sleepydog25
Been here awhile
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 8,454
My wife and I had been wanting to try MP for some time, and last night was that time. Putting aside the hardship of getting there due to torrential downpours (if you haven't been tracking the weather here, it's been raining wildly--up to 8 inches in 6 hours just over an hour away), as excited as we were to eat there, MP just didn't live up to expectations. Was it a lovely meal and delectable? Mostly, but the experience seemed to lack heart as did the food.
Service was exemplary, aside from the bread server coming once, promising to return, but never doing so. Kevin was our primary server, and he was gracious, informative, and efficient. My wife settled on the carrot soup with goat cheese ravioli, and for my money, it was the best dish of the night. Piquant flavors, a hint of the creamy goat cheese, rich in color, and the perfect temperature to offset the chill from being nearly soaked from head to toe. My escargot was quite delicious, too, but it lacked the soul of the carrot soup. It came in a bacon foam with bits of croutons and chives, and while the broth was comforting and smoky, the snail was slightly overcooked, and the entire dish was barely warm.
For our second course, I sought out the roasted duck with braised oxtail in a cabbage wrap and an apple mash while my wife went with the scallops in a sauce composed of pureed lettuce, corn, and cream. Both dishes seemed to have sat a bit before being delivered to the table as they were lukewarm. My duck was cooked to medium rare perfection, but the skin hadn't fully been rendered leading it to be slightly rubbery and chewy. That's a rather large mistake to make with duck. That misstep and the temp issue aside, the duck was moist and the oxtail comfortingly slow-roasted and nearly melt-in-your-mouth good. The apple mash was a fine accompaniment, as well, as it provided much needed acidity to the dish.
However, my wife's scallop dish was not so successful. While the seafood itself was immaculately cooked, they were puny in size (not like the divers scallops at many signatures) and the broth while creamy and vibrantly colored lacked complexity and depth of flavor. Scallops can stand alone, but they need either a zesty sauce or side, or they need to be accompanied by a mellow, earthy side such as risotto. Her entrée wasn't terrible, but it lacked conviction and soul; again, neither dish was served at optimal temperature.
I finished with the apple tart with a caramel sauce and chip. It was a rather pedestrian affair--tasty but not memorable. The whipped cream topping echoed the lack of depth as it was airy but bland, just like the tart itself. The thin pastry dough layers had banded together making the bottom crust chewy, and the apple lacked character as it came across a bit like a simple apple preserve out of a jar. The coffee, however, was strong and bold. Finally, their wine list, while extensive, had relatively few by-the-glass offerings in terms of varietals, but what I did drink was excellent.
As for our overall experience, this is where the review gets tricky. We are fans of dressing up for nicer, signature restaurants. By dressing nicely, I don't mean a tie or jacket for me and a dress for my wife, though on this night I did have on a collared shirt and slacks, and she did wear a dress. I understand that for some, being on vacation means not wearing anything remotely resembling dress clothes, but it remains off-putting to see tank tops, running shorts, ill-fitting t-shirts, and camouflage ball caps--all of which we saw in abundance at MP last night. Did the lack of an enforced dress code ruin our evening? Not hardly, but I'd be lying to say it's not a bit sad to see, nonetheless. The bigger question is why bother with a dress code at all? (I know the answer--it's mostly a rhetorical question.
)
However, regardless of one's take on the dress code, the fact remains for us that the food ,while tasty overall, was lacking in some capacity for each course whether it was temperature, imagination, or execution. Those shortcomings, along with a stunted ambience, will firmly keep MP off our dining rotation.
Service was exemplary, aside from the bread server coming once, promising to return, but never doing so. Kevin was our primary server, and he was gracious, informative, and efficient. My wife settled on the carrot soup with goat cheese ravioli, and for my money, it was the best dish of the night. Piquant flavors, a hint of the creamy goat cheese, rich in color, and the perfect temperature to offset the chill from being nearly soaked from head to toe. My escargot was quite delicious, too, but it lacked the soul of the carrot soup. It came in a bacon foam with bits of croutons and chives, and while the broth was comforting and smoky, the snail was slightly overcooked, and the entire dish was barely warm.
For our second course, I sought out the roasted duck with braised oxtail in a cabbage wrap and an apple mash while my wife went with the scallops in a sauce composed of pureed lettuce, corn, and cream. Both dishes seemed to have sat a bit before being delivered to the table as they were lukewarm. My duck was cooked to medium rare perfection, but the skin hadn't fully been rendered leading it to be slightly rubbery and chewy. That's a rather large mistake to make with duck. That misstep and the temp issue aside, the duck was moist and the oxtail comfortingly slow-roasted and nearly melt-in-your-mouth good. The apple mash was a fine accompaniment, as well, as it provided much needed acidity to the dish.
However, my wife's scallop dish was not so successful. While the seafood itself was immaculately cooked, they were puny in size (not like the divers scallops at many signatures) and the broth while creamy and vibrantly colored lacked complexity and depth of flavor. Scallops can stand alone, but they need either a zesty sauce or side, or they need to be accompanied by a mellow, earthy side such as risotto. Her entrée wasn't terrible, but it lacked conviction and soul; again, neither dish was served at optimal temperature.
I finished with the apple tart with a caramel sauce and chip. It was a rather pedestrian affair--tasty but not memorable. The whipped cream topping echoed the lack of depth as it was airy but bland, just like the tart itself. The thin pastry dough layers had banded together making the bottom crust chewy, and the apple lacked character as it came across a bit like a simple apple preserve out of a jar. The coffee, however, was strong and bold. Finally, their wine list, while extensive, had relatively few by-the-glass offerings in terms of varietals, but what I did drink was excellent.
As for our overall experience, this is where the review gets tricky. We are fans of dressing up for nicer, signature restaurants. By dressing nicely, I don't mean a tie or jacket for me and a dress for my wife, though on this night I did have on a collared shirt and slacks, and she did wear a dress. I understand that for some, being on vacation means not wearing anything remotely resembling dress clothes, but it remains off-putting to see tank tops, running shorts, ill-fitting t-shirts, and camouflage ball caps--all of which we saw in abundance at MP last night. Did the lack of an enforced dress code ruin our evening? Not hardly, but I'd be lying to say it's not a bit sad to see, nonetheless. The bigger question is why bother with a dress code at all? (I know the answer--it's mostly a rhetorical question.
)However, regardless of one's take on the dress code, the fact remains for us that the food ,while tasty overall, was lacking in some capacity for each course whether it was temperature, imagination, or execution. Those shortcomings, along with a stunted ambience, will firmly keep MP off our dining rotation.
