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May 20, 2016
P&J:
Quail Egg Mayonnaise - celery salt and crispy shallot
Crispy Brussels Sprout Chips - vadouvan and lemon zest
Lamb Scrumpets - pickled chile and mint sauce
Baked Sweet Potato and Spring Vegetables - beets, heirloom carrots and apples, tumeric, yogurt, pumpkin seeds
Shepherd's Pie - minced leg of lamb, carrots, peas and curried mash
Fish and Chips - thrice cooked fries, minted peas, and malt vinegar aioli
Notes:
I know, I know. I complained about this place the first time. And the only reason I'm writing about this a second time (ordinarily, I'd keep these entries limited to a single visit) is because Patrick and I were together on this occasion. How we ended up here so soon after I was traumatized by a Scotch egg, well...
So, the situation here is that we were meeting some friends, and food was ordered. We didn't choose any of the food (except for the Shepherd's Pie), but it was brought to the table and we ate it. And we didn't pay for it. We did a good old fashioned dine and dash, you know, where you create a distraction at the end of the meal and just make a run for it? I'm kidding. We don't do that; I saw it in a movie once. But we didn't pay, and I'm only putting that out there because I think it's relevant.
The quail egg mayonnaise...where do I begin. Apparently, there is some "story" behind their eggs (that I missed), but to me, that translates into this-is-why-we-charge-you-2-dollars-for-half-a-quail-egg. It's ridiculous. I feel the same way about their $15 Scotch egg, so what this says to me is that I should never order egg-anything from The Cavalier because it gets me all worked up. Here we had half a quail egg perched on a teeny dollop of mayonnaise with shallot and some chervil if I remember correctly. It's their take on a deviled egg, except it's nothing at all like one. Moving on. The Brussels sprout chips were very good. They must have one poor (literally), naive culinary student in the kitchen, peeling apart Brussels sprouts leaf by leaf so they can be flash fried and tossed with curry spices and lemon zest. Well, great job, kid, they're delicious! Lamb scrumpets were succulent little bits of lamb left on the bone, lightly coated and fried and served with a thin but flavor-packed mint sauce. The meat was unbelievably tender and just the right amount of fatty; I ate these with my fingers and cleaned the bones.
The Sheperd's pie was served so hot it could barely be eaten. But once we could, we found it savory and appealing, though nothing extraordinary. The sweet potatoes were slender and creamy white and garnished with shredded raw beet, apple, and carrot; the turmeric yogurt sauce on the plate seemed out of place with everything else. All very tasty, but again, nothing extraordinary. The fish and chips I liked very much, though the rest of the table wasn't as taken. For me, it was that the fish was nicely battered, crispy and not the least bit greasy, and I do like their thrice cooked fries. (If there's one thing this restaurant knows, it's how to operate a fryer.) For everyone else, it was just fish and chips, nothing to get excited about.
We didn't have dessert.
So, now would we go back? It's leaning "no". Aside from that ridiculous egg thing, everything was good, or very good, but nothing was truly amazing. And because we didn't pay for anything, we have no idea what the bill should have been, so we didn't leave offended; but "it wasn't offensive" is not a feeling that would make us return.
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