restaurant review: fork & spoon cafe

i didn’t take any photos at dinner tonight, so here’s a pretty picture from my house to entertain you while i tell you about the fork and spoon cafe.  we decided to have some pasta tonight and mr. h-s suggested that we try out a restaurant new to us.  it’s been around for a while, but we just hadn’t gotten over there yet.  i think  that we’ll have to go again sometime!

i started out with the salad from the specials of the day — it was based on a bed of fresh spinach, then topped with sunflower sprouts, sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, siberian kiwi (!) and topped with a yummy balsamic vinaigrette.  it was delicious.  siberian kiwis are a bizarre little fruit i’d never heard of before tonight.  they are only about as big as an olive, but the insides look like tiny kiwis, and the skins are smooth (not hairy).  yum, yum, yum.  great combo of flavors.

for my dinner, i ordered four cheese ravioli with marinara.  the sauce (which was laid on pretty thickly) was a bit too strong for me.  it tasted like it’d been stewing long enough to be on the edge of carmelization and was just… not my favorite.  mr. h-s got pasta bolognese.  it was much milder than my dinner.  the description on the menu said that it was a tomato cream sauce (which had scared me off because i thought it would be too thick and creamy) but it was actually just a thin sauce–much milder than mine.  both of our dinners also came with a generous slab of garlicky focaccia.  i was impressed that the portions were actually right-sized.  i could finish the whole meal and feel not-too-full, but perfectly satisfied.  and the prices were appropriate for the sizes of dinner (i didn’t feel guilty for not bringing half of it home to make two meals from it.)
still…. i couldnt’ resist dessert.  i chose the panna cotta.  it’s a custardy dessert that was described as being on a layer of raspberry coulis with mango and blueberry.  there was a distinct lack of mango and blueberry, but despite that, the dessert was really delicious.  unusual, not frequently seen on menus (at least around here), and i had to seriously fight the urge to lick the plate.

i think next time i’ll try the mac & cheese.

:) :) :)