Breakfast Buffet, Residence Inn Boulder Canyon, Boulder, CO

The "joys" of business travel.  Lackluster hotel breakfast buffets.

I tend to try #allTheThings, but, the Residence Inn lineup looked so lackluster that even I avoided most of it.  They do have one signature item however ...

Standard Residence Inn Lineup.

I've only stayed at one other Residence Inn property before, but I think the lineup is essentially the same at all their properties.  Which for me, means one thing: waffles and *all* the toppings.

I get sick of this lineup very quickly, as it doesn't change, and literally nothing else is good, but, the waffles really do it for me the first day or two.

Setting

Breakfast is served in a back room adjacent to the bar area, utilizing space they open up just for breakfast, plus the normal bar area.

Breakfast Room.

Breakfast is a buffet, self serve.

Regular plates are available for dining in, or paper to take back to your room.  No takeaway boxes, and no takeaway cutlery.

Seating.

The breakfast seating is fairly large, with small tables, high tables, and a long communal bar.  Seat yourself, bus your own table, casual.  This is not a fancy place.

Drinks

The drink lineup is basic: water, juice, coffee, tea.

Juice.

I never tried the juice fountain, with apple, cranberry, orange, and lemonade.

Coffee / Tea.

For hot beverages, most days featured two dispensers of "Bold", one hot water, and one decaf. 

I've had Residence Inn coffee before, and been rather appalled by it.  It was better here, although the regular was still not very good, in particular,  the "Bold" was sour, fairly harsh.  I didn't care for it at all, but one day "Medium" showed up, and it was slightly better.

Shockingly, the decaf was decent.  Fairly smooth, not acidic, not harsh.  No depth, not amazing or anything, but better than expected.

All types of sweetener, milk (including soy), creamers (including flavored), caramel syrup, and cinnamon toppings were available on the side, along with takeaway cups or mugs for dining in.

Food

The food offerings were essentially the same every day, basic, but did include continental and hot items. Plus the signature DIY waffle station, of course.

Continental

The continental lineup is as simple as it gets: breads, spreads, cereal, yogurt, fruit.

Bread Station (Day One): Bagels, English Muffins.

The bread lineup was interesting.  As in, no sliced bread the first day.  No toast.  Bagels, plain or cinnamon raisin only, and english muffins.  They were clearly "grocery store" caliber bagels, very bready, no crust.

A sign said gluten-free items were available on request, I'm not sure what was offered.

I was amused at the choice of toasters, conveyor style or regular traditional toaster.  Your pick.

But no toast, and no baked goods or pastries (!) that day.

Bread Station (Day Two): Bagels, English Muffins, Wheat Bread, Coffee Cake.

The next day, the bread station had a few new additions, just generic looking wheat bread, and a plate of something unlabeled on the bottom.

Breakfast Special (Tuesday): Coffee Cake.

The unlabeled offering turned out to be coffee cake.

I was amused by the presentation of the coffee cake, just on a paper plate.  It honestly looked homemade.

It was decent though, moist enough, slight streusel top, cinnamon filling.

Breakfast Special (Wednesday): Cinnamon Rolls.

On the third day, the "bonus" item on the bottom was cinnamon rolls.

Again, fairly homemade looking, with tons of icing all over the plate.  They didn't look awful ...

I eagerly took one, and tried it at room temperature.  It ... was fairly dry, hard, stale.  Eh.

So I put it into the conveyor toaster, after checking the clearance (I know better than to put tall items into the conveyor!)  But ... I clearly didn't judge it right, because as it reached the back, it jammed.  Smoke started pouring out.  Ooph.  Staff sprung into action, got out a fan, shut it off, removed it, etc, but I was horrified that I did this offense.  Sigh.

I took another, brought it to my room, and microwaved it for 15 seconds, which helped a lot - softer, icing oozing all over, but it still wasn't great.  Not really worth any of the effort.

Breakfast Special (Thursday): Chocolate Croissants/Turnovers.

The next day, a new item.

These ones get points for being warm, clearly fresh from the oven when I arrived around 8:30am.  I wonder if the first morning I was just too early, and the special item hadn't been set out?

Chocolate ... Croissaovers.

As always, the special was unlabeled, but I will assume they were aiming for chocolate croissants, or, were trying to be really on trend and do a hybrid, uh, croissant-turnover?

The filling was quite generous, lots of chocolate, decent quality, slightly melty.  Not bad.

