A Californian visit is not without a special look at a beef restaurant – and there are several around the place established in the 1920s, 50s and more recently just last month. The talk of the town amongst concierges currently is Lark Creek Steak, smack under the dome in the new Westfield Shopping Centre in downtown in Market Street. And with Fleet Week on, and lots of hungry sailors milling around, seats at this place were at a premium.

With red meat in mind why not seek out two west coast reds; Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (AUD 13.20 glass) was superlative Washington State cabernet. The beguiling moments were its nose concentration without oak interference and terrific tight, minty, juicy highly-toned tannins of a polished cool region red, 95% cabernet, 5% merlot (94), 14.5%. www.ste-michelle.com This wine stood up to a 28 day dry-aged prime rib eye, bone in, 450g served with horseradish (AUD 54). The beef was not overly large, the rib had been cut in two, but served with absolute top flavour. Many US meat halls now pointing customers to their beef cuts which are dry-aging in a special display section. It’s worth the experience and my personal butcher is now drying a whole rump.

With a 170g petite fillet-eye (AUD 33.30) was Audelssa Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 (AUD 16.70) on the Western slopes of the Mayacamus Mountains in Somoma Valley, 14.6%. This is powerful, ripe, dusty, earthy style cabernet with moderated oak and moderated tannin, but more in the bruiser mould than with elegance (90). www.audelssa.com Served with the beef was green tomatoes which turned out to be deep fried, not sautéed, which were consequently a bit out of kilter for the style of this restaurant. Say no to deep fried!

The third red wine did not work – Jayson Napa Valley Red 2005-turned out to be merlot (73%), cabernet, franc, petit verdot and malbec. It’s one of those reds on steroids-a bang of oak to smell, then just so much of everything. The unfortunate thing is when these type of wines breathe the high oak level comes to the fore, and the nose goes oak-oily, and a hot palate does not assist, 15.3% makes flavour matching with a beef a difficult pastime. www.pahlmeyer.com/wine-jayson

Lake Creek Steak, 845 Market Street San Francisco is very good value, 14.5/20; AUD 86 px; a new restaurant which will appease red meat people in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Alto I discovered specialises in Northern-style Italian dishes in a New York genre. The restaurant was hard to find off the street as with so many things Milanese and about, it is understated. The signage by day may be legible but at night that’s not the case. So after overshooting, I found the visit to be very warming, lots of understated furnishings yet polished, as were the staff who give that NY “welcome” to make Australians relax.

The menu is laid out Italian style, antipasti, four pasta, one risotto and many quite special sounding main dishes (not called that-beef, poultry, fish etc) which would take several visits to really test run. Starting with an oxtail and sweetbread terrine gave way to a series of red tastings provided by Sommelier Eric Zillier, a kind and assisting chap.

Exploring the Italianesque wine side of the US led to the West Coast producer Palmina from Santa Barbara. The last bottle of straight Sangiovese was corked (what a horror when a decent Diam or screwcap would not have spoilt my expectations), settling for Palmina Alisos 2005 (AUD 61), a 75/25% sangiovese and merlot imitating Tuscany, 13.5%; yet the traditional grape dominated the blend anyway. This is really good sangiovese; dark cherry and barely ample French oak, berryfruit and savouriness, juicy yet the telltale sangiovese tannic chew mildly modified by merlot, really good impact and terrine compatibility (91). www.palminawines.com

With partridge breast/leg came a tasting glass of Palmina Lagrein 2007; dense colour, compact nose, cedar, and an equally tightly tannic palate with the usual lagrein high acidity and mint fruit (90). Following was Radio-Coteau Las Colinas Syrah 2005 from the Sonoma Coast (14.5%); poured brilliantly from a door stop bottle and gave the svelte tannin finish of cooler region shiraz. However with time the high oak use took over the wine-oily notes, a sign that a little oak goes a long way, and cooler region shiraz can be pretty finicky when you throw too much barrel at it. www.radiocoteau.com

The verdict for Alto; great polish, good Champagne blanc (Gimmonet), remarkable service, flavour integration between sauces and ingredients, il dente risotto, extensive top shelf Italian collection, 19/20; outstanding value, AUD 160 px, 11 East 53rd Street www.altorestaurant.com

Wow-this started out as a walk down the above-ground abandoned railway called High Line www.thehighline.org until I discovered the Chelsea Market; 75 Ninth Avenue & 15th Street-a very old building previously a real market which has undertaken a makeover. Being there at lunch time basically says this is a lunch venue as each specialty shop, as well as restaurants/food bars cater more for the dining trade than shopping for home. It’s a pretty small place; one fishmonger, one butcher, one kitchen shop-you get the drift.

