Dinner in the Lounge @ Boulevard

Ah, Boulevard.   I've been to Boulevard a handful of times over the years, such as my full dinner in the main dining room, a full dinner at the Chef's Counter, and just appetizers and desserts.  I've also hosted a lovely large group private dinner there.

Boulevard is a bit of a classic.  Always great sounding menus, always fairly reliable, good, solid execution, satisfying ... but doesn't blow me away.  After several pandemic years, I finally returned to Boulevard on a random Friday night with one other.  We had no reservation, but arrived right after opening at 5pm, and were able to have our choice of seating in the lounge area.  The restaurant quickly filled up though, and by midway through our meal the entire place was filled.  Coming early certainly was the right move for not having a reservation.

A la Carte Menu.

Since we dined in the lounge area, the menu was a la carte, rather than the 3 course tasting menu served in the main dining room.  I preferred this, as it allowed us to order just starters and mains (yes, I know, I skipped dessert, but Boulevard desserts rarely impress).

Our service was good, even though it got quite busy, and although it lacked the touches like an amuse bouche, I was pleased with the more casual vibe of the lounge area.  Everything was well paced, we never felt rushed, and overall just a nice experience.

French Manhattan. $20.

"Cognac, Dolin Sweet Vermouth, Grand Marnier, Orange Bitters."

I started the meal with a cocktail, a slightly interesting spin on it, the French Manhattan.

It was an elegant cocktail, presented in an appropriate glass.  It was boozy, cognac forward, and quite enjoyable, citrus accents and all.  I let my cherry soak up all the alcoholic goodness, and quite enjoyed it as a very sweet, very boozy final bite.

A strong, yet well balanced cocktail, and a nice start to the meal.

***+.

We moved on to a lovely bottle of red, that I failed to get the details on, but was light yet complex, with an aromatic floral bouquet on the nose, which makes me feel ridiculous saying, but, well, was true.

Starter: Zuckerman's Colossal Aparagus. $20.

"Olive oil hollandaise & summer truffles."

I was really, really happy to see asparagus on the menu.  And of course, sourced from local darling Zuckerman's.  Perfectly in season, and I've been kinda adoring it lately.  The menu had changed slightly since I saw it posted online, no more brillat-savarin fondue (!!) but olive oil hollandaise instead.

The asparagus, colossal as advertised, was well prepared, although I do prefer a bit more al dente.  It was juicy and fresh though, although I've had more flavorful recently.  It was warm, but not all that hot.  The summer truffles were novel but didn't deliver much flavor nor earthiness either. The hollanaise was nice  to dredge the asparagus in.

I found some bites to be massively under-seasoned, even commenting to my dining companion that it needed a touch of salt, but some bites did have that necessary pop.  I think it was just unevenly seasoned.

So, overall, the dish was fine, but, I've had more flavorful, more properly seasoned asparagus other places, even my office cafes.  I wouldn't get it again, but wasn't unhappy to eat it.

***.

Main: Sea Scallops. $48.

"Roasted morel mushrooms, crispy cauliflower panise, fresh carrot with brown butter & carrot jus viniagrette."

This was a lovely, lovely, lovely dish.

The scallops, three large sea scallops, had a great sear on them, nice caramelization.  Pretty textbook execution, no complaints , and really, they were shockingly large, even for sea scallops.  Well cleaned, no grit.  

And then the "crispy cauliflower panise", another 3 items, this time, cubes of mashed cauliflower (I guess?), with a crisp exterior and yet creamy interior.  I originally thought they were potato but the taste didn't quite match, and now I see why.  I liked the creamy component they added to the dish, and the symmetry between the three scallops and three panise.

But the dish had much, much more.  The carrots I could kinda do without, again, in a trio, mid-size carrots, decently cooked, not too soft, but, eh, carrots.  Cooked carrots aren't quite my thing.  Fine but throwaway.  The morels though ... swoon.

Luckily there were more than three of these, and they were expertly prepared.  The morels delivered all the flavor and earthy tones that the truffles on the starter did not, and wow, they soaked up the sauce beautifully.  They were rich without feeling too heavy or weighed down, and just a true joy to eat.

Everything was rounded out by a pretty orange carrot viniagrette.  While I'm "eh" on cooked carrots, the sauce worked really well, and I enjoyed running everything through it, soaking up every last bit.  And floral garnishes may have been a bit showy, but, they worked too.

