Restaurant Week at Erbaluce

Being restaurant week we decided to finally pop into Erbaluce, a somewhat hidden Italian restaurant on the border of Bay Village and Back Bay. Though I can't say I've ever really noticed anyone coming in or out of it, at 6:30 on a Friday evening it was hopping. We were by far the youngest people there by perhaps 30 years, but we took the fact that the restaurant was full of well-to-do-looking older men and women as a sign that it must be good ;-) We were immediately seated at a table for two in the dimly-lit main dining room. I must say I was underwhelmed by the ambiance - it was quite dark, the walls were mostly bare, and the tables were non-descript looking, but it was by no means uncomfortable or unwelcoming.

We were first served a delicious white bean pureed with a number of herbs, nutmeg, and cinnamon, along with freshly baked bread. This was outstanding, and we could have sworn there was heavy cream or something rich and creamy in it, but this was not the case, and it was quite healthy. Bottles of wine were on the pricey side and all from Italy, so we decided to just order a glass each, both of which were very nice. To start I had the orange and rosemary cured organic salmon with a chicory salad and pink peppercorn dressing. The pink peppercorns, actually small tart berries, were very interesting and contrasted nicely with the sweet orange flavor and the saltiness of the salmon. For me you can never go wrong with cured fish or any sort. Chris had the
white cornmeal polenta with marinated tomatoes and gorgonzola dolce, a simple but tasty take on polenta.

For my main dish I went with the whole steamed Jonah crab with crab and celery risotto. I always feel a little bit strange hacking away at a shellfish carcass while in a nice restaurant, but I couldn't resist. The risotto was very good and had a strong celery flavor to it, but I was disappointed with the amount of crabmeat that was both in the risotto and in the crab claws and legs, themselves. Chris' pan-roasted Newport steak with a lemon, thyme, and white pepper sauce, on the other hand, was very satisfying and perfectly cooked.

We ended up waiting quite some time before our desserts came out, but eventually our chocolate and tart cherry bread pudding
and tortella of local apples with almond cream arrived. The tortella was essentially deep fried dough but very light and airy, and the almond cream was very nice. The chocolate and tart cherry bread pudding was simple but good, though I could have used a bit more of the dark cherry flavor. Finally, as we waited for the check, we were served some complimentary homemade truffles, which was a nice touch.

Overall I can't say I was in love with Erbaluce but I would definitely give it a second try when it isn't restaurant week. The special for the night, a braised rabbit stuffed with liver and truffle something or other sounded absolutely divine, and a number of the other menu items sounded quite enticing.

Jacob Wirth

Jacob Wirth is located in an interesting (historical?) building sitting right between Chinatown and the Theatre District. From the outside, it looks like a pub from a Charles Dickens novel, with an old clock hanging out front. This weekend, we have company, L & A, and we decided to try out Jacob Wirth, which was great, since I've always wanted to go.

Jacob Wirth is a German restaurant that's been around since 1868. It has a wide selection of German beers as well as local American brews. The menu is filled with German specialties all served in generous portions. The inside is large and comfortable with a very cheerful atmosphere.

We started off the evening by going through their extensive beer menu and ordering some great beers. (Sorry for the image quality, we used a camera phone.) I got a Hacker-Pschorr Weisse, which is a really delicious wheat beer. It's slightly fruity, and reminds me of my days in Munich. Peter got the Paulaner Weißbier. He says "It was billed as having an aromatic and fruity taste, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. It was definitely very aromatic--my first impression was almost like a Riesling smell. It was delicious with no bitter aftertaste."

Peter and L got the Sauerbraten, which is described as "Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sweet 'N Sour Braised Beef Round served over Dill Spaetzle, with Gingersnap Gravy and Red Cabbage." P said, "The beef was very tender. I loved the Spätzle, which reminded me of, like, German gnocchi, and the Gingersnap gravy was awesome. They gave me a ton of meat, so for the price, it was a really good deal." L also liked hers and mentioned really liking the basket of cornbread every table seems to get. She also said that her mudslide, which she had for dessert, was good.

