Ten Tables May Just Be Ten (or Twenty) Too Many

Ten Tables
5 Craigie Circle
Cambridge, MA
617.576.5444
www.tentables.net

The Boston area, seafood mecca that it is, is tough for vegetarians. So I was excited when this well-regarded Jamaica Plain restaurant opened in Cambridge, and that it had a vegetarian menu. I wasn't so excited after eating there.

The restaurant, which has just ten tables in Jamaica Plain but about 20 in Cambridge, offers a "surprise" vegetarian menu for $28 most nights of the week. (Call first to find out which nights.) It must be ordered by the whole table. My companion and I went for it.For our first courses we each received a different salad - a roasted beet salad with maytag blue cheese and frisee, and mesculun greens with marcona almonds and shaved manchego. Both were delicious, and I was thrilled to think we might each receive different dishes through each course, giving us the opportunity to try twice the number of plates. Unfortunately, this started and ended with the salads, causing my companion to suggest it appeared more likely they ran out of the blue cheese to make two of the same.

The next course was squash soup (above). Tasty, although a bit bland. The soup was followed by ricotta cavatelli with delicata squash, sage, porcini broth, and Parmesan (below). Overall the dish was good and flavorful (pasta was a bit too firm), but with the squash soup proved to be too much emphasis on one vegetable. Again, we wondered if this was a thought-out vegetarian menu, or something pulled together from what was on hand.
Our final course was a chocolate terrine with "Thai basil" (actually regular basil) ice cream and sea salt. The basil overwhelmed the ice cream and did not complement the chocolate. I enjoy sea salt in chocolate, but it has to be done in the right amount so it does not overpower the chocolate. In this case, all I tasted was salt.

Service was less than stellar. The sparkling water we ordered never arrived. The check was delivered face up with the dessert.

By the reviews I've read of Ten Tables, it seems to delight a lot of people, but a good place for vegetarians it's not.

Radio Africa & Kitchen: Such a Great Find It's Hard to Share

Radio Africa & Kitchen
at The Coffee Bar on Thursdays and Fridays, 6-10 p.m.
1890 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA
415.420.2486
www.radioafricakitchen.com

It really is hard to share this wonderful nomadic restaurant in San Francisco. Serving dinner just two nights a week from a coffee house, Radio Africa & Kitchen feels like your own special, secret find that you want to keep that way. But the chef is so terrific and his story so wonderful that it would really be a crime not to spread the word.
Self-taught chef Eskender Aseged fled his native Ethiopia in 1971 at age 19 with only the clothes on his back. He eventually made it to the US, working as a busboy and waiter by day and going home at night to recreate flavors in his kitchen. He left his last job at Campton Place to work on the nomadic Radio Africa and Kitchen. He started serving a group of friends around a picnic table and eventually found places where he could offer his food to the public two nights a week. He doesn't advertise, but he's gradually gained customers primarily through word-of-mouth. Eskender focuses on authentic, healthy meals served while listening to a variety of African music.

The menu changes weekly. You can call ahead or check the website to find out the vegetarian offerings. I started with heirloom tomato gazpacho with fennel pollen and creme fraiche (above). It was wonderful, with smooth tomato flavor. The edamame hummus with green olive oil and tartine bread was also a great starter.


For the main course, I had the Ethiopian mushroom wot with vegetable alicha and goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms (above). It was perfect with the cheese providing a wonderful complement to the lightly cooked and flavorful vegetables.

Dessert was an over-the-top (and I mean this in the best possible way) chocolate decadence with mixed berries and organic vanilla ice cream.

Reasonably priced wine pairings ($7-8 a glass and about $26 a bottle) are offered with each dish.

The total bill for two, with two glasses of wine each, was $98. Waitstaff is relaxed, casual and very good.

Radio Africa and Kitchen is truly a wonderful find ...if you know where to find it, hiding out (there's no sign) two nights a week at a coffee bar. Make reservations as seating is limited.

Shanghai's M on the Bund Brings Glamour Back

M on the Bund
6/F, No.5 The Bund (Enter on Guangdong Lu)
Shanghai 200002 China
www.m-restaurantgroup.com
(86 -21) 6350.9988

Undoubtedly the most well-known restaurant in Shanghai, M on the Bund has played host to a staggering list of gliteratti. To name a few: Prince Andrew, Dolce and Gabbana, Helmut Kohl, Gore Vidal, Richard Branson ...and now, me. (Surely, I'll be added to their list of notable diners any day now. ;-) )

This fun and unpretentious restaurant isn't simply about being seen or hobnobbing with the well-to-do, but takes its food seriously. M has been on Meile's top 20 restaurants in Asia list for two years, and was named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world by Conde Nast Traveler.

