I haven’t done a restaurant review in awhile. I’ve still
been trying new local restaurants but just haven’t been good about blogging
about them. So I thought I’d get back in the swing with this review for La
Fontaine, which I took to be an Italian restaurant based on the cuisine but
they bill themselves as French-Italian. Okay.
The menu offers a pretty good selection of different dishes.
Price range is in the $20-$30+ per entrée with desserts (you know I look at the
dessert menu first) under $10.
This is one of those menus where I had a hard time making a
selection because there were several options that looked mouth-wateringly
viable. I waffled between a couple of the pasta dishes, the short ribs, the
steak frites and the Salmon Wellington. Pasta is usually my go-to at an Italian
place, it’s hard to go wrong with steak and the short ribs sounded amazing. But
I ultimately went with the Salmon Wellington because that’s not something you
see on a menu every day.
Salmon Wellington - $25 |
The description was knee-weakening in and of itself. Salmon
“wrapped” in puff pastry, stuffed with leeks and rock shrimp and served atop a
bed of saffron risotto. Yum, right? Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as good as
it sounded. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty tasty. But it wasn’t actually
“wrapped” in puff pastry like you would picture a traditional Beef Wellington
is wrapped, as in encased completely so that you had to cut through the pastry
to see what was inside. No, this was a salmon fillet which had a strip of puff
pastry wrapped around its horizontal edge (like where its skin would have been)
so you can still see the salmon, exposed. The middle had a spoonful of stuffing
but I was hard pressed to find more than a few bits of shrimp. It was more leek
than shrimp. I almost forgot it was supposed to have shrimp in the stuffing.
The puff pastry was soggy because of the sauce poured over the salmon. The
risotto was quite tasty but there wasn’t much of it. I sound more negative
about the dish than I actually was. It was a modest portion that didn’t leave
me feeling stuffed, which was good. What there was of the dish was delicious.
But I think the reality didn’t live up to the advertising.
Meatballs |
Seafood Pappardelle |
One of my friends ordered the short ribs, which had been on
my short – haha – list of entrees to get and let me have a taste. It was
amazing. As in, “I’m coming back here again and ordering that instead” amazing.
My other friends ordered pasta dishes and those looked good too so I might have
to come back a couple more times.
Braised Shortribs - $26 |
The good news about the modest piece of salmon is I had room
for dessert. Which, of course, I had to get. The lava cake called out my name
and I paid heed. It too was modest in portion size but that wasn’t a bad thing.
The chocolate lava cake was rich so a little went a long way. It was also
delicious as was the caramel gelato that accompanied it.
Lava Cake - $9 |
Overall, I liked La Fontaine. The servers were nice and it
wasn’t too crowded. The menu items were a little pricey but I don’t mind
that if it’s for good food with good service. Looking forward to going back and
trying out some of the other entrees.
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