A couple of Gastronomic Busts

Please accept my sincere apologies for not posting!! I know I owe MANY updates-- I've had quite a few gastronomic successes in the past couple of months, but have been lazy about posting. And, I left some notes in Delaware by accident, which I should have back in January. Nevertheless, I figured that I might as well take a few minutes today to note two gastronomic BUSTS! (A first on this Blog).

First is Erbaluce. This restaurant is near Flemings in Boston, and looked very promising. But when M and I dined there, his final comment after the disappointing meal was "I don't know what is Italian about this place." The food was mediocre at best, and for the price of dinner for two (XXX (to be filled in when I check at home)) was totally not worth it. My brussels sprouts appetizer was alright, but bland and lacking anything interesting. I cannot even remember my entree at this point, but I just remember thinking I never wanted to eat it again.

Second up is a small French restaurant in Kenmore Square that also looked promising - Petit Robert. Terrible. The ambiance was terrible-- the tables were so crowded together we felt involved in everyone's conversation and the waiters' butt was in our face when he served the people next to us. The host seemed to not want to let any words leak out of his mouth and mimed us over to our table-- it was tough to understand what was going on. The food was way too rich, but not in a good way. Although M's french onion soup appetizer was tasty, I can't say that this would be a difficult dish to make well. M's lamb special entree was oversized, overhot, and very heavy. It also came with the same boring vegetable of the day that was served with my scallop dish, but his green-beans and carrots were baked right into the lamb dish. My scallops were cooked alright, but were drowned in a crab sauce that was too buttery and the vegetables were unimaginative and the dish came with unremarkable mashed potatoes. For a >$20 dish, I can't say that's worth it. As far as French food goes, I'd return to Gaslight and pay double rather than go to Petit Robert. (We did return to Gaslight a couple of weeks after our Petit Robert flop, and truly enjoyed our experience there-- this time, I got what M had last time because the beet salad was AMAZING, and M one-upped me by ordering the Nicoise Salad that was the hit of the evening).