The pastry though ... I just don't know what they were going for.  It kinda looked like a croissant, but it wasn't laminated nor flaky.  It kinda looked like a turnover, but that wasn't right either.  The pastry seemed undercooked as well, kinda dense and doughy.  It tasted a bit like pie crust, even though it didn't look like it.  I really don't know what to think here.

Breakfast Special (Friday): Croissants.

My final morning featured croissants, but I skipped them, heading straight out for breakfast instead.

Cereals.

One hot item was mixed in here, a vat of hot oatmeal.  No toppings in this area, but those come soon, trust me.

Two types of milk were provided, one labelled as 2%, the other ... whole? Skim? Soy?  Who knows.

The cold cereals were all Kellogg's brand, in annoying dispensers that dumped way too much product (or, none at all).

There was some ... questionable signage here.  Every item had two signs.  Was the first one Frosted Flakes or Raisin Bran?  Answer: Frosted Flakes.  Cheerios or granola?  Granola.  Fruit Loops? Nope, Cocoa Krispies.  Unlabeled bonus item on the end, Raisin Brand.

Oh, I see.

On the third day, everything made sense.  Well, as much sense as it was going to.

They clearly needed to refill the cocoa crispies/fruit loops dispenser, so, uh, added Fruit Loops on top.  *NOW* the signage at least made sense, but, it was just a tease.  "Eat all the cocoa crispies and you can have some fruit loops!", it seemed to taunt.

Or maybe they want people to rip the tops off and use their grubby hands to fetch the fruit loops out directly? :)

Yogurt.

Next, yogurt.

Basic Danon Light n Fit original flavor only, a couple flavors of Chobani, and their own branded lowfat Greek.

I tried the Greek, it was sour, not very creamy, not great.  Sad, since Colorado is home to my favorite brand of US based yogurt (Noosa).

Fruit / Eggs / Cheese.

The fruit options were meager: sliced melon, grapes, or bananas.  

Two types of sliced cheese were offered, very yellow cheddar, or brie.

And hard boiled eggs.

Nothing here looked very appealing.

Hot Foods

Most of the hot food was a standard sad buffet line.

Hot Buffet.

The hot buffet was ... interesting.  Don't believe the signs.  Also interesting was the entire lack of potato dish (hash browns, home fries, etc), complete lack of vegetable, and no pancakes/french toast/etc (although, stay tuned for waffles!).

Both the regular scrambled eggs and scrambled whites were labelled "scrambled eggs", complete with visuals of yellow eggs.  They looked dried out, yet dripping in water.  I stayed far away.

"Pork Sausage."

Next, "pork sausage".

Um.  "Sausage"?  It may have been pork, but, uh, "sliced deli ham" is what I'd go with.  Also wet and slimy looking.

I quickly moved on.

Turkey Sausage.

After those lackluster eggs and "pork sausage", you'd think I'd keep moving on.  But ... I do sometimes love sausage patties, particularly when slathered in syrup.

So ... I took one.

It. Was. Horrible.

Soggy.  Limp.  Questionable texture.  No flavor.  Questionable ingredients.

Do NOT get this.  Just don't.

Pork Sausage (Day Three).

Another day, the "pork sausage" at least looked more correct.  So, I gave it a try.  Why?  Because I don't learn from my mistakes.

Just as awful as the turkey patty.  The texture was just sooo strange.  Limp.  Mushy.  So, so very bad.

Do NOT get this either.  Please, don't.  Trust me.

DIY Waffles!

The waffle station though ... this I knew to look forward to. And not just because it was waffles.  Yes, I love waffles, but, what breakfast buffet really has waffles that are worth it?

When I stayed at my first Residence Inn I was blown away by the waffles.  I loved the flavor to the batter, the DIY setup, and, wowzer, the toppings.  The Boulder Canyon setup is slightly less extensive in the toppings department, but, the waffle base is clearly the same.

You have your choice of waffle style, full size classic Belgian waffle, or, minis!  I love doing the minis, as they seem to cook better, more surface area, more crispy bits.  The best part about the DIY setup, besides that you get them hot and fresh and not sitting in chafing pans, is that you can control the cook level.  Do you want them crispy? Doughy?  Your choice!

Toppings.

And finally, the toppings station.  This was toppings for everything: bagels, oatmeal, waffles, etc.

