October 21, 2008
After dining at Citronelle last December, we wanted to check out Richard's less formal (and less expensive) Central. It features a mixture of French bistro food as well as gourmet takes on American comfort food. Laurie and I started with one of their cocktails, and we enjoyed them both. I ordered the ginger daiquiri and Laurie ordered the grape caipirinha. The daiquiri was tart, not too sweet, and pleasantly gingery.
We shared the gougeres/cheese puffs (mini cheese popovers made from pâte a choux) and the onion and lardon tart for appetizers. I liked the cheesy, salty gougeres; Laurie did not. We both, however, absolutely loved the tart. Onions and bacon on a thin, flaky crust, drizzled with sour cream and chives - this was a great way to start a meal.
For the main courses, I went French and Laurie went American: The braised rabbit with spaetzle and carrots and the bacon cheesburger with fries. The rabbit came in two cuts, a piece of braised dark meat and sliced, lightly breaded lighter meat. Served with a mustardy sauce, the meat is familiar enough for fans of chicken but different enough to be more interesting than that ubiquitious bird. The carrots were the best I've ever had. It's hard to get excited about carrots but they were that good. I should've asked about them; I'm not sure what kind of stock and/or other ingredients were used to prepare them but they were fantastic. To complement my entree, I ordered a delicious Belgian ale on tap (though I didn't catch the name - sorry!).
A criticism of Central is the heavy-handedness with the salt. When I mentioned at the beginning of my entree that my food was salty, our server quickly offered to replace my dish. I didn't think it was worth sending back. As I eagerly finished the rabbit and carrots, I realized that the spaetzle was the main offender in the salt category. The fresh tarragon (one of my least favorite herbs) sealed the deal - I didn't finish it.
Laurie's bacon cheeseburger was the best burger either of us have had. From the housemade roll to the thin, fried onion circles, from the excellent quality beef, bacon, and cheese, if any burger and fries are going to command $18, it's this one. Laurie found the fries to be too salty and didn't like the seasoning. I thought they were fine but not great. (We prefer the ultra-crispy fries at Brasserie Les Halles.)
We shared the chocolate mousse. Between the crunchy chocolate candy on top and the raspberry center, I felt these distracted from the mousse, which was otherwise creamy and tasty.
Our meal at Central was good and very rich. We were both exceedingly full at the end of our meal.
http://www.centralmichelrichard.com
Thursday, November 6, 2008
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