Dinner at Sandrine's

[drwex]

On Saturday taura_g and I went to dinner at Sandrine's in Harvard Square.

Short form: excellent. Highly recommended. It's Harvard Square prices, but it won't break your bank account and I felt I got good value for the prices. Service and attention to detail were also at the A+ level.


Sandrine's sells itself as a "bistro" in the tradition of Alsace. Unfortunately for me most of the traditional Alsatian dishes they have, such as the signature Flammekueche, are made with pork, so I skipped those.

First a word about the service. Their Maitresse was an older woman (entirely gray hair, not quite sure on age). She seated us, and inquired about whether we had tickets or showtimes we needed to be at. I know that many places like to have younger front-of-house staff because it conveys a more 'hip' appearance but I felt this woman's manner was so pleasant and so dignified that it set a great tone for the whole evening. As we were leaving a took a moment to thank her for that, because it really was nice. The rest of the service was up to this standard.

For example, the waiter remembered that I wasn't interested in the sweet cocktail drinks they had on offer beforehand (I had my usual Dubonnet) and when I decided I wanted a glass of wine with my entree he quickly steered me to the driest glass they had. Good attention to detail was part of what made this place nice.

For appetizer I had the Smoked Moulard Duck Breast, which was actually a salad. Very tasty and well-done. The dressing was a balsamic reduction that was pleasant and understated. I don't normally like salad dressings but this was so light that it worked very well. The duck breast was thin-sliced and had the layer of fat that duck usually comes with. Again, normally something I don't like but this was prepared so well that even though the fat wasn't rendered down it didn't come across as greasy.

I had one of the daily special entrées - sea scallops over spinach and shiitake mushroom slices. I love shiitake mushrooms - when they first came to America they were everywhere but in the past few years they've declined a lot in popularity. This was a nice turn and again, cooking was perfect. The scallops were tender and just done exactly enough and the sauce was light and a good compliment to all three flavors.

taura_g had the lamb chops special, done over green beans and fingerling potatoes with a mustard crust. Not bad but I think I got the better of the two. The house style of light sauces meant that the seasoning for the lamb was just a bit less strong than needed.

For dessert we shared the Chocolate Kougelhopf, a slightly molten chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel coulis. This was lick-the-plate good - very dense and rich without being sticky. I was glad I went to the meal hungry enough to do a salad and dessert - usually I can only do one or the other and both were so good I am happy I managed it.

Comments

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I went there once with pierceheart during restaurant week. He'd raved about the place (and continues to do so, though I think that's partly because it was his first experience with salmon cooked rare). Everything I had was OK, but really nothing to write home about. I always feel let down when restaurants don't put their best foot forward during restaurant week. It's the time when I'm most likely to try a place I haven't been before, and an unimpressive experience will make me way less likely to want to go there when everything is full price.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

My first rare salmon was at Locke-Ober.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Oh, I must have gotten those mixed up. Sorry!

By the way--I made such awesome rare salmon the other night. I am getting good at timing it. I need to make it when you come home!

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I will run through the Good Eats episodes I now have on my laptop.

[coraline]

all of this -- both the disappointment with places that don't put in the effort for restaurant week (which seems so pervasive that i've basically stopped doing restaurant week at all), and the part about being udnerwhelmed with sandrine's. my parents love it, but everything i've had there has been serviceable but nothing to write about it.
i'm glad your (wex's) experience was better :)