Gray and Grizzled Food Fan

Yorkville offers all the charm and culinary vibrancy of a suburban strip mall with none of the convenience.  Given the dearth of commendable comestibles, any new restaurant is good news:  Things can’t get worse.  That said, there are a few standouts in the area.  None merit a taxi ride for outsiders but several save residents from having to take one.  Parlor Steakhouse has definitely joined the latter club, alongside Spigolo, Café D’Alsace and Sushi of Gari.  Below are the five most notable subpar and superior items from their non-steak menu.  As far as fatty cow goes, Parlor is a full service flesh palace, but I’ll save that discussion for another review.

1. Nicely Twisted Tomato Salad:  Gorgeous grape tomatoes in beautiful color and flavor array topped goopy gorgonzola spread.  Good, bad and ugly all in one bite.   Big textured salt crystals and a fruity olive oil helped hold the blue cheese flavors at bay.

2. Bold and Beautiful Yellow Tomato Gazpacho: On an August night that needed it, this soup was liquid air conditioning.  Well balanced flavors—they nailed the tart, sweet—and nice to look at.  Even more refreshing than the salad.

3. Magically Moderate Mac and Cheese: Not as rich as Michael Jordan’s, but also not as likely to induce late night fat sweats.  Price and portion in total concord.

4. Scalding Swill:  This was a sad end to a swell swill.  Room temperature in August is no way for a Pinot to exit this world.  At first taste I thought they’d deglazed a pan with it, except then at least I would have gotten some butter and beefy flavors.

5. Carbonized Cookie Platter:  Reheated storeboughts were hot, dry and lousy.  If you’re going to make me pay pay to play for ersatz petits fours, make them good.   A sorry  end to an otherwise excellent meal.

This entry was posted on August 25, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Food, Yorkville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.