Boston/Cambridge dining
Out of context: Reply #28
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- GreedoLives0
So we went last night, and the short review is:
It's not as good as Craigie St and there are better places that i'd recommend.The restaurant is close to Inman Sq, which gives you the chance to walk around a bit afterwards and digest. Atmosphere-wise it's leagues above Craigie St (i'll be referring to that a lot since it's a useful point of reference), with moody lighting and an understated mediterranean/middle eastern flavor. It is laid out a bit tighter than Craigie St, so you can watch waiters continually bump into each other and trying to squeeze by your table. The AC, if they had any, was set to low, it got quite hot in there, so short sleeves are probably the way to go. They do, however, have an amazing outdoor seating area, which you should probably try to get sat in if you end up going there. The crowd is also a bit more diverse and interesting (after we sat down, a party of five including Joey Kramer, the drummer from Aerosmith, sat down next to us).
Our waitress was very friendly and helpful, although not quite as professional as the personnel at Craige St (more later). I found the wine list very deep and impressive, with some wines you usually don't see in the states.
I wanted to try something slightly unusual so i selected a halibut wrapped in a fig leaf with fig butter and ordered a nice Austrian Veltliner to go with it. The gf ordered spicy Fideos (a type of pasta) with swiss chard.
I'd read about their carrot puree on those reviews you posted, so i was intrigued and ordered that as a starter, my gf had the warm goat cheese with asparagus and white gaspacho.
The starters arrived fairly quickly, and were definitely a nice surprise. The carrot puree was a really interesting blend of spices, undoubtedly the most delectable carrot dish i'd ever had. It had a little pile of spices next to it which you were free to mix in, incidentally, Joey Kramer ordered the same thing and almost choked on the spices. His wife was happy to finish the puree for him, tho.
The warm goat cheese wasn't just warm, it was hot and came wrapped in a swiss chard leaf on top of green asparagus baked with almonds. As our waitress pointed out, you were supposed to take a bite of goat cheese and then a sip of the white gaspacho. It was a great combo and tastes amazing, and we couldn't quite figure out what was in the gaspacho other than that it was nutty and had slices of grapes in the bottom.
We were very pleased with our appetizers and had high hopes for our entrees.
Unfortunately, the entrees just didn't live up to it. The halibut i had was overcooked, it had the consistency of canned albacore tuna, and the fig butter was almost tasteless, it didn't penetrate the fish at all. With it came a little dish of brown rice with a cream sauce, which was equally uninspiring. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't interesting at all.
My gf thought that her Fideos (little short brown vermicelli) equally lacked texture, it was the same consistency of the swiss chard that was sauteed into it, and the chick peas interspersed into it were rock hard. There was a thin ring of whipped lemon-garlic hummus around the pasta which had a very delicate taste, but if you mixed it with the fideos, the taste was completely lost.
Again, not outright bad, just a bit disappointing after the strong start. We were too full for desert, although we saw plenty of amazing-looking pastry concoctions being served, so we just ordered some tea and a capuccino. My capuccino was prepared by our waitress, and it was pretty bad as far as capuccinos go. She basically served me a large cup of coffee with a tiny bit of foam on top. I'm really not a coffee snob, so i drank it anyways, but it was enough to send it back.
But when i got to the bottom of the cup, lo and behold, there was a security tag floating in there, one of those electronic "do not steal this item" stickers with some magnetic circuitry on it, which sort of turned me against the place in general. My gf's mint tea was fine and free of detritus.
If you go there, i'd recommend sticking with just appetizers and making a meal out of that, there were some very interesting choices left which we didn't pursue. Our entrees just didn't fulfil the promise the appetizers made.I don't quite think this place is quite worth coming all the way from Pennsylvania for, i'd recommend you three other places from which to choose:
Dali
http://www.dalirestaurant.com/ho…
(don't order the entrees, stick to the tapas-try the stuffed squid in its own ink, it's delicious!- and show up early-they dont' take reservations)
Ten Tables
http://www.tentables.net/philoso…
(tiny place here in jamaica plain where young chefs cut their teeth before opening their own bigger places...the closest thing to craigie st that i've been to)
Perdix
http://www.perdixrestaurant.com/…
(Perdix was previously located where ten tables is now, he was so successful that he opened a bigger restaurant in the South End)