Before dinner, I went to the M's Glamour Bar one floor down to watch the lights of Pudong come alive as the sun went down. It's a great place to sit and enjoy a martini while staring out at the modern architecture across the river. The interior of the Glamour Bar hails back to days of salons, art deco and jazz. The spaces are comfortable and the mismatched cut-crystal glasses are exquisite. Later, the space comes alive with readings, music and the unexpected. Call for a reservation to get a window table.

The restaurant is warm an inviting, a mix of contemporary and classic design - whimsical yet sophisticated. The main focus is the food, fresh ingredients with European influences. Our starters were the red, green and yellow tomato soup - a very nice blend of flavors - and eggplant served three ways (above) - rolled with red peppers; charred with tahini and mint; diced with olives, almonds and parsley - and served with thin wafers. The eggplant dish would have been well-suited as a shared appetizer for the table as it was too much for one person.
For the mains, the risotto with green, spring vegetables (above) was excellent. The risotto had a nice firm texture and the vegetables were at the peak of flavor.

The tagliatelle with zucchini, lemon zest, fresh herbs, pine nuts and parmesan (above) was strong on the lemon. My dinner companion liked that the chef was not afraid to make a flavor dominate. I tend to go for more balanced plates.

For dessert, a chocolate bomb had a hard chocolate shell with an airy almost ice cream-like filling. It wasn't excellent, but good and refreshing, and plenty large enough to share.

There was a reasonable selection of wines from all over, with a good selection of wines by the glass. Service is good and friendly. Expect to spend about $50 a person before wine.

Make reservations early to get the choice tables at the windows.

Comfort Food Proves the Winner at Chicago's Boka

Boka
1729 N. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60614
312.337.6070
www.bokachicago.com

The last thing I expected to find myself fawning over at Boka was the macaroni and cheese. After all, the restaurant's executive chef is Guiuseppe Tentori, an alum of Charlie Trotter's, where making beautiful vegetable meals is a given.

But at this trendy Lincoln Park restaurant, it was the humble mac 'n' cheese (below) that stole the show. Granted it's not your box of Kraft. The dish includes a mix of fontina and sharp and medium cheddar cheeses as well as edamame. Two orders (it's a side at $7) and a dark beer and I would have been set.Alas, I didn't go to Boka for comfort food. My main dish was the herbed risotto tart with roasted portobello thinly sliced on top, baby turnips, ricotta and beet puree. The dish didn't disappoint. The turnips were fresh and nicely cooked; the tart was an interesting way to present risotto. And the portion was just right so as not to be overly filling.Boka's food is good, and the restaurant is unquestionably popular. Reservations are necessary. The downsides are it is loud and service is not up to par. The two tables next to me and I each had to inquire about ordered items that did not show up when they should have.

The wine list has a lot of offerings in the $45 range, which is nice to see. On the other hand, expect to get a wine that retails for less than $15. I found their markups to be outrageous - about 200 percent.

San Francisco's Plant Cafe: A Triumph of Style Over Substance

Plant Cafe
Pier 3
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.984.1973
www.theplantcafe.com

This mostly organic restaurant in San Francisco boasts a peaceful location on the waterfront at pier 3, near the Ferry Building, and an executive chef with a resume that will make any Bay Area vegetarian drool -- Sascha Weiss was pastry chef at vegetarian restaurant Millennium and worked at the sorely missed raw foods restaurant Roxanne's in Marin County.

Despite that, Plant Cafe is a triumph of style over substance. It's not that the food is bad, but that nothing is exceptional, although with a little tweaking it could be. The setting, with the relaxing tables on the water's edge (the outside tables are heated), makes for a delightful place to spend a leisurely lunch break. And while the food is fine, with a good mix of items for vegans, vegetarians and carnivores alike, you are likely to come away satisfied but not overwhelmed by the taste combinations.

The menu is a mixture of several salads, small plates (most with mussels, scallops or crabs), a pasta, several pizzas, the vegetarian Plant Burger (above), and large plates, which are split about half-and-half between vegan items such as pumpkin seed and cornmeal-encrusted tempeh and animal-based dishes such as duck breast in plum puree.

