6th
La Vie en Aigre Doux
Starting a restaurant review with the dessert is like flipping to the back of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street because EVERYTHING always happens in the last 20 pages. Aigre Doux apparently means “bitter sweet” in French and Nxtasy, an amazingly dedicated chowhounder raved about its Sticky Toffee Pudding, so taking advantage of restaurant week, I decided to test drive the dessert.
From my perspective, the “pudding” was more of a cake, and filled with some sort of delicious syrup. The blood oranges were a nice acidic complement to cut through the sugar.
Haricot vert soup with curried peekytoe crab. This was fantastic and tasting very “green,” but they should have called it peek-a-boo crab because the little pieces were all too fleeting.
Pumpkin ravioli with walnuts and roasted tomato vinaigrette. (From one blogger: “Ooooo, I’m a food blogger, I take close up blurry pictures of a tomato in my salad!”) Other than the bad photography, the sweetness of the pumpkin ravoli was contrasted against the salty cheese (maybe pecorino?). I’m almost certain the walnuts were candied; the nutty crunch was enhanced by the vinaigrette.
Sweet and sour braised short rib with sweet potato puree and sautéed swiss chard. By now, I’ve tried two “out of the ball park” appetizers and I’m expecting a home run for the entrees. These were good and meaty, a John Goodman like entree, but definitely within the realm “meeting expectation.” For some reason, I think it was baby bokchoy and not swiss chard on my plate.
Sit in the main room! Because its a marked contrast to its dowdier by more “intimate” side room.