I felt adventurous and got the German Sampler (although, without the beer). It was a great deal. Normally, I would have gotten the Sampler with its beer pairings, but since I was impatient and had already ordered a beer while waiting to be seated, I skipped it. The Sampler was a 4-course meal, which included 1) a potato pancake with stewed apples and a cinnamon sour cream on top, 2) an appetizer-sized portion of Wiener Schnitzel served with dill Spätzle, 3) your choice of sausage from Knackwurst, Bratwurst, or Weißwurst, and 4) a German-style chocolate cake.

A ordered the Sweet Potato Raviloi, which he said were good, but I think he had a bit of buyer's remorse after seeing the feast I was having! (The Sampler, really was a great deal and delicious.)

All in all, we're really glad to have finally made it to Jacob Wirth, and I hope we get back there again soon. Oh! and on Friday nights, they do a "Sing-along with Mel," which was very fun.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse

One of my favorite steak houses in Boston’s is Fleming’s. The first time I went to Fleming’s, I was incredibly impressed with their quality, cut and taste of meat. It was no surprise that when I saw Fleming’s had a restaurant week menu, I called up my friends and headed out there as soon as possible.

That first time to Fleming’s, I had the Filet Mignon. It was delicious, the best filet mignon I’ve ever had. Better then Capital Grille, better then Burton’s, better than Smith and Wollensky’s, the filet melted in my mouth and left a wonderful taste of seasonings behind. For dessert, I (reluctantly) had their molten cake. (I say reluctantly because I wasn't a big fan of the molten.) I’ve had it at cheap-eat joints and never have been impressed and have even had it at Finale in Boston and was not too thrilled with it. I always thought that the mythical molten just wasn’t my thing. The Fleming’s molten proved me wrong. After the first bite, I realized that THIS is what a molten cake is supposed to taste like. Warm, rich, a liquid center without being gross, the Fleming molten cake was one of my favorite restaurant desserts ever.

For restaurant week, the menu consisted of a few different options. A NY strip broiled at 1600 degrees caught most of our eyes right away while Bryan and Bob opted for the Salmon. For an appetizer, I had the peach soup. I never have had peach soup before and it sounded intriguing. It was served in a thick, tall, martini glass. It was pretty good but also pretty weird. The consistency was the exact same as yogurt with bits of peach and and it didn’t seem much like a soup at all. Perhaps a mismarketed mismatch? I’m glad I tried it but I wouldn’t get it again.

At this point, it would be good to note that I elected to try the wine flight. The Fleming’s wine flight lets you personally mix and match any three wines from the menu (that are sold by the glass) and pay about 1/3 the price. I chose three wines to match my courses. For the peach soup I chose a champagne, a cabernet sauvignon for my NY strip, and a French Alscatian sweet wine for my turtle pie dessert. The waiter commented that it was the most interesting flight he’s seen anyone order (I think he was mocking me) but I felt that the choices were suited to the dishes flavors. Below are the names of the wines:

1. Gloria Ferrer Champagne, California
2. St. Supery Cabernet Sauvignaun, California
3. Domaines Schlumberger, France

The flight came with the wine glasses about 1/3 full (it should be noted the glasses are a decent size and so each pairing lasted me through to the next course) and cost me around 15 bucks total. The St. Supery glass alone would have cost me 17 dollars so it was indeed a great bargain. Fleming’s also writes the name of the wines down for you to bring home in case you want to research your picks (which of course, I did).

Onto my main course. The NY strip was fantastic. I ordered it medium rare and got exactly that. I know Adam was excited when he ordered it rare and it came rare. Too many times, chefs overcook meat these days! The meat was tender and juicy with a wonderful buttery herb sauce basted on top. The filet came with mashed potatoes (these were wonderful as well) and green beans (a bit undercooked). Plenty of food.

For dessert, I had the turtle pie. It was good, nothing too special. Definitely, no molten cake. It had a lot of nuts in it which I enjoyed but Marco thought there was too many. It was supposed to come with some sort of chantilly cream but our waiter (who, I am guessing, was disenchanted with us for ordering off the restaurant week menu) never brought it.

I do think it’s important to mention that a top quality restaurant should never lack in service, style, or flavor during restaurant week, even though the meals are reduced prices. A top quality restaurant should always be...well, top quality no matter how much the costumer is spending. While the food at Fleming’s certainly demonstrated this, our waiter did not. I’ve experienced good service at Fleming’s so I am going to chalk up this waiter’s poor service to maybe a bad day.

