foodguy's Profile
Is Benatti open?
They were definitely open on Saturday.
We had a good meal there. A tasty scallop appetizer in a citrus reduction, the plate garnished with raspberries. I was skeptical, but it worked. And do watch the kitchen as they prepare it, particularly if you're a pyromaniac. I had the rack of lamb, which was perfectly cooked, and had an interesting array of flavors that sort of popped up as you ate it. The pasta bolognese was both hearty and delicate, if that makes any sense.
My favorite was the desert of apple ravioli. The honey/ginger sauce made the dish, with enough ginger to have a real kick, but not overwhelm the apple. The tiramusi was excellent, as well.
Service is very friendly, very casual. The chef came over to an adjoining table to correct a description of a drink he heard one of the servers give.
There's an odd bar situation. They have a full liquor license, but only a limited number of liquors on hand. They'll do some kinds of italian cocktails, but it seems to be stretch. Stick with the wine would be my advice.
L'Espalier and Sel De La Terre are OPEN!
I want to be clear that this wasn't, say, Clio, which can be an exercise in stunt cooking. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The innovation here was all in accents and grace notes, and not a fundamental reorientation of the cuisine. To me, this adds "interesting" to the list of adjectives one could use to describe L'Espalier's cuisine, and I always enjoy interesting.
L'Espalier and Sel De La Terre are OPEN!
We went Tuesday and had an interesting experience.
First, decoration is not complete. It have no idea whether that will make it any less generic, but it's too early for final judgments. While I agree with the poster who said that the library is the most interesting room, we watched people being led to it then asking to be seated in the outer room.
The staff is clearly elated by the new place and the fact that they don't have to march up and down stairs so many times. We felt like we were being invited to their housewarming, and they were happy to take us on a tour and show off the new place. We are by no means regulars, but they couldn't have been friendlier or more welcoming. Perhaps the soft opening status have loosened them up a bit.
The most interesting thing was what seemed to us to be a different trend in the food. If memory serves, while there was an occasional use of foams and other little stunt cooking tricks, there was more of it now. I speculate that the larger kitchen lets them use new gadgets and techniques, and they used it to good effect.
[Spoiler alert. If being surprised when you bite into your food is important to you, stop here.]
The single best taste experience of the night was something called a coconut ravioli. Think a small egg sized water balloon, filled with coconut milk, and the balloon made through some technique that congeals the milk into a rubbery balloon skin. It was extraordinary. It sits on a spoon, and the generic name gives no hint of the texture and flavor explosion when it bursts in your mouth.
If this is the sort of thing that will come from a better equipped kitchen (no flames, it's all induction stoves) with room to play with the food, it's going to be an interesting ride.
Rt. 7 Grill on Sat nite
I was there Sunday night, and it was pretty quite. As for the food, it was a mixed experience.
The bread basket was corn bread and a biscuit. The corn bread was plain, the biscuit
was excellent.
I started with the sausage skewers which were described as sweet Italian sausage. That's not what it tasted like - they were spicy with a real bite - but they were very good.
The caesar salad was unremarkable except for the anchovies which were recognizably
anchovies in appearance, taste and texture, rather than just salty little brown things that
pass for anchovies.
I had the "thick cut" brisket, which, regrettably, would be considered thick cut only if compared to paper. And, keeping with that theme, some of it was as dry as cardboard, the rest, well,
just dry. The side of baked beans was excellent, sweet and thick, and the corn on the cob
was fresh and sweet.
Desert was the peach apple cobbler with whipped cream. This was done just the way I
like it, mostly fruit with little added sweetening. The biscuit seemed to be of the same
dough as the biscuit in the bread basket, which was, again, excellent, and the whipped
cream, credited as being from cream from a local dairy, was as fresh tasting as any
whipped cream I've tasted.
If it weren't for brisket - the main course - it would be have been a good meal, with some
excellent high spots. One hopes that it was just a bad night for the brisket.
