Andre's Cucina & Polenta Bar
As part of my new cycle, I'll be including a few "second chance" places. This is places that deserve a second look, not places that are just crap.
On my last visit here, the chef goofed, and I was served overcooked rabbit.
The place is packed. I'm offered a table, but only for fifty minutes.
Let the feeding begin!
You may have heard of speed reading. Tonight will be speed-feeding. 43 minutes left.
It's very dark in here. Photography may be on the sub-par side tonight.
The fish has a lot of flavour. It's infused with tomato, and all the other seafood flavours in the dish.
The cauliflower purée is strange here. I know it's a vegetable, but it looks and feels like an extraneous sauce.
I mop up the sauce with the special bread for a while, before readying my self for speed-zert.
12 minutes to go. (Though the place isn't full any more, so I expect I won't be booted out after all.)
Haven't had a goat-based panna cotta before. I'm also informed that this panna cotta is "free-form", meaning it's set, but not in a mould.
Maybe it will set into a goat shape. :o
The panna cotta is just slightly tart, and it has an unappealing grain to it. It has a kind of a sweetened condensed milk taste, but isn't very sweet.
The dessert is punctuated at random intervals by the sharp tang of the bits of freeze-dried raspberry.
The hunks of soft, sweet, chewy shortbread on the outside are nice in their own right, but they don't help this dish.
I bail out of Andre's about fifteen minutes after my time has expired. The restaurant is only half full, but people at nearby tables are being evicted too. Must be a giant 8:30 stampede coming, or something.