Road Trip: Cincinnati--Taste of Belgium

Hubby and I were in Cincinnati for a quick trip for one of his oldest friend’s milestone birthdays. We ate food that was provided at the party for dinner, but I was excited that there was a Taste of Belgium right down from our hotel and that they opened early so we could grab breakfast on our way out of town the next day. 

The reason I was so excited was buckwheat crepes!! There was a French place in Oakland years ago that I used to eat lunch at with my legal colleagues that had the absolute best crepes.  I have forever been on a quest for one as good. 

I ordered the “the OG” ($11), which is a buckwheat crepe with a runny egg, Gruyere, ham and mixed greens. In theory, this is exactly what I like. In execution, it was fine, but not amazing. It came across a little dry, even with that runny egg. The crepe was a little thicker than I prefer. And I think I prefer my mixed greens more on the side to eat alongside it, as I want to. Also, the egg wasn’t really seasoned, and it took forever to get salt and pepper, which was not on the table. I believe an egg should be seasoned (at least salt!) and if the kitchen isn’t going to do it, then it should be left to the patron to decide with shakers on the table. So it was a little disappointing.

Hubby had the chicken, biscuit and gravy ($12), which was better than mine I thought. It was a biscuit with a fried boneless chicken breast, pepper gravy and a sunny egg on top. There was a lot going on there for sure, but I really liked the super light and crispy panko-type breading on the chicken. And they kept it tender, even though it was white meat. Again, I am a believer that an egg should always be seasoned and this one wasn’t. It wasn’t as noticeable because the chicken and gravy had seasoning in them, but still. Am I the only one who thinks this? Anyway, he also ordered a side of goetta, because well, we were in Cincinnati. Seemed like the thing to do. If you haven’t had it before, it’s a combo of oats and sausage (sort of like poor man’s sausage), with lots of seasoning and is pan-fried crisp. It was tasty, although I think I like it as part of something else (see goetta eggs benedict at Nada) best.

All in all, I was a little let down with this meal but maybe my expectations were just too high. Lots of good looking items on their menu though, and I can’t say I wouldn’t try it again.

Taste of Belgium (several locations)

3825 Edwards Road

Cincinnati, OH 45209

513-396-5800

www.authenticwaffle.com

Road Trip: Cincinnati: Boca-Revisit

For hubby’s birthday, he wanted to go to Cincinnati to see a good friend and to eat at Boca, which is one of his favorite places. It’s a beautiful restaurant, it’s GREAT Italian food (hello Indy, I’m talking to you) and the service is wonderful. 

There were 6 of us, so we got a lovely round booth and promptly ordered a couple of orders of pommes soufflé “1942” ($15). These are a hold over from the restaurant that was in the same spot for years and years before Boca took over. The old restaurant was the Maisonette and hubby and I dined there once when we were very young. Anyway, these things are delicious (and you can sometimes get a version of them at Vida here in Indy). They are basically like a three dimensional potato chip. I am not really sure how they make them, but I don’t care. They’re a super tasty treat. They serve them with Bernaise sauce for dipping. Also delicious. We also got the bread plate ($2/person), which is a mild sourdough local  bread served with Vermont creamery butter. It’s good bread, but nothing spectacular.

We all decided to get three courses, so I started with the Hamachi crudo ($21). You guys, this might have been my favorite item of the evening, it was so so good. And everyone who I shared a bite with agreed. It was a pretty generous portion of the raw fish sitting on top of compressed avocado, which just tasted extra buttery somehow….not sure how you compress avocado either, but after tasting this, I recommend it. There was a ponzu sauce as well, which was perfect. It had some soy in it and wasn’t overly sweet. The tart wedges of grapefruit were perfect with it to bring a sharp acidic hint (sorry I forgot a picture). If you go here, you should order this.

My second course was a scallop and Brussels sprouts dish ($24). These Brussels sprouts were apparently slow-cooked in butter for like six hours of something. They were so rich—they were dark and took on an entirely different texture—almost like a mushroom. There was a perfectly cooked scallop sitting on top as well. The whole thing was dressed with brown butter vinaigrette, giving just the hint of acid you need to cut through this insanely rich dish.

