I had walked by this place a bunch of times on my way over to Fenway and Landsdowne St, but I had never actually eaten there until now. I read a few reviews saying it served good French Bistro fare and the menu looked promising enough to try. It’s a very large restaurant with a huge outdoor area to sit in the sun. The interior feels almost like a old train station (not why I though that, but it was the first thing that came to my mind).
The first course I choose was the Gazpacho with king crab and avocado puree. The Gazpacho was pureed, so there were no chunks of tomatoes or onions in the puree – the puree itself had a very subtle and light pepper flavor that worked well. The crab worked well in the gazpacho, but it’s really hard to screw up crab – and the avocado added another interesting texture into the dish.
For my main entree I ordered the herb stuffed porkloin. The pork was served along with gravy and mashed potatoes and the herb stuffing seemed to be a combination of miropoix and ground pork (maybe with some thyme or parsley mixed in). The pork was dry, and this knocked the dish down from where it could have been. As I’ve said before, pork needs to be cooked using some technique involving moisture. If it is stuffed it needs a stuffing that has a lot of liquid in it to keep it steamed on the inside. I prefer brined pork, but this shortens the cooking time and if that technique were used it would have left the stuffing uncooked. Probably the only way to pull this dish off with brining and stuffing would be to par-cook the stuffing and then assemble/bake the pork loin – this is a lot to ask for a restaurant week entree so I understand.
For the desert I picked the chocolate mousse. Not much to say here, it’s basically jello chocolate pudding and not much else. I’m not really much of a desert freak anyway, so I wasn’t expecting something mind blowing.
This restaurant might be worth another visit, but I would suggest staying away from the porkloin and to instead choose a different preparation.