Craigie St.Bistrot, Cambridge

[galleygirl]

Craigie Street Bistrot purports to be a small neighborhood restaurant, capturing the spirit of a French Bistro in Cambridge...Reviews have varied widely, depending on what you read....They have a fabulous PR machine that gets mentions and lots of mainstream press, but places like chowhound have been more mixed. And Tony Maws didn't heitate to jump in and defend himself on CH when his place got dissed....And at $28- $36 and entree, I want GREAT.

But, in keeping with the neighborhood theme, they offer a four-course chef's tasting, every Sunday nite after 9 PM, for $30...A good enough deal that I was kind of tempted.

Due to a major harmonic convergence (no work Monday suspended his usual 11PM bedtime, and no new Sopranoes Sunday nite;)), the Commodore and I hit CSB for the Chef's Whim two nites ago...Every so often, I have to let him eat at a "real" restaurant ...

Anyway, I was glad to know they could manage special requests (no meat or chicken for me), but a little dissapointed to hear that if one diner has dietary restrictions, ALL the diners in the party must abide by them...It kind of s*cked that the Commodore couldn't indulge in his taste for flesh...smile.gif

We had the seafood melange of clams, and cockles. with a lovely sweet pea broth with paprika oil, a sweet balance to the more complex clams....

Our second course was the show-stopper, a salad of soft-shell crab and avocado...A half a large tempura'ed SSc, served over thin slices of avocado, with some fried sage, in a pool of sage-infused broth...Flowering chive blossoms pricked things up with their scallion-y flavor...The Commodore had never had a SSC before, so it was a grat first-time (now he wants the salt and pepper ones from Taiwan Cafe...I've created a monster)

Next course was day-boat halibut...I was quite excited about this, but the halibut was a little subtle for my taste; maybe because of the way it was sliced....A thin cut, quickly cooked, I'm more used to a smaller, yet thicker piece that captures the fatty juices inside..Little match-sticks of potato sticks were scattered across the top, and there was a tangle of piquant little herbiage; I especially liked a bite that tasted sharply of licorice....BUT, my biggest dissapointment was that the chef used the same sweet-pea broth as the first course under the halibut...Such an unusual sauce used in two courses was a little lazy, I thought...In his defense, the Commodore's piece had a crustacean (but meat-based) broth, and a nugget of fried sweet breads, but if he could do two different plates, why not do meat for him? Yes, I know, chef's choice....

TC went wild for the coconut ice-cream, enhanced with a little ground vanilla bean(?) and nutmeg for dessert, along with little sugar-crusted beignets...The profiteroles filled with mint-ice cream (nice touch) were not as successful; the shells were, dare I say it? A little stale....

Since my high-end meals tend to be fewer and further between than many here, I usually walk out of a tasting or chef's menu, say, at restaurant week or other "Special Offering", starry-eyed and glowing, and vowing to come again, and splurge for the food at full-price...While the Chef's Whim here was a very good meal for the price (3 glasses of wine, T&T, and the whole thing came to $100 for 2), I have to say, that's all it was worth...It was nice to get a chance to sample Tony Maws' cuisine, but in all honesty, I wouldn't consider it at the full tariff.

[Nishla]

I found another New England thread to revive from the dead

After 9pm on Wednesdays and Sundays, Craigie St. serves what they call the Chef's Whim menu. For $40/4 courses or $55/6 courses, you get whatever the chef feels like sending out to you. (They will accomodate allergies and other dietary restrictions.) My husband and I went last Wednesday for the 6 course Whim:

Pastis cured salmon with new potatoes, fennel, white beans and anchovy dressing

This was a nice starter, and each of the components had a good flavor. Keith didn't love the texture overall, since every item was sort of soft (the fennel had been marinated or pickled, so it didn't have any crunch). It didn't really bother me, though.

Mustard oil poached loup de mer with cockles, fresh Maine shrimp, lemongrass sauce, squid and fresh vegetable "noodles"

I loved the flavors of this dish. The cockles were just barely cooked and perfectly briney, the shrimp were sweet, and the sauce had just the right amount of ginger. The fish tasted great, but was a bit on the mushy side (which didn't stop me from enjoying every bite).

Quartre foie terrine, served with traditional accompaniments

This pate had chicken, duck, quail and partridge liver, and was really tasty. I particularly liked the consistency--it was perfect for spreading on the toasted brioche.

Boudin noir, rutabaga puree, farm fresh egg, foraged mushrooms and pecan oil

This was really delicious--my favorite of the night. The boudin noir pieces had a very rich flavor which went great with the sweet rutabaga, earthy mushrooms and the runny yolk from the egg.

Pomegranate glazed sweetbreads, pistachio and matchsticks of an unidentified root vegetable

I love sweetbreads, and these were very good. The pomegranate was sweet and tart enough to cut through the richness of the dish, and the pistachios added a nice crunch.

Sour milk vanilla panna cotta, blackberry coulis, poached quince and candied kumquat

This was Keith's dessert, and was quite tasty. The sourness in the panna cotta was refreshing.

Grits, poached fruit, hazelnuts and maple ice cream

My dessert, and also very good...definitely a comfort food dessert. The maple ice cream was really good, and didn't bash you over the head with maple syrup flavor. I was pretty full by this time, so I would have preferred something lighter, but I managed to eat the whole thing

For wines, we started with a half bottle of the Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emilie, and then had a full bottle of the 2004 Millot Savigny-les-Beaune. They were both very nice wines and complimented the food well, but if we were to go again, I'd probably just order two half bottles. We were practically chugging our wine with the main course

Service was very friendly and knowledgeable, and our server seemed genuinely excited about the food.

I would definitely recommend going for the Chef's Whim if you are not a picky eater, and you don't mind having dinner late on a weeknight. The food was a good value, and more creative than a lot of places around town. Other than the Whim, Craigie St. has some other weeknight deals, so I'm not sure I would ever go for a full priced meal (which appears to be pretty pricey). If you want more info, check out their website.

[WHS]

I wasn't impressed with CSB. The room feels dowdy and the lighting casts a wan pallor over everyone. The cult of the chef is over the top--the breathless mentions of Tony Maws by our waitress got cloying. The execution of the food did not live up the quality (as described in excruciating detail) of the ingredients. The hand-picked purple asparagus tasted like, well, asparagus. The artisanal rib-eye was a good hunk of beef prepared as requested, nothing more. Prices were breath-taking for the level of presentation.

Edited February 12, 2007 by WHS (log)

[Qwerty]

I'm actually a fan of this place. I mean, it's still a bistro, doesn't really claim to be much more than that, does it? Both times I have eaten there it was what I would call stellar, and I very much enjoyed the ambiance etc.

And I've seen the kitchen and it's impressive he feeds more than 10 people a day in that place. Tiny, tiny, tiny. My freshmen dorm room was bigger than the entire kitchen, prep and dishwasher included. He does a lot of food sous vide, with really good results I thought.