3 Center Street
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
(413) 232-4111
Rouge is quiet irresistible - my fantasy of the neighborhood bistro where you would be happy to dine every Friday to celebrate the end of the week. You enter to the side of a cozy bar area decorated with twinkle lights and a short flight of stairs leads up to a dining room with a cathedral ceilings featuring exposed beams. The chairs are red and the tables a cheeky silver Formica that winks at you. The ladies who acted as hostesses and servers could not be more charming - just the right amount of chat before becoming intrusive.
However, as most things in life, Rouge is a mixed bag.
I went there with my parents who were visiting for the weekend and we were all up to try something new. I will say, in general, we are "looking to like" sorts of people, my mother in particular. She is the kind of person who, when sitting eating breakfast at my wobbly dining room table with her coffee shaking in her mug whenever anyone uses their utensils, will protest that there is no problem at all. So while I think we would all agree that we would return to Rouge, it was not transformative dining bliss.
I thought the bread (baguette) was on the stale side - my parents thought it was just crunchy. You be the judge. We then started with an order of naan, hummus, and raita to begin. They served the hummus and raita in the kind of silver cups restaurants usually bring sides of ketchup or mayo in - not so easy to dig into with a piece of naan. But points for the successful cross-cultural combo of the naan and raita and the hummus.
For the first course, I had a salad special that was fabulous - romaine, frisee, avocado, bacon and a little quail sitting on top in a lemon dressing. Delicious - even as I felt sorry for the bird laying splayed on top the pile of greens. He gave his life for a good cause. My dad had the oysters which he also reported as entirely satisfying.
For the second course, I have less praise. I had a house feature - the oven crisped lemon chicken with asparagus and spinach gratin. The spinach was fantastic, and it's served as a separate tapas if you're so inclined to have it as a bite at the bar. Just the right amount of spinach to cheese - I'm not sure what the cheese was, but it was rich and had a bit of a bite to stand up to green. The chicken - disappointing. I think the pieces are braised and then crisped in the oven - one piece was tough and the other piece was still pink. Unfortunate. My dad had hamachi on a cedar plank special which he reported as being quite good.
My mom has this issue with portion size - she finds large portions just unappetizing to look at and despite our advice to eat what she wants, well, large portions just bug her. So she ordered two tapas. And ironically, they were quite huge. So this is good for those of you looking to share bar snacks - less good for my mom. One was goat Gouda in tomato sauce, which was basically fried cheese sticks in tomato sauce, and the other was vegetable tempura. I am not knocking fried cheese, by the way - it just wasn't what I was expecting from the goat cheese and tomato tapas I've seen in the past. And it would easily serve 2-4 as a starter. The tempura was larger than entree servings I've seen in restaurants, and it made me wonder if one should eat tempura outside of a Japanese restaurant - the batter was too thick.
And so we came to dessert and I have no complaints in this department. I was the only one to order dessert, and I had the caramello, which the server described rather unappetizingly as a "caramel substance." I persevered anyway and was brought a caramel delight that is somewhere between a pudding and caramel sauce. Unique and delicious. It would only have been improved with a bit of sea salt and a sprinkle of dark chocolate shavings.
So - go to Rouge, but order carefully. And remember - tapas is for sharing!
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Allium
44 Railroad Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413-528-2118
This was probably the single best three course meal I have had thus far since writing this blog. I have been here once before and had a very nice meal, but this time all three courses hit it out of the park.
First off, if you make a reservation, and you are a party of three or four, ask to sit in the window. There are two tables for four in window nooks - great for people watching if you are so inclined. We were seated in the window by chance and it was fun to see the goings on in the center of Great Barrington on beautiful late spring evening.
Allium is one of the many Berkshire restaurants that tries to build its menu around seasonally available local produce. So two of us tried the spring vegetables with goat cheese as an appetizer - turnips, beets, broccoli were blanched and cooled, and then radishes were on a generous bed of fresh local goat cheese - incredibly flavoful. My dad had the spring lettuces, which he said were uncommonly crisp.
For an entree, I had a soft shell crab po boy on toasted ciabatta with greens and lightly fried onion rings on the side. The crab was delectable, with a slightly spicy remoullade on the bread. I disassembled the po boy and the reassembled the components in smaller bits - the salty, crispy, spicy, crunchy sandwich all surrounding the soft crab - excellent. I also ordered a side of hand-cut fries which were the kind of fries that make you realize you eat most fries mostly out of habit. These were generously sliced, cooked to a crisp golden brown with just the right amount of salt. The size of the entrees is not overwhelming, so splitting an additional side is a nice compliment to your meals.
My parents had grilled salmon and a slow-roasted chicken - they reported both were excellent.
For dessert, my mom and I both had maple pot de creme. This was the kind of dessert that I kept scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure I had retrieved every last bit. My dad got an almond and apricot bakewell tart, which was served with ice cream but the tart itself was also cold, which he found disappointing.
I would have those three courses again in heartbeat! And the decor is interesting as well - we sat in front of a large, weird painting that was a topic of conversation, and many of the light fixtures are artisan-made.
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413-528-2118
This was probably the single best three course meal I have had thus far since writing this blog. I have been here once before and had a very nice meal, but this time all three courses hit it out of the park.
First off, if you make a reservation, and you are a party of three or four, ask to sit in the window. There are two tables for four in window nooks - great for people watching if you are so inclined. We were seated in the window by chance and it was fun to see the goings on in the center of Great Barrington on beautiful late spring evening.
Allium is one of the many Berkshire restaurants that tries to build its menu around seasonally available local produce. So two of us tried the spring vegetables with goat cheese as an appetizer - turnips, beets, broccoli were blanched and cooled, and then radishes were on a generous bed of fresh local goat cheese - incredibly flavoful. My dad had the spring lettuces, which he said were uncommonly crisp.
For an entree, I had a soft shell crab po boy on toasted ciabatta with greens and lightly fried onion rings on the side. The crab was delectable, with a slightly spicy remoullade on the bread. I disassembled the po boy and the reassembled the components in smaller bits - the salty, crispy, spicy, crunchy sandwich all surrounding the soft crab - excellent. I also ordered a side of hand-cut fries which were the kind of fries that make you realize you eat most fries mostly out of habit. These were generously sliced, cooked to a crisp golden brown with just the right amount of salt. The size of the entrees is not overwhelming, so splitting an additional side is a nice compliment to your meals.
My parents had grilled salmon and a slow-roasted chicken - they reported both were excellent.
For dessert, my mom and I both had maple pot de creme. This was the kind of dessert that I kept scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure I had retrieved every last bit. My dad got an almond and apricot bakewell tart, which was served with ice cream but the tart itself was also cold, which he found disappointing.
I would have those three courses again in heartbeat! And the decor is interesting as well - we sat in front of a large, weird painting that was a topic of conversation, and many of the light fixtures are artisan-made.
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