Road Trip: Restaurant Tallent

Bloomington holds a lot of fond memories for me because I did my undergraduate degree there a long time ago. Even then, although I could rarely afford it, Bloomington had a unique food culture with a lot of interesting and independent restaurants. Occasionally I would get to go to a few of them back then, but now that I am older and can afford to eat out a bit more, I always like going down to Bloomington.
On this trip, our destination was Restaurant Tallent. Hubby had not yet been and wanted to go and I had promised that I would give it another try in a season that was more up my alley. Well as far as the seasonal ingredients being used on the menu, I was in heaven. How can you really go wrong with lots of tomatoes and corn? I had a hard time choosing.

We started with something that I think was new to Tallent’s menu—a “snack.” These are just that—smaller appetizers priced at $5.00 per portion. There were two or three on the menu but we went with one that was a special. It was salmon tartare described as having citrus in varying ways—including citrus vinaigrette. We assumed that as a snack, and for $5, it was going to be very small. It was actually quite a decent size, and I could have eaten something like this for my regular appetizer. The salmon was good, but it didn’t have enough citrus for me to make it stand out. There was quite a bit of fresh arugula on top that was so peppery and spicy you only wanted a little bit in each bite or it overpowered the other flavors. The salmon also wasn’t served with any crunchy bit to put the salmon on—some chips or crackers would have been nice.

I then had the foie gras poutine. Apparently, a poutine is a dish originated in Quebec consisting of French fries, cheese curds and covered in brown gravy (who knew? Not me.) The Tallent version was housemade French Fries (which were crunchy and salty and delicious) topped with goat cheese, a small piece of seared foie gras, a sunny side up quail egg, and covered in a chanterelle and corn gravy. This was my favorite dish of the night. The liver was cooked perfectly and the goat cheese gave that requisite zing that I look for to balance the complete decadence that was the other ingredients in this dish. I really enjoyed the chanterelles in the gravy although the corn overall this night was a little disappointing in its lack of flavor.

Hubby had the BLT risotto as his starter. The risotto itself was very tomato-ey (cooked with a tomato sauce)—and a few bites were a little al dente for our taste, but the drizzle of basil aioli on top was a really nice touch. The best parts for me were the little bits of fried green tomato scattered throughout. They were just little dices that were fried and were a nice textural component. There were also dices of bacon mixed throughout which I would say were probably hubby’s favorite part. All in all this dish was good, but didn’t really wow us.

For my entrée, I had the lobster roll. I am a sucker for a good lobster roll and as soon as I saw it on the menu, I knew there was no other choice for me. The sandwich was served with a side of fried green tomato slices, housemade chips, and an ear of corn on the cob. Sadly, this course just did not come together for me at all. The best things about it were the bread that the lobster roll was in and the chips. The bread was really crunchy and tasted like it had been coated in butter and then toasted. It was really yummy. The chips were just really thin crunchy housemade chips and were tasty too (they have a “snack” featuring these chips and truffle dip which I bet is good—and I bet those chips would be great with the salmon snack we had.) Sadly though, the filling of the lobster roll just didn’t excite me that much. The lobster seemed to be cooked properly, but it just didn’t have a lot of flavor. It just seemed like mayo and lobster and celery. The lobster flavor just didn’t come through that much and there really didn’t seem to be much seasoning. I don’t know, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was just okay. The fried green tomatoes were cooked well in cornmeal, as fried green tomatoes usually are, but they needed some salt, and really, in my opinion could have used a drizzle of something to go over them (that basil aioli from earlier maybe?). Honestly, I was surprised they were on the side of the sandwich. For some reason, I thought they might actually be a part of the sandwich. The corn on the cob just didn’t taste good to me which is a shame for July in Indiana. And I have been having great corn on the cob from the Farmer’s Market around here. Not sure if it was past its prime or just a little overcooked.

Hubby had the Indiana ribeye with roasted new potatoes, summer vegetable salad and blue cheese. The ribeye was cut into slices on the place over the potatoes that were also sliced and the whole dish was covered in a sort of slaw of veggies mixed with blue cheese. First of all, the portion was very large. Even hubby couldn’t eat it all. He also thought the way it was served (sliced on the plate) he felt like they were trying to make it appear like a filet. The potatoes were nicely flavored and while hubby enjoyed the salad, he would have preferred it on the side—he sort of liked eating it separately. It was all good, but again, just not amazing.

Even though we didn’t finish our entrées, we decided to get a dessert anyway, and we were really glad we did. We split the blueberry tart with sweet corn ice cream. This was outstanding. What a great mix of flavors with the blueberries, the streusel topping and the sweet, yet slightly savory ice cream. This was a beautiful taste of summer.

