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liralenJet had a Kids' Night Out last Friday, so John and I got to go out for dinner for the first time in a while. We went to the local Terrior, which is an Italian-inspired restaurant that is high end for a little farming community like ours. They try to work with mostly local goods, but in the deep mid-winter, it's pretty scarce around here.
And it was... good for the price. Their tasting menu was just $35, so it was easy to go for that for the both of us, and it was fun to taste several different things.
I wasn't impressed by the starter, at all. It was a bruchetta, and I suspect that they were left too long after they'd been built as they were brought by the manager rather than our waitress. The bread had a very intriguing grilled note to it, but was disappointingly cool and soggy. The cheese had melted, but had cooled until it was just kind of chewy, and the tomato compote on top had warmed. So any good contrasts between cool and hot, sweet and crisp were completely lost by the delay. The flavors hinted at what it could have been, but wasn't.
They also served far too much of it for a starter, three big squares of the stuff when one would have done. Given that it was on their regular menu, I suspect that they simply prepared it as they normally would have.
The salad was presented in a much more timely manner, which worked to its advantage, as the nigh-on-green mango relish was still good and cold on top of the hot slab of grilled fish and the salad underneath was still green and cold and crisp. There were raw kohlrabi sticks as well as the usual bitter greens, oranges, and cucumber.
The third course was two huge sea scallops, perfectly seared, still tender on the inside, on a shrimp-stuffed crab cake with a nice aoli. That was well worth getting, and when we do go back, I'll probably explore that dish further along with what looked like a homemade bolognaise with proper tagliatelle. Their bread was a very nice Ciabatta with great chew, big flavorful bubbles, and it soaked up olive oil and balsamic vinegar very very nicely. Not fancy, just really good.
The desserts were pear crisps with vanilla ice cream, and again, they were too big, really, and a little soupy from all the juice in the pears. Kind of tasty, but they really didn't do that great a job of highlighting the flavor or the texture of a pear, it could have been apple, given the seasonings and how they chose to prepare it.
So it was a mixture of good ideas badly executed and some things very well done all together; but it was quite inexpensive, and, on the most part, other than that first course, the service was excellent and very friendly.
I also found a local chocolate maker just in time for Valentine's Day. *laughs* The sampling proved very, very good.
And it was... good for the price. Their tasting menu was just $35, so it was easy to go for that for the both of us, and it was fun to taste several different things.
I wasn't impressed by the starter, at all. It was a bruchetta, and I suspect that they were left too long after they'd been built as they were brought by the manager rather than our waitress. The bread had a very intriguing grilled note to it, but was disappointingly cool and soggy. The cheese had melted, but had cooled until it was just kind of chewy, and the tomato compote on top had warmed. So any good contrasts between cool and hot, sweet and crisp were completely lost by the delay. The flavors hinted at what it could have been, but wasn't.
They also served far too much of it for a starter, three big squares of the stuff when one would have done. Given that it was on their regular menu, I suspect that they simply prepared it as they normally would have.
The salad was presented in a much more timely manner, which worked to its advantage, as the nigh-on-green mango relish was still good and cold on top of the hot slab of grilled fish and the salad underneath was still green and cold and crisp. There were raw kohlrabi sticks as well as the usual bitter greens, oranges, and cucumber.
The third course was two huge sea scallops, perfectly seared, still tender on the inside, on a shrimp-stuffed crab cake with a nice aoli. That was well worth getting, and when we do go back, I'll probably explore that dish further along with what looked like a homemade bolognaise with proper tagliatelle. Their bread was a very nice Ciabatta with great chew, big flavorful bubbles, and it soaked up olive oil and balsamic vinegar very very nicely. Not fancy, just really good.
The desserts were pear crisps with vanilla ice cream, and again, they were too big, really, and a little soupy from all the juice in the pears. Kind of tasty, but they really didn't do that great a job of highlighting the flavor or the texture of a pear, it could have been apple, given the seasonings and how they chose to prepare it.
So it was a mixture of good ideas badly executed and some things very well done all together; but it was quite inexpensive, and, on the most part, other than that first course, the service was excellent and very friendly.
I also found a local chocolate maker just in time for Valentine's Day. *laughs* The sampling proved very, very good.
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