Here we had Smucker's brand peanut butter, grape or strawberry jelly (including low sugar), butter,  Nutella, Philly cream cheese (plain only), and Smucker's brand breakfast syrup (including low sugar), all in individual packages. There is additional unlabeled syrup in a dispenser (honey? More pancake syrup?), plus sliced almonds, granola, dried cranberries, raisins, coconut flakes, and chocolate chips, all likely intended for the oatmeal.  Shakers of cinnamon, cocoa, and even spicy chili are available to dazzle things up.

And ... whipped cream.  Yes, just a can, but, <3.  One morning however there was no whipped cream, no place for it even, so I had to ask for it, even though it was near the end of service.  No one else noticed?

#breakfastOfChampions.

The waffles were my highlight, although after the first day or two, I wished there was something else in the buffet I actually liked.

I again appreciated the decent base, some tang and flavor to it, and the waffle irons do cook the waffles pretty perfectly for this style of waffle.  Sure, these aren't ever going to be liege waffles, but for what they are, they are good.

Of course, adding chocolate chips is key (they melt in so nicely!), or perhaps Nutella, if that is your thing.  And, copious amounts of whipped cream.  And a sidecar of syrup, for dunking.

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Boss Lady Pizza, Boulder, CO

Another year, another pizza party for "Hackathon" night at our annual work conference.  Last year's event was in Kirkland, WA with the excellent wild mushroom pizza from Pagliacci's.  This year, we were in Boulder, CO, and the organizer selected Boss Lady Pizza, a pizza place highly recommended by the local admins.

Boss Lady is not your standard pizza place.  Sure, you *could* just build your own simple, normal size and topped pizza.  But their menu is all about ridiculous toppings and featured recipes.  And that menu is HUGE.  For red pies, e.g. marinara base, there are 10 different pre-designed offerings, including taco inspired ones with sour cream swirled on top.  Things get far more interesting with the white pies, nearly 20 (!) offerings, and they are absolutely fascinating, bohbotht in names, and in ingredients.  White base here means ranch, or garlic & olive oil, or creme fraiche (!), or alfredo sauce.  And the recipes?  Things like the "Bad Mother Clucker", a ranch base with spicy breaded chicken, jalapeno, and cayenne, or the Mushroom Penne Alfredo ... yes with penne on it.  Or, uh, options like the Baked Po-TOT-o, featuring ... tator tots (and bacon, cheddar, creme fraiche, sour cream, chives, and butter).  I think you get the idea.  Next up?  BBQ pies, 8 options with bbq sauce as the base, including crazy combinations involving tater tots, or even the Mac Daddy, yes, with macaroni, mozzarella, cheddar, fried onions, and honey (?!).  Then pesto pies (6 choices), vegan pies (3), and build-your-own pies, with endless combinations.  Our group had some from every category.

They also make salads (bo-ring, but we got some), and wonderful sounding desserts (sweet pizzas like a Cookie Monster with cream cheese icing, chocolate chips, chocolate chip cookie dough globs, mozzarella, and chocolate sauce, or a S'mores pizza, or homemade chocolate lava cake, or ... Sinna Sticks, cinnamon sugar coated sticks with sides of icing.  Alas, we didn't have any dessert.

I think Boss Lady likely is actually really good.  But ... our event didn't exactly do it justice.  First, the pizza was all cold.  I'm not sure if this was a delivery problem, if it was ordered for early delivery just to be safe, etc, but, cold pizza is only appealing to me at breakfast.  I tried microwaving some, but that just resulted in soggy pizza.  I was sad, because, again, I think this actually was decent pizza.  Last year's event shocked me by having hot fresh pizza, and I was hoping we'd replicate that experience.  And second, I knew what amazing options were on the menu, and, besides one of them (spoiler: it involves waffles!), we didn't have them.

I don't feel entirely justified in reviewing Boss Lady on these grounds, so I'll just give the caveat that the menu was not my selection, and, the pizza was seemingly not fresh.  If I was in Boulder again, and randomly wanted pizza, I'd be willing to try it again, but, uh, pizza is never high on my list.

Caesar.

"Romaine, parmesan, hardboiled egg, crouton, house-made caesar dressing."

Our event organizer made sure to provide some vegetables too, with giant catering pans of salads.