Overall, just a really well conceived, flawlessly executed, interesting spin on seared scallops, and although the $48 price may be a bit high for 3 scallops, I really can't fault the dish in any way.

****.

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Appetizers and Dessert @ Boulevard

Friday nights are always weird for eating.  At work, we celebrate with food and drinks starting at 4pm.  Depending on the week, the food ranges from just chips and dip or crudités and dip, to themed extravaganzas, and always includes a few dessert selections.  Often, I'm not up for a full dinner after all this.  This week was a German theme, with hot dogs, brautwursts, bockwursts, soft pretzels, fancy mustards, pickled stuffs, spaetzle, and then the standard crudités and eggplant dip, chips and salsa, fresh fruit, and profiteroles!  I wasn't exactly needing a whole lot of food after all of this, so a couple of us just headed down the street to Boulevard, to sit at the Chef's Counter and have a few appetizers (and dessert!).

I've reviewed Boulevard a few times in the past, so I'll skip all the details about the place this time.  We were seated pretty quickly at the Chef's Counter, one of my favorite places to sit.  I'd like to apologize to my dining companions now, as I get so distracted sitting there that I'm probably horrible company.  I really, really enjoy watching the kitchen work, and in particular, the pastry kitchen.  ZOMG, the desserts just look so amazing.

Dinner tonight was fairly disappointing.  Several of the dishes we tried were the new seasonal preparations of some of their classics (the foie gras duo and the ribbon cut tuna), and I think they need to work on these new preparations some more, as past versions of these have been much more successful.

Amuse bouche: Taro puree, spring radish, pickled mushrooms.

I love that they still include the amuse when you sit at the bar and just order appetizers.  This was an assortment of different varieties of radishes, some sliced thin, some in bigger chunks, atop a puree, with two tiny little mushrooms on the side.  The radishes were crispy and fresh.  Super simple, but really flavorful.  The focus here was on the radishes being fresh and awesome, and they were definitely allowed to just shine.  I'm pretty sure the puree had miso in it, and was rather like a Japanesse miso mayonaise.  It was tasty and I enjoyed dipping the radish into it.  The mushrooms were tiny little flavor bursts as well.  They didn't really pair with the radishes or puree, but they were tasty.  Overall, a nice dish.  I generally really like the amuses served here!  One diner said this was his favorite dish of the evening.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras: Pan Seared and Chilled Torchon with Wild Rosehip and California Strawberry Confit, Negroni Gel, Candied Pecans, Maple Oat Toast.  $29.

It is no secret that eat a lot of foie gras these days.  And yes, I'd just had foie gras the day before.  And I was here for a "light" meal after my evening of sausages already.  But ... this is pretty much why we choose Boulevard (besides convenience of location).  I somehow still had never tried the foie gras at Boulevard, even though one of my frequent dining companions has told me time and time again that this is one of his favorite preparations in the city.  I was so excited!

Unfortunately, this was a total letdown.  Said dining companion agreed that this did not live up to the past preparations he'd had at Boulevard.

There was a ok sized seared lobe of foie gras atop two chunks of toast.  On the side were two piles each containing a few roasted strawberries and pecans, some gel, and a very small chunk of torchon.

The "maple oat toast" did not have any maple nor oat flavor.  It was just toast.  Which is fine, but the maple oat flavors did sound like they'd pair well with the foie and I was looking forward to them.  Had the menu just said "toast", I'd have nothing really to say here.  They were just plain, simple, inoffensive toasts.  It was a little strange to have two chunks like this, as you obviously needed to cut the components all down to size, so it didn't quite make sense to have these already cut, but into sizes that weren't appropriate.

The "candied pecans" were not candied.  They were just pecans, perhaps toasted?  Again, if the menu hadn't said anything about them being candied, I'd just have written them off as boring little pecans on the side, but again, I was looking forward to the sweet candied flavor pairing with the foie gras.  They were fine, but didn't really work with the seared foie gras.

The strawberry confit was fairly tasty, hurray for strawberry season!  However, it did not pair well at all with the seared foie gras.  I was really disappointed with this pairing.  The seared foie gras and the strawberry had a very similar texture, so there was no fun in combining textures, but moreover, the flavors just didn't work.  The sweet strawberry and the rich foie just really clashed, I'm not sure why.  I tried a couple bites like this and really, really did not like them at all.