Several at the table moved on to a pasta course for their second course, and one in particular that I got to try was the gnocchi con fonduta ($16). Again, super, super rich, but so, so delicious. They were little crispy potato gnocchi topped with a rich taleggio fondue and shavings of black truffle. That cheese sauce was the thing that made it so rich, but I loved the slightly stinky edge it gave the dish. And I loved the texture from the slightly crisp edges of the dumplings themselves—even under the sauce, you still could get the texture. And the little bits of truffle on top were perfect. I love real truffle.

For my main dish I actually got chicken ($29), which is very unusual for me. But last time we were there I remembered trying the chicken that was on the menu then and really liking it. Plus, this one was served on top of mushroom and truffle risotto, so that sold me. I love risotto when it is done right, which is rare in a restaurant. But I had faith in Boca. And they did not disappoint. The risotto was creamy and full of beautiful mushrooms and the chicken was seasoned wonderfully and was so tender, it seemed almost impossible.  Great crispy skin too. Everyone who had a bite was shocked at how good it was. I mean, it’s chicken right?

For dessert I had the “buckeye candy bar” ($10). Not that I really needed dessert, but I was intrigued by this. It was like a rich creamy chocolate brownie with peanut butter nougat and gelato and a little sprinkling of salt on top. A great way to end the evening.

They also let us bring a couple of bottles of wine into the restaurant for a corkage fee, which was nice because we got to split a couple of nice bottles of red that would have been way too expensive to order from the menu.

This place knows how to do a meal just right from top to bottom (and Italian food no less!). The atmosphere, the service, the spectacular food, etc. I would kill to have it in Indy.

Boca

114 East Sixth Street

Cincinnati, OH  45202

513/542-2022

http://bocacincinnati.com 

Road Trip-- Krueger's Tavern, Cincinnati, OH

Recently we went to Cincinnati with some friends to see a Reds game. Ok, the men wanted to see the game—I was looking forward to trying a new restaurant beforehand, and am easily convinced to do whatever if I know this is in the cards (incidentally though, if I am going to watch a sport live, it’s going to be baseball).

One of the friends is picky picky about food (I’m talking about you Pat) so we agreed to find a fried chicken place. I asked around and was told to try The Eagle. And I know one of these is planning to open up in Indy in the future, so I thought it sounded like a good idea. Sadly, we were told when we got there that there was at least an hour and a half wait for a table, so we had to go elsewhere (even though they called like 40 minutes later to say we could have a table, but by then we had already gone somewhere else. Too bad, because if they had told us 40 minutes to start, we might have waited.) Anyway, after walking by packed restaurant after packed restaurant on Vine Street, we scored one of the last available tables at Krueger’s Tavern, which as it turns out, is owned by the same group that owns the Eagle and Bakersfield. The men chose this place and it is a very manly menu consisting of mainly burgers and sausage platters. I was a teeny bit grumbly at this point (the women were pushing for Taste of Belgium), but settled down when I saw the hot Gruyere dip ($6) on the menu. We ordered that as well as the hot beer cheese ($6).

Both of the dips were good—my favorite was the Gruyere dip though. It had the cheese as well as bits of bacon, caramelized onions and scallions and was served with really nicely crunchy slices of baguette that were brushed with olive oil. The bread was done perfectly. And the salty nutty cheese was complemented perfectly with the bacon and green onions. It was intensely rich, but delicious. The beer cheese was also good, but they just served this with hunks of rye and white bread that were soft, which wasn’t as exciting (although made sense with the runnier beer cheese). The consistency was much thinner on this one. It tasted good, but just didn’t have the same depth.

