Absolutely Fabulous

»Absolutely Fabulous - Long

So I finally made it in, and here goes... Weird breaking through the little crowd of smokers outside, but that's hardly AbFab's fault. - although they could stick one of those smokers' ashtray things in the alley next door. There was no one to greet us at the podium, and it turned out that our usher was our server as well, one of two on the floor as far as I could tell. He was very friendly, and...+READ So I finally made it in, and here goes... Weird breaking through the little crowd of smokers outside, but that's hardly AbFab's fault. - although they could stick one of those smokers' ashtray things in the alley next door. There was no one to greet us at the podium, and it turned out that our usher was our server as well, one of two on the floor as far as I could tell. He was very friendly, and what he lacked in experience (my guess) he made up for with common sense. Sometimes. It did take a while to order, but after that one lapse, everything proceeded in a timely manner. Our server poured us water, and we asked if they had smaller glasses for our kids. He laughed that they should but didn't. We laughed, too. Then he brought our drink order - in smaller glasses! No biggie though.

Food... We order a vegetarian version of the antipasti, escargots, fruitti de mare and meatballs. First off, the portions are seriously suburban. Three people could have split the antipasti (grilled eggplant, roasted pepper, really nice bean salad, greens, grilled zucchini, pecorino, fesh mozzarella, balsamic dressing on the side) as an entree. (Really, Chowhound spellcheck? You don't know entree? Nor Chowhound? Nor Spellcheck?) Anyway, as I said portions are huge. We got scared at our neighbors' brobdingnagian salads. (I threw that one in just to f with you spellcheck). My three meatballs, stuffed with asiago and served over a pesto cream and marinara, were quite nice, if not groundbreaking. And each was larger than a tennis ball. The escargot were fine (read meh) , served over toasted, sliced Pillsbury baguette; as was the fruitti di mare, shrimp, squid and maybe scallops (I forget) in a caper butter. My wife reported that her antipasti outperformed Bertucci's. WooHoo!

For entrees we had pesce espada, a vegetable timbale and a split order of penne with breaded chicken and garlicky broccoli. The pesce espada, a tomato/caper/seafood stew was ok - nothing better than Legal or Turner's, but quite delicious when I reheated it the next day with more olive oil, butter, smoked paprika and salt. The timbale was a free-form napoleon of grilled expected vegetables with a nifty swizzle of balsamic glaze on the plate and some pesto oil. It tasted alright, but was overwhelmingly oily. The penne, apparently, passed the child test.

Pluses: Really nice room, nice vibe, decent food.
Minuses: To be honest, I was hoping for more of a Garden at the Cellar. It's funny. My wife immediately said, "Ooh, it's expensive!" But it's not, given their ambition. It's Hungry Mother, Central Kitchen or Garden pricing, and she's never said those places are too expensive. It's all context. An earlier hound said it sounds pretentious. Well, it's not. Not one smidge. But unless the menu changes often, and from its current circa 1989, too Italian inspired, sometimes not, format, I can't see making myself a regular. Another problem I had: the small plates menu - something infinitely more interesting that the plethora of pastas, is apparently not available in the dining room. Another problem, and chalk it up to lack of real restaurant experience and probably issues with the physical space: the actual plates were ice cold. And also, if I'm paying twenty-plus bucks for an entree in Melrose, please have yours delivered by a respectable bakery, or at least find a better bake-off brand.

Anywho, I've bored you quite enough. It's worth a try, really. Sit in the bar. (I didn't try a cocktail, myself.)-COLLAPSE / REPLY (5 Replies) (by almansa, created February 3, 2010)