First up, the Caesar.  Caesar is one salad I do actually sometimes like.  But this Caesar was not my style.  The base was romaine, as expected, but it was mostly the outer darker leaves, not the hearts.  I prefer the juicy hearts.  It had croutons, also as expected, but they were just generic rock solid hard kinda stale croutons.  I was hoping that a pizza place might at least have pizza dough croutons!  It also had ... hard boiled egg?  And a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, the grated kind.  I prefer large shards of sharp aged parmesan.

The dressing was decent though, loaded with parmesan, although I don't think it had anchovy.

Overall, generic, lackluster salad.

Mixer.

"Mixed greens, cucumber, tomato, red onion, dried cranberries, house-made balsamic dressing."

Next was the "Mixer" salad, basic mixed greens with a slew of toppings that made no sense together.  Cucumbers and tomatoes, sure.  Onions too.  But dried cranberries?

The cucumbers were slices, rather watery, not interesting.  Red onion was fine.  I hated the dried cranberries, hard little pellets.  The tomato was super strange, not cherry nor grape tomatoes, not cut into wedges, but rather ... slices like you'd get on a burger.  But on top the salad.  And really, really, really mushy.

This was not a good salad.  I didn't try the balsamic dressing on the side.

White Pie: Chicken & Waffles. $28.

"Crème fraîche, mozzarella, house-breaded chicken, waffles, maple syrup, melted butter."

For my first slice, I had to go straight for ... the chicken & waffles.  Sure, I loathe chicken, but, waffles!

Uh, yeah.  This pizza had a creme fraiche base (that I didn't really taste, I think it mostly soaked into the crust), mozzarella cheese (standard, well coated, melted), chunks of fried breaded chicken (oily, dried out, not good), chunks of waffles (sadly Eggo caliber, spongy), and was drizzled with maple syrup (yup, a kinda sweet pizza).  The menu says there was melted butter on top somewhere too.

I think this pizza suffered the most from being cold.  Cold soggy waffles.  How appealing is that?  Cold soggy waffles, on a rather dry pizza since it was essentially sauceless, with dried out overcooked chicken bits.  A fun concept, perhaps tasty, and I think a great mix of ingredients, but not enjoyable as it was served.  I love the idea of the sweet and savory pie though.

Our pizzas were all the large 20" size, which resulted in monster slices.  Most of us lamented this, as we wanted to try several types of pizza (I think we had 10 kinds?), but a single slice was a meal in itself, and there were no knives to cut them in half.  But since I truly didn't like this one, I went for another slice (don't worry, we had far more pizza than we needed).

White Pie: Spinach Artichoke Dip. $30.

"Alfredo sauce, spinach, artichoke, fresh garlic, mozzarella, asiago, BLP seasoning."

I have no idea why I picked the spinach artichoke dip pizza, since I don't actually like artichokes, but it was the hands down winner.  I truly wish I could have had this one hot and fresh.

The pizza was sauced with Alfredo, which worked better than the creme fraiche, not quite as lost.  A rich creamy base, then loaded with nicely laid out spinach, soft artichoke, and tons of garlic.  Oooh the garlic.  This pizza was all about the lovely garlic.  The mozzarella was fairly standard, but the asiago was a nice touch with the spinach and garlic.

The crust however was pretty meh, chewy, lackluster, although, again, perhaps that is an freshness thing.

I did really enjoy the flavor and potential to this one, so much so that I dared try to microwave it (and I'm *not* a microwaver!), but, alas, it got really really soggy, and I had to discard it.

Red Pie: Garden. $26.

"Marinara, mozzarella, roasted red pepper, fresh portobello mushroom, fresh spinach, olive oil, BLP seasoning."

Finally, as I was leaving, and there were still many, many full pies left, I decided to grab a slice of just one more, and went totally classic and all in with the Surpreme.  Loaded with everything, red sauce and mozzarella base.  I circled back to snap a photo, and, uh, just realized I took the wrong one.  Sorry, this here is a Garden pizza, a veggie one loaded up, that I didn't try.

[ No Photo ]

Red Pie: Supreme. $30

"Marinara, mozzarella, sausage, pepperoni, green pepper, red onion, fresh portobello mushroom."

The crust, sauce, and cheese were all eh (again, chewy crust, sauce I didn't quite care for, and eh to just mozzarella), but the toppings were good, and quite generous.  I liked the crunch from the peppers and onions, the pepperoni wasn't too oily, and I actually really liked the sausage.