I split the Krueger’s burger ($9) with one of my friends, as well as a side of the frites ($4). They grind their own beef in-house and I have to say, even though the two patties were cooked pretty well through (they didn’t ask), the beef was very good quality and very moist. The patties were topped with American cheese, shredded lettuce, onion, special sauce and pickles. The whole lot was served on a Challah bun. It was a tasty burger—apparently was named one of the top 5 burgers in Cincinnati (#4 to be precise I think) and I could see that. If it  were in Indy, I could see it being the 4^th or 5^th best burger. It was good. A little pinkness and it could have been outstanding.  The frites were also very good. I liked the malt vinegar aioli that came with it. It was almost like combining my two favorite sauces at Brugge into one, which I think is sort of genius (I always get the aioli and the sherry vinegar with salt at Brugge). Creamy, yet super tangy too. The fries were pretty crisp and dusted generously with salt and pepper.

Hubby had the Cuban sandwich, which I got a couple of bites of—it was very good as well. He loved it. I thought the stuff inside it—the braised pork shoulder, ham, Gruyere, Dijon, black bean puree and homemade pickles were all very well done and in just the right proportions (you gotta be able to taste the pickles!), but I thought the bread was a little too dense for me—it overpowered the stuff inside a bit. Usually it seems like Cubans are a bit more flat. This one was pretty fat. Hubby raved about it though.

This place has a ton of beer choices—tons of random beers in cans especially, and I was happy they had a couple of fairly decent wine choices for a place like this. All in all, I was pleased with the overall quality of this place. I’m pretty sure it would likely do well in Indy too. The place was very busy, but I would say the service was pretty good, and the food exceeded my expectations based on looking at the menu (and no research).

Krueger’s Tavern

1211 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/834-8670

www.kruegerstavern.com 

Incidentally, since we didn’t get our fried chicken fix in Cincinnati, we stopped at Wagner’s in Oldenburg on the way home for lunch. I have written about this place before but here’s a lovely picture of our fried chicken lunch.

Road Trip: Cincinnati--Half Day Café

A few weeks back, we went to Cincinnati with friends to see a Reds’ game. We had a great time, an enjoyable dinner before at Nicholson’s Pub (which I reviewed before). They do some tasty mussels.

The next morning, we were had an intense need for a hearty breakfast. The last time hubby and I were in Cincinnati, we tried to go to Half Day Café, but apparently it is closed on Sundays. This was a Saturday, so we drove over. It’s a little drive from downtown, but convenient to the freeway to head back to Indy after.

It’s a bustling place, but we got one of the last tables. We all ordered different things (and some of us maybe ordered two breakfasts) so I got to taste a lot of things.  The best thing on the table was the biscuits and gravy ($9.99).  The biscuits were substantial but still light and fluffy and the gravy had a very distinct sausage flavor. It didn’t have that floury taste that can put me off of gravy sometimes. The most unique thing though, making it even heartier than most B&G, was the fact that there was an entire housemade sausage patty sandwiched in the middle of the biscuits. It was sage sausage and had a nice herby flavor—and I prefer the sage to the fennel flavor a lot of people use in sausage, but which I think can easily overpower the flavor of the meat. Like, I said, it was the star of the table.

I ordered the Egg strata (9.99) based on our server’s recommendation. It was an individual crock filled with an egg casserole—inside there was bread cooked with egg, pepper jack cheese, caramelized onion and a lot of the sage sausage baked on top.  It was extremely rich and hearty, but a little too just heavy for me.  One friend ordered the “Half Day Benedict” ($9.49), which I liked better.  There were two poached eggs layered with Prosciutto all on top of a grilled croissant (love the idea of a buttery croissant on the bottom). Instead of a classic Hollandaise, they used a charred tomato Hollandaise.  I really liked this—it was thinner than some, so didn’t come across too gloopy and had a little of the charred flavor and a fair amount of acidity from the tomato. This would be my second choice based on what we ate.

The men ordered the breakfast burrito ($8.99) and it was universally the least favorite item. It had eggs, peppers, cheese, onions and carnitas (slow roasted pork). It was kinda dry and the sage sausage was better.  The dishes all came with rosemary roasted potatoes, and they had a nice rosemary flavor, but I think I would have liked them crispier. Also, the OJ is fresh squeezed, which is one of my favorite things, and I love it pulpy, but this one was so pulpy it was almost a solid.

Overall I enjoyed this place and would be interested to work my way through the menu—I bet there are some gems. And it’s a nice little locally owned place as well.

