As many of you know, I often have a number of restaurants i want to visit at any given time. with my cousin and friend in town this weekend, I decided i'd like to once again attempt to make reservations at either ten tables or craigie st. bistro and as usual, i was foiled and unable to do so. luckily, there are still plenty of places i wanna check out, so i made reservations at caffe umbra on washington st. in the south end. i'd heard good things about this place and i haven't eaten in the south end for a while, so it seemed like a good opportunity to check it out.
as usual, i looked at the menu online and picked out what i wanted before hand. i wanted the corn soup with crispy leaks and grilled scallops. unfortunately, i was a bit under the weather this weekend. so even though i ordered, i didn't eat while at caffe umbra. fortunately, everyone else was feeling fine, and they ordered plenty of things for me to blog about. i liked the setting. big window right up front, exposed brick walls. nice lighting. allright, so my cousin jeany started off by ordering a ton of appetizers for us to share. she got the olives, a lamb dish: Braised Lamb Riblets with Ginger, Orange, Sherry &Soy & Thin Scallion Pancakes (taken off their website) and mussels with a side of frites. My friend juliet also ordered a duck prosciuto, which she said tasted like peking duck. Leah ordered a salad. I think in general, everyone enjoyed the appetizers. And the frites that came with the mussels were definetly a winner.
Here's the mussels:
And the duck prosciutto:
then we got our entrees (i'm copying the descriptions straight off their website). Leah and I both got the Grilled Sea Scallops with Sweet Corn ‘Risotto’, Roasted Scallion and Porcini-Shiitake Jus. Leah also got a side of onion rings. My cousin Jason got the Grilled Skirt Steak with Crispy Potato Galette, Bullhorn Pepper Purée, Sherry- Soaked Currants and Escarole, Juliet got Grilled Lamb Provençal with Eggplant Zucchini Tian, Banyuls Vinegar and a Phyllo ‘Purse’ with Dried Apricots, Feta and Leeks and finally, Jeany got the Pan Seared Gulf of Maine Hake with Wellfleet Clams, Celery Root , Pear and Smoked Haddock. all very pretty descriptions. Now as i said, i didn't have much of an appetite. so i kinda poked at mine and took a couple of bites of the corn stuff. the corn stuff was yummy. i like that. but i could tell just by looking at the scallops that i wasn't gonna be happy. normally when i order scallops, i like them to be pan seared so you can see the caramelization on the scallops. (so it's juicy and a little crunchy). as you can see from the pic, these scallops have the grill marks, but not much else to them. they even look a little dry. and that was kinda disappointing. and in general, that's how everyone felt about their entrees. they were ok. not good, or great. just ok. oh, they also got jason's steak and juliet's lamb mixed up, so that wasn't cool. and jason's steak was way over cooked. jeany didn't really like her fish, but said the clams were good. and neither leah or juliet like the onion rings. they said that the sauce it came with was weird, as was the texture of the coating. so in general, those entrees were pretty damn expensive to be just ok.
Here's the scallops:
And the onion rings:
Juliet made a good point. if these entrees had cost in the mid-teens, then we really wouldn't have had a problem with them. it's kinda like petit robert which i've blogged about before and went to eat at last night. (well not really eat, i had a soup and some bread, still recovering here) see with petit robert, everything costs under $20, and because you know that, you'll also know that you're not getting the top quality ingredients and you're not getting top quality service. that's what you get for dinner at that price. actually, looking over at my friends entree last night, the scallops at petit robert looked better than the ones at caffe umbra and cost 2/3 of the price. and juliet definetly enjoyed her duck confit at petit robert more than her lamb at caffe umbra. (and again, at like 2/3 the price) . so entrees were disappointing.
and again, i've said this so many times and you're gonna hear it from me over and over again. i just feel that bostonians don't demand enough of their servers and their chefs. new yorkers are picky pains in the butt. but at least they end up with great food and service, because that's what they demand and expect for their money. bostonians are just too accepting of mediocrity. but damnit, we pay just as much as diners in new york, san francisco and los angeles and there are better things out there.
on to dessert. i perused the dessert menu. but didn't find it very interesting. leah asked me why, but i don't know, i just tend to be hypercritical and nothing interested me. (this is true of desserts in boston in general, except for the metropolis cafe in the south end, i like their desserts) but my cousin jeany ordered the warm chocolate cake with peanut butter for the table to share. and i think everyone did enjoy the chocolate cake. juliet gladly finished it off. oh, and here was another disappointing aspect of the night, my cousin jason ordered a cappuccino, and they didn't have an espresso machine! dear lord, it's an italian restaurant. how can you not have an espresso machine?? they only had french press coffee, which isn't bad. i mean french press is better than drip. but jason didn't like it. i mean i'm super picky about espresso (i use illy, i spend hours training my employees) so maybe the owners chose not to serve espresso if they knew what they'd end up serving is mediocre espresso. in my book, no espresso is better than mediocre espresso any day. and espresso drinks in restaurants do normally suck, cause they don't bother training ppl. but really. i do expect better.
Juliet and i basically concluded that dinner was a bust. only made up for the fact that we both thought our waiter was super cute. so here's a tip. i went to stella, which is another italian restaurant just 2 blocks from caffe umbra on washington st just a little while ago. i wish i'd blogged about it, but maybe next time. at any rate, though when i ate there, i did feel a bit let down by the place- i could've made a better tomato salad with tomatoes from the farmer's market and the desserts were just plain sad, at least their food was definetly better, the service was more attentive and it basically cost the same. so next time, when you're in the south end looking for an italian restaurant to spend lots of money at, look up stella, and skip caffe umbra.
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