South Park Cafe Review

South Park Cafe provided us pleasant, rustic (read: simple) French food.

We started off with a quite good bowl of mussel soup. This was probably the best dish of evening. The nice broth was sweet, tangy, light, and comforting. It's "like the mussel version of chicken soup." The mussels, already de-shelled, were not integral to the dish.

We also tried the "pig salad," a salad of frisee, shallots, thinly sliced apples, and moist shredded pork, all tossed in a mustard vinaigrette. While it was decent, it could've been good had the dressing not been so (too) strong/spicy.

Before our appetizers, we were delivered a basket of bread and a little bowl of hard butter. The bread was decent I suppose. We got crumbs everywhere, as they didn't bother to give us plates with the bread.

The entrees were generally unremarkable. What is remarkable is the amazingly hot plates on which they arrived.

Our hangar steak, served in a deep, dark, thick sauce made from red wine, was decent/good. A fairly standard, basic, reasonable, well cooked steak, though not particularly tasty. The accompanying fries were good, though slightly undercooked.

South Park's presentation of petrale sole, served on a bed of shredded cabbage, was mild, even bland. The cabbage and its sauce gave the only flavor to the dish. Also served with chunks of potatoes.

The large pile of braised vegetables served on couscous, flavored with Indian spices, was decent, "better than neutral." Like the petrale sole, the dish didn't have much distinctive flavor. The dish had a wide variety of vegetables, even including grilled eggplant, tomato chunks, and an orange item we argued about and decided was a yam/sweet potato. Topped with a minty yogurt.

We tried two desserts, both fairly satisfying. One was profiteroles (basically cream puffs), covered with chocolate syrup. Sadly, they weren't warm. They're messy so we ate them with forks. The other, called a Meyer lemon sorbet, was more like italian ice than sorbet. The ice was very lemony. It kind of reminded me of those little refrigerated cups of italian ice one can get at the grocery store. It also came with a pretty good almond crisp cookie thing, though that admittedly didn't go with the sorbet at all.

We shared a bottle of quite good red wine, Cuvee Kermit Lynch Cote du Rhone '04. Its quality surprised me, given that it was the cheapest red on the wine list.

South Park Cafe is located adjacent to a cute park. The area feels a bit like a European village. The restaurant itself is quaint. The red rose on the table and the white paper covering the white tablecloth demonstrate a compromise between homey and formal.

Total was ~$35/person including tax and tip but not including drinks.

Original Announcement

Since South Park Cafe was the result of a last minute change of venue, there was no original announcement.

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