ordered the Indonesian noodles vegetarian style, this was a dish she had had several times and the first thing she said was there is no taste to it, just cabbage with some noodles in a broth.

My entree was the burger with fry’s. Bun was great, nice toast on it. Burger had no flavor, it was cooked to order. I asked for ketchup for the fry’s and it must have been locked up as it took quite sometime to be delivered back to the table. I will say the fry’s were good.

Overall very disappointing for the price we paid.

Oh and maybe the wait staff shouldn’t come to the table and say you look stuffed do you want to see the desert menu.

It’s not a place we will come...

We ordered takeout dinners for two last weekend, and the food was at best average (WAY TOO MUCH OIL used in preparation, as evidenced by the grease-soaked takeout containers and oily mouthfeel while eating). Another detail was also a huge miss: we had inquired about a vegetable side order listed on the menu and were told it was an "arrangement of root vegetables". Per the photo, we can't believe it left DP's kitchen. This menu item consisted of exactly 10 thin slivers of carrot and 5 green beans cut-in-half (clearly not a root vegetable). In some restaurants you might view this more as a "garnish" if included in the price of a main course. But at a separate charge of $8, this broke down to $.40 for each carrot sliver and 1/2-green bean. It was not just the cost that rankles however: they were also an oily mess with literally no taste. You would think a chef would like to encourage healthful eating for customers requesting healthy items, and take some pride in producing a side-dish to accompany their main course....very unsatisfying and surprising for an eatery with such a decent...