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| - We had to pick up my son from the Amtrak station this afternoon and decided to take a detour and try one of the restaurants in Plaza Midwood. After driving around for a few minutes my daughter chose The Peculiar Rabbit because she liked the name and the building looked kinda cool with its different levels. There were only a few people dining on the patio on this gorgeous day. (I had wanted to try Zada Janes because the patio was full of hungry diners, evidence in my opinion of a place with good food. Shoulda.)
We were seated upstairs right away and had a decent view of the Charlotte skyline. Our server was great; prompt and attentive to our drinks. We ordered the hummus appetizer and it took only a few minutes to arrive. There was a generous portion of the tasty hummus and crispy thin slices of baguette. I inquired about the size of the salads and the server told me they were on the small side, which was not a problem. My daughter and I ordered the watermelon salad with chicken and my husband ordered the house salad with chicken. He played it safe and was smart.
The description said there was watermelon and pickled watermelon rind, so I was expecting some nice juicy sweet watermelon chunks in addition to the pickled rind. It also listed puffed quinoa;I didn't really know what "puffed" quinoa was, but I figured what the heck, quinoa is good so I'll try it. The dressing was a cucumber watermelon vinaigrette. When it arrived, it looked pretty good, a little larger than I expected, but I was a little skeptical of the brown gritty crumbles on top. The first taste of the watermelon was shocking because I wasnt expecting both it AND the rind to be pickled. Furthermore, there were tiny little chopped pickled onions throughout. I thought ok, I can skip the watermelon, since there weren't that many chunks, but OMG the puffed quinoa was akin to chewing crushed gravel! I'm not sure what it's purpose was other than grind down my molars. It pretty much ruined the rest of the salad because it was stuck to every leaf of arugula. The only saving grace was the chicken and the dressing. Since the menu wasn't that big, I doubt I will ever go back to see if I liked anything else.
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