I sorta wish I had taken the offer to take some back to the hotel, as this is exactly the type of pizza that would make a great breakfast slice.

Dips: Marinara / Ranch / Bossy Sauce.

I was really excited when I saw that there was a condiments section for the pizza.  Standard packets of parmesan and red pepper flakes, and ... sauces!  I eagerly grabbed one of each.

The marinara was the same as used in the pizza, and it was just far too ... marinara-y for me.  I don't how to describe it other than that it was just too tomato heavy, too tangy, too sweet.  Just everything out of balance.  I didn't like it at all.

The ranch was equally not enjoyable, literally flavorless.  I don't understand how they made such a boring ranch.

And the "Bossy Sauce", which I was really looking forward to, some kind of creamy signature sauce, turned out to be ... chipotle ranch.  Doh.  I don't like chipotle, and this was no exception, just a flavor I truly don't enjoy.

So sadly, I didn't like any of these sauces, which I guess is fine, as I didn't really want to dip my crusts in them anyway, since the crust was chewy and cold.

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Group Dining @ Flagstaff House, Boulder, CO

Flagstaff House is a restaurant located on Flagstaff Mountain, in Boulder, CO.  The property has an interesting history (originally a summer cabin), and now today a destination restaurant, with absolutely stunning views over the valley below.

Flagstaff House is an establishment generally intended for celebrations, aimed to impress.  They primarily serve a tasting menu, or a "simple" 3 course menu for $88, with your choice of "1st" (essentially appetizers, with great options like pate, burrata, etc), "2nd" (seemingly small entrees, including foie gras, seafood, lobster, a fantastic looking wild mushroom popover, and more), and "3rd" (heavier main dishes, like filet mignon, lamb shank, rib eye).  If you have space, desserts are an additional $12.

My visit however was for a group dinner, the other speciality of the location.  We had a large group, more than 100 people, and had the entire dining room for our event.

A Nice Looking Meal.

Our meal was a mixed success.

Everything was presented beautifully.  For large group dining in particular, they nailed this.

The ingredients were clearly high quality, well sourced, and prepared well.

The staff were attentive, pacing was reasonable, and they were clearly professionals in all ways, very experienced with doing large events, as I think it is a common wedding venue.

That said, I didn't love my main dish (although a co-worker had a fantastic option), and I really disliked the main dessert (although I had a replacement).  So, mixed.

I'd be happy to return not for an event, to see how the restaurant does when not serving so many people at once, and, having the chance to order off the regular menu.  Oh, and to get that amazing dessert again ...

Dinner Menu.

I was there for a private event with a streamlined 3 course menu: salad (no option), main (beef, fish, duck), and single dessert.

Our lineup was:

Cure Farms Mixed Lettuces: Goat Cheese, Vegetables, Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette. 

=== 

Choice of:

• Filet Mignon & Braised Short Ribs / yukon gold potato puree, broccoli, sauce of cabernet sauvignon
• Nova Scotia Halibut / gnocchi, Haricot Vert, Tree Oyster Mushrooms, Arugula Pesto.
• Rohan Duck Breast / orange braised barley, goat cheese, plum coulis

=== 

Honeycrisp Apple Tart / Maple & Cinnamon Ice Cream

I selected the halibut, but also got to try the filet.  One of these was fantastic, the other, highly mediocre.  Kudos for offering something other than chicken too, but I wasn't excited about the duck.

I also managed to have a different dessert, more in this soon, that was truly incredible.

Wines.

The staff did a great job of getting beverages in front of everyone nearly as soon as we were seated.  There were two choices for red and white wine.  I started with white, a chardonnay, but really did not like it - really harsh and acidic, so I switched over to red, the pinot noir.  I didn't like it either.  So I switched to the other red, a cabernet.  You guessed it.  I didn't like that either!

I'm not sure if I was just being really picky, or if these were low end wines, or what was going on, but I really disliked every single one of them.

Garlic Roasted Focaccia & Red Salt Butter.

After we placed our orders, bread service was presented tableside, with a server coming around with a basket.

The bread, garlic roasted focaccia, was above average: warm (thank you!), moist, and really quite good, although there was not much garlic flavor.  Bread was generously offered and re-offered for a short time period, after which, we never saw the bread guy again, which was unfortunate, because I would have liked some with the main dish to lap up sauces.

The butter was also better than average, served soft (thank you! No ripping the bread trying to apply hard butter),topped with large crystals of red salt.

