Pull up a chair, and sit down.
STARTER: a Prosecco-lemon-mint bubbly with amuse bouche of sun dried tomato cracker topped with three squirts (piping bag) of SDT cream cheese, a slice of strawberry and strands of arugula. We liked: surprisingly good match between the strawberry and the SDT flavor and the prosecco drink was nicely dry.
1st COURSE: Billed as "Fruit salad, tuna poke, sesame, soy caramelized pineapple, jalapeno". This had my uh-oh antennae way up--remember I'm in an Italian restaurant. What I got: overdressed poke, dots of spicy red sauce, a 'smile' of diced melon garnished with arugula and two chunks of strawberry. No sign of sesame (except in the oil in the poke), pineapple, or jalapeno. The best part of the dish were the spicy red dots.
2nd COURSE: Billed as "prawn and sherry grilled cucumber skewer, chimichurri". What I got: three shrimp separated by two slices of cucumber painted with a scant but decent chimichurri sitting on guess what? Arugula! No sign, visually or tastewise, of grilling, let alone sherry.
3rd COURSE: Billed as "pistachio-mustard encrusted lamb, tri-colored quinoa, black cherry chutney, sweet potato coconut curry". What I got: two excellent (mild and tender) double rack chops--over-crusted because the grind on the pistachio nuts was too large but perfectly cooked medium I'll give them that--plopped into a bowl of soupy lukewarm curry with a wad of smashed cherries on top. The quinoa might have been underneath the chops but it was impossible to discern from the pistachio crust. Really hard to eat as we were not given steak knives for proper cutting, just serrated conventional/all purpose knives that sawed more than they actually cut, neither of which is suitable for something served in a bowl. And no spoon with which to eat the curry which was tasty enough but it lost any excitement it might have had with the reduced Fahrenheits of it's service temperature. And finally here was a plate where a single leaf of arugula might have been appreciated, as there was nothing fresh, bright or green on the plate. It was way too sweet and rich. So of course they put the sweetest and richest of the wines, the merlot, with it.
DESSERT: "Glazed puff pastry, raspberry chocolate meringue, candied pecans". What we got: puff pastry, whipped cream, raspberries, nickel-sized--that's both in height and width--soft/floppy chocolate discs that looked like melanomas, and pecans all drizzled with honey. This, served with a dry cab franc, which of the two reds was by far the liveliest with good acidity. Such a shame to not have served the brighter wine with that rich lamb/curry dish and save the sweeter/fruitier red for last (not that it would matched the dessert, either, but the lamb needed that cab franc!) I get that the chef isn't a wine guy, so to him sweet and rich pairs with sweet and rich, but that's naive and amateurish.
As was, frankly, the entire meal. Thanks for listening.
