restaurant review
Feb. 15th, 2004 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanAnd lo, for Valentine's Day (spent in Boston at Boskone)a friend did find us Meritage, and we did go, and we did have a most excellent time. What follows is my own personal recollection, with assistance from their on-line menu to confirm the dishes I consumed.
It's in a lovely small hotel where I want to stay when I hit the bestseller list (hah). Second floor, with a full wall of windows overlooking the harbor. A modern decor, but not annoyingly so -- the tabletop was of the same "galaxy" sparkly black marble we have on our bartop, so I felt right at home. And the lighting, while funkily designed, was perfect, and the seats were comfortable.
The staff is young, lively, and very well trained. You have your choice of 'large plate' for about $29 or a 'small plate' (tasting menu) for $15 per. We all went with the tasting, except our finder-of-restaurant, who did the prix fixe.
I had the 'Fennel Cured Smoked Salmon with Warm Sweet Corn Custard and Frothed Caviar Cream' (drool! oh dear lord the drool.. the cream alone was worth the price)with the bottle of sparkling we ordered -- Domaine Chandon, Étoile Rosé NV, the 'Almond Crusted Lemon Sole,French Beans and Green Apple, Semillon Butter' with a Cline Viognier for seconds (so good), and 'Wood Grilled Filet Mignon with Soft Whipped Potatoes, Horseradish Shallot Cream and Cabernet Syrup' with a South African wine, Meritage “Classique,” Rupert & Rothschild for thirds. The mignon was perfectly rare and tasted as quaility meat should, and the wine was a very good match -- but by then the richness of everything was threatening to overhwelm me.
But hey, never let it be said I don't follow through to the bitter end. Or in this case, the sweet ending. Peter and I split the Meritage Dessert Tasting Plate for Two which involved things so wonderously evil I can barely speak of them. Four different desserts, of which the best was the pair of pecan tarts, but then they gave us these little linzer tortes and mint truffles (what I call the "you've spent too much money' extra dessert) and my god
we were replete and then some.
As I mentioned above, service was... perfect. One of our companions has an egg allergy, and when our waitress saw that the amuse bouche (a salmon mouse) was refused because he couldn't eat it, she whisked into the kitchen and came back with a delish-looking minced vegetable and vinaigrette dish for him to have instead.
And then they came by and gave the females at our table long-stemmed roses.
A class act, all the way, Mind you, not cheap. But not overpriced for what you get, in my opinion. Top five list, easily. Maybe even the top three.
If you can, if you like this sort of thing, hie thee hence. Meritage, in Boston.
Damn, I wanna go back already.
It's in a lovely small hotel where I want to stay when I hit the bestseller list (hah). Second floor, with a full wall of windows overlooking the harbor. A modern decor, but not annoyingly so -- the tabletop was of the same "galaxy" sparkly black marble we have on our bartop, so I felt right at home. And the lighting, while funkily designed, was perfect, and the seats were comfortable.
The staff is young, lively, and very well trained. You have your choice of 'large plate' for about $29 or a 'small plate' (tasting menu) for $15 per. We all went with the tasting, except our finder-of-restaurant, who did the prix fixe.
I had the 'Fennel Cured Smoked Salmon with Warm Sweet Corn Custard and Frothed Caviar Cream' (drool! oh dear lord the drool.. the cream alone was worth the price)with the bottle of sparkling we ordered -- Domaine Chandon, Étoile Rosé NV, the 'Almond Crusted Lemon Sole,French Beans and Green Apple, Semillon Butter' with a Cline Viognier for seconds (so good), and 'Wood Grilled Filet Mignon with Soft Whipped Potatoes, Horseradish Shallot Cream and Cabernet Syrup' with a South African wine, Meritage “Classique,” Rupert & Rothschild for thirds. The mignon was perfectly rare and tasted as quaility meat should, and the wine was a very good match -- but by then the richness of everything was threatening to overhwelm me.
But hey, never let it be said I don't follow through to the bitter end. Or in this case, the sweet ending. Peter and I split the Meritage Dessert Tasting Plate for Two which involved things so wonderously evil I can barely speak of them. Four different desserts, of which the best was the pair of pecan tarts, but then they gave us these little linzer tortes and mint truffles (what I call the "you've spent too much money' extra dessert) and my god
we were replete and then some.
As I mentioned above, service was... perfect. One of our companions has an egg allergy, and when our waitress saw that the amuse bouche (a salmon mouse) was refused because he couldn't eat it, she whisked into the kitchen and came back with a delish-looking minced vegetable and vinaigrette dish for him to have instead.
And then they came by and gave the females at our table long-stemmed roses.
A class act, all the way, Mind you, not cheap. But not overpriced for what you get, in my opinion. Top five list, easily. Maybe even the top three.
If you can, if you like this sort of thing, hie thee hence. Meritage, in Boston.
Damn, I wanna go back already.
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Date: 2004-02-15 08:46 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 04:15 am (UTC)