The seared foie was only ok.  Seared foie gras should NEVER just be "ok".  It was sorta creamy, it was rich, but it wasn't particularly well seared nor did it have much flavor.  Certainly not a great execution.  A week ago, a friend who had never before made seared foie gras seared it better than this.  Sadness.  And as I already said, it didn't go at all with the strawberry.  Execution wise, it was nothing compared to the seared foie gras from Alexander's.  It was an ok portion for the price point, but similar places serve slightly larger pieces for slightly lower prices.

The torchon was decent, nice and creamy consistency.  The portion was very, very small however, particularly compared to the other elements on the plate.  It was barely the size of one of the strawberry chunks!  Why so little of this?  It was definitely the best part of the dish as well, and paired really nicely with the strawberry.  A chunk of the toast, with some torchon, with some strawberry, and with a pecan was pretty good.  Bite of the night for me for sure, although nothing I'd go back for.

Foie gras lover I am, I would not order this again.  I'll give them another try sometime I'm sure, once they change up the pairing, and I'll hope for better execution on the sear.  Such sadness.

American Red Snapper & Thai Lemongrass Bisque, with roasted maitake, abalone, and oyster mushrooms, mint & coriander.  $17.75.

This dish had a lot of potential, but fell short due to some execution and general concept issues, the biggest being that it was incredibly awkward to eat!

The dish arrived without any broth, which was poured in tableside, a fun touch.

The broth was almost amazingly delicious.  I love a good thai lemongrass bisque!  There were some very nice flavors in here, however, it was far, far, far too salty.  The flavors could have been incredible, but were completely overpowered and ruined by the saltiness.  In retrospect, I perhaps should have said something, I really don't think it was intended to be that salty.

The mint and corriander were served in a rather unappealing mangle.  Boulevard usually has such pretty plating, this surprised me.  Also, since they were floating in the broth, it was very hard to separate out just a little of these to eat, you either got none, or a big mass which was overpowering.  These garnishes would have been good flavor components, but did not work in this form.  Good idea conceptually, but didn't work in practice.

The fish was a generous piece of local snapper!  I was pleasantly surprised to see such a large chunk of fish in an appetizer, particularly at this price.  An incredible value!  Rather than being cooked in the broth, it was pan seared as a big chunk, with a nice crispy exterior on one side.  I was actually expecting small chunks of fish throughout the soup rather than a large piece, but I thought this was a fun way to serve it, I generally don't mind cutting up my own fish, and the fish was probably tastier cooked this way too.  But again, this turned into a better idea conceptually.  It was awkward to eat since I was using a spoon to get broth, but I couldn't actually cut through the seared side with the spoon.  So I had to switch over to knife and fork to cut it, and then back to a spoon to get a bite with broth.  It was a constant battle of trying to choose if I just kept the knife and fork in my hand and ate the fish without the broth, switched back and forth, or cut it all up at once and then ate it ... I didn't want to have to make so many decisions!  Also, crispy seared fish is great, but once it is in broth, it quickly loses the crispiness, so it was disappointing to see the sear and know it once was crispy but then have it be mushy.  Speaking of which, the fish was a little on the mushy and not flaky side, but otherwise fairly well cooked and a very nice cut of fish.

The assortment of mushrooms again had great promise, but disappointed.  I adore roasted mushrooms.  I love how roasting brings out such intense woodsy, earthy flavors in them and dries them out slightly to have an awesome texture.  I love how assorted mushrooms have such different flavors.  I was sooo excited for these mushrooms.  But, there were two big problems here.  The first is that they didn't really seem roasted.  Again, if the menu hadn't promised roasted mushrooms, I wouldn't have been expecting lovely roast flavors and consistencies.  Perhaps they were roasted and the crazy salty broth just masked the flavors, and soaking in broth changed the consistency to slimy.  I'm not sure.  But the bigger issue was again, the awkwardness.  They were served as very large chunks of mushrooms and had to be broken down.  This is again not a bad idea, I really don't mind cutting my food, but when I'm trying to eat a soup with a spoon, this just doesn't work.  It seems like the components either need to be cuttable by spoon, or already cut.  I'm really not trying to be lazy, but it was just too overwhelming to be switching my silverware all around constantly, and I felt really rushed because I didn't want everything to cool down too much.  Maybe I should have just cut everything up at once at the start?  But I wanted to get tasting it, not sit there preparing it!

Anyway.  I really liked all of the ideas behind this dish.  The flavor of the broth (minus the insane level of salt) was fantastic.  Seared snapper is delicious.  Roasted mushrooms are delicious.  But this left me flustered and disappointed.

