As a food blogger, you should be impartial in sharing your experiences. Just like you should be blogging and sharing about how awesome your Chicken Curry turned out on a weeknight, you should also be frank in writing about how cracked your Cheesecake was. So that your readers and friends do not make the same mistakes that you make. That's where the beauty of transparency is . All of you have read and gone ahead with so many of my recommendations of WHERE TO EAT , or EATING OUT in so many cities in mainland US and India. So now I bring forth for you a post , on where NOT TO EAT.
It was my birthday recently. Being a weeknight, all that we could do was grab a dinner together. A few months back, when we had been for the Man's Weeknight Birthday dinner at STORY , we had seen this cute and quaint kinda restaurant in Prairie Village in Kansas. CAFE PROVENCE . That's where we headed for my birthday dinner.
Its a family owned and operated restaurant for the last 14 years. Through the drive to the restaurant, the man said that he had done some reading up on this joint. It featured highly on many of the so called big foodie lists. For me, personally, as much, I go by reviews, I also let my own judgement prevail, after I have been to a place and eaten there.
I am sure the owners of the restaurant wanted to re-create the look and feel of a typical Parisian Cafe. While the idea is pretty romantic, but often its not practical for a couple with a toddler, trying to grab a weeknight dinner. The twinkling fairy lights on the windows added a nice whimsical touch, but the crunch of space hit me in the face, when I entered the restaurant. It was tiny. To re-create the Cafe feel, the tables and booths were placed too close to each other. Surprisingly on a weeknight, the restaurant was super crowded. We didn't have a reservation, but our very sweet server managed to get us a table by the window with a ledge. Honestly the other diners were too close to me for comfort. I almost felt like I was in a sports bar-pub on game night, when the home team was winning.
We skipped the customary cocktails, as we had plans of coffee post dinner along with dessert. We had our daughter with us, and the main menu had no Kid's menu details. I asked our server, what was there for kids. Her reply was not that pleasing to the ears. She said we don't do anything for kids. While I respect the policy of a restaurant on what they plan to serve, its best if they mention it anywhere on their website or other publicity material as well. Then its easier for families to plan. Her attitude was a bit wrong , I feel. For instance, Celebrity Chef Celina Tio's JULIAN has no kids menu as such. But they will always make an extra effort to prepare something for your child, off the menu. Coming back to Cafe Provence, they did have a simple pasta on their menu, and we requested it to be just tossed in butter. Our server kindly obliged.
We started off with Croquette de Tete de Porc. Breaded braised pork croquette, dijon Aoili and radish. For me, this was the best thing, I had that night. The aioli added just the right touch to the creamy croquettes which were breaded and fried perfectly.
For my entree I ordered the Escalopes De Veaux aux Capres. Pan seared Veal Scaloppini , lemon butter caper sauce, Daniel's potato gratin and hericot verts(green beans). This sounded very appetizing. And who can go wrong with the classic lemon butter caper sauce.But that is exactly what happened.
The Man ordered Canard Ei Faisant. Duck Confit and Pheasant Sausage, duck jus , creamy polenta, braised green. The duck was largely on the side. A big let down.
But the biggest let down of the night was my entree. The lemon butter sauce on my veal was so sour that it almost became inedible. I did take a few bites, tried scraping off the sauce. Had the man taste it as well, in case I was overreacting. I dined on a baby carrot which was on my plate along with the green beans. My birthday dinner ended on a sour note literally. I could not bring myself to finish it and told our server about it. She was kind enough to take it off the bill and blamed the lemons rather than accepting it as a mistake on the part of the Chef to send out super sour food. Honestly I don't think I had asked for a plate of sour patch kids or jolly rancher at a fine dinning joint.
I was in no mood for the customary Birthday Dessert with a candle on it and we went straight home. Anyone can have a bad day at the kitchen, but blaming the produce for the Chef is not the right thing to do.
We extend our gratitude to our server for taking time out to capture a few lovely photographs for us. Thanks a lot. As the Food itself was a major major let down.
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