Fantastic!
Very good food, creative, well prepared, high quality, great price value    [24 Sep 2004 09:42:50]

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Recommended Dishes: any

     ­Jon   

Best food I've tasted in a long time
I've been to a lot of places to eat and this is by far the best.    [19 Mar 2006 15:04:35]

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Recommended Dishes: Special of the week

     ­Rudy Cender   CenderR at coolfishing dot com

Excellent Restaurant
I have eaten in this restaurant several times and each time the food has been great.    [26 May 2006 14:09:17]

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Recommended Dishes: Salmon

     ­Anonymous   

Need a restaurant for a special occasion? This is it...
I had read about this hole-in-the-wall restaurant, out of the 'usual suspect' crowd (read: Lark, Forté, Il Postino and such)

Well, as they say, there's treasure at the end of the rainbow. At first, the outside of the smallish restaurant reassured my wife as a commendable establishment. The vines painted on the quaint house, and a decorative pergola did not look tacky or out of place as an eye catcher - they do work well.

The lobby, however cozy, was enhanced by older, 'lived in', furniture, and reminded me of a few restaurants I had been in France. My wife particularly relished over a buffet similar to what her family had in Italy.

The waitstaff was fairly busy on a Saturday (and I wouldn't expect otherwise - my mistake, we went there without reservation...) but we had, oh joy! a table in a cozy corner (now, mind that the restaurant sits about 36 in a 25 x 25 room, so don't expect to be stored in a warehouse, and please do mind not to use your cellphone!) They do accommodate wheelchairs.

The chef (ok, Chef, as he'll be known) has a curriculum as long as your arm, and it shows. The menu is, as mentioned, european in inspiration with local items as components. The wine list is elaborate and the wait staff courteous.

We had the coconut tempura shrimp as an appetizer, and it came with a sweet and sour sauce, wasabi and a balsamic reduction. Forget your Chicken Nuggets at McD... This was well balanced, every dots of sauce were tasty and well defined. I then had a soup (catfish bumbo, with hearthy veggies) while my wife went for a house salad (sorry Chef!), with dried cherries and a simple vinaigrette on the side.

For the main course, my wife went for something slightly off the beaten path with an Angus cut in Madeira and black truffle sauce, paired to a merlot that complemented it well, as I ventured into one of the daily special, a roasted duck I had never had so well prepared. I would not try again the duck with the Pinot Grigio, my mistake (which could have been pointed out by the waitstaff). After that test, I would definitely let Chef guide our selection, without a doubt.

We selected a Mousse au Chocolat for dessert, which left me on my appetite (darn, only a scoop of this delicacy? I'm used to a cupful!) but which presentation delighted me. Go ahead, make room for desert - I order you!

We did not go for the dessert wine. Our total expense came to $50 / person.

Would be nice for Chef to develop a Prix Fixe menu, but I don't know: 1. if the clientele will be responsive; 2. given the activity at the restaurant, probably no change is needed! I'd recommend anybody to make reservations to avoid disappointment, and plan for a 2-3 hour stay. This is not a fast food joint, and - hopefully - never will. Please experiment!

Would be pricier in a setting such a Birmingham ("hey, I've got a mortgate to pay!" comes to mind), but it has nothing to envy these more traditional settings. But then, nobody would venture out so far to just enjoy something as such.    [22 Jul 2007 12:10:56]

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     ­Paul B.