Starter: CURE FARMS MIXED LETTUCES

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"Goat Cheese, Vegetables, Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette."

We had no choice for starter, just, salad.  My notes on this were pretty simple, "nice looking, but, boring".  Which about sums it up.

The mixed lettuce salad changes out seasonally at Flagstaff House, and, being fall, it featured fall vegetables, raw sliced beets (both red and yellow) and fennel.  The creamy component was supposed to come from goat cheese, but since I hate goat cheese, I had that left off mine (no problem, I just mentioned it when giving my main dish order).  I was sad to have missed the summer vegetable version that ended a few weeks ago with parmesan cream instead.

The salad was nice looking though, vibrant from the colorful beets.  The lettuces were assorted, fresh, crisp.  Everything seemed good quality, but, very boring, and I don't really like raw beets.

The vinaigrette was just a basic vinaigrette, I didn't taste tomato.  It was lightly dressed, well mixed, again, quality, just, boring.  Much better than most wedding reception offerings, with wilty lettuce or a big clump of dressing dumped on top.

The salad lacked any seasoning, and I joked about "where is the fresh ground pepper?", until I heard the next table mentioning that there wasn't even salt and pepper shakers around.

So, kudos for plating it fresh, sourcing good ingredients, and not drowning it in dressing, but, bo-ring.

Main: NOVA SCOTIA HALIBUT.

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"Gnocchi, Haricot Vert, Tree Oyster Mushrooms, Arugula Pesto."

I was really, really, really thrilled at our options for the main course.  I looked right past the duck, the filet, and zeroed in on the seafood option.  Halibut.  One of my favorite seafoods.  And gnocchi?  I love gnocchi.  And fancy earthy mushrooms?  This dish was totally up my alley.  This dish is also on the regular dinner menu, with blue crab added to it, which sounds even better.

The presentation was lovely, thin sliced haricot vert and herbs perched on top, a nice sized piece of halibut, with the gnocchi, mushrooms, and pesto underneath.  The dish was a mixed success.

The halibut should have been the star of the plate, but, sadly it was not great.  It was lukewarm, and dried out.  Oooph.  Clearly it suffered from the group serving. I could do without the haricot vert on top, not that there was anything wrong with it, just not really a component I wanted.

The gnocchi though were quite tasty, cheesy, soft yet slightly crisp.  I wished there was more.  The pesto too was quite good, and there was plenty of it.  I loved the flavor and texture of the pesto.  And I adored the few chunks of tree oyster mushrooms that I had.

So the base of the plate?  Fantastic.  Loved that.  I would have been quite pleased with a full size vegetarian dish of gnocchi, pesto, and mushrooms.  Really though, I think if this was served normally at the restaurant, rather than in the group setting, it likely would have succeeded.

Main: Filet Mignon & Braised Short Ribs.

"Yukon gold potato puree, broccoli, sauce of cabernet sauvignon."

My neighbor opted for the filet mignon.  I don't normally take pictures of dishes I don't intend to eat, but, I was blown away when I saw it.  Perfect mid-rare?  For a group?  And yes, every plate that came out of this kitchen looked like this.  They did a far better job with the steak than the fish.

Eventually I sheepishly asked if I could try a bite of the potatoes, mostly because I was so sad that my entree was lackluster.  The potatoes were nicely done, incredibly smooth and creamy, definitely a potato puree as advertised, not a mashed potato.  I liked the cabernet sauce with them.

And then my companion offered a bite of the filet.  I didn't say no.

It was as good as it looked.  Incredibly tender.  Juicy, nicely cooked, quality product.  I'm not sure where the "braised short ribs" listed on the menu were though?

He clearly "won" the entree round.  We also had someone who ordered the duck, and it didn't look great, a little dried out, and paired with grains ... eh.

Whipped Cream, Sugars, Chips, Mints?

After our dishes were cleared, each table received one of these trays, with no explanation.

The two corners looked like they housed a little whipped cream.  The middle edges were mini chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  The very center looked like Jordan almonds at first glance, but were clearly not quite the right shape.  And everything else ... looked like fancy salts?  We were confused.

I'm used to pre-desserts and whatnot, but this was just odd.  Also, our table had 6 people, and only one of these platters?  With only 3 of the little colorful almond looking things?

