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Friday, February 1,
8ish pm: Elysian Café, Hoboken
It was a double date this time, but the wait was long. I
called earlier that day to make some kind of reservation for the restaurant,
but unfortunately, they do not take reservations for under six on the weekends,
however, I was assured over the phone that if I came with my party around 8, we
could be seated pretty quickly. That was a dream that did not come to fruition.
We all spent the preamble less than comfortable with our coats on in the narrow
space between a long bar and a slew of crowded tables in the front room of the
Elysian Café. At least there was a decent time wasting movie on the television
over the bar and the amaretto sour was sweet.
This place is the younger sister, and it feels like it. The
Flinns own one of the gems of Hoboken, Amanda’s as well as this French inspired
Elysian Café. Elysian, has a completely different feel, more trendy, with more
of a transporting effect, you feel like you are somewhere else, and the outside
city kind of vanishes. Maybe it was the dim lighting (that could be Friday
night), or the noise, and the bar, and the television and the trendy people
drinking drinks and eating or waiting to eat. It was probably all of that, a
whole different vibe, more casual and less refined, obviously the younger
sister.
After waiting what felt like forever, the four of us were
seated in the second room of the restaurant. The walls radiated blue because of
the setting lighting, were deeply patterned with rococo florals, twisting and
turning stems. The black and white tiled floor mimicked the color of the walls,
and the dark booth. It was a little quieter back there, but not quite peaceful
enough to carry on detailed, content heavy conversations.
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I am going to preface this all with… I was very disappointed
from the beginning, the wait, the people there, the service, and eventually the
food. I suppose I had high expectations, basically being raised on the
delicious adultness that is Amanda’s, Elysian Café was a far fall down.
The $35 prix fixe had four options for each of the courses,
something for almost everyone; a soup, two salads and a starch, as starters,
some fish, pork, chicken and meat, hot, cold and chocolate desserts. A nice
range, hearty enough, playing with the winter season; butternut squash soup,
winter vegetables, apples, pumpkins and blueberries. This prix fixe menu kind
of gave a glimpse into some of the more profound dishes on the regular menu.
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To start, there was one butternut squash soup, one smoked
salmon, and two rock shrimp risotto starters. All of which were pretty weak.
The uniting theme was a lack of balance. The butternut squash soup, was thin
and too finely pureed to the point where it felt like tomato soup. Just from
making a soup employing a butternut squash just a little while ago, I have
learned that they are somewhat resilient squashes. This soup eliminated every
glimmer of that, and manipulated the gourd into a sweet juice. The smoked
salmon appetizer too, was overrun, invaded by the bitter frisee and not enough
of anything else to combat it. The frisee visually disguised almost all the
other ingredients, only at times the bright red blood oranges would peak
through, but the salty smoked salmon was hidden until grabbed onto in the
mouth. It was a light appetizer, somewhat cleansing and refreshing because of
the juicy citrus, but mildly weighed down from what was like lox (an upgrade of
course from the bagel store). And the risotto was a complete let down. It
wanted every characteristic and adjective I would ever use to describe risotto.
Basically it was very lemony rice, sprinkled with green herbs, and pale pale
shrimp. There was not the creamy element that we all think of when we hear
risotto. It was both under and over cooked at the same time. And one of the
four described it as a heavy appetizer. That it was, heavy and disappointing.
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We only really sampled the braised short rib, and the
rosemary brined pork chop. When I see “short rib” on a menu it is extremely
difficult for me to pass up. In some ways I am glad I didn’t this evening, but
in others, I wish I had. The meat was not as succulent and juicy as I was
hoping or dreaming of. This short rib was not quite as good as the one I had
just a few days before (link). The grits however were classic deliciousness. Of
course the slow cooked hunk of meat needs a starch base to drink up the juices
created with time. But these grits were sweet and salty, and most definitely
not of the quick variety. The stewed winter vegetables were nice; carrots,
turnips, and mushrooms, heavy and filling. All in all it was ok, but I have had
better short ribs elsewhere (at home…).
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Now the pork chop was too dry, like all of its life was
depleted from it because of cooking or perhaps even the “brining” (brining
generally makes the meat or poultry in question cook faster, therefore timing
in cooking is key). The accompanying brussel sprouts were great color, but just
the classic baby cabbage. And the apples served the vital role of moisture and
chaser for the pork chop. Unfortunately, the sauce on the plate, meant to help
in that was too bitter to even want to eat, and its spread poisoned the sweet
potato rosti which could have been intriguing and delicious. Both of these
mains suffered from what felt like technical mishaps and oversights, but not
intentional.
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Of the four desserts offered, one (the apple blue berry
crisp, which I really was hoping to try) was sold out (it was about 10:15pm at
this point), the sorbet and ice cream never too interesting, and there was the
chocolate molten cake, and the pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin cheesecake was
really lovely, as the pumpkin flavor was mild but present, and the texture
smooth and creamy, until the tongue encountered the crunchy sweet and almost
salty graham cracker crust. This rather large slice of cheesecake was served
with a rather large dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. The caramel sauce on
the plate played up the natural sweetness of the cream, and heightened the
seasonal sensibility of the pumpkin. And the chocolate cake, was like many
molten chocolate cakes; warm, moist, gooey, and above all, severely chocolaty.
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And here it is. The food was not so great considering the
restaurant’s relatives; the lack of balance and preparation was quite shocking
to me. Also the service was not so
great. Don’t get me wrong, our guy was really nice, friendly, but also seemed a
little overwhelmed. He confused my drink order (just the size of the pour), but
also a dessert; one of us got one, when he ordered another. Just in an
environment like the one that Elysian was trying to create calls for a higher
attention to detail like that of the décor, in all aspects.
The trick is not to drink.
RER
2.4.13
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| RER 2.4.13 |
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food for thought...