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| - I really wanted to like this place. It gets great reviews; the menu reads well; and it's in a cute spot. But unfortunately, I could find very little to recommend.
The sweet potato soup is one-note - sweet. It would benefit from some salt and a little bit of acid, to make it more complex and less cloying.
The beet salad had potential - and is beautiful - but again, it's as if the chef lost his ability to season. Undersalted (if salted at all). The meringues were a nice touch, and I wanted to love this beautiful dish, but without salt, it was dull.
The underseasoned theme continued with the amberjack and duck breast. I'm sure the chef uses good quality ingredients (the turnips were nice), but when you don't know how to season food, when you don't know how to cook to make those ingredients shine - the best ingredients can't save you.
But underseasoned is only half the battle. We also had the duck confit pastry - which was just downright terrible. It had an unappealing flavor, and a texture that resembled dog food. It's as if the chef pulverized duck, walnuts, figs and blue cheese into a textureless mash, and dropped a glob of it into some puff pastry. I could barely eat one bite.
The best dish was the goat cheese cheesecake - in that it was tasty, not cloyingly sweet, and the caramel was nicely burnt. BUT, it shouldn't be called a goat cheese cheesecake!! It was a regular cheesecake, with a little bit of goat cheese incorporated. You get none of the goat cheese flavor that is so perfect in a properly executed goat cheese cheesecake.
Service was overbearing and intrusive. Every server hovered, sweeping away dishes as soon as we appeared done with them. If I had enjoyed the food, I would have been annoyed at the speed with which it was disappearing from my table.
And finally, my 88 year old grandmother was dining with us, and she asked whether chef could prepare the risotto without cream or milk. The server asked the kitchen, and returned to say that yes, the chef could prepare the risotto using only wine and stock, and no dairy. Given that, my grandmother ordered the risotto dish.
What came out was a bowl of rice, with the vegetables and protein as described on the menu. But it was NOT risotto. It was boiled rice. If the chef can't prepare risotto without dairy, that's understandable. But to say you can provide something, and then send out a bowl of rice - as if expecting that the guests wouldn't know the difference - is unprofessional and truly disrespectful.
All in all, this is a place I wanted to love, but unfortunately, it is not well executed at all. Don't waste your time or money.
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