Pete Wells of the New York Times recently wrote a very good article about restaurants serving overly ambitious and underperforming cocktails.  For anyone who has looked at a cocktail menu and (1) never heard of a lot of the ingredients, (2) thought WTF?, or (3) both, you probably will like this article.  Click here to read it.

Wells raises a number of good points.  I particularly like his description of the binary theory of cocktail criticism.  That phrase sounds like a title of a Big Bang Theory episode, doesn't it?

The article reinforces my belief that the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) definitely applies to cocktails.  This is why I generally prefer to make cocktails with only a few ingredients that are relatively easy to obtain.  That being said, I recognize that a well made cocktail with many and/or exotic ingredients can be nothing short of amazing.  Bottom line -- order what you want.