Half Day Café 

1 Wyoming Ave

Cincinnati, OH 45215

www.halfdaycafe.org 

Road Trip - Jean-Robert's Table - Cincinnati

Our second day in Cincinnati, hubby managed to get a little time off so we could stay in town long enough to have lunch.  I asked one of my longtime readers from Cincinnati where we should eat, and he recommended Jean Robert’s Table (among other places). It was conveniently located a couple of blocks from our hotel, so it was perfect.

It’s really a cute little place—run by the former chef of the Maisonette, which seemed like the perfect way to finish the full circle of our eating experience.  It is obviously a place frequented by local business people for lunch, as it got quite crowded. They also offer a 4-course $14 lunch at the bar in less than an hour, which is pretty cool.  We opted for the regular restaurant though so we could order whatever we wanted.

I have to mention the bread and butter first thing. It was so good. This was slices of a French baguette—so tender inside and crisp crust.  And they were nice and warm.  They were served with amazing rich, salty, European style butter that was slightly soft.  I really couldn’t stop eating it. It was the kind of bread and butter that you could eat as the only thing in the meal and be perfectly happy. It kind of makes me drool thinking about it.

We started with the goat cheese, asparagus and onion tart ($8) to share. It was totally not at all what I was expecting (a tart filled with goat cheese and asparagus) but it was really, really delicious.  Basically, it was a small “tart” of puff pastry topped with spears of asparagus that were perfect crisp tender, a dollop of herby goat cheese and then shaved endive and this, wonderful, perfectly balanced Banyuls dressing. (Banyuls is a fortified French dessert wine.) The whole dish was a little tangy and a little sweet. It was so good.  I was using the bread to sop up every last bit of the dressing.

For my main, I had the Jean Robert version of a Croque Monsieur ($14.50). I was intrigued by the description of this, which included chicken confit and sautéed chicken livers.  Again, I loved it. It was so perfectly put together; it made it clear this kitchen knows how to create amazing food with amazing finesse. So at the bottom of a bowl, there was frisee that was perfectly dressed with a tangy vinaigrette.  On top of that was the sandwich itself including the usual thinly sliced ham and cheese, but also pieces of tender chicken confit.  The bread was perfectly grilled with a nice crispy exterior. THEN, there were two sautéed chicken livers and a few more pieces of the chicken confit. And THEN, there was a perfectly seasoned sunny side egg on top. Seriously, this was perfect. It had a ton of richness (obviously) from the livers, egg, and the sandwich, but the salad underneath and the yolk mixing into it all made it reach a completely different level.  I know I am a little obsessed with lack of acid in food, but this was just a shining example of how a little acid and balance can make for a truly amazing and memorable dish.

Unfortunately for hubby, who had, shall we say, overindulged a little the night before and decided he really wanted a burger ($11.50), his meal was nowhere near as good.  I have to say, the burger sounded pretty tasty (it had blue cheese and caramelized onions) but he asked for it cooked medium rare and it wasn’t. And it was almost too big to eat as a sandwich.  The frites were good, and I liked the aioli they served with them, but my dish was just so so much better. I would actually really like to go back here for dinner.   Top to bottom, for me, food-wise, I am not sure which meal I enjoyed more in Cincinnati. They were both delicious.

Jean-Robert’s Table

713 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH  45202

513/621-4777

www.jrtable.com 

Road Trip - Sotto - Cincinnati

Hubby and I took a quick road trip to Cincinnati recently to see a band we like.  The purpose of the trip was the concert, but naturally as soon as we decided to go, I started figuring out where we could eat before for dinner and lunch the next day.  So we had a very early dinner at Sotto, which is the new, more casual, restaurant from the same people who own Boca, which we loved. 

Boca has recently re-opened in the space that used to house the Maisonnette, which was the old school “best” restaurant in Cincinnati. When the Maisonnette was open, there was a casual French restaurant run by the same owners called La Normandie.  Now Boca is up top and Sotto is below (a very cool thing is that hubby and I had the opportunity to eat at both places before they closed as well).