Bryan describes his meal as follows: I started out with the wedge. I've been craving a wedge ever since Restaurant Week started. I know, it's probably the cheapest possible thing a restaurant can make, but I just wanted one! It was good. They gave us a nice amount of delicious blue cheese, and the grape tomatoes were nice and sweet.


Despite the server's recommending the steak or the pork chop for mains, I went with the salmon, which was served Oscar-style. I'd never had anything Oscar style before, and thought this would be a good opportunity to try it. I love crab, and I love hollandaise sauce. I must say, though, that it was a bit much; It was delicious but extremely rich. The salmon filet itself was nice. There were a few bites that were quite salty, but I think that's because they salted the outside unevenly since the dish as a whole was not too salty.


The sides that came "family style" were also very good. The mashed potatoes were fantastic. They were topped with peppercorn butter, and were just delicious. The green beans weren't much to write about.


My dessert was decadent: the turtle pie. Rich and gooey with a nice addition of walnuts, it hit the spot. It would have been nice to have some of the crème chantilly; but, as Peter said, our waiter didn't think he needed to bring us any. Nevertheless, the dessert was delicious.

Overall, our experience at Flemings was great. The food was very good (the steaks incredible) and the portions were good as well. No one left hungry. I’m excited to go again to try another wine flight (and another waiter) but next time, I’m sticking to the molten for dessert.

Pigalle

Effectivement, au début, c'était un peu le bordel. It was strange. We had reservations, and there were plenty of empty tables; but, we still had to wait for about ten minutes to be seated. The restaurant was surprisingly small, and the first thing we noticed when we sat down was how cramped it was. (This having been our first time, we aren't sure whether it's always like this or whether this was in response to a large Restaurant Week crowd.) Then, it took our waiter another ten minutes to come to our table and bring us the menus. We were perplexed--and hungry!

Anyway, we finally get menus and ordered. We were really impressed with the amount of selections on Pigalle's Restaurant Week menu. We chose as follows:

B
Entrée: Arugula Salad with Crispy Bacon, Parmesan Cheese, and Fingerling Potato Chips. My salad was good. The arugula and its dressing were really nice. The Parmesan was shaved in nice-sized pieces and were a nice addition. The most fun part were the fingerling potato chips, which were house-made and shaved paper thin before being fried. The "crispy bacon" was not crispy. Plus it was on the bottom, which made it difficult to reach without making a mess. I think the bacon would have worked more nicely as lardons. In all, though, this was a very nice starter.

Main: Double Thick Grilled Pork Chop with Mustard Sauce, Herb Spätzle, Peas, and Carrots. The pork chop was very tasty. The tarragon spätzle was mixed together with the peas, and carrots, and this served as a bed for the pork. I thought the dish was successful. Nothing too fancy, but it was novel, delicious, and comforting.

Dessert: Stone Fruit and Rhubarb Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream. Yummy! I'm from the South, and I love peach cobbler. I haven't been home during peach season this year, so it was nice to finally get some. As the name indicates, peaches were not the only fruit in the cobbler. There were--at least--also nectarines, which don't cook down as quickly as the peaches, and therefore were more firm and still in intact. I don't know whether there were any other stone fruits in there, though. Of course the rhubarb was a nice addition. Now I know what I'm gonna do with some of that rhubarb in my garden that's calling to me! Oh...this was topped with some vanilla ice cream that was also delicious.


P
Entrée: Shortrib Arancini (not on the aforementioned menu, as it has changed slightly since publication). You already know how much we love arancini. These were really interesting. They were filled with shortrib meat, which was amazingly flavorful. There was a spice we weren't quite sure of--and it tasted . I thought it might have been Chinese Five Spice, but that's merely a guess.

Main: Pigalle's Steak Frites with Creamed Spinach.
I think they must have bought a tarragon farm because it was everywhere.

Dessert: Stone Fruit and Rhubarb Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream. See above. We got the same dessert. P liked his too...especially the ice cream.

Once again, we didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of the food due to the close quarters; and, it was dark, anyway, so they wouldn't have turned out.

We are happy to have finally gone to Pigalle. While the food lived up to our expectations, the service and atmosphere did not. Next time, we'll try to sit outside.