Archive for the Restaurant Review Category

I tried the Empress on West Broad Street recently for dinner. I liked the interior. The wait to get an order taken was long, the wait for appetizers was even longer.

One of our orders was for the soup of the day. When it came out, it was different than what we were originally told. They offered to replace it if we didn’t like it. Why? This is a service mistake. Don’t serve what the person wasn’t expecting.

The entrées were both served with plump, vibrant green beans. They were slightly under-cooked. The flavors for each were good, but they could have used a pinch more salt. I had the bison and mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes. I am not sure what kind of thing this is… it was like a meat sauce over potatoes. Okay, but it was tasty. But I love mushrooms, and there were too few.

The focus here seems to be on local/sustainable/in-season. I think if the food takes a long time to come out, then there ought to be munchables on the table-bread at the least.

I feel bad - I know this place has touched the hearts of other food bloggers here in Richmond. It didn’t strike a chord on my food guitar this past week. I applaud the concept; and I also applaud the lack of huge portions (and likewise prices).

An experience the week before at Six Burner on Main Street was very different - loved the ambiance - but the food was punchy in flavor and the service and speed was more attentive than what we experienced at Empress.

There’s two sides to waiting a long time for orders…

1) everything is being made by scratch and requires time, and people are sometimes willing to wait. By in large, from what I could tell, they were consistent - everyone’s order came after a an equally long stretch of time. 2) the kitchen isn’t efficient enough to put out orders fast enough.

I think a lot about my one experience here would be helped by addressing the efficiency. Having skipped lunch this day and being very hungry didn’t help… I think either we hit them on a slow night, or else there’s just one thing keeping them back… if I’m in the area, I wouldn’t mind trying them again for brunch or lunch.

I wanted to make the raspberry napoleon featured in Keller’s Bouchon cookbook.

He makes the layers using real-butter puff pastry, baked for almost 50 minutes between two sheet pans (use parchment or silpats).

For the last 5-7 minutes, you cover the layer with corn syrup to create an impenetrable barrier.

This is the first time I made it, but in all actuality, it wasn’t hard. Assembly was okay. The most challenging part was making the pastry cream (a custard with cornstarch).

You let the pastry cool, and then get ready to cut your three slices.

Use a serrated knife; and start piping-on the pastry cream.

The pastry looks dark, but that’s the color it was in the cookbook, too.

By the time it’s served, you’ve got raspberries in the top layer, and you can garnish with powdered sugar or even chocolate sauce. I did both.

Before serving, here’s a shot of the side-view. It was great.

Find Bouchon in a 2-cookbook set on Amazon.

A guest: “What is in this [chicken]?”

Me: “Why does something not taste good?”

He said, “No… it’s absolutely perfect…”

And from across the table, “This is the best chicken I’ve ever eaten… whoa.”

So, this is the secret of my chicken success. And this doesn’t mean there’s only one way to do this, but it’s my way. And it is good.

1. Use a good quality bird. I chose a free-range, Kosher bird. Kosher means it has been brined, which si a step I’d rather not have to mess with.
2. Keep it simple. Put aromatics in the cavity (in my case, thyme and lemon), and salt and pepper the bird liberally.
3. Tie it up. A trussing needle is not required.
4. Roast at a high temperature (475 or 500 degrees F) for roughly an hour. You want to get a temperature of about 155 degrees before taking it out to rest.
5. Wait.
6. Carve the bird in serving pieces.
7. Ladle-over the secret sauce.

Each time I do variations on the “sauce,” but there are always a few common ingredients. Shallot, garlic, lemon juice, fresh thyme, and butter. This time I also added a wine-stock reduction. Dijon mustard. Pour this over the carved meat, and serve. Sop-up the sauce with baguette. Don’t bother with potatoes or starchy vegetables. Go French.

One of my most favorite meals of late was taken in at Lacroix Restaurant off Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia. A restaurant with French roots, it modernizes cuisine with unusually delicious combinations of flavors.

The evening I visited they featured a tasting menu:

• Himachi with Rhubarb and Sea Beans
• Strawberry Gazpacho
• Halibut with Morels
• Foie Gras with Heirloom Tomatoes
• A Berry Soda with Cinnamon
• Lamb
• Taleggio Cheese, served warm with Jamón Serrano
• Sacher Torte

Wow! If I had to choose the weakest dish, it would have been the dessert… it was good, but the other dishes were on a whole other level higher… and one of my favorites was the first (pictured left, above), the most clean tasting fish, with briny sea beans, watermelon skin that had been pickled, plus soft rhubarb. Absolutely delicious and fresh. I could have eaten a bowl of that, piled high.

That’s how the next dish read, too, a berry-infused gazpacho with all kinds of interesting things to throw into your bowl, including flowers. “Yummo!” we might hear from Rachel Ray. The MC also said Yummo!

Mushrooms are a special treat for me, and this menu featured both morels with a butter-poached halibut, but also porcini later on with the lamb. Foie is always a hit, no? Luxurious, yes, but also so well-paired with the flavors. Each course seemed an ideal size. Just enough to whet the appetite for more, then soon newer, if not richer flavors, were to follow.

The cheese was an extra course, and they will let you split it to share with a dining partner. This is wise, both because you do start to get full around dessert time, and plus, you ought to taste their quality ham and warm cheese combination. Taleggio isn’t Spanish, but it is a favorite stinky (Italian) cheese of mine. Having it served warm and crispy on the outside was a real treat.

Lacroix does offer in-kitchen table dining for those who just want to turn it up a notch on the foodie dial.

The atmosphere was more formal than I had imagined, but since it’s located in a hotel, not all guests were formally dressed.

This meal was offered at a very competitive price, considering the quality of flavors and ingredients. Warmly recommended.

I recently had the opportunity to dine at Zahav Restaurant in Philadelphia, PA, home to tapas, Israeli style.

The tapas concept works well with many different cuisines, including this primarily Mediterranean-style menu. Many of the flavors were new to me. In fact, several pickled vegetables and exotic spices came to the table. None were too piquant or strong in flavor, but each was savory enough to contribute to a new flavor palette that I found both refreshing and inviting.

The dish pictured above features some of flavorful condiments, and the featured dish was a combination beef/lamb meatball. Each of our choices from an populated list of dishes was delicious, from cheese, to the buttery hummus, and the meat dishes like those meatballs.

Almost everything came with a touch of flavor on the side, like preserved lemon, which made each tapas the more deep.

Service was very kind, so much so our waiter almost every time left the table walking backwards, saying “Thank you kindly…” I remember it so, that I wrote it down in my notes from the trip.

If you’re a fan of small plate meals, with variety and out of the ordinary flavors, I couldn’t recommend Zahav more.