The signature Plant Burger patty is a mixture of lentils, mushrooms, bulgur, beets and cashews. It comes topped with avocado, cheese, aioli and onions and, for inexplicable reasons, is served on wheat bread. The heavy, mushy mixture of ingredients overwhelms the bread making a soggy mess. While it’s good, a whole wheat bun would be a better choice here.

The walnut pizza (above) with goat cheese in a balsamic reduction was probably the best choice, although slightly bland.

The fresh herb pasta (above) with corn, cherry tomatoes, arugula, garlic and pecorino was also not a bad choice.

Entrees range from about $13 to $20.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy Plant Cage is sitting out on the back deck on the water enjoying the patatas bravas, bowl of mixed olives and a beer or glass of wine from their extensive list of beverages.

Blouet Offers Masterful Culinary Strokes at Cafe des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta

Cafe des Artistes
Guadalupe Sanchez 740, Centro
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
www.cafedesartistes.com
+52 (322) 222.3228

Chef Thierry Blouet has worked in some of the most prestigious kitchens in the world, from Le Fouquet's de Paris and Le Moulin de Mougins near Cannes to the Ritz in Chicago. Along the way, he earned Maîtres Cuisiniers de France award, being one of only 340 French chefs to do so.

He now has his own restaurants in Mexico, the star of which is Cafe des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta, where he merges his French training and skills with Mexican ingredients. The result is that his restaurant is considered one of the top in Latin America.

While Blouet offers a three-course menu that may or may not offer vegetarian dishes for about 350 pesos a person, the kitchen is also eager to prepare dishes for vegetarian diners.

On a recent meal an appetizer included an artfully prepared trio of gazpachos - cucumber, tomato and beet (below).A poblano pepper stuffed with cheese was certainly not out-of-the-ordinary, but nonetheless very well prepared.The surprise vegetarian dish from the kitchen featured five thinly sliced pieces of eggplant wrapped around fresh goat cheese (above). While I generally dislike the texture of eggplant, this was excellent, leaving none of the spongy eggplant texture, but lots of wonderful flavor.

My guests and I passed on dessert, but the kitchen delivered some small pieces of multi-layered, fondant-filled chocolate cake.

Service is top-notch, and the restaurant offers probably the most extensive wine list in all of Puerto Vallarta, with an excellent selection of wines priced under 500 pesos. With cocktails, a bottle of wine, and two courses each, I'm not sure where you can get a better meal for about $35 US per person.

Michael Mina Delivers on Food, Misses a Bit on Service

Michael Mina
335 Powell St
San Francisco, CA
415.397.9222
www.michaelmina.net

There are restaurants that offer vegetarian menus just to round out their offerings - Alex at Wynn, for example. And then there are those that understand that vegetarian cooking can be innovative, delicious and fulfilling. Michael Mina falls into the latter group.

The San Francisco restaurant offers a full vegetarian menu filled with creative and tasty offerings.

A recent dinner included the heirloom beet chop salad (above) with spiced filberts, fromage blanc fritters and Belgian endive. The combination of the sweet beets and bitter greens made for a nice balance, especially with the warm nuggets of cheese.

The chickpea soup (below) was set off with sweet bites of onion.The soft-boiled hen egg with green asparagus, chanterelle mushrooms and bernaise sauce made for a wonderful entree. The warm egg was cooked for 40 minutes so that it came out nice and warm with a perfectly viscous yolk. If only more places that made eggs Benedict took the time to make their eggs like this. The egg was atop asparagus that had been thinly sliced lengthwise, so they were almost like noodles.

The German chocolate torte with pressed coconut and candied pecans was rich and flavorful.

While the food at Michael Mina is quite good, the service is somewhat lacking. Dishes were not cleared immediately between courses, it often took a reminder to get water glasses refilled, and instead of replacing a lint-covered napkin the waiter shrugged it off. The linens were wrinkled and the arm of my chair was coming apart. The restaurant could use some attention. To their credit, the kitchen did send out an extra course - a squash salad - to fill time while waiting for the egg to cook.

Michael Mina is not the most cozy of restaurants as it's situated in a large room just off the lobby of the Westin St. Francis. The restaurant does have a nice deal right now - a three-course pre-theater menu offered before 6 p.m. for $55 a person.