I love the atmosphere of Sotto—it is basically underground, and full of brick. The first thing you notice is how dark it is, especially when you come in from full daylight.  Think lots of wooden chairs, weathered looking walls and one of my favorite things—a big pillar candle on each table.  I loved the wine pit that they had created out of the former fireplace. There was also a great soundtrack playing. 

Anyway, the menu looked great and we had a hard time choosing—we decided to get something from each different course and share.  The first thing we had been from the bruschetta menu (i.e. grilled bread with different toppings).  We had the oil packed tuna with hard boiled egg and chili oil ($10). A perfect portion to split between two—it was one toasted piece of bread cut into two pieces. Ours was topped with a thin layer of caper mayo, the super tender tuna, slices of hard boiled egg and drizzled with chili oil. It was delicious.  I have had similar preparations and never liked it as much as I did this.  I loved the addition of the chili oil (and the sprinkles of salt on top) to give it an extra dimension of flavor
too.

At the same time we were also served our antipasti course, which was polenta with a fried egg, lomo, brown butter and parmigiano. Oh. My. Goodness.  This was amazing.  The polenta was soooo fine and creamy, the egg was perfect and runny in the middle and the lomo (a very thin sliced cured pork tenderloin) was so tender but had a lot of flavor, but wasn’t overpowering.  And brown butter and parm? How can you go wrong?  We both loved this one. We split it exactly down the middle and scraped the dish clean with the bread that they bring to the table.  Speaking of which, the bread was great as well. It is from a local (to Cincy) bakery called Blue Oven.  It was an Italian country loaf that was cut into wedges. It had just the right amount of tender middle and chewy crust.  They serve it with a great grassy olive oil.

For our primi course, we went with the housemade tonnarelli pasta ($14).  Tonnarelli is a thicker long pasta (like spaghetti)—it is more of a square shape though and is textured a little so it holds onto the sauce pretty well.  There were only two housemade pastas which surprised me a little.  The sauce on the pasta was a simple creamy butter sauce with salt and pepper. Lots and lots of cracked black pepper. We enjoyed it, and it really kind of grew on us, but it was probably our least favorite item of the meal. I think I would have enjoyed it more as a side dish with my main dish, instead of on its own, but it was still good.

For our main dish, we shared the salmon with anchovy white wine sauce ($19). It was served on a bed of cooked spinach.  It was also perfectly prepared. The fish was grilled and was at the perfect medium rare—the center quite rare.  The sauce though—it is what made the dish.  You probably wouldn’t have even known it had anchovy in it if you hadn’t seen it on the menu—it just gave it a depth and slight saltiness that was so good with the slightly acidic wine sauce. I loved the sauce. I could have just dipped bread into it all night long.  

We still had a decent amount of time, and since we were having such a good meal, we decided to split a dessert as well.  We had the ricotta doughnuts ($6) with three dipping sauces.  These little fried doughnut holes seem popular these days, but these were unique in that they were made with ricotta so they were really moist inside.  They were served with dark chocolate, pistachio cream, and salted caramel sauce. Loved that salted caramel sauce. Loved it with a little bit of the chocolate and a lot of the salted caramel.  Hubby really liked the pistachio cream. Actually, hubby won't stop raving about these doughnuts.

The service was very good. Our server was attentive but not annoying. He knew a lot about the menu and made great recommendations. They were great about bringing the right silverware and dishware with each new course.  It was polished but not stuffy.  The whole dinner was a great experience, and I look forward to returning. Although I feel like I have to try the new Boca first. We poked our nose in there and it was a cool atmosphere too—very different from Sotto—light and lots of upholstery with a giant chandelier. Definitely a “fancier” feel.  But Sotto is a really great value for truly excellent food.

Sotto

118 East 6^th Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/977-6886

www.sottocincinnati.com 

Road Trip Cincinnati - Part 2

 On our second day in Cincinnati we had a busy day—food wise and otherwise.  We started in the morning at the Findlay Market which was a place I had always wanted to go and hadn’t.  I loved the energy of it—it was jam packed with people. The neighborhood around seems a little deserted, but I really enjoyed the market itself. We had a nice breakfast at one of the vendors—A Taste of Belgium.  Egg, gruyere and thin ham wrapped in a crepe.  It was a perfect thing to grab for breakfast.

