Dinner at Casablanca

[drwex]

Last night we went to dinner at Casablanca Restaurant in Harvard Square.

It was good food, at... well, Harvard Square prices.


We'd wanted to try at least one place for Restaurant Week, which is actually two weeks this year. Last Tuesday's excursion was aborted by babysitter failure, so we tried again this week. Same bat-place.

Unfortunately for us, le menu had changed from last week and neither of us were particularly taken with the offerings for this week so we ordered off the standard menu.

I had a pea soup with a shredded herbed crab salad in place of the usual pork, and a seared duck breast with accompanying duck-and-fruit confit + spinach. I thought the pea soup was good, but too bland. The crab made a good strong flavor contrast but there was too little of it (a couple tablespoons) to sustain a full bowl. The duck was good and I appreciated the choice of red grapes in place of a sweeter fruit in the sauce. The breast slices were cross-cut after cooking, which gave them a different texture than one usually gets from duck.

Pygment had a venison cube-cut and pan-seared to a nice uniform pink, with some unknown greens and a strong mushroom risotto underlayer. She started with a stuffed mussels appetizer. We both felt that the mussel stuffing overwhelmed the actual mussels. The venison was quite nice, but I felt it was too bland without the mushroom sauce. It also had a cranbetry relish that worked well. Pygment liked the risotto; I'm not a big fan of risotto in general, but this was OK.

We tried another Chilean Merlot and while it was better than the Australian Shiraz I tried and the California Pinot our waitress recommended, I didn't think it was as good as the one we had at Gargoyle's.

The portions were ample and we ended up feeling too full for dessert, despite being quite hungry when we started. Service was prompt, attentive, and generally good though I was disappointed that they didn't have anyone who knew the wines well enough to advise me. At least they let me sample for myself.

I'm a huge fan of the movie Casablanca and was slightly disappointed that the restaurant didn't have more of the feel. There was one big mural but that was about it.

Overall, three stars out of five. Not likely to go back soon.


Getting a dinner out with one's sweetie is nice, though sadly rare enough that buxom_bey exclaimed "You're together!" when she saw us both at Diesel.

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

buxom_bey exclaimed "You're together!" when she saw us both at Diesel.

-That's probably more tactful than my, "So, finally killed the kids, huh?"

[drwex]

Yes, babe, your girlfriend is more tactful than you are.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing the write-up Motik.

My dinner also had a cranberry relish with it that I thought was an interesting combination with the venison. I'm not used to have cranberries with anything other than fowl. I thought the venison was tasty by itself but I like my food moist and the relish mede it better.

[drwex]

Updated, thank you. The post is public in part so you can link to it if you want.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Clearly, you're the person to get foodie advice from when we get up there! :)

Getting a dinner out with one's sweetie is nice, thought sadly rare enough that buxom_bey exclaimed "You're together!" when she saw us both at Diesel.

Adam and I are like that, too; he's a major introvert, so I'm most often seen without him.

[drwex]

We have the lack-of-babysitting problem at the moment. I'm hoping that when the kids are older and (ha ha) easier to deal with we'll be more able to get sitting.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*nods* And we can rotate kidsitting - you watch mine this week, I watch yours next - if you like.

Elayna's getting near the babysitter age. She's not quite there yet. We'll have her take the standard babysitter CPR course they generally have at places like the YMCA.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

our school(a montessori) requires all 6th graders take the babysitter course, to get the kids able to be home alone responsibly as well as to babysit for others. I'm getting ready to pimp mine out;-)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea on their part! My daughter went to a Montessori school through fifth grade, and is now encountering a regular public middle school, with desks in rows and all of that; she's weathering the shock fairly well.

Is yours in sixth grade now, or seventh?

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

She's been at Oakmeadow since she was 3 and now she's going into 6th grade and will be 12 in Dec. Our school goes to 8th grade, so any culture shock will come with everyone else's shock in high school.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Oooh, lucky her! Elayna's school was an experimental public Montessori school, and the county just doesn't have anything in place for Montessori middle schools yet, if they ever will...

We must introduce our kids when I get up there. :)

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

sounds cool