Hubby and I met there for lunch today, we were looking for something different in the area and saw the good reviews for this place.
It is in a tucked away mini strip mall in Champlain Heights - I almost missed it and drove past. It's next to a convenience store, it really didn't look like much on the outside, if I hadn't read about it here I would never have considered stopping in. We were the only customers for most of the lunch hour, just before we left a few teenagers came in to have lunch, but that was it. Their dishes are Ikea dishes, which is fine, just an observation.
It was very hot today, they didn't have any air-conditioning on, but it looked like there were a/c outlets on the ceiling. It wasn't uncomfortable, but I would have preferred a cooler atmosphere. There's really not much to the place, it seats at most 23 people, and I didn't see a bathroom (I think you may need to walk through the kitchen area to get to it).
Because I knew what to expect from what I read on Yelp, we focussed completely on the food and not on the atmosphere or the service. The food was fantastic. We ordered the clam chowder on the menu, and then ordered the rest from their daily specials board - crab cake, oysters rockefeller, and braised lamb shank. The New England style clam chowder was tasty. It had the right balance of clams to vegetables and wasn't overrun with potatoes. The primary herb was dried basil - it was tasty even though they used dried herbs. Then we got the crab cake. It was beautifully presented (not what you'd expect from a place that looked like that), one crab cake in the middle, piled with greens, sitting on a bed of avocado, with a squiggle of two types of dressings on either side, and some chutney-type sauce. I really liked that dish - the avocado and the greens worked really well with the crab cake, you could really taste the crab and the whole crab cake was mostly crab, but I really wished there was more of it. Next was the oysters rockefeller - there were three of them, good sized ones, and we enjoyed them. Finally we had the braised lamb shank - it was served overtop mashed potatoes and some vegetables, surrounded by a sauce. The lamb was tender and fell off the bone, the sauce was good, and the mashed potatoes were creamy. We finished off with the mocha creme caramel. The flavour of the mocha creme caramel was definitely there, but I didn't really like the cognac infused raspberry or the pear on the side, and there was too much syrup.
To confirm - they do only accept cash. It really seems like a mom and pop run operation, I think the server is probably the chef's wife. The chef has an interesting background, he's classically trained and has worked in many high end kitchens, yet he decided to open this small establishment. For what we ordered, it came to $60 including tip. A bit pricey for lunch, but we wanted to try their higher end dishes. On the menu there were a lot more reasonably priced offerings, and they also have a kids menu (smaller portions of pasta).
All in all, I really liked the food, and felt that we were getting some higher end creations for a mid-level price. Ambiance and service aside, I will definitely come back to this place to eat, and I plan to bring my kids next time, they like pasta and pizza (which is on the menu), and I think that they will be pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food here.
One last comment - their food is not overly salty, which is something that I have experienced in many restaurants. To me it was a perfect balance of flavour, and I'm glad it wasn't too salty, you can't fix a dish once it's too salty. read more