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| - Part of my 'burbs dining experiences that occurs once a month with my high school English teacher, Ms. B. Yes, I art a Nerd (with a capital N). With 6:30PM reservations in hand, we proceeded to CP. They call you a day in advance to confirm your reservation so make sure you confirm, or you may be sans table when you arrive.
CP is located in a strip mall on Brock Street in Whitby. I should've seen this as a prophetic sign as to what to expect. Most restaurants located in a mall, strip or not, aren't the type that will knock your socks off or float your boat. Parking was plentiful.
We were greeted by the hostess who proceeded to tell us "You are aware of the 8:30PM reservation after you right?" Um... no. Nobody bothered to tell us that, not at the time of reservation, nor at the time of confirmation. Deduct 1 star.
We were promptly seated and our server for the night greeted us. Ms. B likes her white wines, so we always order a half litre of whatever their house white is. The house white at CP's is a bit pricier than other places, $23 for a half litre.
Instead of a bread basket, CP offers up an amuse-bouche; it was everything BUT amusing. It was a sad, braised beef with a square of puff pastry on top. It looked like something out of a grocery store freezer. For me, the amuse-bouche is a teaser is a teaser, the chance to showcase creativity and culinary expertise. But I guess when comparing it to a bread basket, it is mildly more "amusing."
We ended up having a 3-course meal to share, as I try to give full reviews which encompass the entire experience.
To start, we ordered the "Chattercake" & Greens which is prepared with lump crab meat & vegetables blended with "Chatterpaul's Kitchen" spices accompanied by fennel, pineapple, celeriac & tomato salad w/ pepitas & flax seed, with pineapple, mango chutney. Our salad didn't have any tomato in it as per the description. It was a very flavorful salad with many different Indian spices. Texturally, this was a very interesting salad. What I first assumed to be pieces of Bibb Lettuce turned out to be fried rice paper (somebody turn up the lights or get me a new presecription?). It reminded me of really really thin prawn chips that you could get at the Chinese grocery stores. Instead of flax seed, they used Pumpkin Seeds which gave a nice nuttiness to the salad. Overall, a great salad.
For our main, we ordered the Chilean Sea Bass served over lobster and beetroot-infused risotto. We were informed after ordering the dish that the chef now prepares it differently than as stated. Instead, it would be served in a tomato-cream sauce with mushroom ravioli. I guess the chef is getting lazy and mushroom ravioli is probably less time-consuming to make then "beetroot-infused risotto." For $35, I felt this dish was overpriced. The dish, first and foremost, was only slightly warm, and had probably been sitting on a heating plate while we were finishing up our salad. It came with 3 pieces of mushroom ravioli, and the lobster meat got drowned in the huge sea of tomato-cream sauce. So we pretty much paid $35 for a generous serving of tomato-cream sauce. Second star deduction.
They do not have a dessert menu, but your server will recite you the desserts. We ended up getting the Chocolate Eruption Cake which has a brownie crust, and is a chocolate cheesecake on top served with whipped cream and berries. I think that the whipped cream came together wonderfully with the cheesecake, and only wished that they were more generous with the serving of whipped cream. We also ordered a decaf and cappuccino; both of which were not hot enough. I should also mention the lack of attention to detail, as the foam from my cappuccino had overflowed onto the saucer and was served to me that way. I guess they thought that I would deem it as some sort of "artistic" presentation.... NOT
Our server was pretty attentive throughout the evening. Our water glasses were topped up, and she was always available when we needed her. However, she seemed to always have a perplexed/stressed look on her face whenever we flagged her down; the poor girl!
There was one noteworthy occurrence tonight; which would've been that Penny (who appears to be the restaurant manager) came over to our table and greeted us. She informed me she was the one who took my reservation over the phone and asked how everything was and thanked us for joining them for dinner tonight.
All in all, CP is trying to be the happening and fancy restaurant of Whitby. It is definitely a happening place to go for dinner with a date or friends. But for God's sakes, if you're going to try to be all high class, don't use plastic flowers anywhere! All their flowers inside and outside the restaurant were plastic. Just cheapens the place. If you want to pay a premium for ambiance for undersized portions and okay food, by all means, come to Chatterpaul's!
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