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| - We went to T. Cook's last night for a birthday dinner. I had been there a year ago for a meal and really enjoyed the experience. We started in the bar, which is cozy and has some excellent cocktails. My one complaint, is they had live music and the place is way too small to have a conversation while the music is playing (even thought the musician was quite good). And this is the kind of place where you want to hang and in quiet, comfortable elegance have a conversation.
The food this year was also a bit of a disappointment. The appetizers were small and uninteresting. We tried the shrimp saltimboca and the grilled octupus. For $14 each, they were extremely small servings. Secondly, the flavors were not interesting at all. The shrimp tomato sauce was bland, and one of my party members ate all of the prosciutto in one small bite. The grilled octupus tasted good, but there was so very little of it. We had to cut up the two tentacles (buried on a plate of dressed lettuce) into 3 small pieces each to be able to share it with the others.
The entrees were previously inventive and with a mediterranean focus. This visit, half the menu offers meat entrees with sides being extra and optional. If looking for the previous creative plates, the options were fewer. That said, one of my dinner partners ordered the lamb chops with cous cous and feta which was delicious and another a bass plate which was lovely. The latter, however, was quite small.
My two dinner partners opted for dessert. One was a very flavorable bread pudding, the other ordered a rather bland honey cake. To the waiter's credit, he took the cake offf the menu after my friend offered his displeasure with it.
Overall, the ambience is very nice. The service was excellent. The food can be good but is hit and miss. I will give it another try in the future, but I hope they can work on some of the menu options.
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