After some wondering around, we met up with hubby’s good fried at Nicholson’s.  It’s a gastropub, and has a very pubby looking exterior—although I was surprised at how new it looked both inside and out.  Our friends were running a little late, so we went ahead and ordered the Scotch egg appetizer ($8).  They were good, although not the best I have had—I liked that they served them with some dressed greens on the side and I liked the drizzle of mustard sauce, although I would have liked a little more for dipping. I do think mustard and eggs is a good combo.

Hubby and I decided to split the mussels for our main dish ($12).  They were really, really good—the broth was described as white wine, garlic and herbed butter—and those ingredients were definitely there. Pretty sure based on the creamy color that there was cream in there as well.  But the mussels were some of the best I have had in awhile. Super tender and the broth had a ton of flavor. Oh yeah, and they came with duck fat frites.  Those frites dipped in the broth were amazing.  I have had duck fat frites before and have enjoyed them, but these had a lot more flavor than any of the others.  The only downside with the mussels is it really was a portion for one.  Normally with mussels you get so many that we always share, but this was a very reasonable portion. In other words, I was annoyed I had to share. So we added an order of the poutine ($7.50) on and I was really glad we did.  Man, this was really good too (and apparently completely distracting because somehow I took no pictures after the Scotch eggs).  The poutine was more of those duck fat frites topped with truffled mushroom ragu and fresh cheese.  I loved this—I loved that they used mushrooms instead of the rich meaty gravy I usually see (and often pork, etc).  It made it feel not so heavy and greasy.  The fries in general stayed pretty crispy too which was nice (maybe it was just because we ate them so fast).  I would so order this again.

All in all, a great lunch and base for preparing for the Reds’ game we then went to after lunch (the Reds won) which was good because hubby and his friend, shall we say, enjoyed their beers.  After the game was over, we just sort of started walking toward downtown with the intention of a few more drinks and more food.  We didn’t have any plans, and weren’t dressed particularly well but ended up randomly walking into Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse and scoring a table in the bar.  Even though we looked like we had spent the afternoon at the game, I appreciated the professionalism of the staff—they were really nice (and we weren’t the only ones for sure).  Turned out to be a good choice too because after an hour or so all the baseball players from both teams started filtering in which was kind of fun to watch.

We just got a bunch of appetizers from the menu to share—and I have to be honest, I wasn’t wowed by any of them.  Probably my favorite thing was the barbecued shrimp and grits ($21).  The shrimp were New Orleans style “BBQ” which is more of a butter and Worcestershire type of sauce.  The grits were nice and creamy and buttery and the shrimp wasn’t overcooked.  We also had a chophouse salad ($8) which had all my favorite ingredients—blue cheese, egg, bacon, and red onion, but something about it seemed flat to me—it had a Parmesan dressing but it just didn’t have a zip that I wanted. Hubby liked it quite a bit better than me though.

Sadly, the beef tartare ($13) was a letdown as well.  The beef was clearly good quality and fresh, but there just wasn’t much seasoning at all—a cute little poached quail egg that gave it a teeny bit of extra richness, but it was really calling out for some mustard or something salty.  The crab cake ($15) didn’t fare much better. It was a little dry, even with the dollop of crème fraiche on top.  The pommes Anna ($8) were beautiful, and were a nice side to have with everything and had a nice buttery and crunchy exterior.  Not sure I would order them again, but I enjoyed them at the time.

Honestly, we were having more fun hanging out with our friends, drinking some nice wine and enjoying the Reds’ win, so we didn’t mind, but this meal was in retrospect very disappointing, particularly compared with all the other wonderful food we ate in Cincinnati.  But I would highly recommend Orchids at Palm Court (see my last Cincinnati post) and Nicholson’s. 