AHI TUNA ITO-ZUKURI: "Ribbon-Cut" Ahi Tuna with miso ginger aioli,  fried Hodo Soy tofu, shichimi pepper, yellow turnip & seaweed salad,  sherry-soy vinaigrette,  and wild rice & shitake furikake. $17.75

This was a pile of the salad, topped with the tuna, garnished with the furikake, with the fried tofu and aioli on the side.

On my last visit to Boulevard, the ribbon-cut tuna was by far my favorite dish, so I was excited to have this and to see the new preparation.

Unfortunately, it was just not very good.

The salad was thinly sliced turnip and seaweed.  The turnip was a little crispy and I think still raw.  A rather strange texture combination, but it did look nice (it looked a lot like yuba however, and I kept wanting it to be yuba strips instead!)  I felt pretty meh about this, it wasn't bad, but I didn't really have any reason to eat it either.

The wild rice and shitake furikake added some fun textures into the mix.  And it is fun to say "shitake furikake"!

The fried tofu really didn't work.  Why do I want fried tofu on the side of my fresh tuna?  The last preparation I had of this dish had a grilled tofu that worked better, but in that case, I still felt like the tofu was superfluous.

The real problem here was the tuna.  It looked good, looked high quality, and the knife cuts were impressive, very uniform.  But there was just no flavor whatsoever.  If blindfolded, I could have never identified what fish I was eating.

Anyway, this just didn't add up to a successful dish.  The components didn't really work together and the flavors didn't pop.  I think that has been my favorite aspect of this dish in the past, how the flavors can really come out, and here this was just bland, which is surprising, given the large list of ingredients. I would not order this again, but again, I do look forward to seeing what their next version of this dish is, as I've enjoyed it before in the past.

WHITE CHOCOLATE RHUBARB ICE BOX CAKE: Graham Cracker Crust, White Chocolate Mousse, Roasted Rhubarb, Coconut Froth, Fresh Raspberries, Meringues.  $10.50.

It is impossible to sit at the Chef's Counter directly overlooking the pastry chefs and NOT order dessert, (even when there is a full size chocolate cake waiting for you at home, and you just had profiteroles at 4pm, egg custard tarts at 3:30pm, house made spicy cherry chocolate bars at 2pm, insanely amazing carrot cake whoppie pies with cream cheese frosting at 1pm, and oreo cream cheese ice cream at 12pm ....).  These desserts just look so incredible!  Beautiful, beautiful!  If they ever want anyone to come help test out their desserts, I'm more than willing :)

This was a cake of many layers: graham cracker crust, white chocolate mousse, vanilla cake, rhubarb, more white chocolate mousse, and then topped with raspberries, coconut froth, and tiny little meringues.

The graham cracker crust was delicious, although hard to break through since the whole thing was frozen.  Awkward to eat, but tasty enough that I didn't care.  Sweet, crunchy, yum!

The mousse wasn't really what I'd describe as a mousse, since it was fairly frozen, so it wasn't fluffy.  Nor did it have white chocolate flavor.  It didn't actually have much flavor at all, just sweet, although not too sweet.  Sorta just inoffensive, sorta cold, sorta ice cream like ... just there.

The cake was also flavorless and pretty much just there.  Again, not offensive, it was fine, but it was just plain cake.

The rhubarb was tasty and a nice texture.

The raspberries weren't particularly noteworthy, just raspberries, not in season locally.

The meringues were too tiny to taste, but cute.

The froth was again flavorless, would not have known it was coconut if the menu didn't say so.

Far prettier than it tasted.  Good thing I had a cake waiting for me at home!

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Dinner @ Chef's Counter at Boulevard

[ Originally posted February 8, 2012 ]
Tonight's dinner was a low key meal at the bar at Boulevard.

Boulevard, like Prospect, is a restaurant I want to love. It would be sooo nice if I did, as it is only 2 blocks away, and the menu always sounds fantastic. The ingredients are all high quality. Everything is executed well. Yet ... it just doesn't come together for me. Some of it is certainly the price point, as the dishes are all good, but not at the level of the pricing (starters are $18-30, mains $30-45, desserts $11), particularly given portion size. I am not complaining about the portion size, I think they are actually really great sizes, but certainly smaller than most places and there is something crazy about paying $22 for a tiny little pasta appetizer (see photos).