All in all, we had a nice night away even though our meal didn’t blow us away. When we are in the mood for a road trip again though, Tallent will probably not be our first choice. Tell me, if you were getting a night away and a meal outside of Indy, where would you go?

Restaurant Tallent
208 North Walnut
Bloomington, IN 47404
812/330-9801
www.restauranttallent.com

Restaurant Tallent

One of the main reasons for our girly weekend that started at FARMbloomington was to have dinner at Restaurant Tallent—and from every rave review I have ever heard I was maybe, just maybe, setting myself up for disappointment in some ways I guess. Don’t get me wrong, the meal was really good, just not the near perfection I was maybe wrongly expecting.

Anyhow, we were promptly seated, although as usual, I had to ask to not be seated in the 2 seats right in between two other very closely spaced tables at a banquette. This was a little annoying considering there was a two-seater available at the end of the banquette that was more appropriately spaced away from the others, and with no one on one side. We ended up sitting there at my request without too much hassle. I did enjoy sitting in the room with the kitchen and watching the chef at work. He obviously takes great pride in making sure that each plate goes out the way he wants it. I do think this “bar side” of the restaurant may be the less desirable side to be seated on in theory, because it isn’t the main room, but I enjoyed it because the noise level was not as intense. After all, the BFF and I had girl talk to discuss.

We were promptly served a nice amuse bouche of spaghetti squash pomodoro with a garlic chip on top. This was a really nice tasty bite. The tomato flavor was light and tasty and the garlic chip gave it quite an intense toasty garlic flavor on which we both commented.

The menu looked great, and to be honest it was all I could do to not just order appetizers—they all looked so good! I settled on the black truffle tagliatelle with mushrooms, spinach, parmesan and big hunks of pancetta. The pasta was excellent—homemade with an amazing truffle flavor. The mushrooms, spinach and a bit of the pancetta were really good too. If I had to complain about something, I would say it seemed like there were more pieces of the pancetta (and they were large dices) than there were mushrooms, and a few of them were a little too hard for my taste. I would have preferred a few more mushrooms and a little less bacon I guess. I did like that the overall portion was appropriately sized for an appetizer—I actually ate all of it (minus a bit of the pancetta). But overall, this pasta was really really good. Clearly my favorite dish of the evening. And you won’t want to share it, so don’t plan on splitting it with anyone!

My friend had the frisée salad with bacon, blue cheese, and a poached egg. It was interesting, they actually breaded the poached egg that was on the salad with some breadcrumbs—sort of looked like a Scotch egg on top. She shared a bit with me—it was good. Maybe a little underdressed, or maybe that was the bit I got, I don’t know.

For my main, I got the sole meuniere with sunchoke puree, bok choy and roasted mushrooms. Hmmm…not sure about this one. The ingredients were all very high quality, and were prepared properly. It was just like there was too much going on with this dish. And there was something—maybe just some very large peppercorn pieces-- that I kept biting into giving a disturbing crunch. I liked the sunchoke puree, it was a nice compliment, but there were so many different flavors between the mushrooms and the seasonings and the puree and veg, that it just seemed sort of confusing to me. You could certainly taste the lemon that is part of a meuniere sauce, but I don’t know, maybe I just expected a more delicate dish, particularly since our server told me it was one of the lighter dishes of the menu.

My friend, however, had the Cook’s farm bison with Lyonnaise potato gratin, Swiss chard, and sauce au poivre. This was really good—the bison was cooked perfectly medium rare and the potatoes were a nice complement. A wonderful alternative to the traditional meat and potatoes. And the chunky bits of peppercorns made sense here. It was really nice.

We both had a dessert—I had the butterscotch semi-freddo with brown sugar phyllo crisps and butterscotch sauce. Wow this was intense in its butterscotch goodness. Really good, and I loved the phyllo crisps with it—the super crispy texture with the ultra smooth texture of the semi freddo (which is sort of like a lighter, not as frozen version of ice cream, or a slightly frozen version of custard. “Semifreddo” literally translates to “half cold.”). It was extremely rich though, and would be a great dish to share.

My friend had the cranberry streusel with cranberry-orange compote and sorghum ice cream. It was nice as well—quite tart from the cranberries, but the creamy ice cream helped balance that out. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting though—I was sort of imagining more of a messy thing with a crumb topping, and this was more like a cross between a pie and a tart—thin like a tart, but with more of a pie crust underneath and a very orderly crumb toppping. Tasty though.

So all in all it was a very nice meal, and you can see the love that goes into each dish both in the creativity of the combinations and the beautiful seasonal items being used. Maybe my expectations were a little high, and I was just a bit disappointed in my entrée, but I can promise you, I will be back—and I would like to try for Spring or Summer, my favorite of the food seasons!

Restaurant Tallent
208 North Walnut
Bloomington, IN 47404
812/330-9801
http://www.restauranttallent.com/