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| - I had dinner at Cork recently to celebrate my birthday, and the experience had some real highs and some real lows. First, I will say that with one exception (explain later), the service was superb. I was greeted warmly by the young lady at the door and was really tickled that our menus had "Happy Birthday, Stephanie" printed at the top. Our waiter, whose names escapes me now (sorry!) was friendly and clearly enthusiastic about the kitchen.
Which brings me to the food. Although I was sorely tempted to order the sweetbreads as a starter, I went with the roasted baby beet salad for two reasons: 1. I love both roasted beets and morbier and 2. I can usually tell right away based on the salad course whether or not I'll be back for another meal. So, how was it? Well, the individual components were all good on their own, except for the confit (I've had far, far better). What the dish lacked was cohesion. A bit of this, a bit of that, a really teeny bit of horseradish (seriously, like two thin slivers). It was confusing: why choose the ingredients so carefully but do nothing to make them more than the sum of their parts? So out of 10, I'd give it a 6.
Oh, did I mention that I love wine? And I really love white wine (if you don't know how fantastic white wine can be, you need to branch out a little from your red fixation). I was please, therefor, when our server told me that they offer both a Viognier and a Grüner Veltliner by the glass. I would hope that a restaurant named "Cork" would have some great whites! Alas, neither were much to write home about. Predictably, the list of whites by the bottles wasn't very inspired, either. *sigh*
But back to the food. My husband's starter was, if I remember correctly, a Caesar salad. It was crispy, dressed properly. A fine salad. In the meantime, my daughter was pigging out on the bread, which was delicious.
Then the mains. Okay, I chose this restaurant because I had read a year ago or so Howard Seftel's review of Cork in which he deemed their fried chicken a hit. I'm from the South and crazy for fried chicken, although I actually rarely eat fried anything (because, you know, it's bad for you). But I wanted fried chicken for my birthday, darn it, and that's what I ordered. It was, in a word, *horrible*. I knew the minute our waiter presented the dish that the chicken was seriously, seriously overcooked. The panko breadcrumbs were practically blackened. I hoped against hope that I was mistaken. Nope. The breading tasted like scorched oil and the chicken was so dry I could barely chew it. Also on the plate were Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with gravy and haricots verts (which was misspelled on the menu, yikes). The sides looked promising; the potatoes had a nice texture, and the green beans were clearly not overcooked, thank goodness. However, none of it tasted like it had been seasoned. Flat gravy, flat potatoes and, from what I could tell, nothing had been done to the green beans, either. It was pretty depressing to see a potentially great meal gone so terribly wrong.
Across the table, my husband was having an all together different experience. His dish of steak with pork belly was fantastic. I had a bite or two and was seriously jealous. My daughter was chowing down on her homemade chicken strips and fries. So it seemed I was the only one who struck out.
Remember earlier when I said that our service was great, save one thing? My sole complaint is that I *know* our waiter could tell my dish was overcooked when he presented it, and yet he said nothing. And since I had someplace to be immediately after, I didn't really have time to send it back to the kitchen and wait for something else. When he cleared our dinner dishes, it was obvious that I'd eaten very little. When the waiter asked how everything had been, I lied and said, "Fine." It was my birthday and I didn't want to be a bitch.
Since I still had room, I gave Cork one more shot and ordered a dessert. (would've ordered a glass of port, too, but I wasn't impressed with the choices). My daughter went with the Black and White (a flourless chocolate cake topped with a white chocolate Bavarian and raspberry coulis) and my husband and I ordered the cheesecake to share.
The servings were odd. The flourless cake slice was really generous and the cheesecake was a very small round, maybe four bites. After I tasted each, I had to laugh. The cake would have been utterly forgettable if not for the bizarre Bavarian with no taste and too much gelatin--it was almost foam rubber in texture. My daughter scraped the Bavarian to the side, and then just ate a few bites of the cake. The cheesecake, however, was fantastic. Seriously. We left not a crumb on the plate.
As I said, it was a meal of real highs and lows. Cork may very well be one of those places where you *have* to know what to order and stick to those dishes. That would be a shame.
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