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| Caprese salad |
Three couples and a $28 five-course Italian feast! I ordered one Moretti beer which they featured on tap and others added a wine pairing for an extra $15. I don't think Italy is known for its fine beer, but I had had a Moretti on tap with pizza at Nick's in NYC and thought it would work just fine with this meal as well.
We all were served a tiny chocolate dessert drink with our last course which was sweet and delicious and made the pumpkin cannoli taste a little less than sweet.
There were two choices, so 10 different plates of food were prepared for our group. I did not photograph them all!
First course was some fritters or a stuffed mushroom. Second course was a salad. I had the beet salad, which was a little light on dressing.
Third course was lasagna soup or a creamy Parmesan, lamb bacon soup, which was really quite rich and good. Can't say I have ever had lamb bacon before!
The white lasagna with lamb and mushrooms and of
course a cheese or two was not my favorite although it was rich and interesting. On my palate it referenced a rich tuna casserole heavy on the mushrooms.
All together a very nice evening of food and fellowship. The restaurant was crowded and a little loud for conversation. I couldn't help but notice that there were lots of ladies that were way more overweight than I, one trying to crowd in right behind my chair! Our server was competent, although she was not able to remember who had what dish.
That I think is a gift that only a few possess.
*************
I found one more restaurant the husband was willing to try and we made a Saturday night date. Then he bailed on me to boat and swim in the lake with his brothers,
a rare opportunity that I did not begrudge him. Turns out a wife and a missionary joined them, so it was not quite the unique brotherly event that I had imagined.
But he agreed to go with me on Thursday night to Brewery Vivant instead, and was willing to sit in the outside seating, cozily tucked in between two buildings, with a view of their brew tanks on one side, a canvas rain guard above, and great wooden tables that I would die for--but which would probably be ruined by the elements if left outdoors. I fed him a chicken Caesar salad at home and said he could share my beer flight (second flight at this brewery this year!) and then order one of his choice. He ordered a root
beer float instead!
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Undertaker (Belgian Style Dark Ale 6.7%),
Beasts a' Burnin' 7%, Cherry Doppelbock 6.5%, Tripel (Belgian Ale) 8.25% |
I chose the three course, one option, restaurant week menu. He sampled everything lightly and especially enjoyed the pork chop which was thick and tender and highly seasoned. I happily shared the slightly roasted radishes which added nice color, but hey--they were radishes! They might have been turnips, now that I think about it...
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| Pate Flight - country pate (micro greens, dijon, sel gris) head cheese (black truffle, chive) liver mousse (pickled morel & pepper relish), 2 slices of brioche in cup |
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| Red Wattle Pork Chop |
This pork chop was easily the centerpiece of this 3-course menu and the star of the evening. Really extraordinary!
The flan was great, too. The blueberry/bacon chutney was light on bacon flavor or overwhelmed by the spice--a little too clovey, but tasty and exotic when eaten with the mild flan.
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| Parisian Flan with Blueberry/Bacon Chutney |
We met two young and friendly girls at the table which made for a fun evening--didn't have to rely on boring couple talk. We were the oldest customers, we thought, but then a really old couple came in with hair more grey than ours. The hostess had seated me while the husband parked a block or two distant. I told her to look for a big guy ,,, so when he appeared she immediately knew he belonged with me. He asked her if she could direct him to a different wife and she laughed at him graciously.
I sampled 3 more brews in this flight that were new to me, one first brewed just a month or so ago. They were all good.
A simple menu, no choices, done well!
**********
Night three. I begged O. to go with me and finish out restaurant week--with my reservation already set for the original date night with the husband at a place that will remain unnamed here.
The setting was lovely, perfect outdoor temps and landscaping. We decided to order wine, merlot and malbec--expensive, but pretty good.
This salad was very tasty, with plums, strawberries, almonds and a purple berry dressing. A large, flat plate, streaked with the dressing might have made a better presentation.
The bruschetta app was fresh--too fresh. It had a lackluster citrus vinaigrette, and lacked any real flavor appeal, although the presentation was decent. I can slice up a tomato and avocado at home--restaurant week offerings should be designed to be more memorable!
Everything went down hill from there...
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| We divided up the meatloaf sandwich, chicken , and zucchini fries--the presentation at this point only partly our fault! But the chicken was dry and the skin tough, the bacon was burned, the meatloaf flavorless and mushy! Fries okay but needed a garlic aioli sauce or something. |
Maybe these photos don't look
so bad. Our server bragged that these desserts were all made in-house, like that was a good thing! I think the house made these cookies two days ago and let them hang out to dry! I was with a baker's daughter who thought they were
awful. The description of the coconut cake used lots of great adjectives. It was ordinary cake with a sweet but tasteless pineapple slice, a piped cream that was a little stale, along with a likely pre-packaged toasted coconut which had also gone stale. Terrible! We did not finish these desserts.
The manager came out and was more than apologetic. They gave us a pork belly skewer, a third choice, which was so disgusting I didn't even take a photo! In the end they took one meal off our bill, but it still didn't seem like enough for this bad food. A Culver's butter burger would have been a better choice and less expensive, and no large tip!, but of course, they don't serve wine or have views of a rolling fairway.
I will make this up to O ... and we are not likely to ever go back to this restaurant. The husband had eaten at this restaurant before and thought it would be a nice place to go--open and relaxed and not loud and busy like some of the popular downtown spots
O. is probably fussier than I am, but I am thinking now that
she brings bad luck to dining out! She has had more bad experiences, with and without me than I can count! I'll never forget Paula Deen's place where I had a delicious chicken pot pie and she ordered some swordfish thing that they didn't know how to prepare. And I was with her in Charleston where I had southern fried chicken that had gone rotten! Right after that
one of us threw up into a gallon ziplock bag which I whipped out. (Always carry a large ziplock bag with when you travel!) We recently went out with the girls for a lunch salad ... how can you get that wrong? It was awful.
With this, and on that note,
I am officially cured of dining out ...
for awhile ... a good time to stay home and eat simply and healthfully!--(and use-
ly words excessively!)--like sliced up organic tomatoes from my garden, and avocados, sprinkled generously with ground sea salt and black pepper,
sans bread!
