rev:text
| - We went for a NYE dinner, which was several days after they opened. Its in a decent location, however a little hard to find because its in the back of the plaza.
We ordered:
1) Mache pit salad - OK, the vinegar and honey were a little out of balance (too much vinegar). Wish they would have just stuck with natural lemon juice to provide the acid. The honey was awesome though :) Scraped the bowl clean of that stuff.
2) Goat cheese 'salad' - this is really two breaded pieces of goat cheese on top of some micro greens. Portion is large. Preferred the mache salad.
3) Chicken livers - why must every new restaurant in Cleveland feature this on their menu? We tried it anyways, after youve had em elsewhere, these were just the same. Wish they would break the livers up into smaller pieces, the texture can get monotonous with such large pieces.
4) Scallops - yum! Flavor of this is great, the combo of the apple, lentils and scallops is really delicous and something different. Wish they paid more attention to the cooking/cleaning of the scallops- had sand in every bite and rather uneven sears (some scallops were dark brown and some were completely white). Also, whats with the panko? No need for that when the scallops are seared properly.
5) Cavatelli - pasta texture was delicious! Sauce was OK - kinda watery and unfortunately tasted too much like chef boyardee.
As for the ambience - not very good. After factoring in the ambience I dropped it from a 3star to a 2star. Very 90's decor (especially the chairs) and cavernous white ceiling (paint it black!). Needs some upgrades.
Service, however, was awesome. Our waitress was really nice and helpful, you could tell she sincerely wanted us to have a great time and was happy to work there.
Id say its worth a try because it is a local establishment and its good to support new business. I am not sure if we will be back, just because if we go to lolita/amp 150 we can get higher quality food for around the same price. I think if we do go back, it will be to support local chefs and to try out any new dishes that Palate develops.
|