PSA: avoid Rendevous
The pot pie may well have stayed on the menu for too long (it wasn't on there when I dined there last night), but for those cold rainy days that should have felt like spring, it was perfect comfort food, if, as one poster commented, a bit logistically difficult to eat. What's new to the
menu is a summer fish fry (halibut, squid, an oyster or two) which fits the same niche for me -
it's not haute cusine, but basic simple food, well executed, with a interesting twist or two (in
this case, some pickles/pickled vegetables, which is a perfect contrast to the fish
fry).
As for the OP comment on drinks being barely shaken, I was sitting at the bar and there was a lot of shaking going on.
But Green Street Grill has seemed to have finally found itself again. It seemed to have been wandering in the wilderness after it closed and reopened with its new menu, but it's figured out what it's aiming for and has been consistently good the last couple of times we were there, after being consistently disappointing.
And, for the record, both these places are easy walking distance for me, so the bar I set is "really good neighborhood place", though I think Rendezvous makes it to "destination" place as a dining experience.
Can't miss places in Portland, Oregon
I happen to be in Portland for a few days, and based on this, whimsy, and the fact that it was a perfect length walk from my hotel, I had lunch at Park Kitchen today.
It was truly excellent.
The cherry and faro soup was one of those dishses where the first taste just says wow. It's somewhat misamed, as its based on a lamb stock with some lamb in it, but the lamb, the tart cherries and the body given by the faro just all works really really well together.
The mixed green salad was nothing extraordinary for those of us spoiled by super fresh produce well presented.
The house-made hot dog was simply the best hot dog I've ever had. I apologize for not taking the time to deconstruct it, but I just wolfed it down. It's served on a buttered briochey bun, with house made ketchup and chips, of the sort one can recognize that they were once really potatoes.
I had the lemon marscapone poundcake, which was good but felt ordinary after the high standards set by the rest of the meal.
Thanks for triggering my whimsy.
Rendezvous *In* (not *at*) Central Square
The vegetable pot pie is perfect comfort food. I had it on one of the really cold nights a couple of weeks ago, and then had to go back the next night to have it again.
And this is the charm of Rendezvous. On the menu, vegetable pot pie sounds, well, ordinary, but when it arrives, its somehow much more than the sum of its ingredients.
Restaurant Pava- an excellent experience
As I posted above, I, too, had some issues with Tess. I'm sure
it's a style thing. For me, she was offputting. She tried to
intervene when it was clear service was getting ragged and it
was, well, awkward. It's not that she was rude or unfriendly,
and she clearly cared that things were not going seamlessly,
but she wasn't very effective, and was too harried to listen
to the answers to the questions she was asking. It might
not bother someone else, but it bothered me.
Restaurant Pava- an excellent experience
Coincidentally, we were there for the first time last night
(6 PM Opentable reservation) and our experience was a bit
different.
Service was fine early, but as the restaurant filled up
(they even brought in a new table from the store) they
got ragged. There wasn't nothing egregiously bad, just
an accumulation of small errors (glasses and plates
not being cleared, water not being refilled, etc.) For
the prices being charged, one expects well trained
professionalism, not well meaning amateurs who aren't
quite up the pressure. A woman, who I assume was
Tess the owner, was bustling around trying to fix
things, but her manner, for me, just highlighted
the issues. That, I'll emphasize, is personal taste,
others might have felt the vocal attention was a
good thing.
The food, however, was, quite good. For appetizers
we had the butter lettuce salad, which had a good
contrast with the pickled herbs that came with it,
and the Pizza Verde. My wife had the nightly special,
a pork shank, which was a gorgeous plating, with meat
that fell off the bone, and a deep flavor that didn't
disappoint. I had the other pork (both were "Berkshire
Heritage") which was as flavorful in a different way,
and came with a rather cute apple "ravioli" (the apple
is the ravioli skin).
I had the lemon chess tart, which, for a Boston Globe
desert of the year, was a disappointment. The lemon
sorbet was as pckering as promised, but the tart
itself just didn't hit the lemon mark for me, but I'll
note that I have very high standards for this. At least
it wasn't overwhelmed by sugar.
To round out the service issues, at first they were
brewing a new pot of decaf for my wife, then they
were out. There's a Starbuck's down the block. Run down
and get some beans, for heaven's sake.
So, overall, this was a positive experience, but it
shows how hard it is to run a consistently high quality restaurant, especially when it becomes popular and successful.