Finally, we asked someone about it, and we were told it was for the coffee service.  Even once we were offered coffee, no one told us what it was though.  Finally we asked again, and were told the whipped cream was unsweetened cream (offered instead of cream or milk for the coffee), and that the items that looked like salts were different sugars.  Still no details on what the 4 different sugars actually were (one seemed to be simple regular white granulated sugar, another had larger white crystals, another was brown sugar, and the final was almost rock candy like).  There were no details given on those middle little things (they seemed to be chocolate mints, and yes, I decided to be the rude one who took one, even though we only had 3).

I see what they were going for with this, and it was a somewhat cute and fun way to serve your cream and sugar for coffee, but ... yeah.  Odd.

That said, it didn't go to waste, we happily added whipped cream to our desserts, and nibbled on the chocolate chips ...

Decaf Coffee.

Just as our desserts were brought out, a server came by asking if we'd like coffee.  Those of us who said yes were given a mug.  Another server came by later with carafes of coffee, filling cups.

I opted for decaf since it was late, and I don't normally even drink decaf that late, but, I did want something to pair with dessert.

It was actually pretty good.  Smooth, no funk, not acidic.  I would happily drink a full mug earlier in the day, but limited myself to just a few sips alongside dessert.

 Dessert: Honeycrisp Apple Tart / Maple & Cinnamon Ice Cream

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Our dessert was ... a tart.  An apple tart.  I don't really care for tarts, and I don't really care for apples.  Sure, it had ice cream with it, but, eh!  Never what I'd pick.

In my dietary constraints though, along with my severe watermelon allergy and moderate avocado allergy, I also had my aversion to pine nuts, goat cheese, and apples.  And thus, a replacement dessert was offered (more soon).

But, uh, luckily for dessert loving me, there was someone who didn't want their apple tart, so I actually got to try that as well.  No buyer's remorse here!

The tart wasn't very good.  Served lukewarm.  Topped with sliced cooked spiced apples, not too mushy, but also just very boring.  The tart base was a thin chunk of pastry, not thick at all, very lost with the apples.

On top was ice cream, I think housemade, and actually decent ice cream, quite creamy and smooth, although I didn't detect maple, and barely any cinnamon.  It was nice ice cream.

And then ... topped with fresh julienne apples?  This felt very out of place.  I see what the pastry chef was going for, integrating the cooked and raw versions of the same ingredient, two different textures, two different cuts of the fruit but ... raw apple on ice cream just didn't do it for me.

Overall, quite lackluster, and I'm very glad I had an alternative.

Dessert: VANILLA BEAN CRÉME BRULEE / Fresh Berries.

I was offered two options, either ice cream or crème brûlée.  As if that is a question.  I have a label on my blog just for the subject of crème brûlée.  And it had been ages since I had a crème brûlée.  I eagerly took that option, although I did ask if the seasonal new dessert from the regular menu, a spiced pumpkin custard with cinnamon meringues, pumpkin syrup, and crispy brown butter (!) was something I could select (answer: sadly, no. But how amazing does that sound?)

The crème brûlée came topped with fruit.  Tons of fruit.  Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. A bit of an odd presentation, no question.  Isn't crème brûlée supposed to be about seeing, and experiencing, the brûlée top?  You couldn't easily perform the "tap test" under all that fruit!

But anyway.  It actually was quite good crème brûlée.  Fairly textbook, really.  The top layer did pass my tap test once I reached it, cracking with a good tap, not a wimpy layer, but not too thick either.  Lovely caramelized flavor, intense, but not burnt.

The pudding was creamy, rich, nicely set.  Nothing negative to say there, not runny nor loose, and it had decent vanilla bean flavor.

I prefer crème brûlée freshly made to order so the top is still a bit warm and the custard cold, and this clearly was done in advance, but, besides that, this was as good as a classic crème brûlée is going to get.  I was pleasantly surprised.

As for the fruit, the strawberry was a big letdown, it looked fine, ripe, red, nicely sliced and laid out, but it was very sour.  The blueberries and raspberries though were good, fresh, ripe, flavorful in the right ways.  While I didn't really want the fruit on top the crème brûlée, I'll admit that the fruit and custard, once I reached it, were a nice pairing.

Overall, this was very good, definitely in the top 10 crème brûlée I have had in my life, perhaps even top 5.  Clear highlight of the meal.  It certainly made me wonder what their other items from the regular menu are like.

On the regular dessert menu, this item is $12.

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