I do absolutely love the ambiance. The formal dining room is gorgeous, but then there are several bar areas that are for walk ins. The standard bar area is just a bar with seating, then there are some small tables in the bar area, and then there is another bar overlooking the open kitchen. Seated there, you can watch all of the action. I'm fascinated by restaurant operations, so I love open kitchens. We were seated right in front of the pastry station, so we got to watch each and every dessert get constructed and sent out. OMG, they have some great looking desserts! And I must say, every single employee in that kitchen was working hard, constantly moving, plating up dishes so ridiculously quickly. It certainly operates like a finely tuned machine.

Overall, it was good and certainly convenient, but not worth the price. I'm sure I'll go back, if only because I want to try more of the amazing desserts I spent the whole night watching! (I also really want to go for lunch sometime, as the lunch menu sounds fantastic!)

Amuse bouche: chia seed cracker, greek yogurt, salmon roe, olive oil, scallions.

I love it when bar/lounge dining includes these extras! This was surprisingly tasting AND fun to eat! I enjoyed dipping the cracker into the yogurt and making a perfect bite with a salmon roe on it as well. The cracker had a nice rich flavor provided by the chia seeds.

Definitely a winner and very flavorful, it certainly woke up my palate!

MONTEREY RED ABALONE, with Pan Seared Local Calamari, White Clamshell Mushrooms, Cavatelli Pasta Al Nero, Winter Tomato Sauce with Lemon & Parsley. 

This was only my second time ever having abalone. The first time was part of an awful dinner, and I've since thought that I probably didn't like abalone, but I wanted to try it out somewhere else to be sure. It turns out, not all abalone is chewy and awful :) It reminds me of how I used to think of calamari as well - if you have it poorly prepared, it is chewy and horrible, but treated well, it can be quite tender!

The cute little white clamshell mushrooms were just that. Cute, but they weren't really flavorful.

The calamari was cooked well, tender, but not all that interesting.

The nero pasta was fresh and perfectly al dente.

The tomato sauce was my favorite part - lovely flavor, enhanced by lemon and olive oil. I soaked up all the remaining sauce at the end with the bread.

Overall, everything in the dish was perfectly executed, made with high quality ingredients, but it didn't really pop for me. I probably wouldn't order again, but I'm really glad to have tried abalone again.

GRILLED CALIFORNIA SWORDFISH, with Toasted Oregon Hazelnut Aillade with Lemon Zest, Sauteed Bloomsdale Spinach Farro Perlato in the Style of Risotto with Roasted Red Beets & Parmesan Toasted Hazelnut Oil

Last time I was at Boulevard, a friend had an amazing swordfish dish. I've been jealous of that dish ever since. I wanted this to be that dish. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

The swordfish itself was pretty flavorless. But it was nicely grilled, had a good firm texture, and wasn't at all fishy.

The farro risotto didn't work for me at all, and I love both farro and beets. Somehow it was kinda just beet flavored mush.

The hazelnut stuff on top of the fish was good.

The spinach, under the fish, was fine, but just spinach.

Would not order again.

This was a main, but the kitchen split it for us, so this is just a half portion pictured.  I really like how they split for you and bring you both beautiful dishes!

AHI TUNA ITO-ZUKURI: "Ribbon-Cut" Ahi Tuna, Pickled Shiitakes, Spicy Aioli with Yuzu Kosho, Grilled Hodo Soy Tofu, Lotus & Nori Chips, with a soy dashi broth.

My favorite dish of the evening, once I figured out how to put the components together.

Not pictured is a little pitcher of soy dashi broth. I liked that they let you control how much of this to pour on, as it was quite salty, and I can imagine people choosing to add very different amounts to taste.

I enjoyed this dish in two ways:

The first was very simple, just some of the raw tuna strips with the soy dashi broth. The broth was very flavorful and accented the tuna perfectly. This was a light and delicious way to eat it.

But even better, was taking a lotus or nori chip, loading it up with a few tuna strips, and topping it with the spicy aioli. It was basically the flavor profile of a spicy tuna roll, but without the flavors getting muddled by rice, and with far more tuna. The tuna and spicy aioli were just so great together! (Yes, I love, love, love aioli). The nori chips and lotus chips were also delicious, very flavorful.

The other components: mushroom, radish, tofu didn't really need to be on the plate.

I'd order this again.

MERINGUE TRIO: Vanilla Pavlova, Blackberry Ice Cream, Passion Fruit Mango & Raspberry "Meringue Pie" Pop Soft Meringue, Lemon Verbena Anglaise, Coconut Sorbet

This was a lot of meringue.

