Soured on Pot au Feu
We went out to dinner last night at Pot au Feu here in Providence. Having previously eaten in their informal "Bistro" section, we figured we'd give the more formal "Salon" a try. Big mistake. I doubt we'll ever eat in Pot au Feu's Salon again.
Save the table by the kitchen for last
Things started out poorly as soon as we walked in the door. The salon was only about one third full, with plenty of tables available. However, despite the vast availability of tables, they decided that they would seat us at the table next to the kitchen entrance. I really dislike listening to the clank of dishes and silverware from the kitchen while trying to eat, so I asked that they reseat us at one of the tables by the windows. While they accomdated our request, they didn't seem pleased by it.
Bland, bland, bland
We both decided to go with the prix fixe option for dinner, which includes an appetizer and a salad for $10 more than the cost of your entree. It being a french restaurant, we had to get the escargot and the pâté. The escargot were served in the traditional style, in the shell. This seemed to keep them from absorbing the garlic in which they were cooked, leaving them a bit bland. We also found the house pâté (chicken liver, flavored with brandy and shallots) to be quite bland as well.
Can't screw up a salad
Next up were our salads. We both chose the Salad Verte, a basic salad of greens topped with a mustard vinagrette. Seeing as it is rather hard to botch a salad, these were fine. In fact, the mustard vinagrette made it the most flavorful dish we had.
Go easy on the heat next time
Last up were our entrees. My partner ordered the Sole au Francais and I ordered the Coquilles St. Jacques et Crevettes a la Maison. Any true seafood lover would consider both of these dishes as served to be abominations. The sole was overdone, had the general consistency of paste and was quite flavorless. My scallops and shrimp were both extremely overdone as well. When I commented to the waiter that the scallops has been overdone, he replied "The chef does them like that for liability reasons." Any chef who is so concerned with liability to abuse scallops in that manner should be taken out and flogged. Scallops should be lovingly seared on either side and just warmed in the middle, not hard as a rock. A few minutes later the waiter returned and informed me that in the future, if I would like my scallops done to a lesser degree that I should specify that when ordering. Unfortunately, there will not be a next time.
The owner's behind
Lastly, the coup de grâce for the evening was the lovely experience of having proprieteur Bob Burke's derrière at eye level, mere inches from the edge of our table, for fifteen or so minutes while he hobnobbed with his socialite friends from the Barrington Yacht Club. I understand that it is his restaurant and all, but my partner and I found it rather rude and inconsiderate of him to stand there for so long chatting up his friends.
The verdict
In all honesty, we were both underwhelmed by Pot au Feu's "Salon". We both found the food to be overpriced ($32 for three overdone scallops and shrimp), of mediocre preparation and generally lacking in lustre. The salon seems to be a place for Bob Burke's yacht club friends to come, dine and feel continental. They should do themselves a favor and go get a better meal elsewhere. While we might return to the Bistro in the future, we definitely won't be going back to the Salon.
Posted by John on March 27, 2005 | Comments (1)
Kenwood RFU6100 Wireless System for Surround Speakers
I had really high hopes for the Kenwood RFU6100. It was the only wireless surround unit that would allow you to use your existing speakers and since I have a nice matched set of Cambridge Soundworks speakers, that was really attractive to me.
Setup was a breeze. Connect the transmitter to the left and right surround outputs on the amp, connect the receiver to the surround speakers and provide power to both boxes. How complicated can it be?
Then came the testing and all the disappointment. I tested this device with DVDs and Playstation2 gaming as the source audio. In both circumstances, I had crackle and pop coming from the speakers every couple of minutes. Not constant, but rather an occasional *bizzt* or *pop* from the speakers. I tried moving the units such that they had a direct line of sight to each other separated by only ten feet of air in the middle of the living room, yet still I had the annoying noises.
In the end, I decided to return the unit and just hard wire my surround speakers. I'll end up snaking wires through the walls, which will be a hassle, but it's better than having my surround speakers sound like a bowl of rice crispies.
Posted by John on December 21, 2004
A quick nibble at New Rivers
Having spent way too much time over the last year cooped up in this house, we decided that we needed to start getting the hell out of the house more often. As we like to do with all decisions of serious import, we acted on it immediately by getting out for a quick nibble this evening.
We were originally going to go to Olives on North Main Street, but when we pulled into the parking space in the lot by the Secretary of State building, I noticed that we were right by the kitchen door of New Rivers. Our friend Emory can't speak highly enough about the place, so since we were right there, we decided that fate was speaking to us and gave it a try.
There was a party of ten due to come in shortly after we arrived, so we were seated in the little bar area off to the side of the main dining room. It was a cute little room with a nice assortment of decorative pears of various shapes and sizes up on the plate rail in the back of the room. I was especially enamoured with the dried grape vines hung from the ceiling and strung with white christmas lights. The room has a nice cozy atmosphere.
We weren't ravenously hungry, so we opted for light fare. We decided on three appetizer courses to be brought out in succession. We started with the heirloom tomato plate special. There were four different kinds of tomatos: delicious little cherry tomatos, a gorgeous purple variety of roma tomato, a delectable yellow variety and beefsteak style red. Along with the tomatoes came a couple of pieces of their artisan bread topped with a rich pesto which was a terrific compliment.
Next up was the mussels in white wine broth with lotus pod slices and lemongrass. The mussels were perfectly done and the broth was heavenly. The lotus pod slices were an interesting companion. I wasn't sure if they were meant strictly as garnish, but I figured that since they were in the bowl they ought to be tried. We found them to be starchy, like a potato. Perhaps someone should market them as an alternative to potato chips.
We finished off our trio of appetizers meal with the rare sesame seared tuna with wasabi vinaigrette on asian slaw. We were already getting full after the first two courses, so we were glad to see that tuna was sliced quite thin. A big slab of tuna would have been too imposing. The asian slaw with its ginger infused dressing made for a perfect mate for the tuna.
The service was excellent, very attentive yet non-intrusive, my favorite. Things started to get crowded as we wrapped up with the third course, so we got our check, paid and cleared out. There was another couple waiting at the bar and we didn't want to camp on a table when we were just having a quick appetizer meal.
It was quite nice to get out, if only for a couple of hours. Time to start making more of a habit of it.
Posted by John on September 9, 2004