The Lobster Place was unreal-it was all happening; lobsters and crab claws were being cooked; fish were being filleted and sushi rolled at great speed. There were five soups, electing for the Cajun crab and corn then a lobster and salad buckwheat wrap.

Next door is Chelsea Wine Vault where I went in pursuit of local drops to complement the produce from The Lobster Place for dinner. It took a while to focus the wine staff on my preferences because I had to be patient as I was up-sold on what was good and what was better. The choice came down to my need for an austere, dry riesling type to complement my Californian caviar.

The result was Hermann J Wiemer Riesling Dry 2007(AUD 25) from the Finger Lakes area, single vineyard wine made and bottled on site, 12%. Well the wine barely complemented the Paramount Paddlefish roe (AUD 23 for 28 g) www.paramountcaviar.com and yummy local wicked crab meat, due to sweetness. The wine had a great nose-cool climate, not very aromatic but more spice, pungent down the mace and lavender end, then good tight acidity, some chewiness therefore a little tannin, and mineral finishing tones.

I have to take issue with the sweetness because this in part has contributed to the demise of the German white wine industry over the past 30 years; and as this owner would have seen that trend having roots in the Mosel-would try to avoid the same pitfall. Recent German remakes of wines to be trocken (dry) and halbtrocken (half dry) to suit more food-sophisticated tastes have been successful; and alcohol levels risen from 7-8.5% to 10-11.5%, and even higher. The more worldy German producers are just letting their riesling ferment out dry; and not stop it or tickle it with additional sugars.

This riesling is carrying 15-18 g/L residual sugar which is too high for contemporary cuisine unless it’s hot or spicy. Or does it mean New Yorkers still drink sweet? Perhaps this label does not properly quantify the contents-dry should mean just that, and less than 2 g/L. I encourage Mt Wiemer’s comments. The cork was just a standard style-open to all types of cork-influenced moderation on the wine so expect some bottles to be duds. www.wiemer.com

Nearby is the Meatpacking district, fast booming as a specialty shopping area for designer gear, even tailors, and I saw a Puma Black shop as well. The revitalisation of old meat cold stores and wholesale butchery packing areas has now regenerated as a bourgeoning restaurant precinct. There is Pasties at 9 9th Avenue; a petite version of Balthazar with extensive outdoor dining (in good weather). Across Gansevoort Street at number 49 is Macelleria (an old butchery) serving a very treasured item called the espresso which was had with glee.

A walk along a high train track with the biodiverse regenerated New York trees and bushes provided some new tastes today.

Now here was a scary experience-and I should have known better when the reservations clerk reminded me to wear a coat, perhaps a tie as well. This soon turned out to be old style establishment dining, as I was led to the nominated table having to take imaginary ducks to avoid the collateral hanging from the ceiling (hard hats, model trucks, model planes and other kitsch big boys toys). Couples were led to be seated side-by-side to view the middle of the restaurant and the garish ceiling while pairs of gents were seated opposite. Curious seating plans here, crying out to be debunked.

Champagnes for starters were from a choice of Taittinger, Krug and Mumm (later found out to be Californian fizz and mis-represented as the real thing). The waiter threw my partner when he suggested “she can have anything she wants” when just the wine list would have sufficed but that was not forthcoming. Both settled for a glass of Taittinger (AUD 28.75).

Menus were quite an enjoyable read; ordering Vermont lamb and local veal T-bone (AUD 49.50); the orders were served in reverse cooking request (rare and medium) but as this was dinner pre Jersey Boys it was pointless returning these to the kitchen and arriving late for the show.

Glasses were two Californian cabernets -Ascot Vale 2005 (AUD 11.50) from Napa (14.2%) and Ridgeline 2005 (AUD 20.75) from the Alexander Valley part of Sonoma (14%). The blockbuster was the latter wine-a nose of layer upon layer of charred and smoky oak over very ripe fruit in the jam mould, then a huge palate of tannin and more than a trifle of extra oak barrel tannin to tip it over. Extremely full bodied aka Barossa and McLaren Vale styles made in the full-on category. The Ascot Vale had good power, as much tannin but a greater level of fineness which kept the fruit-extract in balance; good wine (90). No brett, no cork taint. www.ridgelinevineyards.com (wines out of date), don’t confuse with Ridgeline Australian in the Yarra which bears no relation.

The wine list finally arrived-it was a bible of all the blue chip brands, multiple vintages, from France, Germany, Italy, Spain (including Priorat) and even a suite of Grange at uncompromising prices. Our waiter who did not introduce himself, had worked at this address for 26 years, while others around the room, some of whom were tripping over, signalled that a reinvention phase for this place was long overdue. No restaurant score as the food sampling was restricted, average value, wines can be expensive but the glass suggestion quite modest with 20 wines. A full 20% tip was requested.