We were warned. We asked the pastry chef about this, and she pretty much told us that it would just be a lot of meringue. She excitedly told us about the other desserts. We asked our waiter about it. He said basically the same thing. But ... I was stuffed and wanted something light, and I do love meringue.

It turns out there is a reason why you normally have meringue as a topping on something, and not as its own dish.

The first one was the pavlova. It had a crisp exterior, which when you broke it open gave way to a sorta gooey center. Well executed, but just a hard style meringue. The blackberry sorbet on top wasn't particularly interesting.

The second one was the best. It had mango and raspberry sorbet inside, coated with very soft marshmallow-like meringue that was torched to order, sitting on a bed of diced mango. I really liked this sorbet, tart and sweet and flavorful all at once. And the meringue part of this one was a lot like a marshmallow you roasted on a campfire. Kinda fun!

The last one was soft meringue, on a lemon verbana anglais, with coconut sorbet. It didn't really work for me. The coconut sorbet and meringue didn't really complement each other flavor or texture wise. The anglais was pretty flavorless.

Definitely an interesting dessert, but this was just too much meringue and sweetness. I cannot imagine having all of this myself, and we struggled to finish it with two of us sharing (and I have a serious sweet tooth!) I could imagine it going well with a cup of mint tea, where I'd take bites of the dessert in between sips of tea. I would go for the banana cream pie next time!

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Dinner @ Boulevard

[ Originally posted December 31, 2011 ]

Dinner @ Boulevard, celebrating being back in SF and satisfying my craving for some seafood after not having any for almost two weeks!

Not pictured was the winning dish of the night: PAN ROASTED CALIFORNIA SWORDFISH Fried Artichokes with Garlic & Thyme, Lemon Aioli, Wood Roasted Local Calamari with Lemon & Capers Braised Italian Butter Beans, Fava Leaf Pesto.

The swordfish was well cooked, the calamari delicate and not remotely rubbery, the beans delicious, the artichokes nicely fried (and I don't usually care much for artichokes), and the whole thing tied together with a delightful sauce. Would totally order next time!

Maine lobster ravioli - Sepia Ink Pasta Filled with Maine Lobster & Melted Leeks, with Lobster Sabayon & Chanterelles.

This dish was good, but nothing spectacular. The pasta had a nice flavor from the sepia, the chanterelles had a nice bold flavor, and the lobster filling was generous, but somehow the flavors just didn't pop.

Dungeness Crab Salad - Hearts of Palm Carpaccio Blood Orange, Lemon & Chervil.

Local dungeness crab! The crab meat was very sweet and flavorful, making the crab salad quite delicious. I thought it paired wonderfully with the blood orange segments. The hearts of palm were pretty flavorless however and really didn't add anything to the dish. Would certainly order again.

Local Petrale Sole Ala Plancha - Saffron & Fennel Potato Risotto Mediterranean Mussels with Artisanal Chorizo & Late Summer Peppers Sauteed Bloomsdale Spinach.

Decent dish. The sole was well cooked, but at the end of the day, it is just sole, and isn't all that flavorful or interesting. The mussels with chorizo made me realize that mussels can be quite tasty, and the potato "risotto" was cute, but overall the dish suffered from over salting and fell a little flat. The spinach however was DELICIOUS. This dish reminds me of how I feel about Prospect (Boulevard's sister restaurant): good ingredients, good execution, but never blowing me away.

Mandarin Dreamsicle Brulee - Vanilla Custard with Mandarin Conserves Layer, Blood Orange Froth Meyer Lemon Sherbet "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Ok, I'm a dessert lover, but this one was just weird.

The chocolate cookie and lemon sherbet ice cream sandwich really didn't work. We disassembled it and it turned out that the cookies were delicious on their own, and the sherbet was delicious on its own, but combined they really, really didn't work. And why was it sitting on top of marshmallow fluff (which was totally yummy). And um ... why did it come with my crème brûlée ?

Speaking of the brulee ... topped with way way too much blood orange froth. I don't mind froths/foams/etc but there was just way too much of this sweet stuff. And the white chocolate pieces on top were a really strange texture to add in there, and ... they were white chocolate, which is kinda just crappy to begin with. Now for the good - the caramelized sugar layer was perfectly done and delicious, perfectly caramelized. The custard was pretty good as well, and the mandarin conserves in the bottom were pretty nice.

Overall, a very strange combination of things that didn't quite work, but of course I did devour it.

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