Nicholson’s

625 Washington Street

Cincinnati, OH  45202

513/564-9111

www.nicholsonspub.com

Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse

700 Walnut Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/ 784-1200

www.jeffruby.com

Road Trip- Orchids at Palm Court - Cincinnati

Hubby and I celebrated our anniversary recently with a trip to Cincinnati—well, we were celebrating our anniversary and visiting with some friends.  The first night (on our own) we went to Orchids at Palm Court (this was the big anniversary dinner). 

First of all, wow, what a cool space—hubby and I have a soft spot for deco things-- décor, buildings, whatever-- and this place is deco to the extreme and just overall impressive.  The restaurant and bar is set in a huge two story room that just transports you.  The whole hotel is like that actually.  You can really feel what it must have felt like to stay in a place like this back in the day. And it makes you grateful for keeping historic buildings and rooms true to their original character.

They first brought us out bread service with butter and olive oil with big chunks of soft, rich roasted garlic and an amuse bouche. All were outstanding. As soon as I saw the little egg shell the amuse was served in, I was already pretty sure I was going to like whatever was in there—and I did.  It was a cauliflower and saffron custard that was baked in the egg shell with a little piece of house made bacon. That bacon was really good, and the little crunch was awesome. I would have loved more of it.

I started with the sweet corn soup ($11) with polenta angnolotti, summer truffles, and roasted corn.  It was a very nice soup, with a nice flavor of truffle (although I think it was coming from truffle oil)—the dumpling was maybe a little dense for me, but it was nice to have something in there to give some texture to the soup. The corn was also interesting—it seemed almost freeze dried and then slowly rehydrated as it sat in the soup.

Hubby started with the sweetbreads ($12) which were some of the best I have had.  The sweetbreads (which were thymus) were lightly fried and were nice and tender, but what made them shine was the sauce and accompaniments.  They were served with chanterelle mushrooms and little fingerling potatoes and the most amazing sherry vinaigrette.  It wasn’t just a standard vinaigrette either—there was a little bit of chili in there giving it even more flavor.  I thought I really liked my soup and then I tried this dish—it had so many layers of flavor, it made my soup seem kind of boring.  This may have been the best dish of the night.

For a second course we shared the blue cheese beignets ($8) with tart greens, apple, almond tuile and spiced honey gastrique.  This was also a great combination of flavors—I love some sweetness with blue cheese and the tartness of the apples and greens made for a wonderful mix.  The little beignets were crisp and warm and very blue cheesy.  The little bits of almond tuile added a little crunch factor too.  It was a great salad course (the picture is a half order, because the kitchen split it before bringing it out).

For my main dish, I had another appetizer, the lobster salad ($13).  This one was really good as well.  There was a lightly seasoned lobster salad at the bottom topped with a fried egg, and served with crème fraiche and caviar cream.  There were also some little dots of caviar around the plate and some crispy phyllo-type “noodles” on top.  I liked it when the yolk broke into the lobster salad giving it extra richness—my only complaint here is that the egg was fried a little too hard and there wasn’t much runny yolk there.  I would have preferred a softer egg overall.  I did like the crunch from the ribbons of phyllo on top—gave it the right variation in texture.  Hubby would probably say this was his favorite.

Hubby had the lamb loin with parsnip puree, maitake mushrooms, onions and a mustard sauce ($38).  Again, very good.  The sauce had a nice mustardy flavor and the entire dish tasted like fall. The lamb was very tender.

They have an old school dessert tray that they wheel over to show you all the desserts, we went with a chocolate banana combo that was very, very good (and you always gotta love when they write things on your plate).  It had an intense dark chocolate filling that was delicious. And the caramel ice cream on top was really good too (if there is a dessert with chocolate, caramel and bananas, it is almost a sure bet with hubby and I.)

Top to bottom, it was one of the better fine dining experiences I have had in awhile.  The food, the atmosphere, the service—all of it was very, very good.  Exactly what you want in a fine dining experience, and exactly what we wanted for our anniversary.

Orchids at Palm Court

Hilton Cincinnati

35 West Fifth Street

Cincinnati, OH  45202

513/421-9100

http://www.orchidsatpalmcourt.com/restaurants.html#anchor1